Lifestyle Gardening 602

Brad Mills Author

01/24/2019 Added

3 Plays

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Backyard Farmer Presents: Lifestyle Gardening Program 602

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[00:00:04.994](countdown beeps)
[00:00:15.145](bright music)
[00:00:39.183]Good morning everyone and welcome to Lifestyle Gardening.
[00:00:42.240]I'm Kim Todd and we're happy to be here this morning
[00:00:44.640]for another great gardening show.
[00:00:47.150]Today we're going to help new homeowners
[00:00:49.100]come over the landscape concept, do some scouting
[00:00:52.100]around our current home and we'll see what it takes
[00:00:54.530]to make Sunken Gardens here in Lincoln
[00:00:56.270]a beautiful garden getaway year after year.
[00:00:59.800]We're going to start today's program
[00:01:01.340]with a little practical advice.
[00:01:03.730]Our garden tools play an important role
[00:01:05.880]in the things we have to do in order
[00:01:07.530]to get our garden to grow right.
[00:01:10.250]You treat those tools right,
[00:01:11.960]everything gets planted, trimmed and cut with ease.
[00:01:15.640]Treat them wrong, you could have a hard time digging,
[00:01:17.980]pruning or you might even injure yourself.
[00:01:21.260]So let's turn our attention to master gardener
[00:01:23.360]John Cariotto, who's going to tell us
[00:01:25.580]the proper way to clean and store
[00:01:27.180]those garden tools this winter.
[00:01:29.107](bright music)
[00:01:36.820]Gardening is much more fun and easier
[00:01:40.150]if your garden tools are clean and sharp.
[00:01:43.550]Digging in the garden is much easier
[00:01:46.000]with a clean, sharp shovel.
[00:01:47.740]If your shovel is rusty and covered with old mud,
[00:01:50.930]it's gonna be hard to put it in the ground.
[00:01:53.260]Same way with your soil knife, which is an
[00:01:55.930]integral part of your arsenal working in the garden.
[00:02:00.000]Your cutting tools are important and they need
[00:02:04.590]to be clean and sharp in order to make
[00:02:07.750]a clean cut and not transmit any disease.
[00:02:11.840]A clean tool is much easier to disinfect
[00:02:15.110]and prevent any disease moving from one plant to another.
[00:02:19.020]Every year, we hear about roses or some other plant
[00:02:23.170]that are infected from the first rose that's pruned
[00:02:26.620]and the tool is not disinfected and the person moves on
[00:02:31.150]down pruning the whole row and moves
[00:02:33.970]the disease to all of the plants.
[00:02:36.270]So, we don't want to do that.
[00:02:37.720]We want to have fun in the garden
[00:02:39.660]and we want the tools to be sharp.
[00:02:42.290]Cleaning the digging tools is really easy.
[00:02:45.790]All we need is a wire brush.
[00:02:51.380]We need to have steel wool or a steel wool substitute,
[00:02:56.800]which is less likely to abrade your fingers.
[00:03:00.670]Cleaning the cutting tools, because they get
[00:03:04.020]the sap from the plant on them, they're often
[00:03:07.160]more difficult to clean and I use
[00:03:10.330]a cleaner which is a citrus-based cleaner.
[00:03:14.890]This is the only one that I've found that works.
[00:03:17.890]It is designed for woodworking tools that get sap
[00:03:22.620]burned on in the woodworking process.
[00:03:26.280]I apply that, let it soak and then go over them
[00:03:29.890]with steel wool or the steel wool substitute to clean them.
[00:03:35.230]Same thing with the loppers and with the hedge shears.
[00:03:40.560]Some of the tools are in better shape.
[00:03:43.400]If you get the tools cleaned in the winter time
[00:03:46.070]and this is, in effect, a really good wintertime project,
[00:03:50.170]to get all of the tools clean and sharp
[00:03:52.470]and ready for the year, and if you do that,
[00:03:55.592]all you need to do is touch the tools up
[00:03:59.220]during the course of the year,
[00:04:00.820]and it takes just a few minutes to clean a tool
[00:04:04.000]that's already clean and sharp and to dress the edge.
[00:04:07.730]The tools that you need for sharpening
[00:04:10.480]are a little more complex.
[00:04:13.160]We need to have some kind of a file or a stone
[00:04:16.920]or one of the synthetic stones.
[00:04:18.780]These are diamond stones that will help you
[00:04:21.140]in cleaning those edges and making them sharp.
[00:04:25.740]Now, in order to clean the loppers and the hedge shears,
[00:04:30.240]you may need to have wrenches to open them up.
[00:04:34.840]The important thing to remember when you are going
[00:04:37.630]to sharpen a tool is that there is a bevel
[00:04:41.700]on all of the bypass type pruners and these are the ones
[00:04:45.190]we recommend, the ones where one blade goes across another,
[00:04:50.280]is that this side is never sharpened.
[00:04:53.430]It needs to be flat.
[00:04:55.680]This side has the bevel and this
[00:04:59.360]is the side that we sharpen.
[00:05:02.010]After we go through the sharpening and cleaning process,
[00:05:05.540]the tools are clean, they're sharp
[00:05:08.040]and they're ready to go for the next season.
[00:05:13.990]Sharp, clean tools means you'll spend less time
[00:05:16.980]cutting or pruning, and you'll even stop
[00:05:19.170]some of those plant diseases from spreading.
[00:05:21.620]So taking the time to clean them up and store them properly
[00:05:24.210]is really just another one of those chores
[00:05:26.930]that can make gardening a lot easier.
[00:05:28.790]And I wish I would do that to my own.
[00:05:31.590]Last week, we talked about the importance
[00:05:33.480]of landscape awareness for new home owners,
[00:05:36.090]so this week for our Go Gardening feature,
[00:05:38.350]we'd like to help beginning gardeners come up
[00:05:40.330]with a solid plan for their lawn, trees, shrubs and gardens.
[00:05:44.770]Taking into account all of the elements that are already
[00:05:47.550]present and then coming up with a plan of attack to make
[00:05:50.710]your yard a beautiful, welcoming
[00:05:52.190]and comfortable space you'll enjoy for years
[00:05:54.910]is the focus of this week's Go Gardening.
[00:05:57.179](bright music)
[00:06:02.250]You'll remember that last time on Go Gardening,
[00:06:04.180]we talked about knowing what you've got
[00:06:06.620]and if you did a really good job on that inventory
[00:06:09.060]and assessment, you'll have all those details down pat.
[00:06:12.780]Where are the hose bibs?
[00:06:14.190]Where did you pile the snow or do you pile the snow.
[00:06:17.000]How do you get into your home?
[00:06:18.590]What do you look out and see?
[00:06:20.860]Is your neighbor's property something
[00:06:22.590]you want to look at or not?
[00:06:24.690]Plants, soil, sun, shade.
[00:06:27.630]All of those great elements that make up
[00:06:30.210]a really excellent landscape.
[00:06:32.400]The next piece of that is to figure out what you want.
[00:06:36.180]This is called the program statement and it's pretty simple.
[00:06:39.770]You can shoot the moon, you can brainstorm,
[00:06:41.960]you can scribble on a piece of paper.
[00:06:44.060]You can be very, very deliberate in your program statement
[00:06:47.470]and categorize it not by what you want in terms of objects
[00:06:52.660]but what is the experience you
[00:06:54.240]want to have in your landscape.
[00:06:56.220]Do you want to relax?
[00:06:57.570]Do you want to garden?
[00:06:58.910]Do you want to entertain?
[00:07:00.710]How many people do you want to entertain?
[00:07:03.310]Do you want to have your dogs and cats and your kids
[00:07:05.620]and all of the wildlife have a feast in your backyard?
[00:07:09.840]This is your property.
[00:07:11.410]This should be what you want and what you need.
[00:07:14.340]Again, we will then distill that down in the design process
[00:07:18.270]so that it's practical.
[00:07:19.890]You have to always begin also thinking about
[00:07:23.860]how are you going to manage this?
[00:07:25.930]You can start big and then think,
[00:07:28.200]what is realistic about what you are willing to do
[00:07:30.870]and what you're excited about doing in your own landscape.
[00:07:34.380]The program statement also can be developed visually.
[00:07:38.440]Since this is a visual art, we explore
[00:07:40.890]our landscapes in many different ways.
[00:07:43.390]Go ahead and pluck off images that you find on Pinterest,
[00:07:47.140]in magazines, if you still use real magazines.
[00:07:50.730]Photographs you've taken of elements that you really like,
[00:07:53.980]whether it's a big, broad, beautiful landscape
[00:07:57.140]or it's the detail of something like fountains
[00:07:59.520]or pavements or specific plant material.
[00:08:02.660]Then you take the list, so you've got a list of what
[00:08:05.440]you really think you have in mind.
[00:08:07.450]You've got photographs, you've got multiple photographs,
[00:08:10.700]and it might be many iterations of the same thing.
[00:08:13.830]It might be a fountain and a fire pit
[00:08:15.740]and an outdoor kitchen.
[00:08:16.810]It might be another fountain and a
[00:08:18.410]fire pit and an outdoor kitchen.
[00:08:20.830]It might be views and vistas that really have come to mind
[00:08:25.170]or have made you feel wonderful in another space.
[00:08:29.470]You put all of those things together
[00:08:32.220]and then you distill that down into, in your own space,
[00:08:36.140]given what you've got, what do you want and what do you
[00:08:39.360]need, because the next step in this process
[00:08:42.130]is going to be matching what you've already got
[00:08:45.480]with what you want and need so that we can start going
[00:08:49.210]into the actual conceptual development
[00:08:51.372]of where are you going to put what.
[00:08:54.350]That is the fun part.
[00:08:55.720]That's also a piece that is really going to turn out
[00:08:58.470]much, much better if you have taken the time
[00:09:01.380]to figure out what you really want.
[00:09:03.860]And, a big piece of that is not only what do you want
[00:09:07.170]right now, but if you project out.
[00:09:09.570]Are you going to live in your home
[00:09:10.840]for five years, 10 years, 20 years.
[00:09:13.510]Do you have a growing family
[00:09:15.170]and you will become empty nesters?
[00:09:17.470]Are you going to have grandchildren coming back?
[00:09:20.150]What are those sorts of elements that you wanna think about
[00:09:23.060]that are in the future, so that you are not doing
[00:09:25.900]just simple, immediate fixes to a landscape.
[00:09:29.000]You're thinking more broadly so that it really can
[00:09:31.340]become a space where you really engage
[00:09:33.850]and have wonderful experiences.
[00:09:37.980]Seeing your outdoor areas as an extension of your home
[00:09:41.000]will really help you as you think about these principles.
[00:09:43.880]Instead of something you have to take care of
[00:09:46.330]by mowing and watering every week,
[00:09:48.330]you can visualize it as a beautiful, peaceful area
[00:09:51.110]to escape to when you come home.
[00:09:53.460]Let that idea guide you to creating
[00:09:55.550]a valuable part of your own home experience.
[00:09:59.140]Our landscape lesson this week takes a look
[00:10:01.260]at scouting around your trees
[00:10:02.750]and shrubs for possible problems.
[00:10:04.980]The late fall and winter are ideal times
[00:10:07.520]to spot these problems because all
[00:10:08.940]of the foliage has fallen off, or at least most of it.
[00:10:12.180]This technique will help you make better decisions
[00:10:14.340]for pruning and pest control.
[00:10:16.980]Let's take a few minutes to show you what I'm talking about.
[00:10:19.962](bright music)
[00:10:25.630]If you learn to really look at your landscape
[00:10:27.900]and interpret what you're seeing,
[00:10:29.600]you can find all sorts of interesting objects
[00:10:32.251]that are going to need your attention come spring
[00:10:34.980]or even later in the winter months.
[00:10:36.950]Let's start with one of the hydrangeas.
[00:10:38.910]This happens to be Annabell, and if you look closely,
[00:10:41.980]you'll see that this twig in my hand, even though
[00:10:44.530]it is dormant, is still one that is nice and green.
[00:10:48.480]On the other hand, from the same plant, we have a twig
[00:10:51.570]that is obviously a different color and hollow.
[00:10:54.580]This one's dead.
[00:10:55.900]These will need to be removed off of any plants
[00:10:58.420]in your landscape that have dead material.
[00:11:01.230]Then we have euonymus and we have all sorts of issues
[00:11:04.820]associated not just with the seed production,
[00:11:07.700]but also with winter desiccation
[00:11:09.890]of the broad leaf evergreen leaves
[00:11:12.070]and if you look really closely,
[00:11:13.970]you will see little tiny scale insects on this plant,
[00:11:18.210]which is the bane of a lot of euonymus.
[00:11:21.360]If we look at this Austrian pine,
[00:11:23.720]you'll notice that we have a decent terminal bud here.
[00:11:27.610]We have some remains of some pretty nasty stuff going on
[00:11:32.320]further down on the branch.
[00:11:33.750]This is a tree that has had all sorts of tip blight issues,
[00:11:38.390]as well as poor growing conditions.
[00:11:41.690]A lot of people will find twigs
[00:11:43.280]in their landscape that look like this
[00:11:46.060]and they wonder what this is.
[00:11:47.760]Well, this has fallen off of a tree from way up high.
[00:11:51.060]It happens to be a honey locust and this is the fungus among
[00:11:54.290]us that is doing its job and getting rid of the dead tissue.
[00:11:57.970]But that also indicates that you
[00:11:59.810]probably have some cankers going on.
[00:12:02.560]Look high in the tree or along the branches of the tree
[00:12:05.830]to see whether there is some dead or diseased wood
[00:12:08.070]that really needs to be removed.
[00:12:10.420]And of course, we end up with a lot of questions
[00:12:13.140]on Backyard Farmer and on this show that have to do
[00:12:16.750]with all sorts of wounding that occurred on the trunk
[00:12:20.450]of a tree that ends up not compartmentalizing properly.
[00:12:24.500]This is a perfect example of that.
[00:12:26.660]If you see these kinds of wounds on your tree,
[00:12:29.430]you need to take advantage of the expertise that we offer.
[00:12:33.170]We'll tell you what to do about it and in many instances,
[00:12:36.240]that might be, you get to start planning for a new tree.
[00:12:41.900]Taking the time to scout around your landscape
[00:12:43.990]on a regular basis will help you control pest problems
[00:12:46.844]or identify pruning issues before they become unmanageable.
[00:12:50.950]Good gardeners understand the difference
[00:12:52.950]between healthy, vibrant trees and shrubs is as simple
[00:12:56.350]as getting out and looking at them in a timely manner.
[00:13:00.880]Last week, we had a fun conversation with Alice Reed
[00:13:03.850]from Lincoln Parks and Rec, who talked to us about how
[00:13:06.480]they care for Sunken Garden plants during the winter.
[00:13:09.660]Right now, we're going to hear from Rich Finke
[00:13:11.700]of Finke Gardens about the planning and production process
[00:13:15.330]for the rest of those ornamental selections.
[00:13:17.970]There's a lot of preparation involved
[00:13:19.910]keeping the Sunken Gardens beautiful from year to year
[00:13:22.800]so here's Rich to tell us more.
[00:13:25.225](bright music)
[00:13:30.770]Here we are in the throes of winter,
[00:13:32.360]standing in a greenhouse and it's my pleasure
[00:13:34.900]to be talking to Rich Finke, Finke Gardens,
[00:13:37.070]about exactly what's going to happen
[00:13:38.850]at Sunken Gardens this year.
[00:13:40.622]Finke's grows the plants custom and people always
[00:13:43.860]want to know where those plants come from
[00:13:46.150]when they are looking at them in Sunken Gardens.
[00:13:48.270]So that's what we're gonna discuss today.
[00:13:50.290]Rich, it takes a lot of planning to pull off
[00:13:52.510]something like Sunken Gardens.
[00:13:54.090]What is your involvement as a company in figuring out
[00:13:57.020]exactly which plants go in in a single year?
[00:14:00.430]We are not involved in the planning.
[00:14:03.590]Steve and Alice, from the City, do the design work
[00:14:07.724]and they will get that all finished up
[00:14:09.990]and then send me a plant list with quantities of each plant.
[00:14:14.690]One of the questions people always ask is,
[00:14:17.460]how do you start them?
[00:14:18.580]Where do they come from?
[00:14:20.050]Are they seedling produced, are they in containers?
[00:14:23.030]Just exactly where do you get all these beautiful plants?
[00:14:26.420]The answer to somewhere is all over the world.
[00:14:29.770]We will get plants from Israel, from Mexico, a couple other
[00:14:36.240]countries, and also here in the United States
[00:14:39.770]that we'll get plants from Colorado, which is fairly close,
[00:14:44.890]and down to Florida.
[00:14:48.100]These plants will come in many kinds of shapes and forms.
[00:14:51.410]I try to grow as many as I can from unrooted cuttings,
[00:14:55.550]which is just a little tip of a plant with no roots on it
[00:14:59.270]and I can get 10000 cuttings in one little box
[00:15:03.940]and root those into little plugs and then transplant those.
[00:15:08.750]I will buy some already rooted in plugs
[00:15:12.330]and then we will take some cuttings off the stock plants.
[00:15:15.340]They always also want to know, can they get them
[00:15:18.160]and how do they get them and who sells them in places
[00:15:21.860]like Lincoln, Nebraska, or are they just really something
[00:15:24.460]to enjoy only in Sunken Gardens?
[00:15:27.770]I think you would be able to purchase some here in Lincoln
[00:15:31.650]at some retailers, but I think there'll also be some
[00:15:34.900]that won't be available, certain cultivars which are new
[00:15:39.490]or underused that a lot of retailers may not carry
[00:15:44.980]and those you just have to go
[00:15:46.170]to the Sunken Gardens and enjoy there.
[00:15:48.680]The final question is, do you actually winter over
[00:15:52.460]any of the plants that you then will use in Sunken Gardens,
[00:15:55.290]and if so, is that a process that you can rely on,
[00:15:58.460]or is it sort of what happens, what happens
[00:16:01.050]and you may be able to use those or you may not.
[00:16:04.360]I do not over-winter many coming out of the Sunken Gardens
[00:16:08.160]but the City has a greenhouse and they over-winter a lot
[00:16:12.840]of the tropicals that were grown the season prior
[00:16:16.970]in Sunken Gardens, so their greenhouses are full
[00:16:20.870]of a lot of tropical plants that they will divide
[00:16:25.500]and use again the following year.
[00:16:27.520]Thanks Rich, we really appreciate your information
[00:16:29.960]and I'm sure everybody is looking forward to seeing
[00:16:32.500]what Sunken Gardens looks like come spring.
[00:16:38.010]The reason Sunken Gardens in Lincoln looks fantastic
[00:16:41.010]season after season is because of all the hard work
[00:16:43.600]and planning that goes into it.
[00:16:45.660]It's people like Rich Finke and Alice Reed
[00:16:47.610]who care so much about beautiful plants
[00:16:49.890]and caring for them through the winter
[00:16:51.910]that does make all the difference in the world.
[00:16:54.200]So of course, we look forward to another
[00:16:56.360]great experience at Sunken Gardens this year.
[00:17:00.090]It's time now to answer a few of your questions.
[00:17:02.700]If you've got a question you'd like to submit to the show,
[00:17:05.620]just drop us an email at byf@unl.edu
[00:17:10.450]and just like the real show, we want you to tell us
[00:17:13.030]as much information as you can, including where you live
[00:17:16.760]and attach those pictures as jpegs.
[00:17:20.420]Our first question comes from somebody who didn't tell us
[00:17:23.930]where they're from, but this is a pretty universal question.
[00:17:28.150]He is saying it sure seems like bagworms
[00:17:30.870]are becoming more of a problem.
[00:17:33.040]Instead of knowing what to spray them with,
[00:17:35.240]he wants to know what animals or insects prey on bagworms.
[00:17:41.070]If you notice on this set of pictures, this is a really
[00:17:45.060]devastating issue for a couple of reasons.
[00:17:47.800]First off, this particular set of pictures
[00:17:50.690]shows a pretty negative landscape area.
[00:17:54.540]There's rock, there's landscape fabric.
[00:17:57.720]These particular junipers have been sheared and sheared
[00:18:01.240]and sheared, turned into a form that is architectural,
[00:18:05.120]but that can be pretty hard on the plant
[00:18:06.910]and cause it a lot of stress.
[00:18:08.850]Stressed plants will attract all sorts of insect pests
[00:18:12.290]and diseases, more than plants that are in good health.
[00:18:15.780]You can also see bags still hanging on the junipers
[00:18:19.530]and you can see some junipers that are not only
[00:18:22.130]not green, they are brown as brown can be.
[00:18:25.690]Those are former junipers.
[00:18:28.460]Of course, an issue that our entomologists would talk about
[00:18:31.060]with bagworms is, the control is difficult
[00:18:35.370]if you don't catch them at the right time,
[00:18:37.830]and that would be when those little crawlers first come out,
[00:18:41.090]when those little bags are absolutely not as big
[00:18:43.760]as these ones are right now.
[00:18:45.850]Right now, you could pick them off, you could squish them
[00:18:48.662]before the adults emerge, and of course, birds and animals
[00:18:53.340]and all sorts of other beasties might eat what's in there
[00:18:57.300]but they're not going to go harvesting and just pluck
[00:19:00.010]the bags off themself and eat them.
[00:19:02.190]So, I'm gonna say, and I'm gonna hope
[00:19:05.340]that if I need to be corrected, our entomologist will do it,
[00:19:09.370]I'm gonna say that the best line of defense for the bagworms
[00:19:12.510]right now is not to rely on animals or insects.
[00:19:17.510]Alright, our next question, let's see,
[00:19:23.110]this one comes to us from Omaha.
[00:19:28.260]It's about a 20-year-old pine, 25 to 30 feet tall.
[00:19:33.400]It's an evergreen.
[00:19:34.660]Obviously it is a pine.
[00:19:36.830]It's probably an Austrian.
[00:19:38.700]It's been bleeding white, sticky substance
[00:19:41.300]that turns hard and into a powder.
[00:19:44.230]Lower branches were on the ground.
[00:19:45.880]They took those off.
[00:19:47.000]It's not a beautiful tree.
[00:19:48.290]It does not look like it's in the greatest of condition
[00:19:51.070]and that's probably getting towards the end of its life
[00:19:54.850]if it's in a compromised planting area.
[00:19:57.720]It does provide shade and privacy, so their question is,
[00:20:01.480]really is the tree salvageable.
[00:20:03.650]The answer to that is yes, and that sap
[00:20:06.330]that is oozing out of that tree can be one, two,
[00:20:09.760]maybe three things with pines or evergreens.
[00:20:13.280]We can see potentially some canker,
[00:20:15.740]which we have talked about before on the show.
[00:20:19.040]Pines are susceptible to a lot of bore damage.
[00:20:22.780]Typically, if this was Zimmerman pine bore, you would see
[00:20:26.040]that more in the crotch between where the branch hits the
[00:20:30.270]trunk and it would look popcorn-y and a little yellowish,
[00:20:33.930]and this looks a little bit like that.
[00:20:36.990]It looks like really the main issues with this tree are
[00:20:40.210]probably a compromised root system that's causing stress.
[00:20:43.880]A lot of borers get into pines.
[00:20:46.810]You need to pay attention to whether you have bore holes.
[00:20:51.320]You need to look at potentially, a trunk drench.
[00:20:54.770]The trunk drench is most effective it it's applied
[00:20:58.720]so that it can catch those caterpillars or those crawlers
[00:21:01.700]when they're coming out, and that usually is gonna be
[00:21:05.105]last part of April, first part of May
[00:21:08.210]for treatment for the caterpillars.
[00:21:10.570]There's another treatment window later in the season.
[00:21:13.690]That is for the adults, but in the meantime,
[00:21:17.260]the pruning, while it might have been really necessary
[00:21:21.180]for actually using your landscape the way you want
[00:21:24.520]to use it, the pruning wounds themselves
[00:21:27.280]can cause some stress on the tree,
[00:21:29.050]so as we go into spring, make sure you keep that tree
[00:21:32.470]well watered, but not watered too much.
[00:21:35.090]Go ahead and do pay attention to whether you have
[00:21:38.440]additional damage and holes in the trunk that may indicate
[00:21:41.490]some more insect issues with it.
[00:21:44.860]Speaking of pruning, we're going to finish our show today
[00:21:47.440]with a look at that part of the landscape management.
[00:21:51.190]Once again, it's easier to make those pruning decisions
[00:21:53.730]when your trees and shrubs are dormant, meaning right now.
[00:21:57.680]As we said before, going around your home
[00:21:59.640]to inspect your plants for damage is really the best way
[00:22:02.700]you're going to know if something needs attention.
[00:22:05.180]Let's take a look at some examples of trees and shrubs
[00:22:07.740]that need a little or a lot of pruning.
[00:22:10.344](bright music)
[00:22:16.144]One of the best times to prune landscape plants
[00:22:18.710]is when they're dormant, and one of the best times
[00:22:21.270]to actually look at those plants to figure out
[00:22:23.480]their structure is in the winter months
[00:22:25.960]when especially the deciduous ones have lost their foliage.
[00:22:29.530]This is a great example of what you are going
[00:22:32.210]to have to prune, and by prune this one,
[00:22:34.680]that means probably at the ground.
[00:22:36.960]A lot of our hybrid elms have very terrible structure.
[00:22:40.840]You can see what has happened here, is literally half
[00:22:44.070]or more of this particular main stem has broken off.
[00:22:47.760]It's a poor attachment.
[00:22:49.110]There's a poor pruning cut here.
[00:22:51.240]There is actually a wound from the ripping part of the tree
[00:22:54.260]that has come all the way down the trunk.
[00:22:56.640]We have too many branches in one spot in this tree,
[00:23:00.070]which means as they grow, they're going
[00:23:01.940]to be included like this, which means
[00:23:03.930]they're also not strong connections.
[00:23:06.510]We don't trunk thin, if at all possible.
[00:23:08.880]Especially when trees are small, they need all that foliage.
[00:23:13.820]However, you do look this time of year as well
[00:23:16.630]at anything that is an inch or less in diameter.
[00:23:20.250]Likely time to take it off if it's not going to be
[00:23:23.020]something that will contribute to the quality
[00:23:25.260]of that tree in the future.
[00:23:27.890]There are a couple of ways to prune deciduous shrubs,
[00:23:30.520]one of them being into a hedge.
[00:23:32.730]This is a privet hedge that has been
[00:23:34.500]pruned this way for years and years.
[00:23:37.170]A couple of the cautionary notes however are,
[00:23:40.150]you still have to look at the main structure of the plant.
[00:23:43.610]What you can see has happened over time is
[00:23:46.530]the pruning cuts to keep this hedge low have pretty
[00:23:50.060]consistently been made in the same spot in the plant.
[00:23:54.080]The response of the plant is to throw out
[00:23:56.810]a whole bunch of shoots from that spot.
[00:23:59.390]You do that again, a whole bunch of shoots,
[00:24:02.250]and you end up with a very old cane from the base
[00:24:05.680]with little if any foliage on it.
[00:24:08.190]Ideally, what would happen every three, four, five years,
[00:24:11.460]depending on the species, is you go into this hedge.
[00:24:15.740]It's very time consuming, but take out the oldest
[00:24:18.780]of the canes all the way down to the base of the plant.
[00:24:22.660]That encourages new growth to come from the base.
[00:24:25.850]You then feather cut slightly the top,
[00:24:29.070]so you don't get this single stump with a lot of side shoots
[00:24:32.607]from the same spot in the plant every single season.
[00:24:37.370]This is not the ideal time of year to prune evergreens
[00:24:40.220]or broadleaf evergreens of any sort,
[00:24:42.230]because they continue to transpire over the winter months.
[00:24:45.430]You open up those stems and that can
[00:24:47.420]cause winter dieback or desiccation.
[00:24:50.240]These yews are an example of what you can look at, however,
[00:24:53.350]and that would be, think in terms of how much more
[00:24:56.620]this plant is going to grow come spring.
[00:24:59.480]You look at some of the longer growth from last season,
[00:25:03.150]you can imagine this shooting additional buds.
[00:25:05.940]If you don't do some selective pruning and heading back
[00:25:09.869]of those long branches, you can end up with very long,
[00:25:13.210]floppy pieces of the shrubs that end up being
[00:25:16.750]susceptible to breakage or damage of some sort.
[00:25:20.120]That's going to be true for junipers, yews, some of the
[00:25:23.620]smaller evergreens, broadleaf evergreens like boxwoods.
[00:25:27.640]Take a look at how you can do that in such a way
[00:25:30.160]that it keeps the plant health.
[00:25:32.050]Of course, pines, spruce and firs
[00:25:34.100]are a whole different ball game.
[00:25:36.780]What you really want to think about this time of year
[00:25:39.040]is take a look at what you've got in your landscape,
[00:25:41.480]look at the structure, look at where pruning mistakes
[00:25:44.420]have been made in the past, think about damage,
[00:25:47.680]think about growth in the coming season
[00:25:49.900]and be ready to get those sharpened tools out,
[00:25:53.040]ready to start cutting, pruning and enjoying the outdoors
[00:25:56.350]in these crisp winter months.
[00:25:59.780]Dormant trees and shrubs can be much easier to prune
[00:26:02.580]because you're not fighting to see
[00:26:04.130]what the actual problem is.
[00:26:06.030]Think twice, cut once and remember that broken,
[00:26:09.530]damaged, diseased or crossing branches
[00:26:12.300]should be pruned out as best you can.
[00:26:15.660]Thank you so much for joining us again
[00:26:17.950]for Lifestyle Gardening.
[00:26:19.530]On our next program, we'll head into the laboratory
[00:26:22.870]to see how samples are processed
[00:26:25.000]and we will give you tips on growing those luscious peaches.
[00:26:28.940]Don't forget to check us out
[00:26:30.150]on Facebook, YouTube and Twitter.
[00:26:32.240]So good morning, good gardening.
[00:26:34.580]Thanks for watching.
[00:26:35.800]We'll see you all next time on Lifestyle Gardening.
[00:26:38.727](bright music)

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