Should you do the Perk Test? How about repelling snakes?

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Good morning. I am Ron Wilson, your personal yard boy,
talking about yarding. It is the fourth of July weekend,
and hopefully you had a great fourth of July. A
lot of folks off three day weekend, maybe a four
day weekend. I did not travel, Danny did not travel.
I wasn't going to get out of that mess this year.
Not this year. Six hundred or what is it, sixty

(00:21):
million people on the road, Nah, I don't think so.
So we stayed home. But I kind of chuckle because
when our show, which obviously is on on Saturday mornings
and every now and then every once in a while,
July fourth is on a Friday. I don't know about you, Dan,
but you try to go to sleep, you know, early,
because you have to get in here at four in

(00:42):
the morning. Well guess what, fire fireworks are going off
till about eleven. So it's kind of tough to do.
And as a matter of fact, we give Joe Streker
off today because you know, he just can't take a
can't sleep very well, so we said, hey, don't you
don't have to come in on the fourth or the
fifth of so he's off, so you got you're stuck
with me. For the cup. But me and Dan, it's

(01:05):
always Dan to me, in between, always in between. But
I just I still try to do that. I still
try to go to bed early. And the problem is
if you go under nine or nine thirty, that's just
when everything's starting to fire up. And in our house
to add to the whole nine yards, I don't know
about your house, but we have a dog and our

(01:27):
small dog, she's a miniature Docson, and Miley doesn't flip
out with the fireworks, but she does not like them,
and so when they start shooting off fireworks, she tries
to snuggle in next to you as close as she
can there, get under a blanket or whatever. Shouldn't flip out,
but she definitely does not like them. Well, last night,

(01:47):
Riiley decided she wanted to sleep on my pillow on
my head at when I went to bed. So between
Miley on my head and trying to be comforting to
her and the fireworks, that either one of us got
to sleep till about midnight. So anyway, yeah, I know,
let's you feel bad. Does your cat flip out with those?
She looks at me and I don't flip out anymore,

(02:09):
so she just ignores it. Oh, so she looks to
you for encouragement. Yeah, and then goes on yep. And
I guess it was mildy too, because she doesn't really
flip out, She just wants a little comfort. So anyway,
here I am laying in bed, try to go to sleep,
fireworks going off everywhere, with a miniature docks and on
my pillows wrapped around my head. So that was the

(02:30):
deal yesterday here last night, trying to go to sleep.
But anyway, it was a typical fourth of July here, sunny,
great weather yesterday. Actually it was hot. I mean it
was nineties, but it wasn't as humid, so you know,
I mean it was hot, there's no doubt, but not
quite as humid, but the typical fourth of July. And
lots of fireworks going off as well. So hopefully you

(02:52):
had a good one and enjoyed it. You know, it's
interesting right now. You know, we've got pretty much all
of our planting done at our high I've got as
matter of fact, I am planting three more perennials of
this morning, and I'm trying to think. I think we
have all everything container wise, there's nothing left to plant,
so I think we're good to go. But what's interesting

(03:14):
is is I look out every day about oh and
now that I'm semi retired, I'm home by about two o'clock.
I look at the plants that are in full sun
around two thirty or so, and even though they've been
in for four weeks or so now and starting to
get rooted in, well, when they're hit with that hot
afternoon sun, they will still wilt down. And I know that.

(03:36):
I go out and you know, make sure they've got
good moisture in the morning, all good to go. But
by b time you get to that, they're wilded down.
And then by the time the sun gets off of
them by six o'clock, guess what, they're standing right back
up again and looking good. And I look at that
and I say, you know, that even gets my attention.
I know it's going to happen, and you know, it
makes me understand why it could be so confusing for

(03:57):
a lot of folks, especially if you've never done any gardening.
When you're out there and you're saying, man, I've got
these things soaked, I'm doing my watering really well, and
they still wilt down, and you know, there's a point
where these plants just can't take enough moisture up from
the root system, even though the moisture is there and

(04:18):
replace what's being lost out those leaves and out those stems,
especially if they're newer planted. Makes it even tougher. Hydrangeas
are probably in woody shrubs one of the worst for
doing that, even if they're established. I see hydrangas sometimes
that are in full sun situations, which I'm gonna be
honest with you, which I'm always honest with you, But

(04:40):
hydrange is you know what, any of them do the best.
Any of them do the best when it's morning sun
and shaded from the heat of the afternoon sun. I
think they all perform much better if they get that condition.
But there are hydrangeas, the peniculatas they'll take the full sun.
The oak leaf will take full sun. So you know,

(05:01):
there are borestens they'll take. They'll take that sun as
long as you can get some moisture to them, uh,
you know, to help them out a little bit. But
the point being is you get into that hot afternoon sun.
If they're newly planted, it's it's bad. If they're even
if they're established, they'll still wilt down, and it gets
very confusing because you're like, I just watered those and
I feel the soil and they're wet. How can this

(05:22):
be happening? And so you've just got to remember and
watch these and and the annuals improve. As the annuals
continue to get rooted in through the season, you see
that happening less and less, and so I'm seeing it
happen less and less, but it's still happening. And if
they're in smaller containers, they dry out fast, they warm up,
you know, whatever may be. But it's it's tough. So

(05:44):
don't let that confuse you. If you know you're soaking
your plants really well, you know you're soaking your containers
really well, then you know they've got good moisture. But
they continue to wilt down in the heat of the day.
The key is take a look at them later in
the evening or first thing in the morning. Later in
the evening's usually fine because they'll come right back up.

(06:06):
Idra just sometimes take a little bit longer. So by mourning,
if they've got sufficient moisture in the ground, they'll be
back up and looking normal. Don't over water if that's
the case, keep up your regular watering, let them get
close to dry, soak them close to dry, soak them
and don't over water. So many times we will then
take plants, especially like the hydrangeas and some of the

(06:29):
annuals as well, and water them all the time, trying
to keep them from wilting. And when you do that,
you're causing what root decline because they're staying too wet.
Their roots start to decline, and guess what, now they
can't take up more moisture. So it all just comes
together and you lose the plant. And then a lot
of times that's what happens in mixed annual containers. You know,

(06:53):
you've got some plants that root in very quickly. You
got some plants that don't root in very quickly. It
takes them a little bit longer. You got some plants
that love they'll take the moisture. And you got some
plants that you know they wanted to try out. Give
me some moisture, let it dry out. I don't want
that constant moisture around my root system. So you wind
up watering down on a you know, everything the same

(07:14):
and those containers which you have to, and you wind
up losing a plant or two here and there, and
that happens sometimes, and I see it, you know, it
happens that our planters occasionally. So I think the point
being is, you know, watching these over the last several
days with the heat and all, I understand how frustrating
that can be to you sometimes when you look at that.
So that the kicker is if you're looking at him

(07:36):
in the middle of the afternoon and they're wilted down,
you know, and you know you've got good moisture in
the ground, you can tell you put your finger moisture
meat or whatever it may be, and they still will down.
But then you come back late in the evening or
in the morning and they're back normal. You're doing right,
You're okay, all right, water as needed if if they are,

(07:58):
you know, they don't, don't overwalk, and that's the whole point.
If they aren't recovering, then they're probably too dry. If
they aren't recovering, they're probably now have gone to the
point where they've got root rot and can't take up
moisture anymore. So it can be frustrating. That's where that
moisture meter can be a good friend. You're sticking your
finger in there, it works, but the moisture meter can

(08:19):
be a real good help for you too, just a
really quick check that hanging basket, really quick check that container,
even indoor plants. And I mentioned earlier that my wife
is getting more into She now has this shelf, multiple
shelves of indoor plants, so she's been collecting and doing whatever,

(08:40):
and one of her biggest frustrations is going through and
find out what's wet and what's dry. And I finally
said the other day, can I bring you a moisture meter,
Maybe that would help you out a little bit, And
then you can just go through and just touch it
in each one and really does help you out that way,
So keep that in mind. You can buy moisture meters
for ten bucks twelve bucks. They'll last a couple for

(09:00):
you get another one. Sometimes the moist meters comes with
the moisture meter and the pH meter till what the
pH of the soil is at the same time. But
they really can be helpful for you this time of
the year when you're not sure should I be watering
or shouldn't I be watering? And the same with the
like container plants and Balden Burley plants that you planted
in the ground. You know that does happen. And I

(09:22):
told you the story I believe was last week about
the folks working with them with the dogwood that they
had planted, planted properly. I saw everything that they did
was outstanding, the whole the soil amendment, the whole nine yards,
the planting depths perfect. But this dogwood was wilted the
entire time, from the two days after was planted. It
just never perked up, never yellowed, nothing fell off, but

(09:47):
it stayed green. But it just wilt all the time.
And he sent me a picture of it, and I
could see there was already starting to grass starting to
grow around the backfill around the outside of that dogwood.
And said, you know, if you check the moisture, he said,
yet it always seems to be moist said, oh, you know.
He put a moisture meter in and took a picture
of it, sent it back to me, said wet said, well,

(10:09):
we may have a problem. So he dug down the
side of the root ball in the backfill just to
see what the soil moisture was like, down deep into
that and he got about four inches down. It was
solid water. The soil was not draining, and so whenever
it did rain in this particular case and when we
will always count on rain as being a bonus. When

(10:29):
it did rain just rained right into that or when
he water did drain rain and it never went anywhere,
it just sat there. So that can be a situation
where there it just stays too wet, and again the
moisture meter was telling him to staying too wet. We
dug down, we found out, and adjustments were made and
hopefully the dog would we we'll be able to save it.
I'm not sure, but we'll find out as time goes along.

(10:52):
But anyway, that's something you might want to do yet
this summer or fall, if your plant doing a lot
of planting in your yard and garden, just do a
perk test up time and teg we're gonna take a break.
I'll come back. I'll tell you more more about that
perk test, and we'll be taking your calls. Jim hang
On at eight hundred eight two three eight two five
five here in the garden with Ron Wilson talking about yarning. Uh,

(11:12):
before we talk about the percolation, let's go to West
Virginia and talk with Jim Jim, Good morning.

Speaker 2 (11:17):
Good morning, Ron. How are you doing today, Jim?

Speaker 1 (11:20):
I'm great. How about yourself?

Speaker 2 (11:22):
Doing fine? Doing fine? I have three questions for you,
sure I have. I'm doing a lot of container gardening now,
and my uh zucchini and my yellow squash plants are
looking great. And all of a sudden I have the
trouble with the squash bug or beetle whatever it is,
gray pying eggs underneath the big broadleaves. What can I

(11:42):
do to treat that?

Speaker 1 (11:44):
That's a tough one, I mean, it really is. If
you know, the secret is if you can find those
eggs before they hatch, is perfect because you can wipe
those off with your finger and done deal, and you
don't have to worry about them. You know, the adults
are not that sus supple insecticides, and of course you
probably don't want to use many insecticides, but if you do,

(12:05):
you know there are sprays you can use. I think
spinosids labeled for that. Eight E I G H T
is labeled for that. But it's tougher when they get older,
which is when you see the most of the damages.
So that's a tough one as well. Covering them over
with a grow cover is a natural way to try
to keep money control vacuuming them off if you keep

(12:26):
a handback out there that when you see them you
can go and handback them off. That actually for container
gardening isn't too bad. And I think the other thing
to remember, Jim about about those is that they you know,
they typically they show up right about now or earlier
and then they're done. And one thing that you can
plant in mid July for a late crop would be

(12:49):
like cucumber's zucchini, most of the squashes depending on how
long it takes for maturity, but you can actually come
back in with a second crop and get past that
for generation, you know, doing it that way, so if
they do, by chance get you, you can pull those out,
come back and plan a second one and still get
a crop late in the season.

Speaker 2 (13:12):
Okay, another question I have is I have a chain
link fence about six foot high, and my neighbor has
a wooden fence, and we have about two feet or
excuse me, about a foot between the two fences. Having
trouble with choke berry is growing up in there, and
it's the branches are coming through the fencing and so forth.

(13:33):
Is there anything I can do to try to get
that under control. I know the butterflies like to go
on that on the berries.

Speaker 1 (13:42):
Yeah, is it choke berry? I mean the woody shrub.

Speaker 2 (13:47):
Yes, it's The stems are about inch inch and a
halfter like red colored, kind of hard, and then the
leaves are kind of broad and the berries almost look
like grapes. They are very small and they are white colored.

Speaker 1 (14:03):
I thought it was chokeberry, pokeberry, poke weed, poke berry,
and then it's got a white flower. Then you get
the berry, big leaf on. It dies back over the winter,
comes back up in the spring. Yes, yeah, yeah, poke weed.

Speaker 2 (14:17):
Uh.

Speaker 1 (14:18):
And you probably remember the song poke salad Annie. That's
what she poked slad Annie went out and gathered up
her poke weed that she ate And it's very toxic,
by the way, so don't do that. You can eat
the sprouse. But again I'm not I'm not suggesting that,
but that's what it is, and you're right some of
the pollinators do like it. But it comes back two ways.
It can come back from the root system. It can
also come back from all the seeds that you see

(14:40):
there that will drop down the berries they drop down
and of course have the seeds they come up, et cetera,
et cetera. So to stop it from if you want
to stop it from coming up. Twofold one is if
you went through and put a pre emergent herbicide in
that area in early spring, that'll help stop some of
the seeds from germinating and coming up. Secondly is then

(15:03):
as you see it start to poke up, it's very
susceptible to any of the non selective herbicides. It's succeptable
to a week like a broad leaf weed killer as well,
but I would be interested in using more like a
non selective like kills All from Fertilome high yield for
Furtlom's kills All and just kind of spray it through

(15:24):
at a younger stage. Once you do that, you got
rid of those plants so they don't come up and
flower and have the seeds. And then the pre emergence
stops the seeds that should stop them from coming up.
In between that section. But yeah, poke weed if you
want to google it and double check for sure that
that's what it is. But pretty sure that's what you're
talking about. But very toxic, remember that.

Speaker 2 (15:47):
Okay. One comment I want to make is I. I
had a trip down to the Greenbrier resort and I
stopped at a small gas station and so they giant
earned about three and a half four feet high, just
overwhelming with petunias all over cascading the side of the urn.

(16:09):
So he went into the station are and I said,
what are you feeding your plants? And he goes, I
don't know, sir. He says, my wife comes out about
every three weeks and she puts a can of beer
in two gallons of water, and.

Speaker 1 (16:21):
That's how she brings no kidding. Wow, I've never heard
of that one, but that's interesting enough. I'll tell you.
I wouldn't want to waste the beer on him. But
there you go. Well I have to look into that one.
Appreciate it, Jim, good talking with you. All right, we
take a quick break, we come back. Phone lines are
open for you at eight hundred eight two three eight
two five five. Don't forget our website, Ron Wilson online
dot com. We'll talk about that after the break as well.

(16:43):
And percolation in your lawn talking yarding. Don't forget our website.
And I when Joe's not here to do the Cup
of Joe, I always forget to, you know, get back
in and explain the website because there's a lot of
great things that we post on there for you to
to take a look at and learn during the week,
so you can check it all out. A couple of
great articles the Asian Needle Ant supposedly seeing it. You know,

(17:09):
we had a couple of reports in our area. You
may have dealt with it before, but Joe did a
nice job explaining what it is, what to look for,
et cetera, et cetera. But not a big issue string
tremor damage and what that can happen. We talk about
why we One of the reasons why we mault around
our trees is to prevent lawnmower disease and string tremor disease.

(17:30):
That's what that's all about. They could eventually wear the
bark down on your on your trees. Nice article about that.
You know, Joe and his galls. He loves to talk
about galls, and I don't blame this. They're pretty cool
the way they insects can make the leaf do what
they wanted to do. But galls on poison, ivy and
sumac and this little mite that causes uh. I think

(17:52):
it's a minor flight that causes those galls, you know,
And that's pretty tough little bug to be able to
sting a poison ivy bud. And we'll have it create
these galls around as little house for their eggs and
then the insect hatches out and goes from there. But
he talks about that. I think it's pretty cool. And
of course the two best articles on there. One is

(18:12):
of course Rita's recipe of the week. She always does
such a great job. And this week for the fourth
of July weekend, it's baked feta. Baked feta, yes, and
the picture is outstanding and it looks good to me.
I would take it. And it's a pretty easy recipe
for you as well. Baked feta with tomatoes and a regano.
Think feta, tomatoes aregano. They all go together. I mean,

(18:36):
it's outstanding. And this is a heated up all it's
just baked in a castle role. You can't go wrong.
But that recipe is for you. And then our plants
of the week get a couple of them for you,
all right, one is and they both kind of go
with the fourth of July weekend. The first one is
I'm still, like I said, this morning, still planting in

(18:58):
our garden yards. I got three more plants to go
in and I'm finished. But when I'm planting this morning,
after the shows are over, I'm planting three Rubeccias. We're
adding to the front of our landscape because they just
flower all summer long. It just does such a great job.
But I'm planting American gold rush. This one was a
Perennial of the Year and twenty twenty three I had

(19:21):
been growing it, I don't know, three or four or
five years before that, and they finally chose it as
perennial of the year. Absolutely outstanding. This has three inch
bright golden yellow flowers all right, and kind of a
reddish halo surrounding that chocolate cone in the middle. Is
make a really nice flower. Gets about twenty four inches
high maybe thirty six inches wide, very compact and round

(19:45):
it so it's really cool. You don't have to do
anything to it. It's great. A little dead heading every
now on them, but otherwise it flowers all summer long.
It shows good resistance to leave spot, which some of
the other ones can get. Butterflies and pollinators love it.
Songbirds enjoy the seedheads and the winter great winter interest.
You can go in the ground growing containers, but it's
definitely dinner in the show. It's American gold rush rudebecchia,

(20:08):
and adding three more of those to our landscape today,
and I think I should finish this up for the summer.
The second one, of course, is the fourth of July
tomato Fourth of July tomatoes, which is absolutely still one
of my favorites. I don't think I've ever recommended the
fourth of July tomato. And it's a medium sized tomato
about four ounces five ounces. They come in clusters. It's

(20:31):
a tough, durable, great tomato, very good producer. It's an indeterminate.
It was bred by Burpie many many years ago, and
it's a fifty four day tomato, so it's a quick
to produce, quick to ripen, and it's a good one.
And I don't again, like I said, whether it's in
a container if you can stake it because it is
an indeterminate, or in raised beds or even in the

(20:55):
you know, in the regular garden wherever folks have planted.
Fourth of July tomato has been a very consistent producer
for again, like I said, I don't think I've ever
ever had anybody say I did not like that particular tomato.
High volume of tomatoes, great flavor, good disease resistance, early ripening,
which this year. I talk on a good friend of mine,

(21:16):
Terry Diefenbacher, who is a professional tomato grower. We've had
him on a show in the past in our area,
just getting ready to start picking tomatoes. He said, this
is the latest and they planted him in early May,
earliest or the latest that they've ever had as far
as getting ripen tomatoes for their produce stand, which is crazy,

(21:38):
but it is. It's late. My mom's just now start.
I planted hers early this year, just now starting to
get a few tumbling tom's, the real small ones, the
red and yellow, although it hard to find the reds anymore,
early producers, and they usually do this in a couple containers.
She's starting to get some off of that already, but
that's usually three weeks ago that they start a producing.

(22:00):
So tomatoes are late in our area this year. I
don't know about yours, but they're late. And again talking
to Terry Diefenbaker, the TD of tomatoes, he he's the
same way. So anyway, it's American gold Rush, rebeccia and
fourth of July tomato. And you can learn more about
those and read his recipe and the Galls and all
the great articles at Ron Wilson online dot com. Back

(22:23):
to the Guardening Fund lines, we shall go pat in Delaware.
Good morning, Good morning, Ron.

Speaker 2 (22:28):
How are you.

Speaker 1 (22:29):
I'm good serving yourself?

Speaker 3 (22:31):
Oh good, doing good. It's out of cooled off, so
it's quite enjoyable.

Speaker 1 (22:36):
Well, as I say, we'll take that.

Speaker 3 (22:39):
Oh yeah, hey, you're talking about dog woods. Here's a
good story for you. I in my early days going
up in Oakridge, Tennessee in the early seventies. I remember
going down with my dad. Oakridge went and built until
World War two for the Manhattan Project, so they had

(23:01):
what they called chi roads. There were evacuation routes and
we would go down, I was about seventy eight years old,
go down to the bottom of one of these on
the other side of the mountain, and there was a
creek bottom and white dogwoods grew wild. And we would

(23:22):
dig up samplings and come back and plant them in
the yard and there's just wild white dogwoods, and those
suckers grew like weeds.

Speaker 1 (23:34):
Yeah, you know that the corners Florida is a native
dogwood and as an understory plant. And yeah, you're right.
In Tennessee, lots of them, I know, And we lived
in Indiana, we would there were quite a few you
would see scattered again on the edge of the woods,
more of an understory, but you'd see them a lot.
And as a matter of fact, same way when I

(23:54):
was a kid, most people had had them, didn't get
them from the nursery. He went out and found one
in the woods and transplant it. And you know, if
you could get it to grow and back into your
yard and get it that way. So but it is
a native uh. And you know again in some areas
just absolutely gorgeous the way they fill in, they seed. Well,
so they've got you know, young was coming up. But

(24:16):
what a great story that you remember that from when
you were seven or eight years old.

Speaker 3 (24:20):
Now, no, I here's something I encountered yesterday. Have you
ever seen black snake eggs?

Speaker 1 (24:28):
No? I have not, and I would you know what,
And I know I thought they hatched their baby their
babies live.

Speaker 3 (24:35):
No, well, no, yesterday I had a weird encounter. Not
all I can deduct is these are black snake eggs
because I think I found the mother fifteen feet away
dead and there was like about a half dozen eight

(24:56):
of them and there was blood around it, and then
found the snake. It was about three and a half
feet long. All I can figure out is some black
snakes produce live but I think these were black snake eggs.

Speaker 1 (25:15):
Interesting, I know, I haven't. I'm not aware of that.
I wonder something happened and she just discharged them or something,
or I don't know's that's interesting.

Speaker 3 (25:26):
Yeah, because they don't usually discharge in the in the
grass like that. They usually do it, you know, in
a hidden.

Speaker 1 (25:33):
Area, right, was what happened to her? You know? I
was talking with somebody about snakes yesterday in the garden,
and we all know that how good they are for
the garden. And you want to leave them alone, let
them do their thing. And I don't mind as long
as I see them ahead of time. If I reach
down and there's one, doesn't do me good, doesn't do

(25:53):
my heart good. But otherwise I tolerate them and I
let them do their thing. But I hate being startled
by a snake when you're out there doing whatever in
the yard. And garden, and then there it is. I
know what came up because the lady down the street
from us had was having a couple of snakes in
her She found them in her back around her patio
and was kind of flipping out because there were these

(26:13):
snakes and what to do and repellents and all that
and to get rid of them, and of course everybody
was trying to convince her to just leave them alone,
let them do their thing, and there are snake repellents
that you can buy out there. My question always was
where do you put it down? You know, they crawl
around and they you know that, I know the areas
that they like to hang out in and then they
come out in sun in, which they do this time

(26:34):
of the year, soaking up that sun. But where do
you put the repellants down? And of course the bottom
line was just let them do their thing, because they'll,
you know, help keep down the road. Ands and insects
and all kinds of things. You got to leave them alone.
But I admitted, I'll deal with them, and I don't
have any problem with it. But I do not I'm
not a snake fan, and I do not like surprising

(26:54):
me in the garden. Are were going to take a
break in our next hour. Jerry Rose a giant pumpkin growler.
We're gonna find out where where he stands right now?
Where did the giant pumpkins look for this year? With
us crazy weather? We had? What are they dealing with?
Bottom of the hour, The doctor's with us Doctor triple
a Alan Apple armadage, all happening here in the garden
with Ron Wilson.