Lifestyle Gardening 502

Brad Mills Author

01/17/2018 Added

5 Plays

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Backyard Farmer Presents: Lifestyle Gardening Program 502

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[00:00:16.505](upbeat music)
[00:00:39.109]Hello, and welcome to Lifestyle Gardening.
[00:00:41.232]I'm Kim Todd, and we've got another
[00:00:42.689]really great show for you today.
[00:00:44.373]We'll be featuring fall color in the garden,
[00:00:46.789]help you choose which tomatoes to grow this season,
[00:00:49.588]and we'll be hearing about an invasive grass
[00:00:52.407]that might look an awfully lot like something
[00:00:54.451]you already have growing in your landscape.
[00:00:56.912]We'll start today's program
[00:00:58.353]with something that is quite common with trees
[00:01:01.211]when they get stressed out in late summer.
[00:01:03.493]Usually, when leaves on trees start turning yellow or red,
[00:01:06.112]it's a sure sign that fall is here,
[00:01:08.727]but when the calendar says August,
[00:01:10.932]there might be something else going on.
[00:01:13.573]Here's our first feature on early leaf drop.
[00:01:16.571](upbeat music)
[00:01:23.371]We get a lot of questions in late summer
[00:01:25.267]or early fall about trees that either lose their needles,
[00:01:28.869]or begin losing their foliage pretty early.
[00:01:31.525]So I wanna talk a little bit about five particular
[00:01:34.050]different species where we see that happen,
[00:01:36.533]with great regularity.
[00:01:38.491]Let's start, first with ash, green ash in particular.
[00:01:43.291]One of the upsides of that genus is ash trees
[00:01:45.792]do lose their foliage early.
[00:01:48.270]The downside is depending on the selection,
[00:01:50.872]or the cultivar, some of them get some foliar diseases,
[00:01:54.346]and they really drop early,
[00:01:56.552]and what we were seeing,
[00:01:57.731]and have been seeing for a number of years
[00:01:59.550]is one called Patmore in particular,
[00:02:02.552]loses its leaves very, very early in the fall.
[00:02:06.408]And it really looks pretty dreadful.
[00:02:08.051]There's not much you can do about it,
[00:02:09.470]if anything, other than look the other direction,
[00:02:11.811]rake up those leaves and remember,
[00:02:13.790]we're not recommending planting ash anyways,
[00:02:15.571]so nothing to treat that one with.
[00:02:17.808]We also see crab apples, or apples in general
[00:02:20.792]starting to lose foliage, turning yellow,
[00:02:23.846]getting spots on the leaves in August,
[00:02:26.712]oftentimes, and if you think many of the things
[00:02:29.491]we talk about on Backyard Farmer during the regular season,
[00:02:32.110]our pathologists and our entomologists would say,
[00:02:35.352]okay, what you're beginning to see is the result
[00:02:38.670]of what happened way earlier in the season,
[00:02:41.448]and that would be, you're seeing cedar apple rust,
[00:02:44.371]apple scab, those kinds of things with cultivars,
[00:02:47.829]or varieties that are susceptible to those diseases,
[00:02:50.670]if you don't treat, you are going to likely see
[00:02:54.872]that early leaf drop.
[00:02:56.430]Sanitation, of course, is excellent,
[00:02:58.888]to be able to at least clean up those leaves,
[00:03:01.512]and that fruit, if it has fruited,
[00:03:03.407]and get rid of inoculum,
[00:03:04.712]realistically, if you are not in the position
[00:03:07.491]to be able to plant the cultivar that is resistant,
[00:03:10.486]and you don't wanna treat those,
[00:03:12.345]you're just going to have to deal with it.
[00:03:14.206]Spring is when we treat those,
[00:03:15.832]so keep that one in mind.
[00:03:17.888]A third is one is bald cypress.
[00:03:19.768]The beauty of bald cypress is that it what we call
[00:03:23.688]a deciduous conifer.
[00:03:25.432]Deciduous, meaning it's going to lose its needles,
[00:03:28.471]conifer meaning, bears a cone, and they look like needles.
[00:03:32.430]Again, we will get calls,
[00:03:34.142]if a bald cypress begins to go either beautiful orange,
[00:03:38.072]which is one of the fall colors,
[00:03:39.470]or a little bit of a kind of rusty yellowish color,
[00:03:42.952]depending on the season.
[00:03:45.250]That's normal,
[00:03:46.350]so bald cypress is supposed to lose its needles.
[00:03:50.324]When it's young, yes, it can look like a dead evergreen,
[00:03:52.510]so this is where a lot of good education comes into play.
[00:03:56.287]We also get calls about maple.
[00:03:59.385]Maple is one of those trees
[00:04:01.225]that if it goes into fall color early,
[00:04:03.491]like autumn blaze, which again,
[00:04:05.907]is not one of the cultivars
[00:04:06.943]that we typically would recommend,
[00:04:08.847]chances are that is a tree that is under high stress,
[00:04:12.067]so that good red fall color
[00:04:14.147]that so many people, especially in Nebraska want,
[00:04:17.310]that is not one you want to see early enough
[00:04:19.790]you'll have it in place for that first tailgate,
[00:04:22.462]for that first football game.
[00:04:24.408]So make sure that if you are seeing that happen,
[00:04:27.128]with a maple in your environment, in your landscape,
[00:04:30.611]that you understand the stresses that that tree is under.
[00:04:33.907]If there is something that is environmental
[00:04:35.987]that you can manage, go ahead and do that.
[00:04:39.310]The likelihood, however,
[00:04:40.531]is that whatever is happening with the stress on that tree
[00:04:43.390]is associated with planting, the genetics, the soils,
[00:04:47.608]some things that it's probably unlikely
[00:04:49.550]that you can fix after the tree is already in place.
[00:04:52.691]And of course, we always get the calls
[00:04:54.510]about pines, white pines in particular.
[00:04:57.107]Those are old needles,
[00:04:59.027]when those yellow needles start to show up on the interior
[00:05:02.387]of those twigs, those are the old needles.
[00:05:06.248]It's like losing hair.
[00:05:08.289]Hair gets old, hair falls out.
[00:05:10.211]Same thing on the needles of pines.
[00:05:12.227]When they do that is again,
[00:05:14.270]going to be associated directly
[00:05:15.708]with whether that evergreen, that pine,
[00:05:19.027]has needles that are going to last two,
[00:05:21.847]three, four, five, seven years,
[00:05:23.608]or whether it is one that does that very early in the fall
[00:05:27.470]or later in the fall.
[00:05:28.787]Nothing to worry about,
[00:05:29.928]nothing to do.
[00:05:34.008]When you're taking care of your shrubs,
[00:05:35.811]your lawn and your vegetable garden,
[00:05:37.752]it might be easy to forget that your trees
[00:05:39.710]also need water and proper care.
[00:05:41.912]The hot Nebraska summers can cause a lot
[00:05:44.712]of these abiotic symptoms,
[00:05:46.211]and it's a really good reminder for all us
[00:05:47.752]to take care of our trees
[00:05:49.928]and to know what we're looking at.
[00:05:52.371]On this week's Go! Gardening feature,
[00:05:53.790]for beginning gardeners,
[00:05:54.952]we'll focus on a favorite vegetable garden,
[00:05:57.807]vegetable, and that would be tomatoes.
[00:06:00.008]Any garden center will have a lot of seeds,
[00:06:02.531]but which ones are the right ones,
[00:06:04.487]and what should you start indoors,
[00:06:06.691]and when should you start them?
[00:06:08.767]If you want to have BLTs later this year,
[00:06:10.931]you'll have to pay attention to a few tips,
[00:06:13.411]and read those seed packages.
[00:06:15.528](upbeat music)
[00:06:22.030]This week in our Go! Gardening series,
[00:06:23.331]we wanna focus on America's favorite fruit,
[00:06:27.310]or is it a veggie?
[00:06:28.392]We're talking about tomatoes.
[00:06:29.672]This is one of the most asked about vegetables
[00:06:33.071]that we have on Backyard Farmer, on the regular show.
[00:06:35.608]So if you want to learn to grow a tomato,
[00:06:38.471]what do you do?
[00:06:39.889]It's actually pretty simple.
[00:06:41.528]It's one of the easiest vegetables to grow
[00:06:43.947]for the home gardener.
[00:06:45.249]You have many choices.
[00:06:46.552]If you want to start your tomatoes from seed,
[00:06:49.251]you can certainly do that.
[00:06:50.710]A mistake people make is they start them way too early,
[00:06:53.349]then they get lank, then they get leggy,
[00:06:55.731]then they get unhappy,
[00:06:56.930]and then they're hard to transplant into the garden.
[00:06:59.448]So pay attention to your frost free date,
[00:07:02.552]because tomatoes are a vegetable absolutely
[00:07:05.112]does not like temperatures,
[00:07:07.168]and that includes soil temperature, in particular,
[00:07:09.070]that are too low.
[00:07:11.070]If you plant way early in the season,
[00:07:13.208]they're just going to suffer.
[00:07:14.887]So typically, we say six to eight weeks,
[00:07:18.185]prior to that last frost date,
[00:07:21.128]for the area in which you live,
[00:07:22.872]start them in a good media, in the greenhouse,
[00:07:26.164]or on your windowsill,
[00:07:27.912]watering is essential.
[00:07:29.688]Turn them, make sure they get enough light.
[00:07:32.131]An easier way, for people who really don't wanna
[00:07:34.990]go to that trouble, or they're just not interested in it,
[00:07:37.390]is go ahead and buy seedlings that have been started
[00:07:39.971]by somebody who knows what they're doing,
[00:07:41.848]in other words, one of your local garden centers,
[00:07:44.328]or somebody who provides good tomato plants.
[00:07:48.072]Again, planting them in the garden,
[00:07:49.568]you can do it early,
[00:07:50.851]but we really don't usually recommend that.
[00:07:53.768]Now, one of the cool things about tomatoes
[00:07:56.510]is if you pinch off those lower leaves,
[00:07:58.792]and you either lay them flat,
[00:08:00.446]or you dig a big deep hole,
[00:08:02.131]they will actually root along all those locations
[00:08:04.931]where the old leaves were.
[00:08:07.091]So you wanna make sure you have great soil,
[00:08:08.808]we talked about soil earlier on,
[00:08:10.792]in our Go! Gardening series,
[00:08:12.392]good soil, amend that planting hole,
[00:08:14.851]so that tomato plant has a lot of nutrients.
[00:08:18.110]Check your spacing,
[00:08:19.688]make sure that you give it enough room,
[00:08:22.049]because some of those things can get humongous
[00:08:24.211]in the garden.
[00:08:25.214]Go ahead and plant when the soil temps are right.
[00:08:27.710]They need six hours of sunlight at least a day,
[00:08:31.011]to be able to fruit and flower appropriately.
[00:08:34.168]So if you're in too shady of an environment,
[00:08:36.371]you're not going to be able to get tomatoes to grow.
[00:08:38.927]You wanna make sure that as they are growing,
[00:08:40.968]you are very consistent in your watering practices.
[00:08:44.371]We see a lot of disease issues,
[00:08:46.666]particularly associated with blossom and rot,
[00:08:49.731]later on in the season if one week they're wet,
[00:08:53.528]then they are dry for two or three weeks,
[00:08:55.470]then they're wet again.
[00:08:56.872]So make sure you are consistent in your watering practices.
[00:08:59.870]If you wanna use a starter fertilizer to begin with,
[00:09:02.291]when you put them in the garden,
[00:09:04.230]that is a good idea.
[00:09:05.731]Then we also take a look at what are the fertility needs
[00:09:08.728]as they are fruiting,
[00:09:10.249]and then later on.
[00:09:11.848]So when they're about the size of a golf ball,
[00:09:13.768]if they are one that gets big,
[00:09:15.528]or if they are about maybe half maturity size,
[00:09:19.668]you wanna go ahead and fertilize.
[00:09:21.768]Same thing after you make that first harvest.
[00:09:24.990]Most tomatoes need staking or caging.
[00:09:27.651]We use the words determinate and indeterminate.
[00:09:31.032]Determinate means they're going to put on
[00:09:33.108]all their fruit at one time.
[00:09:35.592]You pick, and you're finished.
[00:09:37.108]Indeterminate, they grow, they flower,
[00:09:39.411]they fruit, they grow, they flower, they fruit.
[00:09:42.371]So the cages need to be substantial and sturdy,
[00:09:45.528]and hold up to our winds.
[00:09:47.491]You wanna watch for diseases and insect pressure,
[00:09:49.926]because we do have pretty significant issues
[00:09:52.712]with some of those.
[00:09:53.848]Tomato hornworm, white flies can be a problem,
[00:09:56.531]early blight, late blight, some of the leaf spot diseases,
[00:10:01.508]some of the viruses you cannot do anything about,
[00:10:04.632]so what you wanna make sure, also,
[00:10:06.472]if you're choosing your tomato plants, or your seeds,
[00:10:09.230]if you are concerned about those issues,
[00:10:11.470]choose plants or seeds,
[00:10:13.230]varieties that are indexed to be resistant to those things.
[00:10:17.109]And if you're growing heirlooms,
[00:10:18.827]you're likely going to be dealing with all of them.
[00:10:21.448]So enjoy the process of planting those tomato plants
[00:10:24.328]in your garden, or starting those seeds,
[00:10:26.632]and certainly, enjoy the fruits of your labor.
[00:10:34.389]You've got a lot of choices when it comes to tomatoes,
[00:10:36.451]but if you stick to the instructions on the seed packet,
[00:10:39.688]pick disease-resistant varieties,
[00:10:41.731]water and care for them consistently,
[00:10:44.350]there's really no reason why
[00:10:45.686]you can't get great tasting tomatoes.
[00:10:47.950]And of course, pay attention to insects and diseases.
[00:10:51.928]Shifting gears to our landscape lesson this week,
[00:10:54.552]we've got a little demonstration for you
[00:10:56.610]about trees on standards.
[00:10:58.392]What is a standard?
[00:10:59.790]Well, it's like a trunk,
[00:11:01.008]but you can have quite a number of different plants
[00:11:03.569]grafted on top of that trunk.
[00:11:05.672]Let's take a few minutes to show you what we mean.
[00:11:08.451](upbeat music)
[00:11:15.011]A lot of people are buying plants
[00:11:16.030]that are grown on a stick, or a standard,
[00:11:19.349]as it's called, a trunk,
[00:11:21.410]and we wanna talk a little bit about what that means,
[00:11:23.848]both in terms of what you're purchasing,
[00:11:25.411]and how you kind of should manage it
[00:11:27.790]later in the landscape.
[00:11:29.689]So a standard, is simply, a standard,
[00:11:31.971]a straight trunk, grafting a shrub,
[00:11:35.230]which really doesn't want to have a single trunk,
[00:11:37.171]or a plant with a weeping character,
[00:11:39.470]like a weeping cherry or a weeping mulberry,
[00:11:41.992]on a trunk, allows you to have that weeping form
[00:11:45.411]a little bit higher in the air,
[00:11:47.550]or to have a shrub on a stick, if you will.
[00:11:51.287]So American Standard for Nursery Stock
[00:11:53.304]defines the differences between plants
[00:11:56.369]that are grown on standard.
[00:11:57.848]High standard and low standard are different plants.
[00:12:00.451]They will give you a different character in the landscape.
[00:12:03.309]Since we are in the dead of winter,
[00:12:05.592]let me show you a little bit,
[00:12:06.931]using this house plant.
[00:12:08.190]This would be a high standard,
[00:12:09.411]up to maybe four feet, or higher,
[00:12:12.152]and on top, we would graft the shrub,
[00:12:15.432]or the weeping tree.
[00:12:17.987]This is what you would get, then,
[00:12:19.368]a trunk with that unusual plant grafted to the top.
[00:12:23.345]Low standard, on the other hand,
[00:12:25.187]is going to be down here in the 24 inches and under range.
[00:12:29.507]Still on a trunk, a single trunk,
[00:12:31.866]but quite lower in the landscape.
[00:12:34.908]One of the best examples that we see a lot
[00:12:36.451]is going to be blue spruce.
[00:12:38.211]You'll see a spruce, a globe blue spruce, typically,
[00:12:42.484]grafted high, or you'll see it grafted low.
[00:12:45.746]Interesting enough, the one that's grafted high
[00:12:48.589]is still going to get wide.
[00:12:50.405]So one of the things you wanna keep in mind
[00:12:52.408]as you're choosing a high standard or a low standard
[00:12:55.386]is what are you after in the landscape?
[00:12:58.531]These are pieces of art.
[00:12:59.661]These are typically not long term contributors
[00:13:02.211]to the landscape.
[00:13:03.587]If that graft union is weak,
[00:13:05.891]as with any other grafted plant,
[00:13:07.688]you are going to get some failure.
[00:13:09.549]The longer the trunk,
[00:13:11.491]and the heavier the top,
[00:13:12.690]we get into situations where they can actually
[00:13:14.964]blow out of the ground, tip over in the ground,
[00:13:17.491]so you wanna make sure you are cognizant of that,
[00:13:20.611]and then choose based on understanding, again,
[00:13:23.971]that this is a piece of artwork.
[00:13:25.427]This is not going to be something
[00:13:27.048]that'll live in your landscape for 20 or 30 or 40 years.
[00:13:33.011]These plants do take a little bit more care,
[00:13:35.091]and they aren't going to be something
[00:13:36.750]that's going to last forever in your landscape.
[00:13:38.771]If you do keep that in mind,
[00:13:40.611]plants on standard can be a great way
[00:13:43.171]to accent certain areas of your front porch,
[00:13:45.304]or your backyard living area.
[00:13:47.251]There's several varieties of ornamental grasses
[00:13:50.936]that really make a dramatic statement in any landscape,
[00:13:54.691]especially those with poofy seed heads,
[00:13:57.229]like pampas grass and fountain grass.
[00:13:59.667]But there is one here in Nebraska
[00:14:01.363]that was introduced,
[00:14:02.609]and it's causing some problems,
[00:14:04.107]because of its invasiveness.
[00:14:05.848]For our interview this week,
[00:14:07.411]we'll hear from noxious weed expert, Brent Meyer,
[00:14:09.688]about phragmites.
[00:14:12.147](upbeat music)
[00:14:17.587]It's my pleasure to have Brent Meyer with me today,
[00:14:19.550]and Brent is the Lancaster County
[00:14:21.491]Noxious Weed Superintendent.
[00:14:23.411]So one would think he knows a fair piece
[00:14:26.367]about the weeds that are threatening
[00:14:27.987]to take over the state of Nebraska,
[00:14:29.423]and perhaps, the world.
[00:14:31.027]He's going to be talking today about phrag, or phragmites,
[00:14:34.488]which is one of those grasses that is beautiful
[00:14:36.771]in the waterways, and tends to be very much a thug.
[00:14:41.875]So, Brent, what is the big deal about phrag,
[00:14:45.171]or phragmites?
[00:14:46.269]Who cares?
[00:14:47.587]Well, Kim, phragmites is one of the most aggressive
[00:14:49.663]noxious weeds I've dealt with in my 25 years plus,
[00:14:52.489]of working in weed control.
[00:14:54.547]It, left alone, will create a monoculture,
[00:14:58.045]and what that means is it will take out
[00:15:00.179]all the other vegetation along the waterways,
[00:15:02.323]or in your riparian areas.
[00:15:03.747]And that's not good for the invertebrates,
[00:15:05.644]the fish, the small mammals, the deer that depend on that.
[00:15:11.384]It would also create a fire hazard in the fall.
[00:15:14.984]So this time of year is a great time of year
[00:15:16.403]to inspect for phragmites,
[00:15:18.067]because you can see it.
[00:15:19.694]All the cattails and the other vegetation break down,
[00:15:22.774]but phragmites leaves its plume head on,
[00:15:25.777]and stands 12 foot tall,
[00:15:27.014]so it's easy to see in the winter time,
[00:15:28.545]so in your creeks and your drainages,
[00:15:30.534]those areas that you can't see in the summer time,
[00:15:33.014]because of corn fields, or leaves on the trees,
[00:15:36.635]now's an excellent time in the winter time
[00:15:38.033]to get out and take a look and see,
[00:15:39.537]and inventory your phragmites,
[00:15:40.795]and map that for next year's control.
[00:15:42.593]So it creates a monoculture,
[00:15:43.810]it is a fire hazard.
[00:15:46.257]It impedes water flow.
[00:15:48.017]You know, the legislature actually funds
[00:15:50.054]a lot of the control work on our river systems,
[00:15:54.257]just so we can deliver water downstream.
[00:15:56.611]All right, Brent.
[00:15:57.819]Is there a native phrag and a non-native phrag,
[00:15:59.117]and does that make a difference
[00:16:01.271]in what people should be thinking about
[00:16:02.957]in their landscape, or in their waterways?
[00:16:05.154]There is native phragmites,
[00:16:06.914]and there is introduced phragmites,
[00:16:08.511]and people need to understand the difference.
[00:16:09.975]We don't ever want to take out native plants
[00:16:12.055]out of our landscape,
[00:16:13.393]because they're supposed to be here.
[00:16:15.056]They were here long before we ever were,
[00:16:16.514]but the introduced varieties,
[00:16:18.354]that came over in the late 1700s,
[00:16:20.258]or the 1800s has completely taken over
[00:16:23.335]a lot of the landscape in the country.
[00:16:25.172]So we do a lot of training.
[00:16:27.357]People do wanna know the difference between the native
[00:16:29.753]and the non-native, and we can help with that.
[00:16:31.752]So the non-native phragmites is the one
[00:16:33.794]that we're really concerned about,
[00:16:35.597]and that's the one that takes over the waterways,
[00:16:37.335]and actually will close off the channels
[00:16:39.197]in the Platte River system, or any river system.
[00:16:41.074]Very aggressive, and it's easy to identify them,
[00:16:45.112]but there's a lot of different characteristics
[00:16:46.994]that you gotta look at.
[00:16:48.797]You can't just look at the seed head,
[00:16:50.098]or look at just the stem.
[00:16:51.314]You've gotta be able to look at the entire plant
[00:16:53.175]to be able to make a determination
[00:16:55.255]of whether it's native or non-native.
[00:16:57.218]We have some look-alikes in the landscape.
[00:16:59.469]Are those plants that we're going to recommend
[00:17:01.895]that people look at instead of using phrag,
[00:17:04.295]or are there cautionary notes about those, as well?
[00:17:07.677]There are, and that's one of the difficult things
[00:17:09.389]for our staff each year,
[00:17:11.869]when we train our new inspectors,
[00:17:13.154]and for people to understand,
[00:17:14.514]is there's a lot of grasses,
[00:17:16.375]and there's a lot of good grasses,
[00:17:18.095]and very beautiful grasses to have in your landscape,
[00:17:20.877]and I kinda refer to a lot of them
[00:17:22.594]as clump grasses.
[00:17:23.597]Typically, if it's a clump grass,,
[00:17:24.594]it's gonna kind of stay put,
[00:17:25.895]but if it's phragmites,
[00:17:27.394]which is a rye zone grass,
[00:17:28.989]it's gonna spread throughout the landscape,
[00:17:31.175]and that, nobody wants.
[00:17:32.330]But I think most folks don't understand the difference.
[00:17:34.355]They'll go out into the wild,
[00:17:36.275]and dig up some phragmites,
[00:17:37.635]thinking it's a good looking ornamental grass,
[00:17:39.491]and then plant in their yard,
[00:17:40.915]and then pretty soon, the weed control office
[00:17:43.054]is coming to call on them,
[00:17:44.494]so there's a lot of great grasses to plant
[00:17:46.771]in your landscape,
[00:17:47.806]and we sure encourage that.
[00:17:49.033]We've got some information on our website
[00:17:50.595]to help people identify between the good grasses
[00:17:52.713]and the bad grasses,
[00:17:53.993]and we wanna work with people to understand
[00:17:55.854]the difference between those.
[00:17:57.753]Brent, what message would you want
[00:17:59.930]to leave our viewing audience with?
[00:18:01.774]What should they do, either if they think they suspect it,
[00:18:04.974]or they want it in their landscape?
[00:18:08.328]Okay, well, the most important thing is,
[00:18:10.189]if you suspect you have phragmites in your landscape,
[00:18:13.347]or in your waterways, or in your fields,
[00:18:15.309]get it identified.
[00:18:16.808]You know, contact us at the Lancaster County
[00:18:18.648]Weed Office, or any county weed superintendent
[00:18:21.885]across the state.
[00:18:23.006]Or your UNL extension agent, you know.
[00:18:25.128]They'll be able to help you out, too,
[00:18:26.925]but get it identified positively.
[00:18:28.307]Know what you have out there,
[00:18:29.747]and then we can begin working on a management plan.
[00:18:34.525]Again, if you aren't sure about what's in your backyard,
[00:18:36.204]or perhaps, on your acreage,
[00:18:37.827]you can always talk to your local extension educator,
[00:18:40.285]or contact the county weed office.
[00:18:43.264]All righty.
[00:18:44.268]Let's take a few minutes to answer a few of your questions.
[00:18:46.445]Send us your emails,
[00:18:48.147]and jpg pictures to byf@unl.edu.
[00:18:53.081]Our first question comes from a viewer
[00:18:54.947]who didn't tell us where she's sending this from,
[00:18:57.966]so in this case, it probably doesn't hurt to not know,
[00:19:01.742]but we sure do appreciate knowing
[00:19:03.203]at least which part of the state
[00:19:05.085]you're sending a question from.
[00:19:06.724]She has damage in her landscape beds,
[00:19:10.307]great big holes, with great big piles of soil around it,
[00:19:13.267]and then sort of those tunnel-like looking things,
[00:19:16.605]and she really thought it was a mole,
[00:19:18.909]but of course, if you've watched our regular show,
[00:19:21.928]and heard Dennis talk about the difference between moles
[00:19:24.867]and voles and rats and mice,
[00:19:26.525]and all those little rodent-like creatures,
[00:19:29.069]you probably are guessing this is not a mole.
[00:19:32.085]Correct.
[00:19:33.084]This is a vole, and vole damage,
[00:19:34.968]and what she's seeing is really the tunnels
[00:19:37.507]and the soil collapsing into those little surface tunnels
[00:19:41.882]that are running along the ground,
[00:19:43.685]because of course, it was dry before we got our recent snow.
[00:19:46.605]So that's definitely voles, and voles, of course,
[00:19:49.608]can be really one of the banes of the landscape.
[00:19:52.765]Our second question comes to us from Elk Horn.
[00:19:55.949]This is a viewer who has an autumn blaze maple,
[00:19:59.709]or one of the hybrid maples,
[00:20:02.029]and has a lot of issues associated with it.
[00:20:06.027]It's showing some cracking on the west
[00:20:08.547]and the southwest side.
[00:20:10.066]It's showing some sloughing of the bark.
[00:20:12.922]It's not really very thrifty.
[00:20:15.764]He's saying that there's a little bit of chlorosis,
[00:20:18.205]potentially in it,
[00:20:19.720]and some crown die back.
[00:20:21.347]It's not a very old tree.
[00:20:22.888]It was moved in in 2016,
[00:20:25.347]not necessarily the best of locations,
[00:20:28.467]but his question is,
[00:20:29.747]what can be done about it, and what happened?
[00:20:31.494]Classic frost cracking, or sun scald,
[00:20:34.788]or the combination, if you wanna think about it that way,
[00:20:37.327]on the maple.
[00:20:38.405]With that softer, thin bark, west, southwest facing side,
[00:20:42.671]as we get into warmer days, which we can only hope for
[00:20:46.844]in the middle of the winter,
[00:20:48.367]the sap will rise, then it expands,
[00:20:51.425]then it freezes, then it cracks,
[00:20:53.471]and that can cause real damage to a tree.
[00:20:56.325]So in this instance, it hasn't really shown much growth,
[00:20:58.843]I really don't hold out much hope for this turning into
[00:21:02.649]a really excellent tree down the road a little bit.
[00:21:07.106]Our third question comes to us from the Columbus area.
[00:21:10.911]This is an issue with driving on the turf
[00:21:14.329]in the winter months, or walking on the turf.
[00:21:16.889]This seems to be one that we get every single season,
[00:21:19.711]and it's usually after the fact.
[00:21:22.991]And of course, our turf specialist,
[00:21:24.829]and our educators would say,
[00:21:26.831]stay off that frozen turf,
[00:21:28.548]because the damage that you think you see,
[00:21:31.449]which is either footprints, or in this case,
[00:21:33.289]it's lots of tire treads and tire tracks,
[00:21:35.567]that can easily manifest itself later in the season,
[00:21:39.588]when the turf begins to green up, as dead crowns.
[00:21:42.591]It's compacted, those frozen tissues in the turf,
[00:21:47.448]just like most of our other landscape plants,
[00:21:49.967]are really going to be damaged if you touch them
[00:21:52.969]during the winter months.
[00:21:55.231]So stay off, if you possibly can,
[00:21:56.927]and certainly, if you have to walk from one spot to another,
[00:22:00.431]try to walk in different directions,
[00:22:02.847]or a slightly different path,
[00:22:04.708]so you're not really making that same path in the turf.
[00:22:08.687]Our fourth question is from an Omaha viewer.
[00:22:10.751]This is an interior houseplant question.
[00:22:14.065]People love the hibiscus, the big hearty ones
[00:22:17.007]that we grow that have beautiful flowers
[00:22:19.849]the size of dinner plates,
[00:22:21.150]but people also like the tropical hibiscus,
[00:22:24.489]which are available, oftentimes,
[00:22:25.769]in the spring, either on standard,
[00:22:29.126]or they are in containers,
[00:22:30.671]and then they're used as a patio plant.
[00:22:32.447]This particular viewer has had really good luck
[00:22:34.889]with her tropical hibiscus every single year.
[00:22:38.123]She's noticed a lot of leaf spotting,
[00:22:40.767]and yellowing and dropping,
[00:22:43.049]and was really concerned that this is a disease,
[00:22:45.449]as opposed to something that is environment.
[00:22:47.988]Well, in this particular case,
[00:22:51.112]our good pathologist Kyle says yes,
[00:22:52.873]this is a leaf spot of some sort,
[00:22:54.835]and yes, it's probably environmental,
[00:22:56.848]and really, sanitation is the absolute best thing to do,
[00:23:01.748]if you think about the drier air in a home,
[00:23:04.254]maybe it was in a location where it got a little bit
[00:23:06.574]of blowing off from the furnace,
[00:23:10.211]those kinds of things.
[00:23:12.126]Clean up those dead leaves,
[00:23:13.551]or those leaves with the spots of them,
[00:23:15.352]make sure you keep that plant well watered,
[00:23:18.050]but not too well watered.
[00:23:19.331]Just watch for any other signs
[00:23:21.272]of anything else happening in the plant.
[00:23:25.112]Perhaps it needs some fertilizer.
[00:23:26.435]Without seeing the pot, the big container
[00:23:30.835]in which that hibiscus is living,
[00:23:32.872]it might be something that is in quest for,
[00:23:35.952]some additional nutrition.
[00:23:38.675]To wrap up today's program,
[00:23:40.094]we're going to give you a little garden tour
[00:23:41.870]of the backyard farmer garden from last fall.
[00:23:44.996]All the vegetables and annuals had been dug up.
[00:23:47.112]We put them in the compost bin.
[00:23:49.331]We shot this feature in late October
[00:23:50.835]to show you that even when everything else had faded,
[00:23:53.651]there's still some very colorful ornamentals
[00:23:56.286]that you could enjoy.
[00:24:02.632]Late fall, late October, or into November,
[00:24:06.494]is really a great time to look at your garden
[00:24:08.687]to see what actually still looks good.
[00:24:11.134]We've gone through some freezes,
[00:24:12.654]we've gone through some frost,
[00:24:14.094]some temperature swings,
[00:24:15.614]a lot of rain,
[00:24:16.931]now into some heat,
[00:24:18.472]and some dreadful wins,
[00:24:19.715]and if you observe your garden and your plantings now,
[00:24:22.734]you can get an idea of maybe what you wanna do next year
[00:24:25.989]that can still look good well into the season.
[00:24:29.011]We'll start by talking about a few of our annuals
[00:24:31.075]that did make it through that light frost,
[00:24:33.854]and it's everything from the plectranthus
[00:24:35.854]in the containers,
[00:24:36.995]to Joseph's coats, to a begonia.
[00:24:40.611]This is a perennial, so this doesn't count,
[00:24:43.091]but this is one of the golden hops vines
[00:24:45.054]that'll crawl up the post here,
[00:24:47.752]and a lot of these are in containers.
[00:24:49.075]You'll have to look specifically at varieties of annuals
[00:24:52.654]that still look good.
[00:24:54.014]Some of our all America selections
[00:24:56.209]that have been great during the season
[00:24:58.056]are still spectacular, like our peppers.
[00:25:00.654]Two of them in particular are just gorgeous,
[00:25:03.214]with those little peppers sticking up,
[00:25:05.235]that you can eat if you want to.
[00:25:07.112]Some of them are pretty hot.
[00:25:08.434]We also have the kale, or the ornamental cabbages,
[00:25:11.992]and our cabbages this year have stretched.
[00:25:14.791]They've turned into this beautiful purply top.
[00:25:16.952]They're very lacy, they survived most of the onslaught
[00:25:20.552]of the insects over the summer,
[00:25:22.515]and they really will contribute until we get
[00:25:24.712]a very, very hard freeze.
[00:25:26.974]We've torn out a lot of things that didn't look good,
[00:25:29.192]and a part of the reason for that in the fall
[00:25:31.454]is to go ahead and do the soil preparation.
[00:25:33.395]So again, look at your annuals,
[00:25:35.487]and your container plants in particular,
[00:25:37.315]decide what you wanna use next spring.
[00:25:39.727]We're gonna talk next about some of the perennials
[00:25:42.254]that are beautiful well into the fall.
[00:25:45.112]Perennials that have evergreen, evergray, everpurple,
[00:25:48.974]or everchartreuse foliage,
[00:25:50.334]which means they last well into the winter months
[00:25:53.214]are a great addition to the mixed landscape bed,
[00:25:55.990]or to a perennial bed.
[00:25:57.811]You can look at some of the heucheras,
[00:25:59.171]or the coral bells, as an example.
[00:26:01.870]One of the lower sedums that's spectacular
[00:26:04.291]is the one called Angelina,
[00:26:06.451]goes into those chartreuse and then goes orange,
[00:26:09.352]and a real great surprise that we hardly ever see,
[00:26:12.232]and we really don't talk about is a fall blooming crocus.
[00:26:15.991]We talk about all those bulbs that you plant now
[00:26:18.355]that'll flower in the spring.
[00:26:19.854]This one comes out at this beautiful,
[00:26:22.012]perfect breath of spring,
[00:26:23.992]pretty hearty, easy to manage,
[00:26:26.211]if you don't forget where it was,
[00:26:27.694]and look at what that contributes
[00:26:29.352]to the late fall landscape.
[00:26:32.552]Finally, one of the things you wanna decide
[00:26:34.090]is what you want to let stand over the winter months,
[00:26:37.129]or at least well into the winter.
[00:26:38.734]The sedums are a great choice.
[00:26:40.755]These seed heads will dry,
[00:26:42.195]and really contribute to the winter landscape.
[00:26:44.030]Of course, our good grasses can stand.
[00:26:46.771]You can see that we have a lot of things
[00:26:49.168]in the top of our rain chain
[00:26:50.472]that really have sort of gone downhill.
[00:26:52.529]Bugs have eaten them, the foliage has fallen off,
[00:26:55.134]they've gotten diseases.
[00:26:56.451]Better off to get those out of the way.
[00:26:58.334]You also need to take a look
[00:27:00.035]at where you're going to have issues
[00:27:01.811]with marauding critters in the winter months,
[00:27:03.888]because if you leave too many things standing,
[00:27:05.770]they're going to go in and dig around,
[00:27:08.311]voles and all those good little critter guys.
[00:27:10.611]The other thing that you have to consider
[00:27:12.928]is whether you want perennials to seed themselves,
[00:27:15.395]and if seed heads are going to be an issue,
[00:27:17.331]cut them off.
[00:27:20.291]Gardening is truly a year round activity,
[00:27:22.734]and color like this late in the fall
[00:27:24.688]is only possible if you have a good plan in the off season
[00:27:27.727]of what to plant, and where it will go.
[00:27:30.472]If you do it right,
[00:27:31.475]you'll have color in the garden
[00:27:32.552]from March to November.
[00:27:34.174]Thank you so much for joining us again
[00:27:36.552]for Lifestyle Gardening.
[00:27:38.392]Next time, we'll be diving into the subject of fruit trees.
[00:27:41.992]We'll hear from extension experts
[00:27:43.214]about a fruit tree spray schedule
[00:27:45.171]for diseases and insects,
[00:27:46.872]and we'll interview Kimmel Orchard Operations Manager,
[00:27:49.933]Vaughn Hammond.
[00:27:51.331]Don't forget to check us out on Facebook,
[00:27:52.995]YouTube, and Twitter.
[00:27:54.291]So good day, good gardening.
[00:27:56.450]Thanks for watching,
[00:27:57.630]and we'll see you all next time
[00:27:59.272]on Lifestyle Gardening.
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