Speaker 1: Broadcasting from Studio A Here at Proven Winners Color Choice Shrubs.
It's time for the Gardening Simplified Show with Stacy Hervella,
me Rick Weist, and our engineer and producer Adrianna Robinson. Well,
today we ask what if? Why start things with a
question that's a great question, With a normal question, your
brain uses previous information or situational issues that you've run
into before, so you can answer the question like what's
for dinner tonight? Boy, I hate that question. I'm tired
of that question. But asking what if creates possibility thinking,
not an answer that relies on a frame of reference.
It's the fuel for innovation and creativity. And we all know,
as far as gardening is concerned, that colors set the
mood in a garden. Every gardener is an artist and
we like to use all the different colors that are
available to us in the garden. But what if you
could only use one color for a gardening bed? And
that brings us to our question today. And it's a
tough question because if less is more than, what would
you choose? We all like contrast. So the question is this.
It was posed by Proven Winners, Color Choice Shrubs and
Social media and got quite a response. If you had
to design a garden bed using only one flower color,
which color would you choose to create your monochromatic masterpiece?
And of course I immediately think in my mind, it's
got to be green. It's obvious it's color green?
Speaker 2: Or is it?
Speaker 1: Very interesting responses from people, and that's what you get
when you ask the question what if. I love asking
that question, like what if everybody had to sleep for
twelve hours a day, no exceptions, how would the world
be different? Or what if you could meet any historical
figure for lunch? But more importantly tied into the Stacey,
I've asked myself the question, what if we could have
panicle hydranges in bloom for Mother's Day?
Speaker 2: Now, that is a very attainable. What if that is
not that far around the corner? I can tell you that, And.
Speaker 1: That's why we asked those kinds of questions. Or I
was thinking this morning as I wandered through my garden
and I got a whiff those petunias. Oh, I can't
stand that smell. I love supertunias. Put that smell, especially
when it's hot and humid outside. What if we had
petunias that smelled like key lime pie.
Speaker 2: Well, now does this go back to your garden center days? Yes,
it is, Okay, I figured as much because they have
a very they have a very distinctive smell, and I
generally like it. I actually like. But see, I didn't
also spend you know, fifty years of my life at
heading petunias, so I have a slightly different perspective on this.
Speaker 1: Thank goodness, supertunias came along. But all those seed grown flesh.
Speaker 2: Oh yeah, if you didn't then have those things, you
could kiss them ray goodbye. And I know some petunia
smell very distinctively bad, but mostly they just kind of
have that distinctive I don't know, I can't really describe it,
but it's an interesting.
Speaker 1: Sugary, sweet, slimy See.
Speaker 2: I feel like I smell more of like the foliage
of them. Yeah, because like a lot of people don't realize,
but petunias are in the same family as tomatoes, potatoes,
and tobacco. Yeah, so all of those things are kind
of resiny and have very distinctive sense as well.
Speaker 1: So it's a what if question that I ask myself.
But today we ask about color and if you could
only use one color for a bed, Which one would
you use? So we talk about a monochromatic color range,
maybe yellow, pale yellow and mustard together, or purple, pale, purple,
purplish black. I don't know. I think moody purples would
make a great bed, and of course a great rock
and roll band name too. We all remember that iconic
English rock band, the Moody Blues. So maybe moody purples
or muted reds and romantic berry tones or well, I
hate to bring it up, but teal it's not commonly
found in nature. Adriana loves that, right, you know.
Speaker 2: You say this while you're wearing teal tennis shoes in feel.
Speaker 1: They're blue, aren't they? Those are?
Speaker 2: Doesn't kind? I think they're deal, Adriana is. I think
she's an agreement on the teal tennis shoes.
Speaker 1: You'll have to get a shot of my shoes there,
Adriana and Will.
Speaker 2: I'm just saying, for a guy who very often says
he doesn't like cheal, I see some occasional leaks of teal.
Now teal is not of color that you're very often
going to see in the garden, that is for sure.
I can't really not think of anything like maybe the
jade vine strongulod on macro batress. That's like a really
interesting tropical and if you are lucky enough to see
it in bloom in some big conservatory somewhere, I would
say that's probably as close as I can think of
getting in the botanical world.
Speaker 1: For me, it's Festuca glauca. It's the.
Speaker 2: Color.
Speaker 1: Yeah, that looks teal to me in the garden. But regardless,
if you were to plant a bed and only one color,
I don't know if you have a personal answer for Stacey,
but it's kind of asking the questions too. What if
I was forced to wear the same thing day after day,
what would I choose?
Speaker 2: Well, then I would just choose black, because then you
can wear whatever color jewelry or ear rings or fun
shoes or whatever that you want. And then it's like
you're always in the right mood for black. You know,
sometimes you're just not in the mood for you know,
like showy colors, you're just not feeling it sometimes you are,
But with black, you can always kind of take it
in whatever direction you want.
Speaker 1: You know, I would respond black too. I wear black lot.
My go to is a black shirt with khaki pants.
And if I had to pick a color, it would
be blue. So what about the garden? And I look
at the social media responses and they're actually quite interesting.
And what was interesting to me, Stacy, was the number
of people, if forced to pick one color, would pick white.
Speaker 2: Yes. Yeah, white was the third most popular. So I
have to tell you something. Our social media person who
came up with this question and posted it on our page,
her name is Crimson Ah, so color must have been
on her mind. And yeah, I thought it was an
interesting question when I saw it come up. And then
because we had over six hundred responses on the question,
I asked AI, which I'm not a big proponent of AI,
but there are tasks like this where I don't have
time to read six hundred sum answers. So I just
fitted into claude and I said, hey, tally all of
these up, which it did, and far and away, yes,
the most answered color was purple, lavender, or violet.
Speaker 1: Yeah. It doesn't surprise me me neither.
Speaker 2: And you know, I think maybe that's partly because by
extension that does include most blues. You know, there are
some true blue flowers out there, for sure, but I
think for most people who want blue in the garden.
They kind of have the sense that purple is about
as close as they can realistically get for especially for
a broader garden bed.
Speaker 1: Well, and there are so many great purple plants, true
purple iris, the Hugh Curas. I mean, we'll go down
the list later, but you're right, the color blue is
controversial because you you know, I may say that looks
blue to me, like the shoes I'm wearing today, and
someone else will say, no, that's teal or that's not glue.
Speaker 2: Yes, well, color is very subjective, and I think though,
even when we're having this conversation about these plants, if
you might say, like just a general group of colors
like purple or pink, which pink was the second most
mentioned color, also not for very surprising. There's so much
variation within that, so it's not like you're just saying like, oh,
I'm only gonna have this one shade of pink. I
think that you can very easily have a monochromatic garden
without it ever seeming boring, just because there are so
many variations of a color within you know, the plant world,
and a single color range.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I agree with you. Even neutral colors have so
many different shades. If you look at brown, gray, white,
there are many different shades. Go to a paint store
and look at the color white, and how many different
chips or whatever they call those things, paint samples there
are of white. And the same applies to your landscape.
I have a friend that I do stand up comedy with,
and he goes to the paint store and picks out
paint chips and tries tries to match them to his
skin color. And then it's hilarious to read the descriptions
of the paint chips. So it's a lot of fun.
Let me give you a limb a rick along this
line for today. As my landscape gets fuller and fuller,
I remember winter days that are duller. I celebrate this season,
the vistas. The reason I like a kaleidoscope of color.
To pick one color, I'd be hard pressed. Yet my
tendency when I get dressed is I'll take any wavelength,
even if it's half strength. Of all the colors, I
like blue the best. That's why I'm wearing blue today.
Speaker 2: Do you have blue flowers in your gart Yeah?
Speaker 1: I have much funds so lavender. I love phenomenal lavender,
and that to me is like a true blue. But
I love that the nepettas like cat's pajamas. So yeah,
there's bl blue in my garden. But blue is kind
of elusive.
Speaker 2: Yes, definitely except for that blew my mind. But which
is a true blue? But you know, only problem with
that it's a retirement plant, only open during the day,
So there are many of us gardeners who can't appreciate
that incredible color.
Speaker 1: Yeah, that's why you don't like my mojave personallyine, same thing, right,
you know I don't.
Speaker 2: Well, we don't have time to get into my thoughts
on person lane at the moment.
Speaker 1: Let's continue on. This discussion is going to be great,
and plants on trial is next. Let's see how Stacey
ties it in here on the Gardening Simplified.
Speaker 2: Show, beautify your home and community with Proven Winner's Color
Choice Shrubs with over three hundred and twenty five unique
varieties to choose from. There's a flowering shrub or 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 Greeting's Gardening Friends and Welcome
back to the Gardening Simplified Show, where if you are
watching us on YouTube and we seem, I don't know,
a little off, a little bit uncomfortable, it's because it
is colder than the dairy section at Costco in here,
and we're just trying to kind of muddle through it.
And I don't know why, because the temperatures have cooled
a bit outside. This studio always sends to be a
little cold. But if we're looking a little bit odd
or you know, kind of shivering, that is legit. And
we all know how Rick feels about air condier, so
he's especially suffering today. But let's warm him up with
some color talk, get the opinions flow, and get you
a little hot headed on your maybe you know. So,
I am going to start with a controversial what's not
that little controversial assertion, and that is that let us
never forget that green and brown are colors.
Speaker 1: Oh that's not controversial.
Speaker 2: I agree, because you know, so many people don't think
of them as colors. And brown didn't come up in
anyone's response from the Facebook question, which is of course
not terribly surprising because much like green, you're gonna get
brown in the garden, whether you like it or not.
It's you know, even if you live in a mild climate,
there are still things that go dormant, and you know
those will end up turning brown, whether that's a tree
or a perennial or whatever. And green, yeah, I mean,
green is of course super crucial to the garden. But
you can't not You would have to try very hard
to avoid having green in your garden.
Speaker 1: Like and there's so many shades of green. I love it.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I love it too, And you know, I think that.
Speaker 1: Is that why you wore green today?
Speaker 2: No, I completely forgot when I was getting dressed today.
I don't think about I don't usually think about the topic.
I think about what I wore in the previous weeks.
So I don't. You don't have the same shirts on
in our thumbnail. That's my I did think about wearing
this kind of patterned shirt, but then I didn't want
to Adriana in the evening and say, hey, can I
wear this, because this is kind of ones If you
have to ask, you probably just shouldn't type of situations.
Speaker 1: Well, evidently I didn't think of the topic either, Otherwise
I wouldn't be wearing teal shoes.
Speaker 2: In any case, I think that the shift, you know,
from thinking about green and brown as colors is because
we tend to see them as textures and not really
colors that we are specifically designing with. And you know,
obviously it's not fun to think about brown right now.
But I think by the time, you know, November December
rolls around, you know, you kind of notice how things
that you may have put together without even thinking are
much more complimentary and make the garden much more interesting
than you know, if they were paired anywhere else. Some
things have really good contrast.
Speaker 1: I'm glad you brought that up, and that's really smart
because when I was thinking about this what if question,
I was thinking, forget the color, let's think about things
like rhythm and repetition and height and and that sort
of thing when we create this flower bed, because that's
going to be vitally important.
Speaker 2: It is, And you know, the only thing I would
say about that is that is kind of for a
lot of people who are especially newer in gardening or
not very confident in their aesthetic skills, that's a lot
to ask.
Speaker 1: Yes, it is.
Speaker 2: You know, color is something that we can all respond
to on a daily basis, whether it's you know, clothing
or jewelry or home decor cut flowers. You know, there's
color like is a natural sort of starting point for people.
And that's one of the reasons why I love the
idea of this show is it's such an easy entry
point into gardening. If you don't know what to do,
just start with one color. Pick a color that you like,
that is meaningful to you, that works with your home,
and you know, buy five plants with that color, whether
that color is in flowers, foliage, fruit, all the above,
and start there, you know, enjoy that for a couple
of years. By that time, plants will have moved around,
some will have maybe died, some you'll decide you don't like.
Then you can start replacing those with new plants and
expand on your color scheme or keep it monochromatic. It's
just it's such an easy way to design, and I
just think most people don't even think about it. They
think a garden has to be super colorful with lots
of different colors.
Speaker 1: Good point. One of the respondents said, I will never
be a single color gardener poly yes.
Speaker 2: Mono no, okay, I mean I could be a single
color gardener. The problem is I'm too into the plants themselves,
not thinking about the color. But for those who need
to think about the color. When you are thinking about color,
you know, flowers come and go. Even the longest blooming plants.
You know, something like let's say a panicle hydrangel right
blooms for months. Those flowers are very effective and attractive
for months every year, you know, basically July to your
first frost, well into October. But it's not the same
color the whole time. So you have a white flower
and then it either is going to turn green or
pink or red or whatever. So even plants that are
long blooming are still undergoing transitions. So if you have
a color scheme, whether it is a monochromatic or polychromatic,
and you want to make sure that that carries through
your BFF is foliage best Foliage Friend foliage.
Speaker 1: I agree with you. So with the what if question,
the color you choose may be contingent on the season. Yes,
I mean, my little lime punch are coming into flower
right now, and I can't wait for all the color
changes as we proceed forward.
Speaker 2: Right, and then your color scheme is going to totally
change because it might be something else right now. So
I wanted to share, and I'm going to have a
whole list here. We can throw this up on YouTube,
because there's no way I'm getting through this massive list
in front of me in the remaining time for this segment.
But I wanted to share some of our best shrubs
for foliage color because shrubs with colorful foliage are just
such a crucial part of carrying through any color scheme,
any kind of design, and whether they are deciduous and
only really contributing that color sort of from that you
know April through October timeframe, evergreen, and you're getting that
color all year round. These are the plants that are
really going to do the heavy lifting of enforcing your
color scheme in a nice way through the season. So
I went through every color of the rainbow here and
then some because I also had a pink, black and white,
which are not technically in the rainbow, and we have
great plants for all of them. We have great foliage
plants for every single color, no matter what you would want.
And now I have to tell you I did not say, oh,
this plant is kind of this, it's kind of that,
or at some time of the year, it's this like
Fathergill is a great example, right, amazing red orange yellow
foliage in the fall. But that's not good enough. That's
not going to enforce your color scheme all season long.
So for red, we have things like Sunjoy really Red,
which is a really vivid red barbery, Kodiak red Durvilla,
and one of my all time favorite plants in the
proven Winner's line, ginger Wine nine barbs. Oh yeah, you know,
some of these reds can be a little bit subjective,
and so when I was kind of going through my
list and trying to assun plants to categories, I was like,
is it purple, is it red? Is it black? And
sometimes again, as we've already discussed, these colors can be
very subjective. Some plants, like I put fun Shinabilia here
in orange, could also go in the yellow. Sunjoy Neo
is a bright, vivid orange as a Sunjoy orange pillar,
and Sunjoy TAngelo. I love orange flowers. If you love
orange foliage, you've got to get these Kodiak orange and
Kodiak Spiced, which is kind of a warm morascity orange color.
Really cool. Now, my yellow list is just way too
long to go through because we have so many yellow
foliage plants and you know, I don't know the science
behind this. All of this has to do with plant pigments,
and it's probably something along the lines of the yellow
pigments playing better with chlorophyll, which is itself a plant
pigment than a lot of these other colors you know,
like purple or blue. You do have those, but there's
just no shortage of amazing yellow foliage plants, and a
well chosen yellow foliage plant placed in the right place,
it can just completely transform our landscape. And if you
want winter color, yellow is definitely gonna be your best
bet because there are so many wonderful yellow conifers and
that will give you that year round color like polar, gold,
fluffy and as magic ball. Of course, one of my
favorite yellow flower foliage shrubs in the line is lemony
lace elderberry. Yes, such a great plant. We also have
golden Japanese holly like glow stick and glow pop, which
are gonna be evergreen for you, Sunshine blue tube Carriopterus,
which is gonna have yellow foliage and blue flowers. Nobody's
gonna say no to that combination, and blue foliage. Now
blue foliage is maybe not quite as elusive as true
blue flowers. There are some options. We have our beautiful
Mucho Gusto Abelia, which is variegated but I think really
has the impression of being blue. Aquavida juniper, really cool plant.
It's finally starting to get out on the market after
so many people want it at Montana moss juniper. If
you're looking for blue winter color and in evergreen junipers
are definitely going to be a great bet. And you'll
also find blue in some of the Camisiprius aka false Cypress.
Kinsley's Ghost probably one of our best blues, right, no brainer.
We're in agreement on that. Double play blue Kazoospyria and
our beautiful new splendid blue blueberry purple. We've got Winecraft black,
which is a little misleading because there's black in the name,
but I would characterize this as more of a purple,
where something like Kodiak Jet black or black lace elderberry
I would definitely say are more black. And some of
these it does kind of depend on the light, how
the light hits them. It's really just a matter of
like the concentration of the same pigment so some grace
will be required as you are browsing the garden center.
And also remember when you are in the garden center,
especially early in spring, a lot of plants that have
just come from the greenhouse and remained undercover will not
be showing their best foliage color because they're not getting
the full wavelength of sunlight. Sure, and that means that
certain colors will not present as well as they will
once they're out in your landscape. So you can't always
kind of trust what you are seeing right there that
it is an accurate representation, because things will be totally different.
This is especially true if you get plants by mail
order which are not only in a greenhouse not getting
the full spectrum of light, then get packed up in
a box and a box and ship to you in
a box for who knows how long, not getting any
UV lights, and so sometimes their color can be a
little funky when you open it, but get them some
sunlight and you will see that happen. Anyway, we will
put this whole list on YouTube so you can access
it at your leisure, But right now we have to
take a little break, and when we come back, we're
opening up the mail bags to stay tuned at Proven
Winners 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 and 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
Winners Shrubs in the distinctive white container at your local
garden center, or learn more at Proven Winner's Color Choice
dot com. Reading's gardening friends, and welcome back to the
Gardening Simplified Ship, where it's our pleasure to help you
with your garden questions, quandaries and conundrums. You can send
them over to us at Gardeningsimplified on air dot com.
There's a contact form there if you need an answer immediately,
because you know, sometimes you just need a garden answer
right away. You can also reach us at Proven Winners
Color Choice dot com or proven Winners dot com. So
many ways to get some help with your gardening questions. Now,
last week you were saying that you had found your
first to made a horn room on a pepper plant. Yeah, well,
wouldn't you know it. I got home that very evening
after we recorded the show m HM, and I was
walking past my pepper plants that are in containers, and
I saw some kind of specks on the ground and
I thought, oh, what are those? And I went for
a closer look. And I did not need to get
very close until I realized exactly what they were. And
if you were not familiar with the discovery of tomato
horn rooms, it's usually their excrement that gives them away first,
or the damage because you see, you know, all of
a sudden, half time plant missing, and then you know
and they blend in so well. So sure enough I
had my first tomato horn rooms.
Speaker 1: Oh boy.
Speaker 2: It did not take me long to find it because
it was massive, because usually by the time I have
rarely found one, like when it was in a younger
stage and you know, tiny and manageable. I always find
them when they're massive, because it's not until they get
that size that their damage is so considerable that you
actually find them. Now. I have said on the show before,
I love insects, I really do. I am not the
least bit squeamish about insects. With the massive exception of
tomato horn ms. Okay, they just creep me out. They
are caterpillars, but I don't know, there's something about it.
They're like an overinflated balloon. They're just like so tight
and gross.
Speaker 1: But there's a lot of people who love them because
of the adult stage, right, Yeah.
Speaker 2: Yeah, and the moth is very interesting and they're interesting.
Speaker 1: So they say, you know, just live and let live
or I don't. Yeah.
Speaker 2: I mean, they can eat other things, but obviously, if
we are competing for the same food, this is an issue.
You know, I'll let caterpillars eat a lot of my plants,
but when we're competing for the same food, this is different.
So anyway, I was like, Okay, I'm gonna be brave.
I'm going to do it this time. I'm going to
take it off with my hand. And I touched that
thing and I just shrieked like a little girl. Yeah,
And my husband's like, what's wrong And I was like, oh,
it's a tomato horn room. He was like, oh, so anyway, yes,
and that makes it so much worse. But the story,
this has a point, and it's a good one. So anyway,
I managed to get the thing off. I think I'm
going to be brave and just like casually like put
it so, but no, I freak out. I throw it
into my driveway because I'm just like, get it off
me and anyway, go inside, don't think about it, thinking
to myself like, oh, you know, I probably should go
and put that thing somewhere so it doesn't crawl back
to my peppers, which it was likely to do the
Sirens song of the Peppers. So anyway, five minutes later,
I happened to walk by my back door, and you
know what, I saw a robin pecking at this thing
and whipping it around, and it would peck it and
whip it and peck it and whip it. Oh yeah,
And not within five minutes of dropping this thing in
my driveway was a robin taking care of it for me.
So I felt that it was It was an excellent experience,
and the robin got a great meal.
Speaker 1: I figured you had a neighbor who fishes and said,
you're going to use that.
Speaker 2: Thing right, Oh, can you even imagine putting that thing
on a fish hook? Oh, I'm gonna have nightmares. Anyway,
So if you get tomato horn rooms and you also
camping yourself to crush them or do whatever to them,
put them in your driveway and maybe a big happy
robin will have a lucky day.
Speaker 1: So go.
Speaker 2: You just never know. Anyway, let us get to the mailbag.
I just had to share that because you know I've
done that. I've always put them like in the driveway
or sidewalk in the hopes that a bird would get them.
But I never got to witness with my own two
eyes the bird.
Speaker 1: That's what I do with Japanese beetles, and just chuck
them on the pavement. But yeah, I don't know.
Speaker 2: Well they can fly, at least the fly away. Yeah, yeah,
all right, So Cheryl writes, this spring, I had to
remove two ash trees due to borer investation. That is
so sad. The hydrates in the bed that were shaded
by these two enormous beauties are now in full sun.
Could this be the cause of these brown spots with
white centers. I've read about overhead watering causing fungal issues,
but I water with a wand at the ground. Only
any input you could provide would be appreciated. Now, Cheryl
did send some photos and this is a a classic.
Didn't even need to look it up. Case of circles
spore a leaf spot. Now they are big leaf hydranges
if we didn't mention that, and these are are very susceptible,
especially older for the case to circle spore a leaf spot. Now,
the issue is not the loss of your trees, because
if anything, that would probably make the situation better because
leaf spots, and you know, you can kind of generalize
about leaf fungle leaf spots because they really thrive when
everything is wet and takes a long time to dry.
So if you get better air circulation and better sunlight,
which we're moving two large trees would certainly do, you
would normally have fewer leaf spots. And yes, you want
to avoid overhead watering to minimize leaf spot. But the
thing about leaf spots is those fungal spores are everywhere,
and just because you are seeing a fungal leaf spot
develop now does not mean it happened now. It typically
happens months ago in the spring. And the reason that
fungal leaf spots happen in the spring is because a
it's pretty wet most of the time and b when
that foliage comes out, it doesn't have that waxy cuticle
to protect it. It's it's very tender, and you'll notice that,
you know, in spring that that the leaves feel very soft,
and so that is when they infect it. And then
the fungal you know, bodies kind of grow in on
the leaf tissue. And it's important to remember that too,
that fungal diseases grow on top of the leaf tissue.
They are not in the plant like a plant. Not
only that, it'll only have these for like one season
and then it won't if you take measures, it won't
have it anymore. But a lot of people want to
attack fungle leaf spots when they see them come up
in the summer, and it won't really do any good.
The damage is done, the fungus is growing in there.
The single best thing that you can do is clean
up the foliage in full. I know that's easier said
than done, but that is where all of those leaf
spot fungus are going to spend winter, waiting to reinfect
the plant next year when the leaves start to come
out and they're all tender again.
Speaker 1: Good analogy is when I have my ice cream at night,
invariably I always drip some Hershey's chocolate syrup on my shirt.
Got to wash the shirt, then I can wear it again.
Proceed shirt spots. Adrianna like that analogy.
Speaker 2: So in any case, Cheryl, No, it has nothing to
do with losing your trees. It's probably just that there
were fungal leaf spots around, so do your best to
clean those up. And if you continue to get them
year after year after year, that could indicate that the
site is just not great for something that is naturally
susceptible to circuspora leaf spot just because the airflow or
whatever other factors. So continuous leaf spot, even when you're
doing good sanitation and removing all of that foliage might
just be your signal from mother nature that you should
move the plant. Can take that as a sign. Now,
we had a question for you, Rick, Okay, someone Jill
listener Jill right, and she said Rick talked about using
a leaf mulcher. I would like to know what type
and model he uses. I have many trees around my
garden and would like to mulch leaves and put them
back in the garden. And this is the best thing
that you can do. Don't ship them off to your
landfill unless someone else benefit. This is one of the
best things you can do for your garden and soil.
Speaker 1: Well, I'm very excited because Adrian is coming over to
my house, okay, and I'm going to fire this bad
boy up to show Adriana what I what I do
because I'm essentially growing a garden on beach sand, so
I need to add lots of organic matter. And this
thing is fantastic. It's only a thirteen amp electric leaf multure.
Fortunate for me, it would be very hard for me
to hurt myself with it.
Speaker 2: I was gonna ask is it safe.
Speaker 1: It's safe, and it's spelled works, so it's wo r
X works and you can buy these things. It's the
best way I can describe it is it's like a
paper shredder that you have in your office except for
the outdoors. And it works fantastic and it has helped
add organic matter to my soil. And we're going to
film that. I'll show it in use. But it's a
works thirteen amp electric leaf mold.
Speaker 2: Now let me ask you this, how does it do
on your ornamental grasses?
Speaker 1: Does not work?
Speaker 2: Okay? Yeah, I wouldn't have been surprised if that was case,
because I could see that just kind of going around
and around insurn and not really breaking up.
Speaker 1: The downside for this thing. Again, I used to just
set out a trash can, put on goggles, put a
weed whipper in there, whip up the leaves like I'm
making a recipe. But this thing's fantastic. But the leaves
have to be dry and you can't put in too
many at a time, so it's not like it's this
work or where branch are going in right, right, It's
not a chipper leaves ideal. And I use the leaves,
the shredded leaves during the growing season also as a
molt around the base of plants, and I use them
in my composter to add some of that carbon material.
Speaker 2: Yeah, which is so important because especially through winter, you
never are short on the greens because you've got your
food scraps and everything, but you are typically short on
the browns, especially since nobody gets newspaper anymore, or even
if you do get the newspaper, they're way too thin
to be useful for much of anything anymore either, So
primarily for fall leaves, but a great way to use
them up right on site and reduce the need to
get lawn bags and have yard hulled away and all
of that.
Speaker 1: And as mentioned by one of our viewers, you know
in spring there are over wintering insects. I'm not using
it in spring, but I am using it in fall,
and I'm gonna let Adriana take it for a ride.
Speaker 2: All right, all right, well, I'm looking forward to seeing that.
Thank you all so much for your questions. We're going
to take a little break and then we are going
to continue asking what if when we come back, So
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 Gardening Simplified Show, where today we
ask what if? What if you could only use one
color in a garden bed, a flower bed? What would
you use? And? Like I mentioned in the first segment,
I love asking the question what if on a whole
bunch of things. For example, what if you could only
have one type of food? What would it be? And
then I ask myself would it be less about the
taste and more about the nutrition benefits? When you think
about flowers, I'm thinking foliage first. And when you think
about this and if you had to pick that one food,
what would it be. Would you lean towards taste or
would you lean towards the nutritional benefits of that food?
Something to ponder.
Speaker 2: I mean, you really have to give that to answers
because you have to answer both aspects, because if this
is some sort of you know, terrible world where you're
only picking on nutrition, then yeah, you're going to want
to make your choice affully, carefully, Whereas if it's just
like what do you like the most and want to eat?
But you know, if you're eating everything all the time, anything,
all the time, you'll get tired of it exactly.
Speaker 1: So it's you know, asking what if is a great
way to ask these types of questions, And that's what
was posed by proven winners color Choice Shrubs in social media,
asking if you could only pick one color for a
flower bed, what would it be? And as I scrolled
through the responses, Stacy, I found it pretty fascinating. Like
I said, a lot of people said white because of
moon gardens. White can be more complicated than you think.
And then many people said the color purple, I was
amazed how many people liked the color purple and would
choose that as their choice. But then when you think
about it, I look at the list. I look, for example,
at hukuras and the wild berry hukara that I have
in my landscape. What an incredible purple color. There are
many people who would never give up their salvias, like
the rock and salvias, the fusia or purple color salvias,
because of the way they attract hummingbirds to the landscape.
Speaker 2: I couldn't find rock and deep purple this year, but
I do have a similar generic. I do prefer the
rock and deep purple when I can find it, but
I couldn't, And man, has that thing just been crawling
with hummingbirds over the past couple weeks. It's been so fun.
And that is a beautiful purple, you know. It's it's
a true assertive purple. And I like that.
Speaker 1: Yeah. So, if push comes to shovel and if I
were backed into a corner, I think I'd probably pick
the color blue. But then it really gets my mind
working because I think about all these people who would
pick purple. I mean, think bud Leah's and the sweet
summer love Clematis in my landscape right now, is in bloom,
gorgeous rise up lilac days heliotrope, and I haven't even
mentioned pansies yet. You know, pansies have such vibrant color
and a true dark purple pansy. Wow.
Speaker 2: Yes, you know what probably one of my all time
favorite purple flowers are. What's that when you find a
really good true purple big leaf hydrangea, you know, everybody
wants the blue, but I have seen some gorgeous purples,
and very often people think that that purple is just
kind of about having the exact right pH b. It
is genetic, so only some varieties will be able to
get that true deep purple. But man, when you see it, oof,
I love that.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I love it in bud Leah's. But a lot
of people, I think, would say iris and you see
a true purple irons.
Speaker 2: Yeah, and you know that's spring too. You're just like
so excited to see those colors coming back, so that
gets like extra bonus points for that reason.
Speaker 1: And purple tulips purple tulips also, but Stacy, A lot
of people responded also that they would pick pink.
Speaker 2: Yes and that's a supprest. No, not at all. I
actually thought pink would win over purple, okay, and it
was close. So there was over one hundred and forty
mentions of purple lavender violet and just over one hundred
and thirty of pink fusia, so very very close. You know,
I don't think of myself as a pink person, but
if you were to see my garden at this very moment,
you would be like, lady, what are you talking about?
I have so many pink flowers right now, and it's
just the way that it is. I didn't set out
to do that, just bought a bunch of stuff and
it's going. And my guarden is having an odd pink moment. Also,
you know why some horrifics starting to bloom? Oh that's right,
are yours blooming too?
Speaker 1: They're just starting.
Speaker 2: Because I started bloom.
Speaker 1: Yeah.
Speaker 2: Mine started about ten days ago and it is the earliest, Yeah,
the earliest I have ever seen them come into bloom,
not that far, because usually I don't get my first
flowers until right around now, and I've been really surprised
at how early they've bloomed. And you know, we've had
some heat waves, but nothing so crazy that I think
would explain them being this early, you know, not anything
worse than other years where we've had you know, hot
heat in July. But I'm not complaining. They look amazing
and they are very much making my garden have an
uncharacteristic pink moment.
Speaker 1: Well, pink really gives a romantic and gentle appeal to
the landscape. And as I've often said, pink is just
fabulous in the landscape because it plays well with other
colors you picked the color or whatever it is, even
construction orange pink plays well.
Speaker 2: Yeah. You know, when I first started here a long
long time ago, my colleague Jane said to me, I said,
I think's not my favorite color, and she said that
she had heard a designer I believe was Isaac Msrahi
say that hot pink is a neutral and that kind
of takes you abat so at first, but the more
you think about it, the more you're like, actually, kind
of yeah, there is really nothing that you can't pair
with hot pink.
Speaker 1: That's a good point.
Speaker 2: I mean, I'm Adrian is racking her brain over there,
and I think she agrees. She can't think of a
color that does not pair well with hot pink.
Speaker 1: Well, you know, asking this what if question hypothetically does
at all causes us to look at our landscapes and think, Okay,
I need to plan for succession succession planting because it
is difficult to pick just a color. One of the
respondents simply and cap letters with an exclamation point, said,
I can't. I just simply can't do it. So I
think our choice for that one color probably would be
contingent on the season, the season that we're in. You know,
in springs, we're in spring, we're going to lean towards
pastels and pinks and that sort of thing. And then
in summer the hot colors, the red, the orange, the yellow,
and then as you get to fall, some of the
warmer colors. So it is a tough question to answer.
And there were a number of people who jumped in
and said, don't forget peach and.
Speaker 2: Coral, right, Yeah, a lot of people love that.
Speaker 1: Yeah, so a fabulous color for the landscape. I just
think it's super important to bear in mind once again
asking this what if question. It helps helps emphasize the
fact how important foliage is in our landscapes to provide color.
Bark and berries and fully all super important elements to
give you that color that you want in your landscape
from season to season. The other surprise for me in
this informal survey is the fact that yellow is such
a cheerful color. It's a wonderful color. I love yellow,
but it's really not super high on the list.
Speaker 2: It is not. And you know, I don't know if
that's partly because it's just so easy to find yellow flowers. Probably,
And you know, this all comes down to pollination, especially
if you are a native plant gardener, as I am.
You know, I don't think if I wanted to be,
you know, serious about having plants for pollinators, I could
get away with not having yellow. I mean, if you're
growing North American natives, you really just don't have much
of a choice but to have some yellow. But I
do love yellow. I love it as part of flowers
when it's you know, just one of some of many
colors you know, within a flower, and it is cheerful. Yeah.
I think for many people it's just it's just there,
you know, It's something they kind of take for granted.
But again, we talked about yellow foliage in plants on trial,
and a lot of people do love those golden conifers
and other plants with yellow foliage, especially if they're trying
to bring light to a darker area.
Speaker 1: Yeah, and that's what we're trying to do. If we
as humans communicate color with hue, saturation and lightness. And
I'll tell you what, sit down sometime and do some
reading on color theory. It just blows your mind. I mean,
you can spend days reading about color theory. But they
remind me that color is not light. Color is how
we perceive light. So again, when you're in the landscape,
just look at a color like green simply in the lawn.
The difference between that green in the sunlight and the
green in the shade is dynamic and brings up the
point again how important foliage is in our landscapes. Now,
if we could only create a hardy croton for my sorry.
Speaker 2: We'll work on it, you know, we'll keep you in
mind on that one. I think another useful thing that
you can do in your own garden is, in addition
to seeing it in different lights, if you have a
certain circuit that you kind of tend to walk as you,
you know, go around your yard or garden, try doing
it opposite and see everything from the opposite side, and
you will notice a lot of differences, you know, even
though it's the same space that you see all the
time and have walked countless times already this season. I
often find when I switch up my sort of perambulatory
route around the garden, things look a lot different.
Speaker 1: That's interesting. Or if you have a drone, yes like
Adriana and she sends it up, gives you a completely
different perspective.
Speaker 2: It does. I have been lucky enough to get some
drone footage of my own garden, so yeah, fantastic.
Speaker 1: Well this has been fun. Thank you, thank you Rick,
thank you Adriana, and thank you for watching us on
YouTube or downloading our podcast and to our radio show listeners.
Have yourself a colorful and wonderful week.