Lifestyle Gardening 601

Brad Mills Author

01/15/2019 Added

26 Plays

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Backyard Farmer Presents: Lifestyle Gardening Program 601

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[00:00:14.741](upbeat music)
[00:00:39.390]Hello and welcome
[00:00:40.390]to another season of Lifestyle Gardening.
[00:00:42.800]I'm Kim Todd.
[00:00:43.800]I'm thrilled you could join us for our winter program.
[00:00:46.750]We've got a great show for you today
[00:00:49.210]to help beginning homeowners understand
[00:00:51.260]what they have around their homes.
[00:00:53.110]We'll also do some wintertime scouting
[00:00:55.180]on those seed-bearing plants.
[00:00:57.250]And finally, we'll hear from industry professionals
[00:01:00.040]about how they keep public plants going
[00:01:02.770]through the winter months.
[00:01:04.270]But first we're going to hear
[00:01:05.440]from that critter specialist, Dennis Ferarro.
[00:01:08.040]He's going to be focusing
[00:01:09.410]on how to keep all of our pets safe
[00:01:11.760]from some of those everyday items we use around the home.
[00:01:14.944](upbeat music)
[00:01:22.000]When we think about the safety of any kind of pesticides
[00:01:25.590]or fertilizers around our home,
[00:01:28.492]you've got to remember those things are rated
[00:01:30.780]for their safety to people.
[00:01:33.670]We call that the LD50,
[00:01:35.190]but it's' rated for homo sapiens, people.
[00:01:38.450]It's not the same for our pets.
[00:01:41.040]Now, it's close if our pets are mammals, dogs and cats,
[00:01:45.210]but if you have pets such as turtles roaming around the yard
[00:01:48.830]or if you have a pond with frogs or fish
[00:01:51.600]or if you have birds in your house, you have to remember
[00:01:54.330]that these pesticides act very differently
[00:01:56.840]on these other types of animals.
[00:01:59.610]For instance, people don't realize
[00:02:01.710]that just one cigarette butt,
[00:02:03.670]if it accidentally gets into the water of a pond,
[00:02:06.630]that can easily kill because the nicotine,
[00:02:09.860]which is very, very susceptible for killing amphibians,
[00:02:14.200]100 tadpoles.
[00:02:16.330]Just one cigarette butt would kill 100 tadpoles.
[00:02:19.540]The other things we don't realize is that
[00:02:21.770]we don't think about our animals going and eating fertilizer
[00:02:25.740]or eating weedkiller or eating grub control on our lawn,
[00:02:31.070]but just think about it.
[00:02:32.060]If a cat starts scratching, or a dog runs across the lawn,
[00:02:36.930]and one of those little granules that has the pesticide
[00:02:40.370]gets between the pads of their paws,
[00:02:42.860]what they're gonna do, they're gonna lick it and eat it.
[00:02:45.920]Now, you have a different avenue
[00:02:49.030]or path of contamination
[00:02:52.000]or problems because they're actually ingesting the poison
[00:02:56.180]instead of just touching it.
[00:02:57.590]So sure, an average fertilizer, an average pesticide,
[00:03:01.770]granular, on the skin of a dog or cat
[00:03:04.650]is not gonna cause a problem, but if they ingest it,
[00:03:07.490]it can easily cause a problem.
[00:03:09.350]The other things we have to worry about is plants.
[00:03:12.330]A lot of plants, we call them natural,
[00:03:14.460]and they have natural botanicals such as things as neem
[00:03:18.890]or plants like marigolds or others.
[00:03:22.540]There are many animals that eat those plants
[00:03:23.963]that are not native to this area
[00:03:26.050]or native to where they developed,
[00:03:28.200]and they ingest those plants,
[00:03:30.390]and those also can become very highly toxic
[00:03:33.230]to those animals.
[00:03:35.110]We think about fumes in a home.
[00:03:37.670]There could be things that we don't think of as toxic fumes
[00:03:40.580]but to a bird, it can easily cause it to succumb.
[00:03:44.200]So when you're going through these things, remember,
[00:03:46.430]it acts very different when it comes to other animals,
[00:03:49.870]so if it says it's safe, it may be safe for pets.
[00:03:53.320]It may not be safe for the frogs, the fish,
[00:03:55.920]or any other animals in your yard.
[00:03:57.880]So definitely check things.
[00:03:59.720]Another thing you may want to think about
[00:04:01.570]is before you check things, check them for that animal.
[00:04:05.670]One thing I didn't mention is that sometimes
[00:04:07.810]to stop mosquitoes from biting us, we use things.
[00:04:11.079]We think that they're natural like Skin So Soft
[00:04:14.750]or Limonene, which is just citric acid.
[00:04:18.640]Yes, that will kill things like mosquitoes and insects,
[00:04:23.050]but did you know just one tiny drop of caffeine
[00:04:26.000]on your fingers from coffee
[00:04:28.090]or a citric acid from an orange
[00:04:31.060]will kill a frog immediately?
[00:04:33.350]So before you go ahead,
[00:04:34.990]if you have other animals in your yard,
[00:04:36.910]or if you care about the other biodiversity in your yard,
[00:04:40.640]definitely look on how it affects those animals.
[00:04:43.150]Look at the label.
[00:04:44.410]It will tell you if it's susceptible
[00:04:46.140]to wetland creatures or fish.
[00:04:52.420]It's great to get another perspective on this
[00:04:54.520]because when we say the word pet,
[00:04:56.670]most people think cats and dogs,
[00:04:58.760]but if you've got a home pond with turtles, fish,
[00:05:01.280]or frogs, be extra careful about the pesticides you use
[00:05:05.200]as well as those items that Dennis talked about.
[00:05:08.710]If you've seen our program before,
[00:05:10.600]you know our Go Gardening features are designed
[00:05:13.120]to help those who are just getting started in gardening.
[00:05:16.310]And we thought to kick off this year,
[00:05:18.390]we would help those of you who may have moved
[00:05:20.720]into a new property.
[00:05:22.330]In order to have a beautiful
[00:05:23.600]and vibrant outdoor living space,
[00:05:25.830]you first have to know what you have to work with,
[00:05:28.410]and that's the topic of this week's Go Gardening.
[00:05:31.537](upbeat music)
[00:05:38.506]You might recall that Go Gardening is focused
[00:05:40.530]on beginning gardeners, people who really are interested
[00:05:43.420]but might not necessarily know what they're doing.
[00:05:46.160]We're going to take a step all the way back
[00:05:49.000]and start with what you should be thinking about
[00:05:51.350]if you have a new residence, brand new construction,
[00:05:54.570]new to you, a renovation that you have in mind,
[00:05:58.100]anything that has to do with your home, your business,
[00:06:01.040]your property, and what you want your landscape to be.
[00:06:04.440]This is before you go to the Garden Center
[00:06:07.620]and buy that plant and come home with it and say,
[00:06:10.237]"What do I do now?"
[00:06:12.250]The process is really pretty simple.
[00:06:14.750]It can be intimidating to people who don't fully understand
[00:06:18.640]that if you follow this process,
[00:06:20.890]the end result is likely going to be far more satisfying
[00:06:24.300]than again, going off and buying something
[00:06:26.510]that you don't know where you're going to put.
[00:06:28.640]We start with the facts, just the facts.
[00:06:31.850]This is hard for some people to understand as well
[00:06:34.930]because facts are just facts.
[00:06:37.830]There's no subjectivity.
[00:06:39.420]There is no recommendation associated with it.
[00:06:42.980]It is simply what do you have?
[00:06:45.520]So on your property, you have to figure out what you've got
[00:06:48.330]before you know what you want
[00:06:50.410]and how you're going to get what you've got
[00:06:52.860]to get to where you want it to go.
[00:06:55.020]So we have lots of tools you can use.
[00:06:57.730]The beauty of the digital age
[00:06:59.680]is you can go onto a search engine,
[00:07:02.680]go to Google maps or any of the other mapping tools,
[00:07:06.370]find your property, zoom in on it to the point
[00:07:09.642]where you can see things, use the little measure tool
[00:07:13.657]so that you can figure out dimensions, what exactly is where
[00:07:18.380]or if you are fortunate enough to have
[00:07:20.860]from your county assessor's office website
[00:07:23.940]or from a set of construction documents,
[00:07:26.470]you can use the construction document.
[00:07:28.740]And that will show you where the utility easements are,
[00:07:31.460]the actual property itself,
[00:07:34.120]perhaps the existing plant material, usually not by name,
[00:07:38.100]but at least where they're located,
[00:07:39.800]the dimensions of the house, all those sorts of things
[00:07:43.240]that ultimately are going to affect your decisions
[00:07:46.670]on what you want your landscape to be.
[00:07:49.270]So these are just a couple
[00:07:50.450]of those different tools you can use.
[00:07:52.820]People are also very intimidated by the fact
[00:07:55.530]that they can't draw.
[00:07:57.400]Well, I can't draw, either.
[00:07:58.770]I'm terrible at it.
[00:08:00.250]You don't need to be able to draw
[00:08:02.600]to simply do some sketches and scribbles,
[00:08:04.680]and more importantly, some notes on what you have.
[00:08:08.200]So if we move from here are a couple of base documents
[00:08:12.720]to the actual zooming in and analyzing
[00:08:16.500]or inventorying what you've got,
[00:08:18.960]it is everything from what is the direction of the wind
[00:08:22.150]in the summer and in the fall.
[00:08:24.110]Are there places where the wind swirls and twirls,
[00:08:26.800]and you end up with leaves everywhere?
[00:08:29.130]What is the angle of the sun?
[00:08:30.750]Do you have areas that are never in full sun
[00:08:34.260]or never in full shade?
[00:08:36.560]Is that sun filtered?
[00:08:38.650]What are the existing trees and shrubs and perennials?
[00:08:42.090]There are also some good apps
[00:08:43.680]that will tell you what those are or at least get you close,
[00:08:46.610]and of course, you can always send Backyard Farmer a picture
[00:08:50.290]and we will try to identify it for you.
[00:08:52.760]But again, you have to know what those plants are
[00:08:55.400]so that you can make a decision
[00:08:56.850]about whether you like where they are.
[00:08:59.130]Are they in good condition?
[00:09:00.810]Do they really fit in with what you want to be able to do?
[00:09:03.890]You also have to look at the slope
[00:09:05.690]because slope is essential, and the soils.
[00:09:09.420]So those are pretty simple.
[00:09:11.460]It's what you've got, where is it, take notes, make notes.
[00:09:16.310]That becomes the first part of doing the analysis
[00:09:20.050]and the assessment before you get into actually figuring out
[00:09:23.257]what you want on your own property.
[00:09:27.400]All of those factors are going to matter
[00:09:29.120]when you start thinking of installing new turf,
[00:09:31.720]planting shrubs, or getting a garden started.
[00:09:34.640]Going at it blindly could result in poor plant health
[00:09:37.680]and cause you a lot more headaches down the road.
[00:09:40.800]Next time on Go Gardening,
[00:09:42.070]we're going to build on this feature
[00:09:43.510]by helping you begin a master plan for your landscape.
[00:09:47.380]Our landscape lesson this week continues this idea
[00:09:50.080]of knowing what you have, and you might have some trouble
[00:09:53.320]with plants that look great in the winter but set seed.
[00:09:56.560]You can look at this two ways.
[00:09:58.370]One way is to welcome more beautiful plants.
[00:10:01.390]Another way is they might take over your landscape
[00:10:04.190]if you leave them untended.
[00:10:06.010]So let's take a few minutes to see some samples
[00:10:08.440]of those plants that set a lot of seed.
[00:10:11.268](upbeat music)
[00:10:19.200]These beautiful winter days
[00:10:20.540]make many of us want to go outside and play in our gardens.
[00:10:24.220]However, there are not very many things we can do
[00:10:26.870]to get ready for spring to come
[00:10:28.770]with one really pretty neat exception,
[00:10:31.230]and that would be take a look at what set seed
[00:10:34.020]in your landscape and then figure out,
[00:10:36.520]especially if you are a little bit new
[00:10:38.340]to the gardening world
[00:10:39.750]whether what set seed is going to produce all sorts
[00:10:43.350]of unwanted seedlings.
[00:10:45.520]Some examples that I'm going to talk about are euonymus,
[00:10:49.750]winter creeper, euonymus, which is fabulous,
[00:10:53.100]enjoyed by the birds, goes vertical,
[00:10:55.790]puts on these beautiful seeds
[00:10:58.330]that look a little bit like seeds of bittersweet,
[00:11:01.900]and the birds absolutely relish them.
[00:11:04.510]Another is, of course, the juniper or the seeder.
[00:11:07.710]Many, many of our seeders are really becoming a problem
[00:11:10.570]in the landscape, and that does include in areas
[00:11:13.450]that are actually urban parts of the state.
[00:11:16.800]Then we get into some of the perennials and the grasses.
[00:11:20.280]Some of the ornamental alliums like this one,
[00:11:22.840]which happens to be garlic chives,
[00:11:25.130]you can actually see some of the seeds still remaining
[00:11:28.130]in the heads of these particular plants,
[00:11:30.580]which means that in this landscape,
[00:11:32.690]that homeowner is going to have to look
[00:11:34.250]for all of those little onion seedlings
[00:11:36.560]coming up all over everything.
[00:11:38.650]Then we have some of the grasses
[00:11:40.260]which can be absolutely gorgeous
[00:11:43.070]and deadly in terms of seedling production.
[00:11:46.080]This is northern sea oats.
[00:11:48.050]What looks like a single seed
[00:11:49.690]in all of those little dangling seed heads
[00:11:52.100]is actually many, many seeds.
[00:11:54.300]They will also come up in profusion
[00:11:57.240]all over the landscape in the spring.
[00:11:59.590]And of course we have plants like asters,
[00:12:02.330]which the fluff turns into seeds,
[00:12:04.590]seedlings turn into plants, so what this really is
[00:12:07.610]is a cautionary note to say look at what you've got
[00:12:11.080]that is beautiful in seed.
[00:12:13.100]Take those seed heads off even now if you want to,
[00:12:16.720]but certainly if you don't want seedlings
[00:12:18.930]of many of your beautiful winter plants in your landscape
[00:12:21.750]for the coming season, think about that.
[00:12:24.550]Get rid of those seeds earlier next fall
[00:12:27.610]or pay attention early in the spring to what is coming up
[00:12:30.780]in your landscape.
[00:12:33.370]It's going to be much easier to manage
[00:12:35.310]if you take care of those garden thugs in the fall
[00:12:37.640]by getting rid of those seed heads.
[00:12:39.960]Take a look around your home
[00:12:41.080]on one of these really nice winter days
[00:12:43.100]to check for any heavy seed-bearers.
[00:12:46.110]Get rid of them quickly
[00:12:47.130]if you don't want more in the spring.
[00:12:49.540]You know, we love to bring you some insights
[00:12:51.340]from folks in the industry, and we like to focus on topics
[00:12:54.250]that home gardeners will appreciate.
[00:12:56.450]So this week, we're excited to talk
[00:12:58.330]with Alice Red from Lincoln Parks and Rec.
[00:13:00.930]Alice has been involved with planning, selecting,
[00:13:03.380]and planting at the Sunken Gardens
[00:13:05.480]and other public areas here in Lincoln for many years.
[00:13:09.090]She's going to talk to us about how they overwinter many
[00:13:12.020]of the beautiful plants we see every year at Sunken Gardens.
[00:13:15.249](upbeat music)
[00:13:22.890]It's my pleasure to be talking with Alice Reed
[00:13:25.100]with Lincoln Parks and Recreation public garden section
[00:13:27.800]today about everything that we see
[00:13:30.450]in these beautiful greenhouses
[00:13:32.350]and what it has to do with Sunken Gardens.
[00:13:34.740]So Alice, just exactly what are we looking at?
[00:13:37.930]And since we interviewed Rich Finke
[00:13:39.770]about what they are doing for Sunken Gardens,
[00:13:42.220]what is this all about?
[00:13:43.950]Well, this is the public garden holding area,
[00:13:46.660]and we hold all the plants over, the standards, the bulbs,
[00:13:51.370]the banana trees, the grasses, all those temperennials
[00:13:56.440]that we hold over that are special for Sunken Gardens
[00:13:59.630]and around the city.
[00:14:01.120]These are rather unusual greenhouses
[00:14:03.630]because they're not really a greenhouse.
[00:14:06.730]What are the conditions that these plants need
[00:14:09.060]to be able to overwinter, whether they are truly tropical
[00:14:12.320]or they are the water plants that we see
[00:14:14.840]in all of the fish ponds at Sunken Gardens?
[00:14:17.500]Well, we've held these plants for several years,
[00:14:21.940]so we've needed a holding greenhouse forever
[00:14:24.810]just to overwinter these plants
[00:14:26.910]so we don't have to buy them every year.
[00:14:29.200]So this is a polytech holding house.
[00:14:32.900]The sides go up and down.
[00:14:34.290]There's no cooling system per se.
[00:14:36.410]It's just fans and a heating system.
[00:14:39.200]So we just keep it at a temperature throughout the winter
[00:14:42.720]to hold these plants in a state where they won't freeze.
[00:14:46.090]When we're harvesting, as we call it,
[00:14:48.270]we bring in a lot of different plants all at once,
[00:14:52.250]and we'll start to pare them down a little bit
[00:14:55.520]and clean them up, see what's good, and in the meantime,
[00:14:58.330]we're working on our designs for next year,
[00:15:01.070]so we'll decide on how many centerpieces,
[00:15:03.670]where these standards will go, and then we'll work
[00:15:06.610]on preparing and propagating those plants for that,
[00:15:10.090]for those designs.
[00:15:11.670]It's the big plants that are carryover plants, standards,
[00:15:15.820]banana trees, the grasses, mother plants, stock plants.
[00:15:20.410]And then we'll divide those out through the wintertime
[00:15:23.270]to the numbers of the plants that we need for our designs.
[00:15:27.890]We clean the bulbs up.
[00:15:29.470]We shear back all these plants.
[00:15:31.720]They come in huge, and we reduce them down.
[00:15:34.980]We clean the bugs off of them, re-pot them,
[00:15:37.880]and get them ready to go out for next year.
[00:15:39.900]And that's what we do in the winter is work on numbers.
[00:15:43.370]Alice, you carry over a lot of plants from year to year
[00:15:45.720]because people love them, like the elephant ears
[00:15:48.200]and the bananas. Yes.
[00:15:49.360]Are there any unusual or special plants
[00:15:52.200]that maybe are not in here that we might be seeing
[00:15:55.040]in Sunken Gardens this year?
[00:15:56.460]Well, we have all sorts of surprises in mind.
[00:16:00.120]We usually travel around a lot and see other gardens
[00:16:03.960]and see what's new and different out there,
[00:16:06.280]and then we'll try to bring it back to Lincoln.
[00:16:09.120]One thing we had last year was chocolate mimosa trees,
[00:16:12.700]which are deciduous, but they are just to add new,
[00:16:15.550]something we had seen out there.
[00:16:18.290]And holding over these nice lantanas in different colors
[00:16:22.440]and daturas, brugmansias.
[00:16:24.880]Those are all new and different this year.
[00:16:27.860]Alice, thanks for taking the time to talk with us today,
[00:16:30.550]and we are really looking forward to what we're going to see
[00:16:33.190]in Sunken Gardens next year.
[00:16:34.740]Thanks for coming over, Kim,
[00:16:36.290]and we're glad to show off what we're gonna make
[00:16:38.740]for next year's gardens to make it beautiful in Lincoln,
[00:16:41.470]so thank you for coming over.
[00:16:45.440]We really appreciate getting a chance to talk to Alice
[00:16:48.240]to hear about how their winter storage program
[00:16:50.410]keeps those beautiful plants going for years.
[00:16:53.680]Later on in the show, we're going to return
[00:16:55.330]to the city winter storage area
[00:16:57.004]to hear about some specific plants,
[00:16:59.680]including some aquatic ornamentals
[00:17:01.688]and how they survive the winter months.
[00:17:04.442]Since this is a partner program to Backyard Farmer,
[00:17:07.530]we'd like to take a few minutes
[00:17:09.120]to answer some of your questions.
[00:17:11.260]We love hearing from you.
[00:17:12.890]If you've got some questions or pictures,
[00:17:15.100]you can send them our way by emailing byf@unl.edu.
[00:17:20.780]While you're at it, you can attach a picture, too,
[00:17:23.130]in JPEG format.
[00:17:24.570]Please tell us as much information as you can,
[00:17:27.560]including which part of the state you live in.
[00:17:30.540]Okay, so our first question comes to us today from
[00:17:35.400]we don't know.
[00:17:36.660]But it doesn't matter because this is one
[00:17:38.310]that is really important to a lot of people.
[00:17:40.740]This is a viewer who started walking in the backyard
[00:17:43.920]dreaming about those future plantings,
[00:17:46.010]which is great in our winter months.
[00:17:47.960]He noted these fissures in the yard,
[00:17:50.570]first dismissed them as something his children had done,
[00:17:54.160]then realized it's an entire maze through the backyard.
[00:17:58.720]He attached these great photos.
[00:18:00.700]He did quiz the kids, but they said they didn't do it,
[00:18:03.260]and no, indeed, they did not.
[00:18:05.170]He hopes the earth isn't opening up in fissures.
[00:18:08.200]If it did, it would swallow what has caused them
[00:18:10.640]in the first place, which is voles.
[00:18:13.200]And our good 'ole critter creature Dennis talks
[00:18:15.870]about voles on our show all the time.
[00:18:18.320]Those fissures are classic.
[00:18:20.150]Under the snow, under the mulch, under plants,
[00:18:23.460]you see them along the surface of the ground tunneling,
[00:18:26.130]and then of course, they go underground.
[00:18:27.660]They do all sorts of nasty damage.
[00:18:29.880]They love plant parts, so they will eat the roots
[00:18:32.960]of those plants from beneath.
[00:18:35.300]Easiest way to get rid of voles besides moving, of course,
[00:18:39.740]is you can set snap traps perpendicular
[00:18:42.940]in lots of locations.
[00:18:44.760]Our good animologist Jody did that.
[00:18:47.820]She caught mice; she caught voles.
[00:18:50.640]They're hard to bait.
[00:18:52.400]Their population also crashes on occasion,
[00:18:56.010]but one of the things you also can do
[00:18:57.690]is remove some of that cover
[00:19:00.220]and make sure that they don't have places
[00:19:02.200]where they can dart into the lawn
[00:19:04.420]out of other places in your landscape.
[00:19:06.460]And on our website and in previous YouTube videos,
[00:19:09.620]we have a lot of information
[00:19:11.100]about how you can control voles.
[00:19:12.760]I feel your pain.
[00:19:14.090]They're all over in my yard, too.
[00:19:16.590]All right, so we also have a question today
[00:19:19.040]from all the way up in Crofton,
[00:19:22.010]and this is a very loyal viewer.
[00:19:24.510]Thanks for sending the pictures.
[00:19:26.430]He has a 30 year old,
[00:19:29.070]30 foot tall spruce, five of them actually,
[00:19:31.990]and one of them is showing this damage.
[00:19:34.810]Unfortunately, you know, it's a little hard
[00:19:36.840]to tel the damage from a distance,
[00:19:38.880]but I would suspect that if we had Kyle or Amy or Lauren
[00:19:44.240]standing in place right now, they would say,
[00:19:46.297]"Look and see whether you actually have a canker
[00:19:49.477]"up in the crown at the base of some of those twigs,"
[00:19:53.120]and that could, in fact, be what's happening.
[00:19:57.260]That would cause the twig to die back,
[00:19:59.180]especially if it is a canker
[00:20:00.920]that has encircled the twig in that location.
[00:20:05.280]Some sort of damage in that particular spot
[00:20:07.970]is probably what has happened.
[00:20:09.990]Not a thing you can do about it,
[00:20:11.480]especially if it is a canker.
[00:20:13.750]If it is a disease, which it really doesn't look like
[00:20:16.240]at this point, that would be something
[00:20:18.490]that you would have to get up on, send a sample in to Kyle.
[00:20:21.740]This question comes to us from Lynch, Nebraska.
[00:20:24.860]She found multiples of these in the same area,
[00:20:28.150]great pictures.
[00:20:29.280]She describes them as she thought it was a turtle egg
[00:20:33.350]until she picked it up.
[00:20:34.620]It's this star-shaped leaf-like thing
[00:20:37.230]attached to the back.
[00:20:39.020]We had a couple of these earlier in the season,
[00:20:41.610]really maybe the first or second time ever
[00:20:44.930]as long as I've been hosting the show.
[00:20:47.260]This is actually an earth star fungus.
[00:20:50.460]Beautiful thing.
[00:20:51.380]It starts out as kind of a puffball to begin with,
[00:20:54.780]and then the actual star shaped piece opens up
[00:20:58.430]on the outside layer.
[00:21:00.047]That is directly associated with how much moisture there is.
[00:21:03.900]So if it's very moist, you don't get that to open up.
[00:21:06.760]It doesn't look like the star, closes back up again.
[00:21:10.750]They like drier sort of open areas.
[00:21:13.350]You will find them in the lawn on occasion,
[00:21:16.130]but they are just one of those great, wonderful fungi
[00:21:18.940]to enjoy as they come out of the ground,
[00:21:20.680]and really do look like an earth star.
[00:21:22.740]So we really appreciate getting that from Lynch, Nebraska.
[00:21:27.150]We also have a question today from a viewer
[00:21:30.470]who had a great high tunnel,
[00:21:32.320]or actually not a high tunnel, a little covered.
[00:21:35.210]Covered his garden, extended his season
[00:21:37.760]with a little, tiny hoop that he created
[00:21:40.270]out of PVC pipe and some plastic, we assume,
[00:21:43.280]just like we did.
[00:21:44.630]Thought we'd show this to you because he said
[00:21:46.560]he actually used this.
[00:21:48.300]He harvested carrots all the way up 'till Thanksgiving.
[00:21:52.030]He did have some spinach in it, but of course,
[00:21:54.210]spinach is one of those vegetables that likes it cold
[00:21:56.770]but doesn't like it too cold,
[00:21:58.650]not much to protect that spinach foliage
[00:22:00.840]when it really, really gets cold.
[00:22:02.990]So that didn't work for him, but great idea,
[00:22:06.580]great for him to actually have done that extension
[00:22:09.740]of his own season in his garden and made it work
[00:22:12.500]so he could harvest carrots and probably some other things,
[00:22:15.790]either earlier in the fall or come spring,
[00:22:19.240]when we actually start to put the plastic back
[00:22:21.680]on our own hoop house in the Backyard Farmer garden.
[00:22:25.260]For our final feature today, we're going to return
[00:22:27.610]to the city winter storage area to hear
[00:22:29.690]about how plants like banana trees and aquatics
[00:22:32.470]make it through the cold season here in Nebraska.
[00:22:35.210]Here's Lincoln City Parks and Rec's
[00:22:37.460]Mike Fallon and Zac Halley,
[00:22:39.310]former students of ours, to tell you more.
[00:22:41.930](upbeat music)
[00:22:49.390]We are at the greenhouses for Lincoln Parks and Rec
[00:22:52.040]public garden section where we overwinter a lot
[00:22:55.550]of our annuals that we use throughout the year.
[00:22:57.770]Right now we are looking at some of these red bananas
[00:23:01.460]which when we take in, in the winter,
[00:23:03.770]can be a very laborious process.
[00:23:07.760]As you can see, some of these are close to 100 pounds or so.
[00:23:13.840]When we bring them in after that first frost,
[00:23:16.600]they start out about 15 to 20 feet tall.
[00:23:20.010]We'll cut them off and bring them in.
[00:23:22.360]With a lot of the red bananas, we will divide them
[00:23:26.330]and overwinter a little cooler, as you can see.
[00:23:29.670]There's some upshoots coming from here.
[00:23:32.220]When we divide these, we'll quarter them up
[00:23:34.490]and plant them in our mix.
[00:23:38.360]That way when they're ready to go next spring,
[00:23:41.790]we start growing them out.
[00:23:43.700]In January, February, we'll bump up the heat
[00:23:46.690]in the greenhouse to get these things growing
[00:23:49.500]so that they'll get to that 15 to 20 feet in the next year.
[00:23:53.950]When it's time to get them outside
[00:23:55.610]is when we get all of our regular annuals
[00:23:59.290]and flats delivered because they will fill this greenhouse
[00:24:02.550]to the brim, so we actually have a shade structure outside
[00:24:05.950]that we'll keep these in, in the late spring
[00:24:09.290]before we put them in the garden.
[00:24:11.030]So we do harden them off for about two to three weeks.
[00:24:14.400]That just ensures that once we put them in the garden
[00:24:17.440]after the frost-free date, that they'll be ready to go.
[00:24:22.070]They do not bear bananas, as they require, I believe,
[00:24:25.850]it's three years of growth before they start to bear fruit,
[00:24:28.990]and we just don't keep it warm enough to do that.
[00:24:32.820]So along with the bulbs, we have aquatic plants
[00:24:34.990]that we overhold in this greenhouse.
[00:24:37.550]We have a variety of aquatics that we bring in come fall
[00:24:41.650]before the freeze.
[00:24:44.090]Anything from illustris elephant ears to black elephant ears
[00:24:49.490]rush, water hyacinths, and King Tut papyrus.
[00:24:54.521]The King Tut papyrus is actually probably one
[00:24:57.220]of the more interesting things.
[00:24:58.450]It's this plant here.
[00:25:00.630]It's kind of a corner piece of every pond each year.
[00:25:04.540]As far as divisions go, this is this one division this year.
[00:25:08.720]Pull these out in the fall, they'll be a massive plant
[00:25:11.450]that takes three of us to get out along with shovels.
[00:25:15.800]We actually have to physically get in the ponds
[00:25:18.090]and try to not disturb the liner
[00:25:20.350]and dig it out at the same time.
[00:25:22.430]This is a water hyacinth here.
[00:25:24.230]We keep these kind of contained in the corner.
[00:25:26.820]They do spread quite a bit, so each year,
[00:25:29.340]we'll only keep about 10
[00:25:32.160]or 12 sprigs.
[00:25:33.860]The tropical lilies.
[00:25:34.997]We have two different types of lilies in the garden,
[00:25:37.870]so we have tropical lilies and hardy lilies.
[00:25:40.620]The tropical lilies we actually take out each year
[00:25:44.590]so we try to have about four in each pond,
[00:25:48.640]different varieties.
[00:25:51.150]The bloom type on them is way different
[00:25:52.980]than anything you see with the hardy native lily,
[00:25:55.940]so they're a huge attraction to the garden, so
[00:26:00.539]with the tropical lilies, we keep them in the greenhouse
[00:26:04.500]at about a 50 degree temperature, where the hardy lilies,
[00:26:07.870]they can just go back to the ground in the pond.
[00:26:11.280]So this greenhouse allows us to overwinter all these plants
[00:26:14.540]for Sunken Gardens so it will be ready for next year.
[00:26:18.070]This technique is not only a good way to keep plants
[00:26:20.253]growing in the winter, but it's also a great way
[00:26:23.380]to save public money.
[00:26:25.000]Instead of having to purchase new plants every season,
[00:26:27.610]some can be kept in this controlled environment
[00:26:30.150]and brought out again in the spring for all of us to enjoy.
[00:26:33.900]You know, we'll be looking forward to seeing
[00:26:35.530]all of the beautiful ornamentals and those arrangements
[00:26:38.230]at Sunken Gardens as always this season.
[00:26:41.490]Thank you so much for joining us again
[00:26:43.560]for Lifestyle Gardening.
[00:26:45.250]On our next program,
[00:26:46.310]we'll be showing you how to clean your garden tools,
[00:26:48.710]we'll have some helpful pruning tips,
[00:26:50.720]and we'll hear about landscape plans for new homeowners.
[00:26:53.990]Don't forget to check us out
[00:26:55.320]on Facebook, YouTube, and Twitter.
[00:26:57.540]So good morning, good gardening, thanks for watching.
[00:27:01.040]We'll see you all next time on Lifestyle Gardening.
[00:27:03.895](upbeat music)

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