Backyard Farmer Presents: Lifestyle Gardening
Brad Mills
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01/10/2017
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232
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Backyard Farmer Presents: Lifestyle Gardening Program 402
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- [00:00:15.262](cheerful music)
- [00:00:42.571]Hello, and welcome to Lifestyle Gardening.
- [00:00:45.398]I'm Kim Todd and we're so glad
- [00:00:46.734]you could join us for another show.
- [00:00:48.907]We've got another great program ready for you,
- [00:00:51.104]including a look at a commercial grower of hops
- [00:00:53.814]here in Nebraska
- [00:00:54.886]and an interview with a local craft brewer.
- [00:00:57.870]We'll also be helping new gardeners
- [00:00:59.872]get a new garden space going
- [00:01:01.472]with tips on removing turf.
- [00:01:03.403]And our landscape lesson this week
- [00:01:05.333]is what to do with pine needles.
- [00:01:07.776]To get started,
- [00:01:08.661]let's talk about an exciting new crop here in Nebraska,
- [00:01:11.877]hops.
- [00:01:12.997]We took our cameras out to Plattsmouth,
- [00:01:14.925]to the Nebraska Hop Yards,
- [00:01:16.858]where we heard about the challenges of growing
- [00:01:18.861]hops in our state.
- [00:01:28.763]One of the reasons why we looked at getting into hops
- [00:01:31.132]was because of what was happening
- [00:01:33.035]with commodity in Nebraska today.
- [00:01:36.981]My husband's a third generation
- [00:01:38.590]row crop farmer
- [00:01:39.830]and we started to look at different things
- [00:01:42.430]that we could grow,
- [00:01:43.521]as opposed to just corn and beans.
- [00:01:45.367]Part of our market research
- [00:01:47.124]showed that craft brewing--
- [00:01:48.938]With the craze that was going on with craft brewing,
- [00:01:51.124]the brewers needed to have hops to support that,
- [00:01:54.082]so they also wanted to have local ingredients.
- [00:01:57.794]So in addition to the trade shows
- [00:01:59.759]and conferences that we went to,
- [00:02:01.500]we also did some marketing analysis
- [00:02:04.660]to support the efforts that we were putting into place.
- [00:02:09.074]They're saying that craft brewing
- [00:02:10.940]continues to grow in the numbers.
- [00:02:14.378]The regular beer that we're all used to drinking
- [00:02:17.084]when we were growing up
- [00:02:18.313]like Budweiser, and Millers, and Coors,
- [00:02:21.180]the younger generation
- [00:02:22.013]doesn't have the allegiance to those beers
- [00:02:23.938]that we did.
- [00:02:25.050]They wanna see where their ingredients come from,
- [00:02:27.821]they wanna be able to create new recipes,
- [00:02:29.860]they wanna be able to be a part of what is going on
- [00:02:33.775]with the brewing.
- [00:02:35.354]We started last year with 2.5 acres
- [00:02:39.183]and 23 varieties,
- [00:02:41.098]to see what would grow well in the state.
- [00:02:42.946]What's disease resistant, pest resistant,
- [00:02:45.268]and drought resistant.
- [00:02:46.996]We're also very interested in expanding
- [00:02:50.015]the growth throughout the state of Nebraska
- [00:02:52.350]and different regions that we have.
- [00:02:54.911]We believe that hops will grow really well
- [00:02:57.444]in the Panhandle area,
- [00:02:59.866]because they don't have the humidity that we have.
- [00:03:03.386]But we also found great results
- [00:03:04.713]with some of the varieties
- [00:03:06.100]here in the eastern part of the state.
- [00:03:08.628]The process for harvesting
- [00:03:10.568]is that we actually take some of our wet hops
- [00:03:13.012]and through the Water Sciences Department,
- [00:03:15.837]we've been working with Dan Snow.
- [00:03:17.854]They're able to take the wet hops
- [00:03:19.286]and give us feedback
- [00:03:21.197]on the alphas and the betas.
- [00:03:22.744]The alphas and the betas are the most
- [00:03:24.429]important part of the hop.
- [00:03:25.608]And that's what the brewers use
- [00:03:27.637]to identify the IBUs
- [00:03:30.221]for brewing in their recipes.
- [00:03:33.410]Then we would go ahead and cut the binds.
- [00:03:36.460]We'd get them run through the harvester.
- [00:03:39.811]There's a 7 to 10 day window,
- [00:03:41.660]when those hops are optimal
- [00:03:43.880]for their alphas and betas.
- [00:03:47.282]Once we know that we've in that window,
- [00:03:49.990]we will go ahead and get our schedule together.
- [00:03:52.667]We start early in the morning,
- [00:03:54.001]because once the hops are cut,
- [00:03:55.771]there's a short amount of time.
- [00:03:57.306]They're 80% water
- [00:03:58.865]and they start to oxidize very fast.
- [00:04:01.158]So you really have to have your team ready,
- [00:04:03.473]you've gotta have your harvesting equipment ready,
- [00:04:05.841]and you also have to have your drying equipment ready.
- [00:04:08.742]But the equipment that you'll see today
- [00:04:10.737]would be used for a small grower.
- [00:04:12.945]The Wolf 170 can support 15 acres in a harvest season.
- [00:04:17.849]And then we are also working on a prototype dryer
- [00:04:20.945]that we have with the University of Nebraska-Lincoln,
- [00:04:24.145]that has an academic research and development grant
- [00:04:27.612]tied to it.
- [00:04:28.559]And we are using the prototype this harvest
- [00:04:31.834]and then we're hoping to commercialize
- [00:04:33.583]that piece of equipment next year.
- [00:04:35.279]One of the biggest challenges
- [00:04:36.474]that we've found with growing hops
- [00:04:38.692]from a small scale is the equipment barrier.
- [00:04:41.700]There's not a lot of equipment for small harvesters
- [00:04:44.068]or small dryers
- [00:04:45.348]and that's one of the reasons
- [00:04:46.181]why we're partnering with the university
- [00:04:47.807]on trying to see if we can
- [00:04:49.962]help support new growers with smaller equipment.
- [00:04:54.180]Here at the Hop Yard,
- [00:04:55.076]we have 23 varieties that we've put in
- [00:04:57.668]that are public.
- [00:04:58.628]And then we also have three wild hop varieties
- [00:05:01.444]that we have found here in the state of Nebraska.
- [00:05:04.527]The challenge with having different varieties
- [00:05:07.471]is they all come to harvest at different times.
- [00:05:10.575]So to try to coordinate all those varieties
- [00:05:12.954]can be somewhat challenging.
- [00:05:14.722]But the reason why we have all the varieties
- [00:05:16.738]is because we wanted to see
- [00:05:18.383]what grows well in the state,
- [00:05:20.160]what's disease resistant, pest resistant,
- [00:05:22.923]and drought resistant.
- [00:05:24.341]And what the Nebraska brewers have told us is,
- [00:05:26.891]don't tell us what you can grow,
- [00:05:29.726]tell us what grows well here in the state,
- [00:05:31.819]because if you can grow it well here,
- [00:05:33.567]we'll adapt our recipes or come up with recipes
- [00:05:36.650]that fit the varieties that you're able to grow.
- [00:05:42.635]With the recent explosion of craft brewers nationwide,
- [00:05:45.824]it makes sense for an agricultural state
- [00:05:47.397]like Nebraska to get into the game.
- [00:05:50.234]Nebraska Extension
- [00:05:51.288]is supporting this effort
- [00:05:52.495]with research projects of our own,
- [00:05:54.315]which you might've seen this summer on Backyard Farmer.
- [00:05:57.472]We'll be sure to keep you up to date on growing hops
- [00:06:00.051]both commercially and in your own backyard.
- [00:06:03.784]This season, we're trying to encourage new gardeners
- [00:06:06.653]with basic tips on getting started.
- [00:06:09.053]Last week, we talked about soil
- [00:06:10.888]and getting it ready to install a garden.
- [00:06:13.733]If you have is turf in your backyard
- [00:06:15.727]and you need a place to get growing,
- [00:06:17.870]you'll first need to get rid of that turf.
- [00:06:20.557]That's the topic of the week on Go! Gardening.
- [00:06:32.572]As part of our series for beginning gardeners,
- [00:06:34.771]we're going to talk about what happens
- [00:06:36.329]if you want go garden
- [00:06:37.881]and you're dealing with existing turf
- [00:06:39.892]or what passes as turf.
- [00:06:42.025]A couple of different situations here,
- [00:06:43.870]one of them being an old bunched grass,
- [00:06:46.452]probably a fescue,
- [00:06:47.870]filled with both annual and perennial weeds.
- [00:06:50.900]Dandelions and bindweed in particular.
- [00:06:53.300]And we're going to use a different method
- [00:06:55.625]of getting rid of that turf
- [00:06:56.841]than we will on a really beautifully established lawn.
- [00:06:59.988]We talk about essentially four or five different methods
- [00:07:02.631]of getting rid of the turf.
- [00:07:04.366]You can dig it or till it.
- [00:07:06.532]You can use glyphosate or another herbicide
- [00:07:09.027]if you are into using chemicals to get rid of it.
- [00:07:11.790]You can solarize or you can smother.
- [00:07:14.633]In the situation where you have perennial weeds
- [00:07:17.340]or a lot of annual weeds,
- [00:07:18.772]one of the things that has happened
- [00:07:20.369]is there is a seed bank
- [00:07:21.844]that has likely been built up in the soil.
- [00:07:24.681]So if you think about that,
- [00:07:25.988]if you kill and till,
- [00:07:27.865]whether you are killing with glyphosate first
- [00:07:30.734]or you are tilling after you kill with glyphosate,
- [00:07:34.062]in either way, if you are disturbing that soil,
- [00:07:36.513]you're bringing that seed bank up.
- [00:07:38.628]And you're likely going to be fighting those weeds,
- [00:07:41.433]perennial and annual,
- [00:07:42.574]for quite a while.
- [00:07:43.897]So in this particular instance
- [00:07:45.860]where we do have the combination of broadleaf weeds
- [00:07:48.947]and an old turf,
- [00:07:50.270]we're going to recommend a couple of different options.
- [00:07:53.609]One of them is solarization
- [00:07:55.486]and solarization is best done
- [00:07:58.174]with see-through plastic
- [00:08:01.775]So think about what happens there.
- [00:08:04.157]The see-through plastic allows the rays of the sun
- [00:08:06.885]to heat up and kill that particular turf.
- [00:08:11.034]Now, you also think about what happens
- [00:08:13.104]if we use dark plastic or something like a Slip 'N Slide.
- [00:08:17.053]In the heat of the summer,
- [00:08:19.389]Slip 'N Slide on your lawn
- [00:08:21.223]regardless of what its composition is,
- [00:08:23.478]will really cause great damage.
- [00:08:25.771]So you can do that as well.
- [00:08:27.787]It's not as recommended as highly.
- [00:08:30.648]The other is to actually smother.
- [00:08:32.728]And smothering the turf is exactly what it sounds like.
- [00:08:36.270]To smother the turf,
- [00:08:37.320]we use newspaper,
- [00:08:39.059]we use something biodegradable like cardboard,
- [00:08:42.174]that will actually literally cut out the light
- [00:08:45.203]from reaching that turf.
- [00:08:47.102]If you want to convert some well-managed turf
- [00:08:49.268]that's relatively weed free
- [00:08:50.564]into your place-to-go garden,
- [00:08:52.412]you have some other options.
- [00:08:54.171]You can certainly still solarize
- [00:08:56.050]or smother that turf,
- [00:08:58.354]but you can also strip it.
- [00:09:00.711]You can use a chemical to begin with
- [00:09:02.460]if you wanna kill the turf.
- [00:09:03.921]If you don't wanna do that,
- [00:09:05.170]use something like a sod stripper
- [00:09:07.796]and that's going to be easiest.
- [00:09:09.599]A sod cutter will allow you
- [00:09:11.513]to get that turf off the soil surface mechanically.
- [00:09:14.852]Or if it's a small space or you want the exercise,
- [00:09:17.882]go ahead and use a flat bladed spade.
- [00:09:20.580]You cut the turf into some sections that are manageable,
- [00:09:24.036]you slip the blade under the soil,
- [00:09:26.348]under the surface of the crown of the turf,
- [00:09:29.130]and then you simply peel that turf back.
- [00:09:31.765]And then once you've got that done,
- [00:09:33.181]you can go ahead and dig,
- [00:09:34.741]which is really not something you wanna do with
- [00:09:36.778]a turf that has a big seed bank in it.
- [00:09:40.207]What you do then is you either dig by hand
- [00:09:43.022]and chunk that soil up very, very roughly
- [00:09:45.807]and allow the freeze-thaw action to do its thing.
- [00:09:48.453]You can use a tiller,
- [00:09:49.482]but again, ideally you want big pieces,
- [00:09:52.018]as opposed to a very fine surface.
- [00:09:54.388]In the spring of the year,
- [00:09:55.391]if you've stripped the turf
- [00:09:56.671]either mechanically or by hand,
- [00:09:58.853]you may have some of the rhizomatous little pieces
- [00:10:01.733]of that turf grass come back up into your garden.
- [00:10:04.738]Pretty simple to get rid of those.
- [00:10:06.581]Again, you can either till
- [00:10:08.234]or you can pull by hand.
- [00:10:09.567]Or if you're going to mulch your garden,
- [00:10:11.135]go ahead and mulch right over the top and smother them.
- [00:10:15.761]A weed and turf free area means a lot less work weeding
- [00:10:19.238]and keeping those unwanted grasses
- [00:10:21.457]from choking out your vegetable or flowerbeds.
- [00:10:24.433]Of course, these issues are going to be reoccurring
- [00:10:26.465]throughout the course of your garden adventures,
- [00:10:29.313]but it's always best to start with a clean slate.
- [00:10:32.833]Growing things under pine trees
- [00:10:34.572]can really be frustrating.
- [00:10:36.671]The cones and needles make a natural mulch
- [00:10:38.838]that pretty much blocks out everything.
- [00:10:41.258]Don't fret, though.
- [00:10:42.198]You can use those needles and cones
- [00:10:43.884]for mulch in other places
- [00:10:45.558]or you can put them in the compost bin.
- [00:10:48.108]And that's the topic of this week's Landscape Lesson.
- [00:11:00.155]We get a lot of questions during Backyard Farmer
- [00:11:02.459]about what to mulch with
- [00:11:03.813]when we're mulching our landscape.
- [00:11:06.235]We also get questions about pine needles in particular
- [00:11:09.504]and all of that stuff that our good ol' pine trees drop.
- [00:11:13.013]The cones, the immature cones, some little branches,
- [00:11:16.656]and certainly the needle.
- [00:11:18.159]This is a great example of what happens as pines age.
- [00:11:21.924]These are old Scots pines.
- [00:11:23.429]And of course, they started life as a little transplant,
- [00:11:26.671]became a Christmas tree, if you will,
- [00:11:29.155]and then over time, they have lost their lower branches.
- [00:11:32.282]They still drop needles however
- [00:11:33.957]and a lot of cones.
- [00:11:35.760]And as you can see,
- [00:11:36.603]they have created for themselves,
- [00:11:38.429]under their own canopy,
- [00:11:39.965]a beautiful pine cone and pine needle mulch.
- [00:11:44.123]The upside of that is you don't have to use wood chips,
- [00:11:47.315]the ground is covered with the mulch,
- [00:11:49.480]a lot of weed suppression happens,
- [00:11:51.667]and it's certainly easy in a condition like this
- [00:11:53.885]to be able to see the weeds that do pop up
- [00:11:56.232]and then take care of them
- [00:11:57.651]either by pulling by hand or hoeing.
- [00:12:00.241]Or if they're particularly persistent
- [00:12:02.567]and you have to use a chemical,
- [00:12:03.975]you certainly are not having to spray
- [00:12:05.819]or figure out what is a weed and what is not.
- [00:12:08.819]The downside of using pine needles and cones
- [00:12:11.590]as a mulch can be that
- [00:12:13.171]this is where some of the spores
- [00:12:14.760]of those nasty diseases of pines
- [00:12:17.896]can overwinter.
- [00:12:19.388]So if you are in a situation
- [00:12:20.797]where you have poor air movement,
- [00:12:22.781]you know you've had some of the pine diseases,
- [00:12:25.415]you probably are not going to want to use the pine needles
- [00:12:28.755]and the cones as a mulch.
- [00:12:30.685]In that case, you can certainly rake them up.
- [00:12:34.160]Put them in the compost pile,
- [00:12:35.771]but know that it's going to take them
- [00:12:37.133]quite a while to deteriorate.
- [00:12:39.980]You can buy pine needles
- [00:12:41.602]in bags or in bulk
- [00:12:44.304]not very often and not in very many locations
- [00:12:48.013]in this part of the country,
- [00:12:49.147]because it's not really a go-to mulch.
- [00:12:51.930]It does become something, however,
- [00:12:53.467]that is great if you do have it occurring naturally.
- [00:12:56.443]You also need to know, though,
- [00:12:58.445]that of course every single year,
- [00:13:00.229]those needles and those cones
- [00:13:01.400]are going to drop,
- [00:13:02.720]recharge the mulch that is underneath.
- [00:13:05.621]So if you have mulched with wood
- [00:13:07.307]or you've mulched with kind of a fine shredded material,
- [00:13:11.221]you are going to end up with pine needles
- [00:13:13.631]dropping every single year into the other mulch.
- [00:13:16.928]If it were me and these were mine,
- [00:13:18.878]I would go ahead and use the pine needles that are here.
- [00:13:22.165]This is a spot where we have good air circulation
- [00:13:24.373]and air movement.
- [00:13:25.568]So the likelihood of these pines being diseased
- [00:13:28.256]and having that inoculum in the needles and the cones
- [00:13:31.294]is pretty unlikely.
- [00:13:35.646]Make sure you pay attention to the health of the trees
- [00:13:37.726]to determine if you're just going to let
- [00:13:39.582]those cones and needles lie where they fall.
- [00:13:42.184]And again, they can be used
- [00:13:43.998]as an ingredient in your compost,
- [00:13:45.911]it just might take a little bit longer
- [00:13:47.594]for those cones to break down.
- [00:13:50.007]You know, we've taken an in-depth look
- [00:13:51.490]at hops last season on Backyard Farmer
- [00:13:53.858]and we heard about a commercial grower
- [00:13:55.895]here in Nebraska earlier in the program.
- [00:13:58.604]Right now, we're going to have a special treat for you
- [00:14:01.122]as we talk to a local craft brewer for Zipline Beer.
- [00:14:05.015]Marcus Powers is our guest
- [00:14:06.775]and we asked him,
- [00:14:07.959]"What about Nebraska hops?"
- [00:14:18.755]You know, there has been so much interest in craft beers
- [00:14:22.424]and in local foods.
- [00:14:24.654]We thought it'd be really fun,
- [00:14:26.043]especially since the university is involved in hops,
- [00:14:29.104]to hop right over to one of our local breweries
- [00:14:32.283]and talk to co-founder Marcus Powers
- [00:14:34.990]about just exactly what does it take
- [00:14:38.249]to be a craft brewery
- [00:14:40.073]and try to figure out how to use some local products.
- [00:14:44.339]So Marcus, a local brewery,
- [00:14:46.995]local products, local ingredients.
- [00:14:49.791]How exactly did you get started doing this?
- [00:14:53.072]So when we started, it was really important
- [00:14:54.534]to us to use a lot of local ingredients in our beer
- [00:14:57.329]and one of the biggest surprises to us was the challenge
- [00:14:59.643]in finding quality local ingredients
- [00:15:02.129]that would work for beer.
- [00:15:04.870]One of the first things we thought about was grain.
- [00:15:06.992]And grain is really difficult because it has to be molted
- [00:15:10.148]and molting facilities don't exist in Nebraska.
- [00:15:14.289]And there's a lot of, I guess,
- [00:15:16.902]different types of barley, and wheat, and oats,
- [00:15:20.251]and they have different growing regions,
- [00:15:22.267]and it was something we weren't experts in,
- [00:15:25.169]but kind of leaned on the local
- [00:15:28.353]agricultural sector to bring those ingredients to us.
- [00:15:33.209]So one of the first things we found
- [00:15:34.435]was that we could have
- [00:15:36.931]rolled wheat and rolled oats
- [00:15:39.779]and rolled rye,
- [00:15:40.652]just like you can buy in the grocery store in little packs.
- [00:15:43.758]We could buy them in bulk
- [00:15:44.841]from a business in Marquette, Nebraska.
- [00:15:47.657]And so that was our first forward into local ingredients.
- [00:15:51.139]And then we started looking at the hop market
- [00:15:54.041]and there were some new hop growers,
- [00:15:56.046]but a lot of them were hobbyists
- [00:15:57.473]and they didn't know exactly
- [00:15:59.266]what to do in terms of some of the minute perfections
- [00:16:03.400]we need in brewing,
- [00:16:05.406]to dry the hops at a specific level,
- [00:16:07.923]to give us the testing,
- [00:16:09.139]to know what the oil levels are that we needed.
- [00:16:11.785]Just the stuff that a hobbyist
- [00:16:12.844]doesn't really have the funds to get into.
- [00:16:17.333]And then it goes all the way down to packaging 'em
- [00:16:19.339]and oxygen-free containers.
- [00:16:21.708]So hops was a little difficult for us
- [00:16:25.313]to find locally at a quality.
- [00:16:27.756]We needed to sell products
- [00:16:29.111]to people that we felt like were of a high quality also.
- [00:16:32.119]Marcus, talk about the backyard.
- [00:16:35.413]I mean, Backyard Farmer and Lifestyle Gardening
- [00:16:37.655]is about people in their own backyards.
- [00:16:39.756]What is your connection to craft beer in your own backyard?
- [00:16:44.652]I started in my garage like a lot of brewers.
- [00:16:47.484]And I kinda got a little crazy
- [00:16:49.628]and built a bigger and bigger system
- [00:16:51.119]that was taking up more and more room
- [00:16:52.518]in our, well,
- [00:16:54.695]both in our basement and our garage.
- [00:16:56.988]And I decided I kinda wanted to figure out
- [00:17:00.112]how to grow some of my own ingredients.
- [00:17:02.543]So of course I ran a couple ropes
- [00:17:04.849]up the side of our house and planted some hops.
- [00:17:08.391]I planted a bunch of different raspberries
- [00:17:10.833]and cherry bushes.
- [00:17:14.713]There's some weird styles of beer
- [00:17:15.855]that actually don't use hops.
- [00:17:17.063]It's an old style called gruit.
- [00:17:19.868]So I kinda got into this whole like--
- [00:17:22.047]I wanna try to make as many ingredients
- [00:17:23.575]happen in my backyard for my beer
- [00:17:25.290]to save money
- [00:17:26.123]and also just because it's fun
- [00:17:27.367]to be able to grow something
- [00:17:28.455]and then use it in that way.
- [00:17:31.099]I figured out pretty that I'm not a very good hop grower.
- [00:17:34.385]And so, I never had a lot of success with my own hops,
- [00:17:37.349]so I've been hoping that we can find somebody
- [00:17:40.630]who knows more about that in Nebraska than I do.
- [00:17:43.735]One of the things about the tasting room
- [00:17:45.852]is you don't serve food
- [00:17:47.591]and yet you have this intriguing relationship
- [00:17:50.268]between the tasting room
- [00:17:52.049]and your nextdoor neighbor.
- [00:17:53.681]Talk a little bit about that.
- [00:17:55.364]So, we're sitting in our second location
- [00:17:59.473]and it's called the Beer Hall appropriately.
- [00:18:01.745]We have these long German style tables
- [00:18:03.521]to bring people together.
- [00:18:05.620]And one thing we've really never got into
- [00:18:07.552]was food, as you mentioned,
- [00:18:08.876]just because food's not our expertise.
- [00:18:10.967]We know how to make beer
- [00:18:12.321]and run a brewery,
- [00:18:14.444]but not on terms of creating our own food
- [00:18:17.705]and plates and the service that goes with that.
- [00:18:21.612]So we were really luck out here.
- [00:18:23.596]Art & Soul is our neighbor
- [00:18:25.367]and we really developed a relationship
- [00:18:26.988]where we help create a small menu of items
- [00:18:30.209]that kind of fit with the beer mentality.
- [00:18:33.420]It's fun to be able to have an opportunity
- [00:18:35.300]to work with food
- [00:18:36.303]and to be able to get people using local products involved,
- [00:18:40.185]besides beer, into our business,
- [00:18:42.679]and whether that's through the pass-through window
- [00:18:45.359]or whether we have a popup catering outfit
- [00:18:47.929]come in and use some local ingredients,
- [00:18:49.719]those are all great options for us.
- [00:18:51.780]So on that note, we wanna say thank you
- [00:18:53.849]for letting us do this
- [00:18:54.872]and we really do look forward
- [00:18:56.737]to local brews
- [00:18:57.732]made with some local products potentially.
- [00:19:01.607]Thank you.
- [00:19:05.158]Growing hops in Nebraska has really just
- [00:19:07.569]taken off in the last few years.
- [00:19:09.980]Nebraska Extension is researching the viability of growing
- [00:19:13.001]our own hops varieties
- [00:19:14.540]and as Marcus says,
- [00:19:16.193]if the quality is there,
- [00:19:17.366]you could be enjoying your own Nebraska grown hops
- [00:19:20.343]in a frosty mug sometime soon.
- [00:19:23.734]Alrighty, let's take a few minutes now
- [00:19:25.857]to answer our viewer email.
- [00:19:27.895]We'd love to hear from you
- [00:19:29.175]and perhaps you can share a picture or two with us
- [00:19:31.575]by sending an email to byf@unl.edu,
- [00:19:36.087]attached please, as a JPEG.
- [00:19:39.477]We had a question from the Council Bluffs area
- [00:19:41.783]about Endless Summer hydrangeas.
- [00:19:45.388]We get this one a lot on the regular show.
- [00:19:47.580]Chances are, we're going to keep getting
- [00:19:49.201]this question about hydrangeas
- [00:19:51.100]as long as they are on the market.
- [00:19:53.147]We have kind of a pet name for them on occasion
- [00:19:55.897]and that would be rather than Endless Summer,
- [00:19:58.448]which was the way it was released originally
- [00:20:00.677]as a hydrangea that blooms beautifully blue
- [00:20:04.043]and/or pink, depending on the pH of your soil,
- [00:20:07.274]for the entire season.
- [00:20:09.253]Instead, we see it being an endless bummer,
- [00:20:12.368]meaning that it may bloom early,
- [00:20:14.704]may not bloom again at all,
- [00:20:16.432]may bloom with much smaller flowers
- [00:20:19.027]in subsequent years.
- [00:20:20.689]And that's actually what has happened with this viewer.
- [00:20:23.069]Beautiful foliage,
- [00:20:25.062]a little bit of flowering now
- [00:20:26.587]in the second, third, fourth, fifth years,
- [00:20:28.439]but not much.
- [00:20:29.890]Realistically, what has happened,
- [00:20:31.499]that hydrangea was bred for flower buds
- [00:20:34.274]on both new wood, current wood, and older wood.
- [00:20:37.759]So if the plant died to the ground
- [00:20:40.151]as big leaf hydrangeas do in this particular climate,
- [00:20:43.970]you would still get flowering
- [00:20:45.717]on that newer buds
- [00:20:48.503]that would form later in the season.
- [00:20:50.476]Unfortunately, these hydrangeas really need
- [00:20:53.530]a lower pH, especially if they're going to stay blue.
- [00:20:57.242]Most importantly, they're heavy feeders
- [00:21:00.399]and they also need a lot of moisture.
- [00:21:03.215]One of the recommendations that we might make
- [00:21:05.455]is if you really want to try to encourage
- [00:21:07.780]those great big flowers.
- [00:21:09.764]Instead of trying to grow them in beds in the landscape,
- [00:21:13.039]put them in containers.
- [00:21:14.639]We have a tendency as human beings
- [00:21:16.079]to pay a little bit more attention
- [00:21:17.978]to what is in a pot on the patio,
- [00:21:20.279]rather than what is out in the back 40.
- [00:21:22.692]We had this particular viewer send us
- [00:21:25.103]a very strange picture of carrots.
- [00:21:28.252]She is kind of from the northeast corner of the state
- [00:21:31.495]and she has carrots that really
- [00:21:33.938]don't look very edible at all.
- [00:21:35.538]They have split open.
- [00:21:37.532]She talked about in her question,
- [00:21:39.111]which we really appreciate,
- [00:21:40.807]she talked about the growing environment.
- [00:21:43.525]First off, she has grown carrots in this location before.
- [00:21:47.694]Her soil sounds like it's maybe a little bit heavy.
- [00:21:51.535]She also is--
- [00:21:53.602]She's mulching with a wood pellet
- [00:21:56.879]that has a mineral additive to it.
- [00:21:59.522]It's kind of the standard bedding material.
- [00:22:01.839]She's also using chicken poop.
- [00:22:03.389]And she did not say anything about whether
- [00:22:05.917]that is composted chicken manure,
- [00:22:08.189]but if it is not,
- [00:22:09.158]we never recommend using fresh manure in a garden.
- [00:22:13.202]While composted manure of any sort,
- [00:22:15.463]especially if it's weed free,
- [00:22:17.565]is usually a great idea.
- [00:22:19.570]But the fresh stuff can burn,
- [00:22:21.148]it can release too much of the wrong nutrients for the crop.
- [00:22:25.693]Typically when carrots splits like this,
- [00:22:27.890]it is a matter of really inconsistent watering.
- [00:22:32.317]And when they really split open
- [00:22:33.960]and they look kind of fleshy or gooey,
- [00:22:37.098]what's likely to have happened
- [00:22:40.008]is watering was inconsistent during drought.
- [00:22:44.275]No water applied at all
- [00:22:45.685]and then all of a sudden,
- [00:22:47.005]a lot of water.
- [00:22:48.243]So those cells actually expand,
- [00:22:51.336]grow a little bit too quickly.
- [00:22:53.394]Essentially the skin cracks or breaks
- [00:22:55.763]and you've got sort of this cracked carrot showing up.
- [00:22:58.781]So first of, you wanna make sure
- [00:23:00.817]you till quite deeply for the carrots
- [00:23:04.139]in enriched soil, a well-drained soil.
- [00:23:07.584]Make sure that you are not putting down too much
- [00:23:11.328]fertilizer at any one time.
- [00:23:12.981]Nitrogen, NPK, a balanced fertilizer will work really well.
- [00:23:17.704]But be consistent in your watering practices with carrots.
- [00:23:21.632]We have one more story to tell you this afternoon
- [00:23:24.096]and it focuses on an easy way to solve erosion
- [00:23:27.135]as well as planting native ornamentals.
- [00:23:29.840]Kay Kottas from Prairie Legacy
- [00:23:31.557]is here to tell us all about ornamental plant mats.
- [00:23:43.356]So what we've done is,
- [00:23:45.201]we have pre-planted
- [00:23:48.812]local ecotype vegetation
- [00:23:52.257]into coir matting.
- [00:23:54.553]And then we grow this coir matting
- [00:23:56.886]for a number of months,
- [00:23:58.766]until the roots become very well established.
- [00:24:02.062]Then that allows us to roll this matting material
- [00:24:05.473]similar to what you would a sod roll.
- [00:24:08.109]We bring that to a site
- [00:24:09.988]and then we install that.
- [00:24:12.388]What that helps us do then
- [00:24:13.891]is to get this instant vegetation,
- [00:24:17.497]so that we can outcompete weeds.
- [00:24:21.211]And we don't have to worry
- [00:24:22.865]about waiting for seeds to germinate,
- [00:24:26.118]we don't have to worry about waiting for those seeds
- [00:24:28.273]to actually go through
- [00:24:31.057]some cold stratification process
- [00:24:34.673]necessary to break dormancy.
- [00:24:36.454]We've already done that before we've sown the seed.
- [00:24:39.014]And so, we get this very instant garden.
- [00:24:43.097]So this sort of thing
- [00:24:45.849]is very beneficial if you,
- [00:24:50.265]for instance, wanna establish a pollinator garden,
- [00:24:52.454]we have what we call the pollinator patch.
- [00:24:54.782]If you don't know what species are true natives
- [00:24:59.284]and you don't what species are weeds, for instance,
- [00:25:03.361]you don't have to worry about that with this prairie patch.
- [00:25:06.113]We can just put this mat out
- [00:25:08.032]and you know that every plant in there
- [00:25:09.643]is a plant that you want to establish.
- [00:25:12.064]And because they already have roots,
- [00:25:14.626]they establish very quickly.
- [00:25:16.301]So why is that better than just buying a plant
- [00:25:18.837]and putting that in?
- [00:25:19.755]Well, you get more plants per square foot in this mat
- [00:25:23.949]than you would get if you wanted to put plants out.
- [00:25:28.923]And in addition to that,
- [00:25:31.992]you don't have to worry about mulching around it
- [00:25:35.064]or somehow keeping those weeds down
- [00:25:37.488]and trying to figure out which plants you wanna keep
- [00:25:39.472]and which you don't.
- [00:25:40.805]Okay, so the mats we're about to put down
- [00:25:42.618]have a couple of different types of species.
- [00:25:45.477]We have brought our upland mats,
- [00:25:48.112]which we call the Prairie Patch.
- [00:25:51.139]And we have also brought our mesic mat.
- [00:25:56.346]And so we have a little bit different species
- [00:25:58.413]mixed in each based on the conditions of the soil
- [00:26:01.997]that they're gonna be placed in.
- [00:26:04.315]So in the mesic mat,
- [00:26:05.307]we have species such as monkey flower,
- [00:26:08.768]which has a very good root system.
- [00:26:11.968]So we have that nice rhizomatous root system
- [00:26:15.211]that will really establish quickly
- [00:26:16.915]and grab the soil.
- [00:26:18.741]We also have some marsh fern.
- [00:26:23.891]And these are both native species.
- [00:26:25.725]They're a local ecotype.
- [00:26:28.659]In addition to that,
- [00:26:29.492]we have some liatris pycnostachya,
- [00:26:31.251]or some tall gayfeather.
- [00:26:35.621]And all of these are well established
- [00:26:38.909]for mesic areas.
- [00:26:41.496]So once we get this matting material placed,
- [00:26:43.973]we'll wanna water it in very good,
- [00:26:46.138]so that those roots will head for the soil.
- [00:26:50.511]After that, though,
- [00:26:51.973]this already comes in a mat.
- [00:26:54.394]It's got this coir material around it.
- [00:26:57.349]So it really acts very much like a mulch,
- [00:27:00.032]so we don't need to mulch it,
- [00:27:02.398]because it's already got this matting material around it
- [00:27:05.715]that's holding the moisture in the soil,
- [00:27:07.934]it's keeping the roots protected.
- [00:27:11.998]In other instances,
- [00:27:13.459]you might want to put some matting material out
- [00:27:17.352]to keep water from eroding along a stream bank
- [00:27:21.612]or down in a water garden.
- [00:27:24.493]And in order to do that,
- [00:27:26.181]you've got to either sow the seeds out
- [00:27:28.773]and then wait a year for those seeds to get the proper
- [00:27:33.104]climate conditions to stratify and then germinate,
- [00:27:37.371]or you can take something that's pre-vegetated,
- [00:27:39.502]such as this and roll it out.
- [00:27:41.360]And it's going to be a little bit cheaper
- [00:27:43.802]than putting plants out.
- [00:27:44.763]This isn't really a substitute for seeding
- [00:27:47.984]and putting out matting material,
- [00:27:49.328]this is a substitute for planting
- [00:27:52.581]already established plants
- [00:27:55.136]and trying to get something that looks good
- [00:27:58.891]weed free in a short amount of time.
- [00:28:03.659]Ornamental mats like these
- [00:28:04.789]are really a great way to get something started quickly,
- [00:28:07.648]which could benefit gardeners old and new alike.
- [00:28:10.901]These plants have proven to be hardy for our area,
- [00:28:13.376]so your chances at success are pretty good.
- [00:28:17.056]Thank you so much for joining us again
- [00:28:19.295]for Lifestyle Gardening.
- [00:28:20.992]Next time, we'll be taking a look at making compost
- [00:28:23.486]and we'll hear more about hops breeding
- [00:28:25.675]here in the state.
- [00:28:27.077]We'll also see what's being done about cedar trees
- [00:28:29.605]invading our prairies.
- [00:28:31.509]Don't forget to check us out on Facebook,
- [00:28:33.579]YouTube, and Twitter.
- [00:28:35.157]So good afternoon, good gardening,
- [00:28:37.716]thanks for watching,
- [00:28:38.741]and we'll see you all next time on Lifestyle Gardening.
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