What We Learned in the Garden

The garden is a great teacher, and every season is different, so we're reflecting on what we learned in 2024. Featured shrub: Glow Girl birch leaf spirea.

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:02):
Coming to you from Studio A Here at Proven Winners
Color Choice Shrubs. It's time for the Gardening Simplified radio
podcast and YouTube show with Stacy Hervella, me, Rick Weist,
and our engineer and producer Adrianna Robinson. So here we
are at the end of twenty twenty four, and boy,
time flies when you're having fun, get out the old

(00:23):
record player and be inspired. We need to hear from
the chairman of the board, Old Blue Eyes himself, Frank
Sinatra regrets. I've had a few, but then again too
few to mention. I did what I had to do,
and I saw it through without exemption. I planned each
charted course, each careful step along the bye way, and
more much more than this. Well we did it our

(00:46):
way right.

Speaker 2 (00:48):
Yeah, you know, I think the Frank Sinadra song That's
Life can also apply looking back at the garden over
the past year.

Speaker 1 (00:55):
But yes, exactly. Well, you know, if I'm out and
about and i'm place where they're doing karaoke, I've got
to get up there and do a little Frank Sinatra myself.
Although it's usually New York, New York. We started the
year in twenty twenty four with your resolutions the resolutions
of our listeners and our viewers, and we heard you.

(01:17):
You love plants, you want better watering solutions which include
drip irrigation and the capture of rain water, less waste,
and more efficiency and control. Labor Saving Tips was a
popular show that we did. You're interested in drought tolerant
plants and you're going to learn about flash drought coming

(01:38):
up in segment four and taking the irritation out of
irrigation and Stacey I learned also that resolutions don't necessarily happen,
because here we are at the end of the year
and my tool shed is still a mess.

Speaker 2 (01:55):
Well, you know, it's the intention that counts when it
comes to resolutions. At least you intended for things to
to go a certain way, doesn't mean they always happen.
Your heart was in the right place.

Speaker 1 (02:04):
My heart was in the right place, of course. In
this past year, also we had our one hundredth episode
that was a lot of fun. We talked about garden
Topia and we celebrated by discussing that topic, essentially, how
we love turning our outdoor spaces into a living space,
a piece of well, let's say, piece of magic right

(02:27):
in our own backyards and so that was fun to
talk about too. But I think what was really great
this past year, Stacey, was both of us having the
opportunity to show the progress on our gardens and how
they're coming along. And you know, you made a real

(02:47):
impact with that. I'm going to call it a bold
move you made in your neighborhood.

Speaker 2 (02:53):
I did make a bold move, and yeah, that was
definitely it had a real cascading effect on others parts
of the garden. I'm going to talk about that in
segment too, because you know, every year, if you're a gardener,
you learn. Every year there's you always learn something, usually
more than one thing, but a lot of stuff. And
this year, for a variety of circumstances that I will
get into, it was just a tremendous learning year. And

(03:17):
you know, it takes a bold move to get bold results.
So no regrets, if anything. I've been spending the last
couple of weekends feeling pretty darn sad that I'm not
sitting out in the garden.

Speaker 1 (03:28):
Yeah, me too, me too. It really affects me at
this time of the year, and looking forward to you
talking about that. For me, of course, in my garden,
I learned that I love the combination of cannas and
ornamental grasses that I don't miss dealing with turf. I
have nothing against turf, but I just don't miss having turf,

(03:48):
especially the watering aspect of it. I just don't miss it.
You can landscape with deer pressure. Building your soil at
the end of the season is important and well planted containers.
They of course can change from year to years, so
they give you variety and provide the exclamation points in

(04:09):
a landscape design. And Stacey a couple shows that we
did too. There was a lot of interest in rhythm,
repetition and layering in the landscape. Now that's another thing
I learned this past year. I say layering strange.

Speaker 2 (04:24):
That did sound a little strange, Yes.

Speaker 1 (04:25):
It does, And people pointed that out to me. So
what is it is? It almost sounds like I'm saying
Larry okay.

Speaker 2 (04:32):
But layering, Yeah, you're taken out a syllable.

Speaker 1 (04:36):
Am I kind of okay?

Speaker 2 (04:37):
But you know again, languages here to be understood. I
knew what you meant, and that's what really matters.

Speaker 1 (04:44):
Okay, Well, I'm just pointing that out because I recognize
it and I'm working on it. There is another thing
that I learned, and we learned on the show is
that there's a big interest in easy to grow plants,
and that show was very, very popular. And why not because, again, Stacy,

(05:05):
as we said many times over the course of this
past year, we do live in the golden age of
plant breeding.

Speaker 2 (05:10):
Yeah, and you know that whole concept I've always I know,
people love to talk about easy to grow plants because
they want big results with little effort. And we all do.
I mean, even as a professional horticulturist. Yeah, I don't
want to work super hard to get a little bit
of results. I want to work very little and get
a lot of results, exactly. And when we did our
nostalgia show and we had those great pictures, those vintage
gardening photos, it really hit me that so many people

(05:35):
automatically assume that plants are going to be higher maintenance
based on these antiquated practices that really aren't that relevant anymore.
And yes, I would say that, you know, almost all
plants nowadays are going to give you huge results with
little effort, and it then just becomes a matter of
you picking the right plants for your conditions so you
don't have to, you know, break your neck trying to

(05:56):
take care of them.

Speaker 1 (05:56):
Well said, Well said, we got a quote from a
listener that really resonated with us, Adriana, myself, you, And
that is just a simple comment. Shade is hard.

Speaker 2 (06:12):
Yeah, I wouldn't know. I barely have any but I
take their word for it that you know, I mean,
we do have to make plant recommendations frequently for people
who deal with shade, and yeah, it does limit your
plant palette. But I've got a quote in response to that,
and it's a quote that I use a lot when
I do garden talks by Orson Wells. The enemy of
art is the absence of limitations. Without any limitations and

(06:35):
you have unlimited options, it's very difficult to do anything.
So when you have that limitation, even though it's shade,
and you say, okay, I've got to make something magical
with these five or ten plants or whatever, then you
can make art. But if you have unlimited options, you
don't even know where to get started.

Speaker 1 (06:52):
That's beautiful, That is really good. Yeah, there was big
interest in the subject. As a matter of fact, the
show that we put together about sunshade and part Shade
and explaining plant light needs. If you want to look
it up, it's episode seventy five. That show was very,
very popular. And then it was after that we heard

(07:14):
from doctor Allan Armitage who says, it's common sense, no
such thing. There's no such thing as a sun loving
or shade loving plant. Plants don't love anything. They tolerate.
It's a shade tolerant or sun tolerant plant. And then
he went on to say that he his point, this
is his opinion. He feels that a sun tolerant plant

(07:37):
is a plant that can handle the sun during the
hottest part of the day one to four pm in
the afternoon. So, for example, a hosta can take a
lot of morning sun that it can't take that afternoon. Yeah.

Speaker 2 (07:50):
No, I agree with that completely, especially as a full
sun gardener. If it's looking bad in that one to
four range, especially when you try not to water and
or you have very andy soil, you start to questions
inclusion in your garden exactly.

Speaker 1 (08:05):
You know, you go back and you think about all
the things that we talked about in this past year,
and it was a learning year. One thing that I
learned and really struck me was the fact that the
show about edging really resonated with people. I think a
lot of people are no different than you and Iah.
They struggle with edging.

Speaker 2 (08:26):
It's not a fun or easy or inexpensive thing to
resolve in your yard. And once you make that investment,
it is worth it. But it's definitely going to cause
some financial pain to come up with a good financial pain,
physical pain from installing it. All of the above. It's
a come with a good edging solution. It is one
of the biggest challenges in the garden, no question.

Speaker 1 (08:48):
You bet. And we continue to learn and moving forward,
we continue to learn because well, let's face it, life
comes at you fast and things are changing very quickly
in this world of AI. And one episode that we
did this past year that I really liked, and Stacy,
you led the charge on this. I like to call

(09:08):
the episode Liar Liar Plants on Fire. People are gifting
right now, and we talked about how the internet is
teeming with fake AI generated plants and digitally manipulated photos,
and we gave some tips on how to spot them.
This is an issue that's not going to go away.

Speaker 2 (09:27):
No, And you know, it did seem like it went
away when kind of the main gardening season, you know,
went down. People weren't shopping online as much anymore. But
I have every confidence they come February March, it's all
going to come roaring back. It's going to be worse
than it was before. In fact, my mom sent me
a picture the other day that she had gotten off
some social media site. It was clearly fake. It was

(09:49):
like purple butterflies, like literally butterflies, and say like, oh,
this is a whatever begonia and then it put in
big letters, this is not AI And it's like, oh, well, okay,
then if you say so, you know, and so, yeah,
we do have to be on alert. We should. Maybe
maybe we'll have another Hall of Shame this coming spring,
after the ads really start rolling out.

Speaker 1 (10:09):
Let's do that. I'm going to watch for that. I
really like that. And of course finally we were reminded
what gardeners have. There is always something to look forward to,
and you don't get old when you are looking forward
and stacy. Of course, personally, that's something I learned this
past year, getting my Medicare card and turning sixty five.

(10:31):
It was momentous for me. But I'm holding on to
that that gardeners never get.

Speaker 2 (10:37):
Old, No, because there's always something to you know, to
get up for. And I have known so very many
gardeners who have lived well into very old age nineties,
late nineties, hundreds, because Yeah, there's something about it that
either keeps you mentally, physically or spiritually young. Not sure which.

Speaker 1 (10:55):
Well, I'm looking forward to the next segment. Stacy's going
to share with us more on her project that really
resonated with people, a bold move in her neighborhood that's
coming up next here on The Gardening Simplified Show.

Speaker 2 (11:15):
Proven Winners, Colored Choice Shrubs cares about your success in
the garden. That's why we trial and test all of
our shrubs for eight to ten years, making sure they
outperform everything else on the market. Look for them and
the distinctive white container at your local garden center Greening's
Gardening friends, and welcome back to The Gardening Simplified Show.
It's our last show of twenty twenty four, which is

(11:38):
wild to think about.

Speaker 1 (11:39):
I believe you know.

Speaker 2 (11:40):
It's like every year we go through these backdrops and
then I'm like, oh, it's the spring backdrop already, it's
a summer backdrop already, and it just kind of feels
like the whole year just accelerates and I can't believe
we're already at the end. But you know, I, like
most people do, get really reflective at the end of
the year about all sorts of things. But yeah, this
was definitely a massive year in the garden. And like

(12:02):
I said, you always learn every single year. You're learning
stuff in the garden. Oh I like that plant. Oh
I don't like that plant. I'm never planting that again.
You know. Oh, I am definitely going to deadhead that
northern seaoats before winter, even though it's pretty, because I
don't want northern seaoats coming up everywhere. Ask me how
I know that one. But you know, this year has

(12:24):
definitely been a huge one for me. So the videos
are available on our YouTube channel. But I did a
huge project. So we took out our entire lawn. Now
not like I have a huge yard, it's a regular
suburban quarter acre lot, but we took on all the grass.
Called a company had them take out the grass, and
that was kind of an ongoing process. They did it,

(12:45):
there was mistakes, we had to wait and then they
came back and then finally Memorial Day weekend we get
twenty eight yards of mulch delivered to replace all of
this grass that's gone away, and we have basically, you know,
almost like a clean slate.

Speaker 1 (12:59):
Wow. Was there a specific thing that tipped the scales
to cause you to do that or is this something
you've been always dreaming about and doing it?

Speaker 2 (13:09):
It's a great question, and I can't really pinpoint one
specific thing. But you know, I always had imagined that,
you know, our yard would not just be like grass
with some beds, that it would be, you know, a
full garden that you go through. And you know, it
took me and my husband a long time, I think,
to kind of figure out what we want to do.

(13:29):
And that's a little bit frustrating to spend a lot
of time, but you need to know where do we
hang out, where do we gravitate towards, where's the light good?
Where is their shade? You know, when we come home
on a summer afternoon, where's the shade that we can
sit in because we have a very sunny yard. So
it took us a long time, I think, to identify,
you know, what we wanted out of it, and I

(13:50):
think last year it all came together and so yeah,
by the time this year rolled around, we had decided
that we were going to go for it, that our
grass was terrible such than it was are weed patch,
which is basically what it was barely alone, you know,
that it was terrible and not you know, not worth
really keeping, and that we were just ready to go

(14:11):
for it, and no regrets. We're both really happy. Still
have a long way to go. Twenty twenty five is
going to be a big phase two year, but I'm
very excited about it. And yeah, So one of the
biggest things though that happened as a result of all
of this work with the lawn removal is it kind

(14:32):
of messed up my usual vegetable garden planting. Okay, you know,
like I said, I did not get the mulch in
until Memorial Day weekend, so the end of May, very
last weekend in May. Now, most people in Michigan here, yeah,
most people in Michigan have their vegetable gardens like ready
to go, like they're basically just waiting for things to

(14:52):
grow and watering at that point. And I have not
even put a single vegetable in the ground at this point,
because you know, I had put the vegetable garden in
in the new place where it was going to go,
it would be impossible to try to maneuver around it
and put the mulch. So we just waited. So that
means that I did not plant my vegetable gardeners even
start planting it until the first weekend in June.

Speaker 1 (15:14):
Okay.

Speaker 2 (15:14):
Now, a lot of people would probably say it's not
even worth it, not even going to bother, but no,
not me, because I was excited, you know, if we
got this big project. And also I know, okay, maybe
things will be a little bit late, but that's okay,
So get seeds, you know, get all of this stuff,
get ready to do it.

Speaker 1 (15:32):
I want to quickly mention that is significant for those
of you who do not live in Michigan and are
watching and listening to the show, because this was one
of those years where we had our last frost date
like the third week of April.

Speaker 2 (15:43):
Yeah, it was very early.

Speaker 1 (15:44):
People were busy planting.

Speaker 2 (15:46):
Early, definitely, And if I had been, you know, ready,
I might have planted like some lettuce and greens and
those kind of spring crops earlier, but I had nothing.
So on top of this already late start, I had
gone to get tomato plants at this great place out
in Detroit. I've got amazing the nicest tomato plants I
have ever purchased at the best price. I mean, I

(16:08):
always hype to plant these tomato plants so much so
that I let I took them outside. The night before
I was gonna plant them. They had been sitting on
my porch because, you know, deer. I have a terrible
deer problem. I have a lot of deer visiting, and
deer love tomatoes. Not something that people, I think would expect,

(16:28):
but they are crazy about tomatoes. They have like a
you know, like they can't help themselves. When there's a
tomato plant around, they just eat it to a nub.
So I think, okay, well, I'm gonna get the tomato
plants out there. I'm gonna get them ready to go.
So tomorrow morning I'm gonna get up, I'm gona hit
the gron running and start planting. But of course I'm
not gonna leave them out because of the deer, so
I put them under my picnic table. Now, my picnic

(16:50):
table is one of those big old fashioned type you know,
with that's all connected into one, so there's not really
a lot of space between the bench and the table. Well,
I woke up the next morning and gosh darn it,
those deer stuck their stupid little faces in between the
table and the seat to eat every single part of

(17:13):
those tomato plants that they possibly can. And it couldn't
have been comfortable. I mean they would have had to
contort and twist their neck in such a position to
get these tomatoes. But they took every single bit of
them that they could reach, Oh dear, every single and
I had I think I had six plants under there,
and did Detroit. I was tempted. But you know what

(17:37):
what I realized is I looked at these nubs. I said,
they are nubs with a lot of roots, and that's okay.
I saw the potential and you know of tomato. Of course,
when I say nubs, I mean there was like maybe
an inch or two, like there was really nothing left.
But you know, I got some some extra plants from

(17:59):
a friend who had too many, so I had some
that were kind of full size. But I went and
I planted them anyway, and I said, all right, I'm
just gonna hope for the best. I'm going to fertilize them,
which of course I would do anyway, but I gave
him a little extra fertilizer, like maybe every week instead
of every two weeks like I usually do. And when
tomato season hit, no, I did not have any tomatoes.

(18:21):
Everyone else did. But let me tell you, four weeks
after peak tomato season, I had the best crop of
tomatoes I have ever had in my entire life. Nice shocking,
I mean, the most beautiful tomatoes, the tastiest tomatoes. They
were largely free of any kind of like pasts or disease.

Speaker 1 (18:42):
Maybe you should do it again, I think I might.

Speaker 2 (18:44):
And so this is what it really is all about
to me, is that this, you know, what would seem
to be a setback at the beginning of the season
actually ends up being a great opportunity to learn and
to really question the conventions that we practice a lot
in garden. You know, we just assume like, hey, this
is the way it's always been done. And it really
kind of brought home to me how dangerous and you

(19:08):
know that mentality is to have it is much better
to take that experimental approach, whether it is by necessity
or you know, just because it happens that way, or
because you want to try it that way. So never
ever be discouraged and say, oh, well, so and so
told me that if I plant tomatoes in the middle
of June, I'm never going to get any tomatoes. It's

(19:29):
worth it. The other thing along these lines, that was
probably one of the biggest discoveries, and this is something
that I am definitely doing from here on out. That
late start on the vegetable garden also meant that I
planted dill. I believe it was also like the first
or second weekend of June. Now, most people would plant
dill in spring, like probably early May or something like that,

(19:50):
but no, this still got planted sometime like first half
of June, and I had the most gorgeous and productive
and lush I have ever seen in my life.

Speaker 1 (20:02):
Wow.

Speaker 2 (20:03):
Right now, Usually when people plant dill, it gets like
a skinny little stem. You know, by the time the
cucumbers are coming in your dell's like barely holding on
for dear life. You probably got to go to the
farmer's market to buy some if you're gonna make pickles.
But I planted it late and it did gloriously. It
was honestly the nicest dell I've ever seen. It was
like a grocery store a bunch of dill or something.

(20:25):
It's deal and it was and it flowered and flowered,
so it didn't just do that one kind of bolting
thing where it gets like one stick with one flower
on top. It was just covered in flowers. It was
actually an attractive garden.

Speaker 1 (20:37):
Plants and the aroma.

Speaker 2 (20:39):
I love dill, and you know, when you have enough
of it like that, you can use it a lot more.
Usually you're kind of like, you know, plucking off individual
leaves that aren't like sad and yellowed as you try
to make your your pickles or whatever. So I am
definitely going to be sewing dill at different points in
the season. So rather than just do you know, like
one crop in spring, I will definitely be sewing dill

(21:02):
in that sort of early to mid June timeframe and
hoping for a repeat. And I was harvesting that stuff
into November, not even lying.

Speaker 1 (21:11):
You know, you inspired us to plant more garlic. Now
I think you're inspiring us to try more dill next
year in the garden.

Speaker 2 (21:21):
I mean that's cool, right, It is really cool, And
so you know that's what I would just encourage anyone,
you know, give things a try experiment mix things up.
If you say, like, oh, you know, I can't grow dill,
it's just two weak and it's not a good plant.
I mean maybe by shifting things a little bit you
could have great results. It's like we had a question
from a listener last week about she said that she

(21:43):
had squash bugs in Mexican bean beetles. Yeah, and most
of the recommendations to thwart those pests is to actually
plant a little bit later than usual because they have
adapted their life cycles to our planting cycles. So it
can be really amazing. Again, whether it's because of X
sternal factors or a decision that you made, or whatever,
there's always something to learn. And it has just been

(22:05):
an incredibly eye opening year for me, and I'm just
really really grateful for that opportunity, and it makes me
even more fired up for twenty twenty five.

Speaker 1 (22:15):
We use a lot of basil in our garden. Did
you grow a lot of basil?

Speaker 2 (22:18):
Oh, my gosh, I had the best basil. Adriana is
laughing because she came over and saw my basil and
couldn't even believe her eyes. I mean, and I did
end up planting them in twenty inch containers, which did
obviously help, and I did fertilize them okay, which also helped.
But my basil were like the size of like boxwoods.
I think they were like three feet tall by three

(22:38):
feet wide. I had more basil than you know what
to do with, and honestly, it all came from one
six inch pot that I bought at trade her Jaws.
So we'll definitely be doing that again.

Speaker 1 (22:50):
You have basil instincts, I do.

Speaker 2 (22:52):
So anyway, I always happy to talk about vegetable gardening,
and just again as a note of encouragement, always be
open to the pop stabilities in the garden and of
course in life as well. So we're going to take
a break. When we come back, we're going to give
you a plant on trial, and you want want to
miss that, so please stay tuned. At proven Winner's Color Choice,

(23:18):
we've got a shrub for every taste and every space.
Whether you're looking for an easy care rose and unforgettable hydrangea,
or something new and unique, you can be confident that
the shrubs and the white containers have been trialed and
tested for your success. Look for them at your local
garden center. Greeting's Gardening Friends and welcome back to the
Gardening Simplified Show. It's time for us to put a

(23:40):
plant on trial, which is to say, we're going to
tell you about one of the three hundred and twenty
five plus proven Winner's Color Choice Shrubs variety, and you
can decide if you are going to put it in
your garden or not. And since we are talking about
what we learned this past year, it reminded me of
a saying that's common among gardeners. You got to grow

(24:01):
it to know it.

Speaker 1 (24:02):
Yeah, you know, makes sense.

Speaker 2 (24:04):
And we talk a lot about a lot of different
plants on the show, and a lot of times I think,
you know, our listeners will get really excited about something,
and you know, it's it's good to kind of use
that as your initial spark to grow something, but nothing
is a substitute for actually having it in your garden.
And there are so many plants that I have, you know,

(24:24):
obviously learned about working here, Plants that I have seen
here in our trial gardens right around Studio A, as
well as in our display gardens not far away. You know,
plants that I've seen for years and it's not until
I bring them into my own garden that I just
my eyes are truly opened. It's so different when they're

(24:46):
in your own hands versus when you're just seeing them
at a public garden or at a nursery or anything
like that.

Speaker 1 (24:52):
I experienced that with my neighbors, and they will see
plants that I'm growing and then they're like, you know,
I'm going to try that, and they go out. And
I had a neighbor who did that with Pugster bugg
nice one. Yeah, this pasture and loves them.

Speaker 2 (25:09):
Yeah. I mean, if I figure hates if something is
going wrong, I can at least ask grict what's going on,
and it'll help me with it.

Speaker 1 (25:15):
I'll come over and help, you know.

Speaker 2 (25:16):
For me, the plant that really totally changed the way
that I think about it, and it's not today's plan
on trials. It's already been a plant on trial, but
it's just so emblematic of this approach is lemone lace elderberry.

Speaker 1 (25:29):
Yeah.

Speaker 2 (25:29):
So of one of our most popular plants. It and
I've always admired it, I've always liked it, but when
I had it in my own garden, I fell in
love with it, and it is one of my absolute
favorite plants. I just love the way that it looks.
It's just there's just something so different about bringing it
into your own space versus just kind of observing it elsewhere.

Speaker 1 (25:52):
See and that plant for me is der villa. Now
do you call it deer villa or durvilla?

Speaker 2 (25:58):
I say der villa?

Speaker 1 (25:59):
Okay, so dr villa, the kodiak der villas.

Speaker 2 (26:03):
Oh great, lan.

Speaker 1 (26:03):
Once I got that into my landscape, saw how it
was drought tolerant, the fall color, and I had that
same experience with that plant.

Speaker 2 (26:11):
Yeah, and it's so wild, like you think that you're
just looking at the same plant, but it really does
make a huge age difference. So I would encourage you
to always, you know, take that risk, find a place
to put something in your garden. Remember you can always
move it. As Rick so often says, his plants are
eligible for frequent flyer miles. Has our mind, many many
things have been moved, and yeah, it does set them

(26:31):
back a little bit, but you know what, it's worth
it to get the look that you want. And that's
how you learn. Again, this is all about learning and
uh and really that's that's what I love about gardening
is I could never you know, I've got to learn
something new every day. That just keeps you, uh and
you have to fail now and then definitely have to fail.
But you know, I don't. I don't like garden failures
get me down too much. You just I just kind

(26:53):
of say, well, I'm not going to buy that again.

Speaker 1 (26:55):
Oh same here. That's why we have a compost pile exactly.

Speaker 2 (27:00):
But today's plan on trial I wanted, since we're talking
about what we learned, I did want it to be
a plant that I actually grow in my garden. And
most of those because I am so enthusiastic about them,
if they've earned a spot in my garden because the
colors work, or the habit works or whatever, I've already
covered them as plants on trial. So I had to

(27:20):
dig a little deeper for this one. But it's a
plant that definitely deserves it's dew and it is glow
girl birch leaf Spyria. Have you ever grown this plant?

Speaker 1 (27:29):
I have not grown it. I'm aware of the plant,
have not grown.

Speaker 2 (27:32):
Right, So it is actually a native Spyria. Now, most
people when they think of Spyria, they're thinking of either
the bridal reaf Spyria, which she has the white flowers
for us here in Michigan in may Or. Of course,
the Japanese spiria, which is the tidy, little mounded guy
with pink flowers usually in June for us, and those
are great Sviyria. They are definitely the most common. But

(27:54):
they're both native to Asia, so most people don't realize
that there are actually a number of Spyriea that are
native to North America.

Speaker 1 (28:02):
And that's interesting. But I want to hone in on
something here. Then you said something that I think is
really profound. The plant has to earn a spot in
your garden. In my garden, Yeah, why does this plant
earn a spot?

Speaker 2 (28:16):
Well, for a couple of reasons. Number one, it is
native and it's in my native plant garden. Now, I
don't have like an absolutist native mentality towards my garden
because I have a lot of different gardens I have.
You know, I have a succulent garden. I'm working on
a new African garden of plants that are native to Africa,
so I like to mix it up. I have a
little Asian inspired garden just based on where the plants

(28:39):
are from. So, you know, because space is still limited,
I don't have an arboretum at my disposal. It has
to be something that first of all, can withstand the
conditions in my yard, which are not which are challenging
sun drought because I have really sandy soil, and I
try not to provide supplemental water because I don't want to,

(29:00):
and of course dere so that's it's tall order.

Speaker 1 (29:03):
You know, if you're keeping score at home, Stacey and
I both live along the Lake Michigan shore line. You're
a little further south than me, but same kind of condition.

Speaker 2 (29:15):
Yeah. I mean my garden was once upon a time
a sand dune, so now it's a sand dune that
houses on it.

Speaker 1 (29:22):
But we also benefit from the tempering effects of Lake Michigan,
so you know, you win some and you lose.

Speaker 2 (29:28):
Yeah, That's why I can do things like grow rosemary,
and you know, I have a lot of other plants
where I'm really kind of you know, figs, I have
a fig kind of flirting with the hardiness on those plants.
But birch leaf Spyria earns a place in my garden
because it is native and because it's just a very
pretty hard working plant. And I think of this one

(29:49):
and the way that I've used it in the garden
is kind of a quote unquote shoes and socks plants.
Sometimes you'll hear garden writers talk about that, and basically
what it means is it's just going to be kind
of that low front of the border plant. I have
mine planted under a giant elderberry, and what it does
is brings color and just a really really nice texture

(30:12):
in spring. This is an early to emerge plant, which
is nice. Every garden needs some of those, a mix
of all of those, and when it is in flower,
it is just it's just like toothachingly pretty. Glow Girl is.
So it's a birch leaf spiria, as you might guess
by the name. The foliage is shaped like birch leaves,
kind of if you use your imagination, a little bit

(30:33):
kind of like an oak leaf Hydrangea in that regard.
And what makes birch leaf which makes glow Girl spiria
different than other birch leaf spiria, is its foliage is yellow.
So it has like a you know, some yellows can
be really kind of brash and bright, and I do
like bold colors, but this is really just kind of
an elegant, soft yellow that is glowing. As you might

(30:54):
guess by the name glow girl in spring. Great companion
for bulbs. I love it with bulb, especially Camassia, which
is a native bulb that has blue flowers. A little
bit later and sprang, great combination there and yeah, and
then it's just covered in clusters of white flowers. So
the flowers themselves do resemble a bit of bridal respirea.

(31:15):
But I think this plant offers so much more than
bridal respiria because again, it has the tidy mounded habit
of the Japanese spiria that people like so well, and
it has that golden foliage, so it's a really nice combination.
It also has amazing fall color.

Speaker 1 (31:28):
Yeah, oh that's great. And you're going to force me
to say the word again, even though I don't want
to say it. Layering. It is. The birch leaf spirea
is a perfect candidate, as you called it shoes and
socks for layering it.

Speaker 2 (31:42):
Absolutely, it is a great choice for layering. Now, we
do have it in our literature as reaching three to
four feet tall and wide, and I will tell you
mine has never come close to reaching that. I think
probably because it is so dry, so it's drought tolerant.
Enough to be able to with and growing with no
supplemental irrigation. But as is often the case, if you

(32:04):
aren't providing those additional resources, or you don't have a
clay soil that's really moisture retentive, then it is going
to generally be a bit shorter. So it kind of
has a stunting effect, which actually works perfectly for me.
I have no complaints about that. It's a really nice
kind of one to two foot for me. But if
you do have it in more water, you know, or
in wetter conditions, it will definitely grow a bit more. Now,

(32:26):
I will say it does have one liability that you
should know about if you're thinking about it, and that
is that rabbits love the flowers. They leave the plant
mostly alone. They don't really, you know, cause any substantial
damage to the plant. But if your main reason for
growing birch lely Spiria is going to be the flowers
and you have rabbits, you probably aren't going to have
a lot of flowers. Because it blooms on old wood

(32:49):
because it's an earlier blooming spirea blooming in spring. And
what I've always found, and this is true of multiple
early blooming shrubs that are low growing. The rabbits are
just so hungry at the end of fall beginning of spring,
and here's this plant, you know, putting energy into some nice, tender,
delicious flower buds, and the rabbits find them absolutely irresistible.

(33:11):
Of course, you could use you know, a netting or
a repellent or something like that, but honestly, I do
feel that Globe Girl birch Lee spirea is pretty enough
that even if it doesn't flower, it's still worth growing
because the foliage is so attractive, the texture is so great,
the shape is so great, and you're gonna get fall
color on top of all that. It turns kind of
like a reddish pink and yellow and orange.

Speaker 1 (33:33):
You know.

Speaker 2 (33:34):
I love when a shrub or a tree kind of
shades from darker colors on the outside to the lighter
colors inside. And it does that. It's such a pretty feature.

Speaker 1 (33:42):
And another benefit, Stacey, This is a hardy plant, isn't
it It is.

Speaker 2 (33:45):
It's extremely hardy and extremely heat tolerant, which is wild
hardy all the way down to USDA Zone three, heat
tolerant all the way to USDA Zone nine, so almost
everyone in our listenership no matter where you're at, can
actually grow this. Again, it's a rate plant to just
kind of underplant a larger shrub put at the front
of the border for a low hedge, just planting one

(34:06):
on its own. It's one of those plants that just
plays nicely with others, and that's a good thing. We
all need those helps us to accommodate the ones that
maybe are a little bit more aggressive visually aggressive in
the landscape. But you'll be able to see pictures of
glow Girl Spyria of course on the YouTube version of
the show, or just visit Gardening Simplified on air dot

(34:27):
com and look at the pictures there and all the
other information. You can also find a list of retailers
that you can look for this spring to add glow
Girl brchless Spyria to your garden. We're going to take
a break. When we come back, we've got branching news,
so don't go away. The Gardening Simplified Show is brought

(34:49):
to you by proven winners Color Choice Shrubs. Our award
winning flowering shrubs in evergreens have been trialed and tested
for your success so you enjoy more beauty and less work.
Look for proven winners, color choice shrubs and the distinctive
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Speaker 1 (35:06):
Welcome back to the Gardening Simplified Show. As we reflect
on what we learned in twenty twenty four. In Branching News,
we look at well, something that a lot of people
experienced in the past year throughout the United States and
in various pockets, and that is drought, and drought is
difficult to deal with. And there's a new phrase to

(35:30):
add to your vocabulary, flash drought. Flash drought. This caught
my interest, Stacy. In twenty twenty four, they're saying many
areas experienced this, so it's a phenomenon that's existed for
many years, but has become more intense and variable in
recent decades. At least. That's what scientists are saying. While

(35:52):
a normal drought is caused gradually by a lack of precipitation,
a flash drought comes on quickly and is caused by
unusually high temperatures, strong winds, and cloudless days which allow
increased solar radiation, and this leads to high levels of

(36:13):
what they call evapo transpiration.

Speaker 2 (36:16):
I hope I'm saying avappo transforation. Yeah, It's crucial concept
for gardeners understand.

Speaker 1 (36:21):
Absolutely the weather can become so hot so fast that
it quickly sucks large quantities of moisture out of the
soil and can lead to major crop losses. Flash droughts
occurred across the southern United States this past fall, and
of course we experienced a lot of drought in the
Ohio area this past year also, and they're saying that

(36:45):
flash droughts can happen right after torrential rains had soaked
the region, so many of these folks had near historic
wetness and then had drought all within sixty to ninety days,
some meteorologists are saying, and so they're referring to this
as flash drought. Kind of interesting.

Speaker 2 (37:06):
It is interesting, and it's scary. You know. It's I
think when it comes to plants and drought tolerance, you know,
we talk about DNT tolerance, and that just means like
the plant will survive it. It doesn't necessarily mean that
it will look good. And you know, I think one
of the insult to injury part of drought, aside from
all of the other things that happened for agriculture, is
you know, you're just looking at your plants and they

(37:27):
look so sad and all of this. You know, you're
in high season, you're expecting everything to be beautiful and
you're full of joy, and the weather just has other plants.
So it becomes increasingly important, I think, to have plants
that can withstand, you know, huge extremes like that, and
you know, like a plant like glob girls Byria, which
we were just talking about, plants that can tolerate extreme

(37:48):
cold and extreme heat, because you never know what you're
going to experience exactly.

Speaker 1 (37:53):
And then here's something for branching news that you shared
with me, Stacey. The buckets of.

Speaker 2 (37:59):
Doom love the buckets of deal, So do I.

Speaker 1 (38:01):
Five gallon buckets are often a source of standing water
where mosquitoes can breed, So we're moving from drought now
to mosquitos breeding. But this simple idea turns that around
so that the humble bucket becomes your ally in the
fight for bite free access to your backyard. So maybe
you've already tried to eliminate mosquitos at their source, cleaning gutters,

(38:26):
removing containers of standing water, get getting rid of excessive
mulch and shady areas or dense groundcovers like English ivy.
But this is where the bucket of doom comes in.
So the bucket of doom is essentially filling a five
gallon bucket about halfway full of water and then throwing

(38:46):
in some handfuls of leaf, litter and straw to let
it ferment for a couple of days. Now, female mosquitos
find this concoction irresistible, a place to lay their eggs,
and in this stew, you're gonna put a mosquito dunk. Now,
when I was in the garden center industry, we would
sell mosquito dunks. They are bt I believe it's pronounced

(39:11):
Bacillis thningensis. And these dunks or doughnuts are put in
the water, they're cakes or granules. It's a bacteria that
occurs naturally in the soil and it kills mosquitoes in
the larval stage. Once the eggs hatch, the wrigglers die

(39:31):
off quickly. And best of all, it's not toxic to mammals, amphibians,
reptiles or other insects. And so a recommendation here to
consider a bucket of doom in.

Speaker 2 (39:43):
You're young, yeah, and you know, so basically what the
idea here is is that you are making a controlled
and ideal environment for the female mosquitos to lay their eggs,
and then creating also an environment where they can't fell it,
because that's what the BT in the mosquito dunks does
is it actually prevents the development of the larva. And

(40:03):
so in the mosquito dunks are really not expensive. They're
quite inexpensive. I think you get like a pack of
four for you know, under five dollars, so it's a
very affordable way to do all of this and you
don't even have to dump it out because you can
just leave it. And the scummier and yuckier and muckier
it gets, the more the mosquitos are going to love it.
So I don't really have a mosquito issue, you know,
knock on wood, being in such a dry place. But

(40:26):
at my father in law's house, he has a terrible issue.
So I am definitely going to be trying this out
at his house coming up in twenty twenty five. So
I know the timing's not great for this handy little tip,
but try to make a note so that you could
remember if you have a mosquito issue to try some
buckets of doom this this coming season.

Speaker 1 (40:45):
I think it's a great idea and we'll put the
link there at our website, Gardening Simplified on air dot Com.
So taking a moment here in this segment, Stacy, as
we look back on twenty twenty four, it's a good
time also to look at trends. We've talked to before
about the Garden Media Group and they always come out
with their garden trends, and this in this coming year,

(41:08):
they're reminding us that more than a quarter of US
cities are covered in pavement. So there's a renaissance. It's
not just an aesthetic appeal to add more plants to
our cities and increasingly adopt strategies that we weave nature
holistically into our daily existence. And so they're looking at

(41:32):
a renaissance theme, a social retreat. And then also an
other trend that I thought was interesting. They're looking at
is this place doesn't exist. In other words, there's blurred
lines there of course, talking about artificial intelligence and the

(41:53):
shifts towards anti reality, which makes plants and nature's nature
so much more important to us in our daily lives.

Speaker 2 (42:02):
I mean, it makes sense. This is how it has
always been whenever there's been some sort of technological advancement,
there's been sort of a backlash and return to some
of the best qualities of nature and the way things were.

Speaker 1 (42:14):
And of course I've been having fun. This is another
trend that they pointed out. I've been having fun creating playlists,
a Spotify playlist, and of course at the top of
the list is the Gardening Simplified Podcast. So make sure
to look for our podcast or look for us on YouTube,
especially if you're somebody who's out there listening to us
on radio, which is fine too, but they say grow

(42:38):
your own way. Music in the garden is important, and
they share a playlist on Spotify.

Speaker 2 (42:45):
See, I thought you were going to say that what
was at the top of your playlist was the Gardening
Simplified theme song, And I was like, wow, that is
dedication right.

Speaker 1 (42:53):
No, no, no, the actual show itself another trend lived
in gardens, in other words, a genuine and seasoned esthetic
for authenticity. And we talked about that this past year,
that things like wrought iron gates and maybe some planters
that are you know, have seen better days as opposed
to the plastic swan.

Speaker 2 (43:14):
Plant ah, the good old plastic swan plant are the cauldron.
You've got to have all the greatest hits. Well, you know,
I think, especially as more and more people live in
newer homes, it makes a big difference to have those
types of ornaments that have some age, and it gives
everything a little bit more sense of time and place,
and you know, it implies that there's a story there.

(43:35):
And even if you bought something at an antique store
in a state sale and you don't know that story, well,
now you're writing your own. And I love that. I
love things that tell a story in the life too.

Speaker 1 (43:43):
I think stories are so important and they connect us
as human beings. And you can do that in a
garden too. It adds authenticity living fences, hedges, and beyond foraging.
There's still a lot of interest in foraging, and of
course fresh flower and cutting fresh flowers, and then something
they refer to as holy molely plants, more interest in

(44:07):
plants with deep fenestrations, mirroring current fashion trends.

Speaker 2 (44:13):
Deep fenestrations.

Speaker 1 (44:15):
Yes, I know, so I'm thinking like monstera Oh okay,
been a trend for a long long time, so I'd
have to admit I don't completely understand that. And then
they picked the very polarizing color of the year, teal.
I'm calling it a polarizing color. I think teal is

(44:36):
a color you either love or you do not like.

Speaker 2 (44:40):
Really yeah, I think most people like it.

Speaker 1 (44:42):
Really yeah. I think it's polarized.

Speaker 2 (44:44):
All right. Well, it's named for the duck.

Speaker 1 (44:47):
It's named for the duck.

Speaker 2 (44:48):
Yeah, the duck. There's a duck called a teal and
the little kind of color bar like a mallard has
a color bar under its wings. The color of the
teals is teal, and that's what it comes from. And
teals are beautiful ducks, really really interesting to see.

Speaker 1 (45:04):
Well, well, any twenty twenty four on that noe, never
stop learning, Never stop learning. I love it. Put a
cap on it, put a fork in it, Tap on
the brakes. That's it for twenty twenty four. Looking forward
to twenty twenty five, Stacy, meet you, and.

Speaker 2 (45:19):
I hope that you all have a wonderful new year ahead.

Speaker 1 (45:23):
Thanks Adriana, thanks Stacy, and thanks to you for supporting us.
Look for us on YouTube, podcast or on radio.

Speaker 2 (45:31):
See you next year, See you next year.