Mulching around trees; reseeding wildflowers

Episode Transcript

(00:03):
Good morning, everybody. Welcome back. I'm Ron Wilson. You're in the
garden here on news Radio six'ten WTVN eight two to one, WTVN
eight hundred and six to ten WTVNbroadcasting live today from Oakland Nursery in Delaware.
All the Oaklands are great. Youcan go to any of them you
like, but not today today.Come out to the one in Delaware.
And of course they have their JurassicPark. It's brand new. Bring the

(00:25):
kids, bring the grandkids, bringthe neighbors kids, ask their parents first,
but bring the kids out and letthem enjoy the dinosaurs. There's a
whole bunch of them in the greenhouse, the tropical area, so it's unbelievable.
They got some sounds. Grant hadthem turn the sounds off. They
have monkeys and the birds in thebackground, so you can blame Grant for
being kind of quiet in here.But that's okay, I get it.

(00:47):
And they've got dinosaurs scattered throughout therest of the garden center as well.
It is cool. I mean,these are big. These aren't just your
little guys. These are huge.So you got to stop out and if
you got the information about each oneof them, and I sure all your
kids and grandkids can walk around andname them all without reading the sign.
And then the plant selections in thisgreenhouse phenomenal, phenomenal. So if you're

(01:11):
looking to upgrade your house plants,your indoor plants, some of those indoor
flowering plants, getting ready to geta few things for the combo plants for
outdoors when the weather breaks. Theygot it here, Trust me, they've
got it here. I'm looking atan olive tree right in front of us,
and Grants really got his eyes focusedon that. When he loves olives,
he likes the look of it.He's thinking that might be a little

(01:32):
something in the grant garden. Absolutely, what do you think? I love
it. It's beautiful. You knowthey will set fruit? Is that right?
Yeah? Can you pick them andmake like a toponot out of them?
Or I can't because I don't knowhow to do that, but maybe
you could. I'll try. Doyou like any of the plants in here?
Pretty much? All of them?Which is a beautiful greenhouse? Which
is your favorite plant? I reallylike these air plants. I've gotten into

(01:57):
the different airplants, but it's thehairy bitter Crest gets me every time.
Harry bitter crist. Yeah, Imean, how do you know about Harry
bitter cris. You know, itseeds a lot and now here the seeds
are like aggressive and they pop andsomebody, somebody taught me to add a
long time ago. Did you tryto eat it? I did. I
tasted some of it. It's edible. So in other words, if you
can't beat it, just eat it. Absolutely. I mean I would put

(02:22):
it on like some you know,some cream cheese and spread it on a
babel. Yeah, something like that. How about if you sprinkled it cut
up a little bit. You don'thave to cut it up because the leaves
are so small, you know,like your cottage cheese. Absolutely, Oh
that'd be a great flip. Cottagecheese potato salad, Harry bittercrests and and
and dyl something to drink? Ohand gatorade? Yes, zero catorade zero

(02:45):
so was sugar free? Oh my? Well, anyway, stop, I'll
say hello, we've got some sixto ten T shirts and we've got cup
holders and all kinds of things.I think they're selling them for about thirty
bucks apiece. Just kidding, MikeElliot. They're not selling them. They
giving them away, but yeah,stop ould get goodies for you as well.
Oakland Nursery and Delaware. All rightto the gardening phone lines, we

(03:06):
shall go. Donald, good morning, big don or round, good morning
this morning, sir don. Igot a couple of questions for you.
Yes, sir, I have awiseria that's really nice and I'm just wondering
is a way to take cuttings fromit or plan? Absolutely both ways.
You can do it from cuttings,and typically the cuttings are you would wait

(03:30):
till that you can do it.You can do hardwood cuttings. There's hardwood
cuttings and there's softwood cuttings. Softwoodwould be when the new growth first comes
out. You want to let thatkind of harden off before you would take
the cuttings from that then becomes hardwoodcuttings, so that would be like a
summer cut for that four to sixinch pieces. Do a whole bunch of
them, So it's because they're notall going to root, probably, But

(03:52):
yeah, that's usually fairly easy todo, does it? Flower set seed
flowers like crazy. I get easilytwo blooms a years and up to four.
Is it a name variety do youknow or is it just a seed
variety. It's got to be aname. I got it from my parents
years ago. And yeah, okay, the old seed varieties sometimes weren't very

(04:15):
consistent when it came to flowering.But those new cultivars, new selections are
crazy, and those a lot oftimes are grafted and only propagated by cuttings
rather than from seed. So butit can be done absolutely, okay,
because I see they send out shootsand they replant themselves. Great, Can
I put one of those out?Yeah, you sure can. As a

(04:38):
matter of fact, that the secondthing was sometimes you'll see them come up,
That's what I was asking. Ifit's seeds, they'll come up from
seed. You can collect the seedand try growing it yourself. Or as
they come up around the base,give them time to get a little bit
of a root system and it won'tbe much, and then pop those out,
keep them in a smaller pot,like a three or four inch pot
until they fill that in with roots, and then you can take it from

(04:59):
there. It shouldn't take very longto do that. But that's another way.
And if it's if it's a graftedselection, chances are what comes from
seed, may not be exactly whatthat particular wisteria is, but it still
can be propagated from seed and maybesomething a little bit different, but but
yes, absolutely can You can doit that way too. So the little
shoots that root themselves in the ground, should I cut them when they hard

(05:21):
over? When the seedlings are comingup? You can do that just about
anytime, and you're just gonna digthem up. So you take a sharp
spade, go around it, youknow, four quick cuts, and see
if you can pop it out ofthe ground. You can do that,
you know. The think of itis if they're putting out a lot of
new growth, like in the springtime, you wouldn't want to do it at
that point. But earlier in thespring before they really start to put out

(05:44):
in a lot of growth, orlater in the summer and fall, those
are two great times to pop thoseout of there. So now it would
be a good time. Or afterthe first bloom, I guess, no,
are they starting to set out foliagenow? Not yet, They're still
dormant, and so if they're stilldormant, that's even better. So yes,
now it would be a good timeto do that for the for the

(06:05):
for the little pups that are aroundit. Yes, okay. The other
question I had was I have aboy the macure that I seeded with wildflowers,
and the first couple of years theycame in really well, and they've
just not done anything the last thislast year. I don't know you said
that. You mentioned an extension,ohsu was extension at somebody on the air

(06:29):
a couple of weeks back talking aboutwildflowers. M The thing about wildflowers,
when you look at the mix thatyou put in, I'm assuming you did
it all from seed. I did. If they were annual wildflowers, you
know, the only way those docome back is from seed, and so
you know that could be a restrictionif it's if you have a combination.

(06:50):
Usually those mixes you try to geta combination of perennial wildflowers and annual wildflowers,
so they receed come back from theroot system. So you know you
got them coming back all the time. So you almost have to take a
look at that wildflower mix and seewhat's in there. And sometimes you've got
to come back in and do someoverseeding and replanting to keep them nice and

(07:11):
flourished, nice and full. Ithink the biggest issue I always had with
those is trying to determine what's theweed, what's the wildflower? Yeah,
yeah, that's true, but butuh, you know, it can be
done. But again, look atthe mix that you used and see what's
in the mix, and then youtake it from there and then again,
like I say, perennial ones obviouslycome back year after year from the root

(07:33):
system and recede. In many cases, the annues would only be receding.
Okay, all right, appreciate it. All right, You're welcome. Good
talking with you. And is itsipper sipper or yes? Good morning?
There you go morning. A couplequick comments before my question. One,

(07:56):
as I say this jokingly, Iwas disappointed that you and Ella didn't know
about prairie chickens there from January.I had no idea I talked to As
matter of fact, I talked toCorey last week. She still has that
on her her list to go thatfestival which is coming up. Yeah,
I didn't know anything about it,but I do now. Yeah, I
have found me in the Texas,Oklahoma, Kansas area. I finally got

(08:20):
to see some last October helping themharvest, and then I accidentally drove through
Poksatani there on Thursday, so Igot to see Poksatani. But I'm sure
i'd get to there to the festivalto see the groundhol thing and everything that
is unbelievable. Do they still havethe display at the library? So I
went past? Is it the Shadowhotel? Is that where they have everything?

(08:43):
And then there's a grassy area infront? Is that where everything takes
place? Well? And no thatNo, it's actually on Gobbler's Knob.
You have to walk about a mileand a half to get to it out
of downtown. But there's a butthe habitat that they're in from what when
we were there before was attached tothe library, which is right across the
street from that from that hotel.Okay, I think I did see.

(09:03):
I thought I saw a huge grassyarea right by the hotel. I thought,
yeah, so six or seven inthere, so if somebody kidnaps one,
they don't know if they're getting filled. That kind of makes sense.
So a question I have, Ineed to start mulching around. I have
some old mature trees and some youngertrees, so I take it I think

(09:26):
you should cut out the sod ata certain distance around the trunk. Is
that correct? Yes? So oneis is there a special tool that make
it easier? And and like tohave some mature trees and some are I
guess you call them young saplings.So I guess there's a certain distance i'd
want to come off the trunk there, you know, with the younger I

(09:48):
never do anything less than three footdiameter, all right, That's what I
didn't four too much about it.Four to five to six feet is even
better. So the bigger the ringaround that tree, the better off you're
going to be in the be offthe tree is going to be, so
you know, you kind of leavethat up to you. But the bigger
the ring, the better off you'regoing to be. And as far as
the tool to take that, theyactually sell a sod cutter. It's got
a rounded blade in the front andit's bent like a push broom and you

(10:11):
can go underneath it. But II have always keep my square spade,
a short handle, de handle,short barrel, square spade sharp, and
you can cut it edge and gounderneath the sod and pick it up with
that square spade. I keep thaton hand all the time. That's my

(10:31):
utilitary tool besides that, and mygarden knife for working out there, and
then that works great both for theedge. Was the one tool you pushed
out too long ago from some legendor something like that. It's called it
it's called a soil knife, okay, and it's like a gardener's survival knife
okay. And that and that reallyreally is nice. But if you go

(10:54):
to that Am Leonard website or Gardener'sEdge, that's their retail website, look
there under under square spades, andI have the I have one. It's
probably twenty five years old from them. It's an all aluminum shaft, aluminum
hand aluminum, uh. And Ikeep it sharpened it probably once every two
years. Should do it more often, but I've had that thing forever and

(11:16):
it still looks like I just gotit. And it I can do the
SOD, I can do the edgingtransplanting you talk about. You know,
it's just I help tear my deckapart with it. It's it's it's unbelievable.
Everybody should have a sharp, square, short handled spade. And that
was was the website again, Gardener'sEdge, Gardener's Edge okay dot com.

(11:39):
All right, thank you Hey,I appreciate talking to you. We're gonna
take a quick break. We comeback taking more calls at a two to
one WTV and eight hundred and sixto ten w TV, and we're live
today from Oakland Nursery in Delaware.Shop thirty five acres of gardening pleasure.
They've got mulch on sale. They'vegot perennials on sale. They've got all
kinds of plants on sale. We'regonna update you is what's on sale and

(12:01):
what's coming in at the bottom ofthe hour. But in the meantime,
taking your calls at a two toone WTV. In here on News Radio
six y ten WTVN Oakland Nursery,Delaware. That's where we are come and
see us. Gonna be here tillnoon. Stop out and say hello.
You're gonna love it. Jurassic Parkright here in the greenhouse. It's phenomenal.

(12:24):
They level is way up there,what they've done here, and you
love it. Bring the kids,Bring the grandkids, bring the neighbor kids.
They will love all the dinosaurs andthey got them all scattered throughout the
store as well. But in herein the greenhouse with all the foliage,
it's it's really really cool, Sostop out. We're gonna be here till
noon. But of course they're hereall day and all weekend, so come

(12:46):
and see them. And they gotlots of things on sale, and they're
fully stocked as they always are,and you can't you know, it's like
one of those places. You can'twalk through here without buying something, and
it's true, and the boy theygot it, and great prices on a
lot of things as well. We'lltalk more about that at the bottom of
the hour. Right now, talkingyour yarding, taking your calls at a
two to one WTV, and beforeI go back to the guarding phone lines,

(13:09):
there is one thing I do wantto bring up, and I'm trying
to do this on every show.We'll do it for a few more weeks
till we make sure get the wordout. If you are a round up
user, you know, and it'sgood for you and I you know,
the glape was said. I stilluse it myself. But if you're a
round up user, whether it's thewhed and grass Killer, the you know
whatever, and you buy the readyto use the or the concentrate or whatever

(13:31):
it may be. The formula haschanged on some of these products, and
I just want to make sure yourealize that when you buy these that there
are new formulas in their roundups.And you'll see on the front label the
two like I have two in frontof me right now. They're ready to
use weed and grass killer the readythe wheten grass killer three was from the

(13:52):
previous years, and then we andgrass killer four is for this year.
And underneath it as a red andit says exclusive formula, all right,
and the other one just says rainfastand ten minutes and revisible results in three
hours. But and so they're rightnext to each other on the shelf.
Everything's the same, you know,the whed and grass killer whole nine yards.

(14:13):
But here's the kicker. They havea new formula in the exclusive formula.
It's not the old glyphosate. It'sthree different chemicals, all right,
and die quad tricloporal and the samechemical that's in the over the top sprays.
And there are new restrictions on usingthat one. And so you need

(14:33):
to read the label. And asI've always said, you got to read
the label no matter what you're buying, fertilizer, pesticides, it doesn't matter.
Read the label before you use itand understand and look at what's in
it and what it does, whatit doesn't do, and follow the label
when it comes to application rates,because the label is the law. Okay,
what it says on there is thelaw what you lawfully should be following.

(14:56):
But here's the kicker. You gotto read through the label on this
one because the restrictions are different onboth of these bottles. Here's a prime
example why this is important. Gotan email from one of our listeners this
past week talking about killing grass withroundup, said, you know it does
great job and I'm starting all overagain and how long has it rainfast?
How long can I have to waitto replant the grass for getting the dogs

(15:20):
back on it? What if thedeer came through? When is it not
toxic to deer? Et cetera,et cetera. And you know what my
answer had to be, It waswhich one are you using? And of
course it wasn't aware that there weretwo different ones. So you've got to
look at the label and depending onwhich one you're using, the restrictions are
different. As a matter of fact, for the new formula, I think

(15:43):
replanting grass seed is seven days.It is not labeled for edibles. It
is not labeled for the vegetable gardenwhere the other one is. So you've
got to replanting if you killed it, went in and killed out the grass
to replant a landscape area the exclusiveformula, which is the new one.
Depending on what types of plants you'reputting back in that landscape, planting could

(16:06):
be as much as thirty days beforeyou replant. That's what it says on
the label. So again, alwaysread the label. But if you are
a roundup user, make sure yousee whether you've got the one that has
the glyphosate or the new one thathas the exclusive formula, and it says
it right across the front. Restof the labels look almost exactly the same.

(16:27):
And then read the label so yousee all the restrictions and there are
many differences between the two, allright, so make sure you check that
out. I want to make surewe keep everybody up to data, and
then we'll continue to talk about itfor the next several weeks as we are
using these products to get rid ofthose weeds and grasses and things like that
and doing it properly. Ed.Thanks for holding on. You're in the
garden with Ron Wilson Iron enjoying theshow as always, Thank you. I

(16:52):
planted some variegated latrope the small ornamentalgraph in the fall, and they looking
pretty good. I cut those backat any point, cutting down like other
ornamental. Yeah, you know that'sthey actually look pretty good coming out of
this winter because it's been fairly mildwinter. They you know, some brown
spots here and there and kind offlat, but they're looking pretty good.

(17:14):
But you want to get rid ofall that old foliage and let them flush
back up with all new foliage.If you don't, what happens is the
new foliage comes up and then you'vegot that old foliage that lays around the
base of it, and eventually itstarts to brown and it doesn't look very
good. So I usually wait untilI start just start to see the few
new ones coming up at the rightin the center of that thing, and

(17:36):
then I'll clip all those off there. And usually the easiest thing to do
is just bring them all up inyour hand a pair of snips, and
sometimes you can use a pair ofshears for that share that right off at
the top. That's all you needto do. You just get rid of
the majority of the old foliage,let the new stuff flush up, and
then you're good to go. Ilove that plant, especially when it's in
flower in the middle of the summer. Yeah, I put it in that

(17:56):
hopefully it'll it'll spread and propagate alittle bit. They will the area.
So do I cut it down toabout two inches from the ground that much
least? Yeah, as close asyou can get, so you know,
if you get it within an inchwould be even better. But that will
all turn brown eventually go away.But they get as much of that off
there as you can and then allowthat new stuff to come up. And

(18:18):
as soon as that soil temperature reallystarts to hit sixty sixty degrees sixty five
degrees consistently, you go to seethat stuff really start to pop in a
hurry. Great. Thank you,Rod Hey, you're more than welcome.
Appreciate you calling. And Judy,good morning. I have Budley a question.
Sure, I have three budle isthat normally die down to the ground.

(18:41):
Not this year got them off andthere was three different ages. One
was quite large last year. Butthey're leasing out. So do I cut
them back down to the ground ordo I deal with the plant that exists.
No, either way, you've gotan option there. And again,
they they probably kept a lot ofthose leaves over the winter, didn't they.

(19:03):
They kept a lot of the leaves. They've got new ones. Yeah,
of course there's the dead flowers atthe end of the branch, right
I I personally, when I lookat the butterfly bush or boodlea, I
usually cut those back close to theground and flush up a new plant every
year. Okay, you don't haveto do that. Some folks like to
just clean them up a little bitand let the plant be bigger every year.

(19:26):
That's up to you, and youcan you can. You can do
that however you like. But Iam typically one to just get rid of
all that old stuff. Let themflush back up. You've got all new
branches, all lots of good color. Uh, and they just the plant
itself probably looks a little bit better. But even though they're starting to leaf
out right now, and roses aredoing the same thing, if you haven't
proven them back yet, you stillhave time to do that. Okay,

(19:48):
I'm just worried about that. Yeah, No, you're you're good, Thank
you much. Hey, good talkingto you. Appreciate the call. Quick
break, we come back, we'lltalk more with the folks here at Oakland
Nursery. We're broadcasting live from theDelaware Oakland Nursery this spring. You can
shop there thirty five acres of gardeningpleasure, and they've got a lot of
things on sale. We'll talk moreabout that when we come back from the
break here on news Radio six tenWTVN