Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Good morning, everybody. Welcome. I'm Ron Wilson. You're in the
garden here on news radio six ' ten WTV. And
you got to push the button for the microphone to work.
You know that's Ella keeps telling me you got to
do stuff like that, and I don't know. It just
kind of goes over my head. That's what happens when
you get my age. Anyway, welcome back talking about yarning.
And as I promised, she is with us and I
am so excited to have her with us this morning.
(00:21):
She's a nationally known gardening expert, TV radio host, author,
and columnist. She's written all kinds of books, including one
and I still recommend all the time. I recommend all
of them, but I love this one because it's hard
to find a general Midwest gardening handbook that kind of
really does cover everything generally for the Midwest and covers
it nicely well. It hers does a great job. As
(00:44):
a matter of fact, it's in the second edition. She's
got some DVDs that are absolutely outstanding. Calle How to
Grow Anything. She speaks all across the country. As a
matter of fact, she's one of the top rated garden
speakers that you can find out there. Unbelievable. Just a
super nice person, always fun to talk with. The ever lovely,
ever beautiful Miss Melinda Meyers.
Speaker 2 (01:04):
Good morning, good morning, run I'm ever beautiful on the radio.
It's a great place.
Speaker 1 (01:13):
I'm the one who started that about the facial radio.
But every time I see your updated pictures, you just
get younger looking and younger looking all the time.
Speaker 2 (01:21):
The magic of photoshopping.
Speaker 1 (01:23):
It's the magic of gardening.
Speaker 2 (01:25):
I think you're right there, you go. How many old
gardeners do we know that are in great shape in
their eighties and nineties, still growing gardens, looking excellent and
able to get down and up off the ground.
Speaker 1 (01:38):
You not too many that could get up off the ground.
Yeah without that, yeah, kneeling down anyway. Great to have
you on with. It's been a long time, and I
know you've been really busy. You travel all around and
you do a lot of speaking, which is absolutely outstanding.
And of course you've really gotten into now and I
think maybe even COVID probably probably helped bring us around now.
(01:59):
You doing so many webinars and seminars there and that
people can enjoy again going to your website. I'm a
Linda Meyers dot Com, and I stay in touch with
you that way. I follow what you would you do
your webinars and all and listen to those. I usually
do them later on after you've already done them. But
you do such a great job and again great information.
(02:21):
That's why it's always fun to have you on. And
for folks in the Columbus area here that may not
be familiar with Melinda Myers, can you explain one little
thing so they'll understand a little bit more. Why do
you have that Buckeye T shirt on underneath the Wisconsin
Badger sweatshirt?
Speaker 2 (02:37):
Because I'm a proud graduate of the Ohio State University
I was. I grew up in Columbus, Ohio, and I
wear my Buckeye shirt now over the Badger shirt so
I can just quickly remove it if I'm in a
group of avid Badger fans. I'm a proud Buckuy have
several growing in my landscape. Oh good, And it's always
(03:01):
wonderful when I can talk to you visit. I had
a group of folks from Columbus join me on my
Ireland garden tour last year, so it was great, Oh good.
It was a lot of fun having some Buck guys
along along with others from around the country. So I'm
always happy to talk with you and your Buckeye fans.
Speaker 1 (03:21):
Well, you know, every time I read all of this stuff,
I mean, the bio for you when we first started
talking many years ago, was about two thurs of page.
Now it's like a five page book. How in the
world do you find time to garden with all the
things that you're doing out there?
Speaker 2 (03:35):
You know, I'm a big, low maintenance gardener. I do
have quite a few weeds this year. My excuse we
unlike you guys, we had a lot of rain early
in the season. So my excuse was every time I
had a couple hours it rained, and now we're in
dry weather, so I'm trying to drag hoses and weed
as best I can before fall. So I got a
little behind. But I think that happens to all of
(03:56):
us right, a lot better than others.
Speaker 1 (03:58):
Absolutely, you're right, And you know I look at the weeds.
I call that anger management. You can go out you know,
if you feel a little tense or angry about something,
go out there and do some weeding, and always seems
to relieve all of that up pent up anger and
things inside you bet, and.
Speaker 2 (04:15):
You get good results, you feel better and your garden
looks better. Doesn't get you know, how can you ask
for any better option for anger?
Speaker 1 (04:23):
Yeah, you can call them names, and then when you
look back, it's all cleaned up. It looks good. You're
proud of yourself. You feel so much better, and it
didn't cast you what the psychologist would have caught you
exactly talking about yarding here with Melinda Myers. Or website
is Melinda Meyers dot com. Be sure and check it
out now. You just got through doing a webinar about
(04:43):
fall gardening fall landscaping, and of course if folks go
to your website they can they can go back and
pull that up on demand, right and listen to that,
you bet.
Speaker 2 (04:51):
I try to keep up all the new webinars for
the year up on my website Melindimeres dot com, as
you mentioned, and then I keep a few from the
past as well, and they're all free to watch. One
of the wonderful things about doing webinars and having digital
handouts is my handout can be really long, more than
one page front and back, with lots of links, and
(05:13):
so I really feel like there's never enough time to
share what I know, and it's a great way that
after the webinar, as you're watching the webinar, you can
follow the handout, but then it's a reference tool as well.
And thanks to sponsors, I can offer them for free.
So I have different partners and sponsors who will sponsor
the webinar so that you can watch it for free,
(05:34):
which is one of my goals for us to get
that gardening information out to everybody.
Speaker 1 (05:39):
And you do such a great job, thus the five
star rating on Great gardens speakers dot com.
Speaker 2 (05:45):
Well, thank you you do.
Speaker 1 (05:46):
You do a wonderful job. I really appreciate I appreciate
you spending time with this here this morning as well.
So you know, you get out there and you travel
around and you see the trial gardens, and you see
other things happening in the gardens out there twenty twenty
four or what anything out there you're seeing for the future,
and anything you're seeing out there that you may have
gon on your own garden that you know you've been
(06:07):
really excited about and have been saying more people need
to grow this or look for this.
Speaker 2 (06:13):
You know, Suntri has a great group of vencas and
you know Annuel Vinka is great for hot, dry weather,
so perfect for some of the summers we've been having lately.
But they've got a little twist with the Soire series,
and Flamenco has Ruffled petals. When I had a planter
of it at State Fair year ago, people were like,
what is that? What is that? Neither were good plant
(06:33):
people who'd never seen it. We had Kawai at the
gardens this year at State Fair where I speak, and
they have miniature little flowers and small dwarf plants excellent.
And then Mandavilla's easy plants he tolerant right, and so
many new colors in the Parasol series. I have Peach
giant in a pot with this really great super tunia
(06:58):
called Blue Pierra and it's been blooming all summer, no
dead heading, full nice, looks great. And then all the Mandavillas,
you know, everything from giant Peach to sunbeam, and just
lots of colors out there. Now. I love the pink's
reds and whites, but adding some of those colors like
the apricot and some of the double pink just wonderful,
(07:21):
gives us more opportunity. Pink Diamond DIY CenTra, which is
a full sun tolerant. It requires full sun dy CenTra.
I have a lot of sun where I live, and
so I was very excited to see it because usually
they fry out in the full sun or the leaves
look scorched. On the fringe bleeding heart. The pink diamond
has got a blue green leaves low growing a fringe
(07:44):
leaf type bleeding heart that blooms all summer. So I'm
pretty excited about that as well.
Speaker 1 (07:49):
Cool how about shrugs. I know, you know you guys
are up there in the north. You got Bailey's up
there close to you and all. I swear I wouldn't
bring up hydrangeas on the macrophiles anyway, but I understand
there's a couple of them out there that you are
really enjoying.
Speaker 2 (08:04):
I'm getting and I'm like you, we've been disappointed so
much in the past, and I have to tell you
I'm growing for the first time. So we got to
get it through the winter. But I'm really excited about
pop Star. We put a plant in in our State
Fair garden and it was in bloom all summer long. Now,
granted it was from the pot from the nursery to
(08:25):
the garden, but supposedly much more vigorous, and so it's
going to bloom earlier than some of the previous introductions.
So I'm like you. I was very hesitant, but I'm
excited about this one. And Eclipse has some nice bronze foliage.
I just have one plant I'm trying and it kind
of came to us in rough shape. So I'll have
(08:45):
to let you know how it does for us next year.
I don't know if you've had a chance to grow
either of those.
Speaker 1 (08:51):
Yeah, we have both of them, and I think the
summers probably was one of the best summers to be
experimenting with some of these hydradas because they have just
really taken it on the chin being so hot and dry.
I mean, we just have it's been brutal, and so yeah,
I'm looking forward to it. I think both of them
have done okay so far, so I'm looking forward to
(09:11):
maybe hopefully a little bit more. Is there such a
thing as a normal uh spring and summer? I think
the normal is what the only setting on the dryer, right,
I think you're right that.
Speaker 2 (09:23):
Different.
Speaker 1 (09:24):
Yeah, every year is so different. But yeah, both of
those I agree with thee hundred percent, And there's so
many coming out anymore. It's hard to keep up with
them all. But those are too that seem to be
getting more chatter out there from folks around the area.
So we'll keep in touch with see how those do. Now,
you know, you see a lot of annuals and perennials
and things like that, and I go, like to cultivate
here and all of that, and I see all those things,
and I'm like, oh my gosh, how do you pick?
(09:46):
You know what you're going to grow? You you told
me one time about the fact that you know, obviously
we can't grow all of these things. But what you
like to do, and I thought this was a great idea,
is to take several containers and if you see things
you want to try, you will just plant it in
a container. If it works, then you'll plant it in
your garden. If it doesn't work, it's in the compost.
Speaker 2 (10:08):
Pile, exactly. And especially if you're a small space gardener
and you don't have room. If it doesn't work, you've
wasted that square foot or two and containers. If it's
looking bad, put it in the back of the collection
until you throw it in the compost pile. But I
find it's a great way to get a handle because
there are so many varieties of Supertunia's Petunias vinca is
(10:31):
all these plants that keep coming out and then are
so appealing when you go to the garden center. Who
can resist? And so this way you can grow a
wide variety, combine them so you have an attractive container,
and again, if it works out, you know to plant
more next year. And if it doesn't, it's in the
compost pile. It's in the compost pile absolutely, And so
it's in your garden in another form. I always tell
(10:54):
people that feel guilty about that, I'm like, it's back
in your garden.
Speaker 3 (10:58):
A different form like that.
Speaker 1 (11:00):
Yeah, you're still using it. Yours is still there, it's
just in a different form. By the way, talking about
small space Guarding, there's a really cool book out there
called Small Space Guarding. Have you ever read it?
Speaker 2 (11:11):
Yeah? I think I know the author, Do you really?
Speaker 1 (11:14):
I think I know her too, because it's another one
of her great books. Talking with Melenda Myers. Her website
is Melenda Myers and that's m y e Ers dot com. Uh,
let's take a quick break, we come back talking about composting.
As I said, earlier on the show. It's something we
don't talk about a whole lot, but the couple ways
of composting that Melinda brought up that are very easy
ways for you to compost and to get rid of
(11:36):
those annuals that you didn't like that we're growing in
those containers. We'll talk more about that after the break.
Here in the Garden with Ron Wilson on News Radio
six to ten WTVN, talking with our very very special
guests this morning. Melenda Myers. She is with us. Don't
forget to check out her website. It's Melenda Myers dot com.
You'll enjoy many of her webinars. You can pull those up.
(11:56):
Lots of great information as well. She sends out a
newsletter timely newsletters they'll give you, and the tips from
Wisconsin folks can be used for tips in Ohio as well.
It's amazing how much are our gardening mirrors each other? Correct?
Speaker 2 (12:11):
You bet? And you know I always joke when I
moved here many years ago, I said, I moved further
north with shorter growing seasons, colder winters, and same lousy
soil when I lived in Milwaukee, high pH and heavy clay.
But we are very similar. You guys are a little milder,
so you have that edge on us. But boy, gardening
(12:32):
is gardening everywhere, and we just adjust timing and plant
selection to make it work for wherever we garden.
Speaker 1 (12:39):
Oh it is. You know Gary Bachman a good friend
of mine. He does our Southern gardening reports sometimes in
the h He wrote a book about Southern gardening, and
I said, you know what if you just backed it
up by about you know, added another three weeks onto
your timing there and it works for the northern gardeners too.
Speaker 2 (12:53):
Oh exactly. And one of the one wonderful things. We're
lucky to have the extension service local you know, expert
like you that can help us find tune that information
that's out there that may be more general and then
looking for how does that work in your own backyard?
Speaker 1 (13:08):
Oh? Absolutely, Talking with Melinda Myers again, Melinda Meyers dot
com is the website you two things that oh, I
know it's going to ask you. First of all, you're
a vegetable gardener too.
Speaker 2 (13:18):
Right, Oh, you bet been a great tomato year this
year for me.
Speaker 1 (13:22):
Look, well that's my question. So what is the tomato
of choice? Because here in Columbus. It's all about tomatoes,
and we have tomato, we have tomato throwdowns. We have
all kinds of stuff here. So the question that we
always want to ask all of our gardening experts is
what is the tomato or tomatoes of choice.
Speaker 2 (13:40):
I'm a big fan of Early Resilience, which is a
paste tomato from All America's selections. Excellent disease resistance and
blossom end rot resistance and very very productive sun dipper
from Ball Horticulture. I had a trial plant last year,
was found at this year to buy. I started some
from seed. It's highs great if I can buy my transplants,
(14:02):
and it is delicious. Kind of the shape, but I
don't know if you've grown.
Speaker 1 (14:07):
Last year first time.
Speaker 2 (14:09):
Yeah, and nice flavor and good for dipping in apple
yellow apple. They say it produces a thousand small apple
shaped cherry tomatoes. I swear it's two thousand era many
and my grandkids love sun sugar. It's the candy of
the garden.
Speaker 1 (14:26):
I guess, well, sure, absolutely.
Speaker 2 (14:28):
Then I try a variety of different slicers as well.
Galahad has some good disease resistance and flavor. I'm also growing.
I'm trying. I always try to put in an early
girl just to try to get the earliest tomatoes possible
in my garden, or fourth of July as well, just
to kind of get me going till the rest kind
of come into production.
Speaker 1 (14:49):
It's funny, as I was writing down earlier, I'm writing
in parentheses, fourth of July, I mentioned, yes, because that's
that's the one I always you know, fifty days, fifty
four days or so, if you want an early tomato
and it production is outstanding at fourth of July is
always right there.
Speaker 2 (15:04):
It is, And I think as Midwest and northern gardeners,
that first red ripe tomato always taste the best, and
so the earlier we can get them, the better.
Speaker 1 (15:13):
Well, I mean, the fourth of July saved me because
when you're the yard boy, you have to have the
first tomato on the block, right.
Speaker 2 (15:19):
A lot of pressure there, yeah.
Speaker 1 (15:20):
A lot of pressure. So I could get that thing
started early in the season and have something, you know,
produce them by the first of June. That's not too bad.
So don't I don't do that as much anymore, so,
I you know, been there, done that skill.
Speaker 2 (15:34):
You don't have to do it every day.
Speaker 1 (15:35):
Exactly exactly talking with Milenda Myers again. Check out our
website at Milindameyers dot com. Boy, I'm running out of
time here. I got so many questions. First of all,
the composting. You you bring it up in the fall
webinar here, which is outstanding, and you talk about the
ben and the pile. But you brought up a thing
about trench composing, which makes it so easy to do.
(15:56):
You don't have to do all the pile composting in
that tell us really briefly about trench composting.
Speaker 2 (16:02):
You know something you may have been doing for years.
Dig a hole and put your kitchen scraps, plant based
kitchen scraps in it. You can do a trench between
your rows and the back of your planting that add
your kitchen scraps. You want to do it at least
if you can a foot deep. Cover it with soil
to keep the animals out. But it's a great way.
By the next year they broke it down, they've added
(16:23):
organic matter and nutrients to the soil and you don't
eat any special equipment and you can squeeze it in
even in small garden spaces.
Speaker 1 (16:32):
Yeah, and it's just simply digging a hole, you know,
I you know, digging a hole or a small trench
and putting it in, covering it back over. I think
the point about getting a little bit deeper so that
raccoons and other critters don't get to it very important always, Heffle. Now,
you also brought up one called the Griton method, which
which you named after a friend of yours who taught
(16:53):
you that's technique. But I thought that was kind of
interesting as well.
Speaker 2 (16:57):
Yeah, he taught me so much about growing vegetables, and
he grew seven crops of lettuce in a year, made
composts in ten days. But he had this cool method.
He'd rake the soil to create wide rows, and a
little bit of raising of the soil improves drainage. Then
in those pathways that were a little sunk and he'd
throw any plant debris and then he'd just use that
that would mulch the soil to keep the weeds down
(17:19):
as he walked it, help break it down in the fall.
After he harvested, half the bed would go into the
pathway on one side, half on the other, and he'd
do that so that that area decomposed over winter. Next year,
the path became the planting bed. The planting bed became
the path, and then you could grow, rotate, and compost
(17:40):
in a relatively small area. And I thought, what a
great way to keep the resources where they're produced, improve
your soil, and do everything you need to do in
your garden in a relatively small space.
Speaker 1 (17:52):
Yeah, I thought that was outstanding. And again, if you
want to learn more about it, just go to a website.
It's Belindameyers dot com and you learn about that and
all of other great things. And I got one last
question for you. We're going to put you on the
spot here. I think you're familiar with a product called milorganite.
Speaker 2 (18:08):
Just barely, yes.
Speaker 1 (18:09):
And I think of you every time somebody asked me
the same question when I'm recommending milorganite, And you know
what the question is.
Speaker 2 (18:18):
Either heavy metals or pfas.
Speaker 1 (18:21):
Yeah, is it? Is it? You get the thing, And
I don't want to use human poop.
Speaker 2 (18:26):
It's not poop, I know.
Speaker 1 (18:27):
And that's why you start to say that. It's like,
you know what, they look at you like your nuts.
But again I think of you every time that comes up.
So what do you tell people? Because you do use
milorganite and.
Speaker 2 (18:37):
I do too, A lot I do, and I use it.
I choose to use it on everything. What is it?
It's micro organisms that have been kiln dry. And if
you ever come to Milwaukee, we're going to get you
a tour of the milorganite plant because it's clean and tidy.
Everyone's blown away, so these micro organisms die just the
solids in the water treatment process and it's kiln dry,
(18:59):
so it's basically pathogen free. They monitor daily and weekly,
and so they really have health. Human health is one
of their main concerns. Heavy metals are not an issue
that was years ago, and they voluntarily removed food crops
from their label. But they monitor and they check, and
(19:21):
I choose to use it on everything. I think as
gardeners we pick well how we put products on our garden.
And I've had great success. And people who use it
tell me the same thing, whether it's they're lawns, tree shrubs, fruits, vegetables,
or flowers. It's just amazing. Low nitrogen slow release, doesn't
burn during hot, dry weather like you guys are having,
(19:41):
and it's there when the plants need it.
Speaker 1 (19:44):
There you go right from Melenda Meer's mouth right there,
and I don't want to. I hate to make it
feel bad, but and I see malorgan I think of you.
Speaker 2 (19:51):
Well no, I'm very pleased. I okay, it could be better, better,
correlation or worthless. I mean, so thank you.
Speaker 1 (19:59):
I know you get that all the time because we
do too, and then you explain it we as you
have a handout that mill Organite actually has all that
information you can you can we print it up and
just hand it out. But I do I think of
you every time somebody asked me that question. Melinda Myers,
Thank you so much for spending time with us. We
really appreciate it. You do such a great job. Keep
up the great work and sharing the information out there
(20:21):
and keep smiling. You you just for the horticulture industry.
You are a just a wonderful representative.
Speaker 2 (20:28):
Well thank you. It goes back right at you as well,
So thank you so much. Love love chatting with you.
Speaker 1 (20:34):
Always a pleasure, Melinda Myers Again. The website is Melenda
Myers n y e ers dot com. Quick Break we
come back. Phone lines are open for you eight two
one WTV in here on news radio six to ten WTVN.
We are talking your arding here on news radio six
ten WTVN eight two one, WTVN eight hundred and six
to ten WTVN to the arning phone lines. We shall go,
(20:57):
joe Anne, good morning, Hi nice.
Speaker 4 (21:01):
Thanks, thank you so much for your program. I love it.
Speaker 1 (21:04):
Thank you.
Speaker 4 (21:06):
I have a comment. Two comments. One is regarding squirrels
getting in your plantings and checking them out and the
plant suffers. I've found out that the prickly balls from
the dums sweet coom tree planted just below the service,
(21:31):
not deep, and it works every time.
Speaker 1 (21:39):
So so you take the sweet gumballs that everybody wants
to get rid of because they're falling everywhere, and so
when you're planning your containers, you just kind of nestle
those in just at or just below soil level, yes,
and so that way, and then you plant around them
and that way. When the squirrels get in there, they
dig and they hit the sweet gumballs, and they don't
(21:59):
like that.
Speaker 4 (22:01):
They they just leave it alone.
Speaker 1 (22:03):
Interesting. Good, that's a great tip.
Speaker 4 (22:07):
It certainly looks for me and it has for many years.
Speaker 1 (22:12):
Let me let me ask you a question, Joanne, how
long does the sweet gum ball last By the end
of the season. Have they started to break down or
are they still there.
Speaker 4 (22:21):
They're still there, or they haven't started to break down.
One of my neighbors said that, oh, I don't need
any volunteer plants from tweet them. I never had one's brow.
Speaker 1 (22:33):
Yeah, no, they probably won't either, And you're right. If
they did, they would they would be popping up everywhere.
So they last for it pretty much the entire growing season,
and then you replenish them again next year.
Speaker 4 (22:46):
That's right.
Speaker 1 (22:47):
Interesting.
Speaker 4 (22:48):
Oh yeah, I don't. I don't eat more than one year.
Speaker 1 (22:52):
Okay, you know I've always because some every now and
then we'll get somebody to call and have the sweet gumballs.
Want to know what to do with them? And I
know one thing that you know if another one is
that rabbits don't like to hop across them. So if
you had a vegetable garden and you put a barrier
around the vegetable garden with the sweet gumballs, sometimes that'll
stop the rabbits from getting into your garden because they
(23:13):
don't like they stick to them, and they don't like
that at all. But I've never heard of the one
by the squirrels, but I think that sounds pretty good.
Speaker 4 (23:21):
Then the other thing is I love Tysonia Mexican sunplat. Yes,
and they grow so tall. This year I had a
situation where I could plant them and they got half
day of sun and they're blooming beautifully. But on each
(23:41):
side of those plantings, I had shrubs or evergreen shrubs,
so that when they need tide, because those blossoms they're heavy,
you do have to be prepared to tie them because
they're vulnerable to the wind and so forth. But I
(24:02):
I used a tomato cage when I'm first planting them,
but then they grow up colored than that. And I
have a hummer that visits me every day, and I
always wear a red blouse when I'm out working and that,
and I'm I'm only sitting there for a short amount
(24:25):
of time until that hummer comes and hudders over me
and looks at me, and then truck.
Speaker 1 (24:34):
And then and and does he visit the tithonia?
Speaker 4 (24:39):
Oh all the time.
Speaker 1 (24:40):
Yeah, they love that they do. Now, let me ask you,
Let me ask you this, Let me ask you this question.
Joanne looking at and you still have the tithoni? Are
they still growing?
Speaker 3 (24:52):
Oh?
Speaker 4 (24:52):
Yeah, all right.
Speaker 1 (24:54):
This time of the year, does your start to look
a little getting tired here's some of the lead starting
to get scorched a little bit.
Speaker 4 (25:03):
No, not at all, but okay, I watered deeply. There
you go every couple of days or two. I can
I keep it up forever. But we had company and
that was an incentive to water.
Speaker 1 (25:20):
Yeah, oh absolutely. But you know, sometimes if it gets
really hot and dry and they're a tough plant, they
kind of scorch a little bit on the leaves, but
the flowers kind of take away from that, and all
you notice are the flowers and not so much of
scorched leaves. But I'll tell you what, that is a
bold but exciting annual.
Speaker 4 (25:40):
It is, and it's a little late. I started them early,
but not quite as early as I should have in time.
But but I think they're always broom a little late.
Oh yeah, they started maybe a.
Speaker 1 (25:55):
Month ago now, okay, yeah, and they'll start it earlier.
And maybe sometimes where it doesn't get full day of
sun might delay that that blooming just a little bit
for you. But uh well, i'll tell you what. Joy
that's abut we got to take a break. I appreciate
the call and the tips, thanks too much. All right,
good talking, good talking with you. And by the way
(26:16):
that's called. That's tithonia, and it's t I t h
o n I a Mexican sunflower, the orange one. And
I'm pretty sure that's what she's talking about. And I
grow that one too, and I do. The hummingbirds absolutely
love it. It's big, it's bold. If it's out in
the open, they will move a little bit, so you
might have to stake them, or like she said, tie
them up, or I didn't even thought about it, growing
(26:37):
them up through a tomato cage. But they they sometimes
can do a little support. But they're a big, bold,
kind of open looking an annual or plant. The plant
itself not it's okay, But these orange flowers that come
on there, and there's always twenty or thirty at a time,
are absolutely unbelievably for us an orange. The bees, the pollinators,
(26:59):
and the humming birds absolutely love them, and they'll flower
for you all summer long. Sometimes the leaves get scorched
a little bit, but you don't notice that because you're
looking at those beautiful, spectacular fluorescent orange flowers. It's called
tithonia or Mexican sunflower. Put that on your list to
grow one or two in an area where you can
(27:19):
get big four to five feet high, but give them
plenty of room. But put that on your list for
next year. Quick break, we come back down. You're coming
up next eight to two to one WTVN here on
news radio six ' ten WTVN. Don't you just wish
that when Ella was doing that weather report, that she
would say, and on Sunday, a seventy to eighty percent
(27:41):
chance of severe thunderstorms and heavy rain coming in about
one o'clock. Wouldn't it be wonderful she could have just
faked this out and said that and say not. But
she does never do that a bit. She would never
That's what I'm saying. But she would never do something
like that because she's such a nice person. Well that's
not it, but it's not. Okay, I don't know. Somewhere
(28:06):
deep inside I must be because I would never do that.
Let's see. There you go, just very polite. Your parents
raised you well. Okay, okay, there you go back to
the guarding phone lines. We shall go at eight two
to one wtv in. Don Good morning, Good morning, Ron, Yes, sir,
I'm good.
Speaker 3 (28:27):
Hey. Earlier in the show, you were talking about because
the dry weather for honeybees have dwindled. I just wanted
to make a comment. In our landscape and our home
in Western we have a lot of seed them and
honey bees are all over those plants. So I just
(28:52):
wanted to pass that along with people with more seedom
in their landscape. The honey bees would love them.
Speaker 1 (28:59):
Yeah that, And I'm just curious that when you know,
the seedum are great bloomers, and there's several of them
will flower late summer and into the fall season. Autumn
joy is probably one of the oldest ones around and man,
that thing puts on a spectacular show through the fall
and then you're right, the pollinators and the honey bees
absolutely love it. Neon, I remember, is another one that
(29:21):
really gives you a nice show. Any idea which once
you have those Okay.
Speaker 3 (29:28):
Yeah, they bees are just like I say, they just
covered them.
Speaker 1 (29:33):
Yeah that's good. I think that. You know, one of
the points that were making early with the drought is
the fact that and I didn't know that neither to Joe,
is the fact that if you get into a drought
situation can actually reduce the amount of nectar that's in
those you know that's produced. But there you think about
those succulents. They are built to take the drought. They
are built to be in that drier situation and able
(29:56):
to still produce. I mean, they're basically water anyway on
the inside, So you know, I would say that I'm
just guessing, but they would have a much better chance
of producing that nectar because of the way they're built
and the way they grow. And that's a great point.
And we forget about those seedums sometimes. I do, because
it's a great looking plan during the growing season and
(30:17):
then you get the benefit of those flowers in the fall.
Probably the biggest question I get sometimes is that that
autumn seedum joy will autumn joy seedom will flop a
little bit if it gets too tall, sometimes will kind
of lay over. And it's really easy to correct that
just by using a peony ring or you can prove
them back late May and then have them.
Speaker 3 (30:36):
Yeah, that's what I do.
Speaker 1 (30:37):
Yeah, they stay shorter and squadier and you actually get
more flowers out of them. M that's good. That's good. Hey, Donna,
I appreciate that. That's a great tip. I appreciate you calling. Oh,
thank you, all right, take care again. The seedum's neon
autumn joy and there's several others that will flower late
summer and fall, but they do and it's a great show.
(31:00):
And then once those dry, it's pretty cool. I like
the colors on the top as well, plus the foliage,
and you can leave that on like that over the
winter time to kind of die back and mush out
over the winter. You clean them up in the springtime
come back up again. But one of the issues as
we were talking there, sometimes you know, you have perennials
that are mid to late summer bloomers that'll just flop
(31:22):
and they just can't support what's coming out of there. Well,
if you take those perennials and about late May early June,
cut them back about a third or sometimes will go
as much as a half. All Right, what that does
is it delays the flowering, probably by a couple of weeks,
maybe three, so it puts a little later into the season,
(31:42):
but it causes those branches to blow to be a
little bit stock here. Then they regrow on the top
so they're shorter and fuller, and you actually wind up
getting more flowers and you don't get the flop and
they stay together for the most part. And if you
don't want to do that and you want the height,
then look at a p and ring that you would
put over the top, and of course it's a ringing.
(32:03):
They grow up through with the grid work and it
holds on to the branches and gives them support so
that you can create this nice mound. But yeah, those
are two that sometimes I have it Tennessee to forget about.
As well are the late summer blooming seedums, and they
do it absolutely wonderful. Any of the seedums, even when
they flower during the growing season, are a pollinator slash
(32:26):
bee magnet. They absolutely flock to them, and there's no
doubt about that. And by the way, talking about the
bees and the honey, as you get out and about
this fall, of course, you're getting out the fall festivals,
and you're getting out to the fruit orchards and you know,
picking apples. We're a kid with Mike yesterday about getting
out this weekend and picking apples with a family. That
could be a lot of fun because kids, you know,
(32:47):
kids don't get the opportunity to do things like that.
But when you go to those produce places and the
fruit markets and that if you find the local honey there,
please buy the local honey. Buy the a pollend, buy
the local honey products of bee products from your local
be growers around the area. All right, beekeepers, I'm around
(33:09):
the area. We've got to support these beekeepers to keep
this going. And it's very very important. Don't I'm just
don't tell them I told you this. But you go
to the grocery store, don't buy the name brand stuff,
all right, buy the stuff that you're going to, the
good stuff that's being produced right here in our own backyards.
Support your local beekeepers and and keep them going because
(33:31):
it's very very important. So when you're out and about
this fall and you're doing that and you see that
jar honey, buy a jar or two or three. They
make you know, if you get flate, you know, the
darker ones, which I love to taste like sorghum, some
of them have a little bit of a flavor to
someone will few some peppers whatever. Everybody for the most part,
likes honey. It makes a great gift. Holiday season coming up, whatever,
(33:54):
give somebody a jar honey, fresh honey from a local beekeeper.
They will love you for it. So again, makes a
great gift. So keep supporting our local beekeepers, very very important.
By the way we're talking about the drought and all
I do and the water and all of that. The
one thing I get out of this I try to
draw out of this also when we go into situation
like this, is that this tells us how important it
(34:19):
is adding organic matter to our soils for the future,
for when we get into situations like this, for multiple reasons,
so anytime, and you're always gonna be talking about when
you plant, add organic matter, Add the pine fines, add
the compost, add the cow manure, add whatever, Add the
mill organ I, add the aspoma, whatever it may be,
all natural products that you can add to the soil
(34:40):
to keep that soil alive, to keep that microbial activity going,
to keep those earthworms happy. Talk about pampering your earthworms,
keeping them happy. But the more organic matter you can
get back into that clay soil, the better your plants
are going to be rooted in, the deeper they're going
to be rooted in. And every time it waters, or
you water, or it rains whatever, it absorbs more of
(35:01):
that down into the soil. And so you can create
for the future by adding more organic matter every time
you're out there planting, vertical multing or whatever. Do it
all right. Thanks to our callers, thanks to our sponsors,
Thanks to Ella, our producer, because without Ella, none of
this stuff would happened. Ella, thank you so much for
all that you do. You truly are a very nice person.
Now do yourself a favor. Keep watering because it's dry
(35:22):
out there, join your plans for a drink, pample your worms,
and by all means, make it the best weekend of
your life. See you