Shubber Ali, CEO Garden for Wildlife Inc

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Episode Transcript

(00:00):
Good morning everybody, welcome back.I'm Ron Wilson, and you are in
the garden here on his radio sixten wtv in talking about yarding on his
Mother's Day weekend. And several monthsago we had this gentleman on our show
because trying to get more people involvedwith something kind of new here, Garden
for Wildlife by the National Wildlife Federation. They were a website, Garden for

(00:24):
Wildlife dot com. And since we'vehad him on our show, it just
seems like that's the whole thing isjust absolutely gone. But Nana is this
guy's taking it in all different directions. It's a matter of fact. Every
magazine I pick up now from thegreen industry has an article with this man's
picture plastered on it and all kindsof things talking about what he's doing and
all. He is the CEO ofGarden for Wildlife Incorporated, has a lifelong

(00:47):
passion for conservation, a deep understandingof the native plan industry. And we'll
believe it or not, he floatslike a butterfly and stings like a bee.
Ladies and gentlemen, shubber Ali areon. Great to be back,
Hey, good to have you backon And I am I right, or
what I mean? We talked toyou two or three months ago. Now
you have you said you were goingto do it. All we see is

(01:11):
and is great, all the thingsfor Garden for Wildlife and you promoting all
kinds of new things and get tothe website and plant natives and a whole
nine yards. Yeah, it's beena fantastic run so far. It's kind
of like Perennials coming back in thespring. You know, they just their
dormantal winter, you don't really seeanything, and they just pop up.
And the team is amazing. They'vedone fantastic work where we're expanding in lots

(01:32):
of different directions, signed a bunchof new partnerships so we sell directly to
consumers, obviously to the website,and now we're working through like a rotary
club up in Pennsylvania, working witha local Scout troupe. We're giving lots
of different organizations really to just bothget the word out but then make the
plants more available to people. Well, you're doing a great job, so
let's get starting get more word out. So May month, the May month

(01:55):
of May is Garden for Wildlife amonth. Why did you picky, Well,
I didn't pick it, so actual, Yeah, there's two reasons.
But it's the Garden for Wildlife months. It's something that National Wildlife Federation has
been doing for years, the Gardenfor Wildlife program. This is actually the
fiftieth anniversary. They're around for along time, educating people about native plants,

(02:16):
even doing certified habitats. There's overtwo hundred and eighty thousand certified habitats
in the US, mostly people's homeslike my house as well, but also
nine thousand plus schools. You know, over two thousand house in the worship.
So I've been doing it for along time. And one of the
things was educating people around you know, May and May is the perfect time
because it's spring, right and solike I'm sure up where you are where

(02:36):
I am right now. This isliterally the weekend we're putting plants in the
garden. We're putting stuff in becausethis is the gardening months. Everything's warmed
up and it's ready to go.So your hands are dirty right now as
you're hanging onto your cell phone.Well, actually I have dirt under my
fingernails. My kids are at inthe garden right now, weeding around the
vegetable beds, but then we're gonnabe planting more perennials right after that.

(02:57):
Good for you, Good for you. So you know, obviously we've got
to go on in the month ofMay trying to get the word out there.
I know. The big push obviouslyis as we are gardening for wildlife,
you know, trying to use asmany native plants as we can,
just kind of refresh our memories.Why the importance of using native plants,
Well, so let's start with justthe meaning of the term native. It

(03:20):
just seems obvious because these are theplants that evolved to be here, and
they help the environment most because they'reactually matched for the needs of that area.
You know, they thrive in thesoil, the moisture, and even
the weather of the region that they'renative too, So they need less water,
less toxic chemicals, getting opestive fertilizers, all the rest because they involved
to be here. And that alsomeans that they help them things like managing

(03:42):
rainwater runoff, maintaining healthy soil becausethe root systems, you know, you
know, the roots of perennials godown five or six feet, whereas grass
goes down a couple of inches,so it's great for the soil and puts
a lot of carbon back there.But but ultimately it's really good for the
pollinators and because of that, thesongbirds who have been disappearing, because the
pollinators have been disappearing. So it'sjust a huge virtuals cycle to be doing

(04:04):
native plants in your yard. Evenas it's just a small portion, start
with a couple square feet and you'llsee the difference. Well, and I
think, you know, you bringthat up a couple square feet even for
folks that are listening to us rightnow that may be sitting on a small
patio or they live in a condoand have a small deck area, or
whatever it may be. You know, everybody can do their part. Whatever

(04:25):
it may be a small part,whether it being a container or that two
by two foot area, it alladds up. It all counts. You're
exactly right. In fact, actually, containers is a big area. I
was doing some work with students atAmerican University right here in the DC area
this past semester. They actually focusedon us as their senior class business school
project, and one of the bigthings they came up was was, hey,

(04:46):
you know, college students have dormsthey have patios sometimes can we put
these on there? And the answer, of course is exactly what you said.
Yeah, get a container, putsome perennials in there, and you
will see the plants show up,or the pollinators show up, and the
plants come back, every which hasfantastic And you know, you know my
theory, and you've heard me saythis before, but I've always said,
you're trying to encourage folks to getout there and plant more for the pollinators.

(05:09):
Be you know, be pollinator friendly, be pollinator aware, you know,
do whatever you can natives the pollinatorplants, your gardening practices, be
smart. And I've always said this, and I always get a few chuckles,
but I'm serious. I said,you know, we talk about bees
a lot, because you know,obviously the bee issues that are going on
out there, and of course themonarch butterflies the poster child of pollinators.

(05:31):
But I said, you know,we're not asking everybody to become a beekeeper,
because you know, not everybody wantsto be a beekeeper. But in
the same token, turn your container, turn your two by two foot area,
turn your landscape area, turn youryard into someone of a pollinator bed
and breakfast you know, so thatthey can come to your house, enjoy

(05:51):
the nectar, the pollen that isthere, and then do their thing in
your yard or the bees go backto their hives or whatever it may be.
But you know, be a bedand breakfast for all these credits.
I love that term. I wasactually thinking about that since the last time
we spoke in the pbnb, right, the pollinator ben and breakfast. Yeah,
a great idea because it's you know, they don't they don't know property

(06:14):
boundaries, they don't know the code. So being able to make it so
that if they come over from thenext yard or for a couple of locks
away, you have food for them. You can do something to help them
out, even if they're high somewhereelse. Yeah, there's no doubt,
you know what we talked to folkson you know. And if you live
like in a subdivision or whatever communityand you have a homeowners association and maybe
they get together once a month ora couple of times a year, I

(06:36):
always try to encourage them to,you know, gather up some material about
how to be pollinator friendly and pollinatorpolite in your in your gardens and then
make your whole community, you know, a pollinator station and pollinator community.
You all get together and do yourown little part, you will be totally
amazed how your community, just yourhouses right there, all start to change

(06:58):
when you all work together and changeyour your practices. You're exactly right.
And there's two things on that thatI want to hit. One is HOA
is generally, like with many evenbusinesses, organizations, governments, they all
just fall to kind of the statusquo unless somebody comes in and change them.
It's not that they're against it.They don't want like unkept looking yards
or whatever else. You could havebeautiful gardens that have native plants in them,

(07:20):
but you have to get them tojust change their thinking, which people
are very open to doing if youengage with them in the right way.
What's interesting is like with the NationalWildlife Federation, and we've partnered with homebuilders
like Taylor Morrison. The great example, they're putting native plants certified habitats in
the communities they're building, and thenthey're making it a landscaping option for people

(07:41):
who are buying new homes. Soyou can start at the source as well.
And this is a movement that's slowlytaking roots. Sorry for the pud,
but it's working its way out,and you know there's just there's so
much easy kind of low hanging throughit to go tackle here. Yeah,
talking with Chaba Ali is a Gardenfor the Wildlife CEO. Their website is
a wonderful website, Garden for Wildlifedot com. Let's take a quick break,

(08:05):
we come back, we'll talk moreabout using those native plants how to
create that wildlife habitat garden in yourbackyard. They have a program where you
can actually buy the plants from themas well, and a whole lot more
here in the Garden with Ron Wilsonon news radio six ten wtv IS.
We're talking about May is Garden forWildlife Month, and of course get out
there and plant with a purpose andthe plant those native plants, just so

(08:28):
folks know when they go to yourwebsite, you actually offer native plants for
them to buy on this website.Correct. And actually because we're we're actually
a company owned by the National WildlifeIteration and we have to have spent years
working with professors and scientists on actuallybuilding this thing called the Native Plant Finder

(08:48):
Database, and that powers what wedo. So we actually down at the
zip code level can sell you plantsthat are native specifically to where you live.
So if you go to our websiteand you punch in, like go
to at seven eight, you're onlygoing to see plants that are native to
this zip code. And so youcan't buy plants that are native to say
New England or Texas that we alsofell, but only to people in those

(09:09):
areas. So we take all thehard work out of finding the plants that
are native to your area because we'vealready done that for you. Yeah,
you can't beat that, done thehomework for you. I mean, there
you go. So I've asked youthis question last time we had you on
the air, and you were kindof enough to give me your feedback about
it. We get this all thetime. We're talking about native plants,
but we're also talking out there whenyou go to the garden centers native plants,

(09:31):
native genus species, straight native plants, but then you get obviously native
selections or native VARs sometimes they're calledout there. Your opinion on using those
in with native plants as well,So I'll put it kind of in this.
We won't sell anything except for truenative plants to any area because those

(09:52):
are the best ones for that area, for the wildlife they thrive the best,
etc. But we also recognize thatpeople will put different things their gardens
because you know, you know,people go to the garden teinal by showy
annuals that are from other parts ofthe world. We're not saying, you
know, people are bad for doingthat. We just we want them to
be educated to why it's better toput in native plants, which is why
we only sell those. But peoplecan put in a variety of things.

(10:13):
We just like them to migrate tomore and more eventually native plants because they're
beautiful. There's so many great plantsout there. Yeah, native plants don't
have all the things that they doin commercial greenhouses sometimes with things like pesticides
and other chemicals that are actually badfor the pollen nators. Got it.
You know, you also have donea lot of I know, a lot
of work and research. I knowyou're doing some things at your own home

(10:35):
as well. That State of theBats report that was released out by the
North American Bad Conservation Alliance pretty interestingfacts statistic there. We forget about the
bats sometime they fall into the samecategory, but we got some major issues
going on with them. As well. We do. Indeed. In fact,
yeah, bat species are threatening alot of different areas for a range

(10:56):
of reasons, some of which they'restill trying to understand, like the white
nose syndrome um. But again,the biggest thing is if you can just
provide a space. We're actually goingto hang one up today, my daughter
and a bad house on the sideof my greenhouse. It's easy to help
them because they are so important.They eat. A bat can eat its
body weight in insects every night.And so if you don't like the insects

(11:18):
in your yard, the nats andall those other things that are really annoying
and make you use that bug spraywhich smells terrible, that's are a great
way to help get rid of them, and you help the species because again
they're in they're in decline. Yeah, and you know a lot of folks
are saying, well, why wouldI want bats in my backyard. You
know, they're they'll get in myhair and they'll suck my book. And
that doesn't happen. That's in themovies only, so we don't have to
work. We don't have to worryabout that. But you're right, and

(11:39):
the great and into all of whatthey're doing great piant pollinators and one thing
I never even thought about before,but this is all again part of this
whole cycle. Even when you're doingbutterflies and all, they also are part
of a prey for other animals withinthis whole cycle, like hawks and owls.
So it's all part of this circleall the time that we, you

(12:01):
know, can help to create andmake it better in our again in our
own backyards. You're exactly right though. The hawksiology even snake fill sometimes depend
on baths. The other thing isthat bat actually, as you said,
are pollinators and um, you knowif people obviously we don't grow things like
avocado's, nanas and bananas where welive, but those require the bass a

(12:22):
big part of their pollination. Soif you think about all the things they
do that we don't understand yet,they are a key part of of an
ecosystem web that has evolved for millionsof years, And anytime you take a
piece out of a puzzle, it'skind of like a genda tower. We
don't want to have that happen becausethey play a critical role in so many
different ways. Yeah, and youknow, I think it's interesting, you

(12:43):
know now that we've started to seethe decline. This report comes out and
I think it was what eighty oneof the continents one hundred fifty four known
bat types or at risk of severepopulation decline. All of a sudden,
folks don't realizing we got a problem. You start putting some money into some
research to find out more are aboutthem and what we can do. And
the same thing happened that we hadthe b decline and honeybe decline. Started

(13:05):
learning more about bees, you foundout so many things. And of course
the research continues on and on andon, and we're learning more and more
and getting smarter at what we do. But it's a shame that has to
come about. But I'm glad itdid to show our folks that we got
another situation here that we need toconcentrate on and we all again can be
a part of the solution, evenwithin our own little patios or decks exactly.

(13:26):
And that's a great point, becauseyou know, when I was talking
to those students universities for instance,I talked to lots of people about this.
There are so many things out therethat are somewhat overwhelming, whether it's
a plastic in the Pacific or anyother big massive changes going on, and
you're changing from a plastic to metalstraw. Doesn't make a bit of difference
to that. It's the right thingto do to use the papers from our
metal straw, but it's not goingto impact that big problem in the Pacific.

(13:50):
But this problem, the decline andso onwards, the three billion nesting
pairs that have disappeared, the decline, and pollinators, which is one of
the reasons why that's happened. Allof that is reversible, and we can
do it in our own backyards ifyou put in some native plants, just
take a small section or on containerright and put them in. You'll notice
the change in the first year,and then after that it only gets better
and better. You would always saytoo, and a bottom line selfishly,

(14:15):
it's dinner and a show because itlooks great and you get to watch the
activity of all the wildlife that's goingon out there, and it just benefits
them and us and the whole environment. Well, and you said something really
important here is that it benefits us. Because you know, happiness is something
everyone tries to sell you happiness andone of the things that actually has been
now sides it's proven to make youhappiest. Things like bird salt. What

(14:35):
I noticed in the morning. Now, I leave my windows open at night,
wake up in the morning for everybodyelse, and about five thirty in
the morning, just before the sunstarts to come up, the backyard,
doubt is just full of music.And I just sit out there with a
cup of coffee and listen to it. And it's a great way to start
today, and it actually improves mydays. There's no doubt. I'm the

(14:56):
same way. I get up andI go to work, or you know,
around five thirty or so and it'sstill jess Son, you know,
there's nothing up yet, but youcan see around. But at that time
I'm walking out to my truck andall I can hear a songbirds just having
at it and just singing and screamingeach other and back and forth. And
You're like, I'm the only onestanding out here, and I'm I'm loving
this and they're all singing around me. I don't know if you're a hunter

(15:18):
or not, but when I usedto like deer hunting, I always swore
that folks should go out even ifyou're not a hunter. I'm not asking
you to do that, but youshould go out and deer hunt one time
in your life where you go outat four o'clock in the morning in the
pitch black and sit your butt downin the middle of the woods somewhere and
just sit there and let mother Naturecome to life around you. That's actually

(15:39):
one of the reasons that I lovebeing in Scouts. So my son and
my daughter are both in Scouts anddifferent truths. And when we go out
camping, we do our summer campup in Pennsylvania Heritage Reservation, but then
we do campouts all year long becauseyou know, it's Scouts, and when
you're out there in the middle ofthe woods, it is You're exactly right.
It's amazing, and you hear allkinds of things at night. People

(16:00):
think of it in everything in sleepat night. No, it's just a
totally different rule and it's amazing itis. And you know, even you
sit there, sometimes you're not sure. You almost get a little nervous sometimes
like what is that? And alsowhen you can start to look, you
realize there's a raccoon staring at youabout six feet away. He's probably been
sitting there for a half an hourtrying to figure out what you're doing sitting
in there. But it's just thecoolest thing to just sit there and enjoy

(16:21):
it, to come to life withyou and you're right with the birds.
I'm out there by myself enjoying theheck out of it thinking, I mean,
I started screaming and get a wayto wake up and come outside and
just listen to what's going on.Yeah, you know. And there's another
really cool thing that you can donow because of course technology, because everything
amazing, but there's there's even likethings like you know, I think bird
Buddy. It's one of these onesthat had high deft cameras in bird feeters,

(16:44):
so you can put a bird feeterout there and then you get these
great pictures of you know, thebirds up close, which you would never
get otherwise. You get to seelike what's coming to your yard even when
you're not around it. Lots offun. Hey, we gotta go shove
allie. Always a pleasure having youon your man. You are you are
tearing it up and keep it going. I'll tell you what's Garden for Wildlife.
Go to the website Garden for Wildlifedot com. May is Garden for

(17:06):
Wildlife Month. Check out all thegreat information that they have. They're keep
planting those native plants and I lookforward to talking to you. I'm sure
we will somewhere down the road.Thank you, Shover Ali. Thank you
appreciate it always. All right,take care you too, Shover Ali.
And again the website Garden for Wildlifedot com. We take a quick break,
we come back. Guess what,Ella, We'll open up the phone

(17:26):
lines for you eight two one WTVNeight hundred and six ten WTVN only if
I say, please please Ella.Here on news radio six ten WTVN,
we are talking yardening, whether we'reon the air or off of the air.
And as you all well know,we have our new producer, Ella,
who's doing an outstanding job. Andof course we gotta get to know

(17:48):
Ella. And it's amazing how manyof the producers, I think, all
of them that we have, uhtypically are not gardeners. I just don't
have anything to do with gardening.And I'm finding out that Ella um doesn't.
She just doesn't garden. Not goodwith plants. She said She's been
watering a plastic high biscus for twoyears and finally realized to day should have
to water. But it's still alive. Well, what can we say?

(18:11):
You know, dust the leaves offoccasionally, though, don't use the plant
shining stuff on hers. Put itin a shower and rents it off.
It is hanging high enough on thehigh ceiling that nobody can see it close
up. So it's hanging high.Biscus. It is plastic in my tiki
themed dining room. Oh, thetiki themed dining room. Yes, okay,

(18:32):
excellent. Anyway, we will workand do our best to convert Ella
into some type of a part timegardener, maybe somewhere down Nope, don't
play that yet, somewhere down theroad. So we'll see a quick reminder.
Thirty sixth anniversary of Chadwick's Arboretums Annualspring plant Sale and Auctions going on
this weekend. It's today, that'sright at the Chadwick Carboretum. Going on

(18:55):
today. Let's see here until threeo'clock open the public. They have all
kinds of a class going on aswell, food and drinks. Have food
trucks there. I'm sorry you can'tbring your pets. Chadwick Arboretum dotsu dot
etu for more information. But theyhave that big sales, big plant raisor
plant fundraiser, and of course yougot the arboretum as well, which is
absolutely gorgeous northwest corner of Lane anduh Fred Taylor Drive, So stop out

(19:21):
and see what you can buy andhelp support that Chadwick Arboretums sale going on
today. Also real quick before wego to Gigium. Joe and I were
going to talk about this during histhing, and we always get off on
other things, right, mostly myfault, but one of the other posts
that Joe had this week with thebeagle bygl dot osu dot et you a

(19:41):
very common thing that the occurs rightnow and sometimes it occurs again in a
fall a little bit. You know, you're out there on the patio and
you go to sit down on thatbrick wall or concrete wall or your patio
furniture, and you see these littlered mites crawling everywhere. And I kid
Joe, I said, you know, he's got his Sunday go to meeting

(20:02):
clothes on, his white pants andwhite belt and white shoes, and he
sits down, he's got a littlered spots all over him. When he
stands up, those are concrete mites. Okay, concrete mites, and the
only issue with the concrete mites isthe fact that they're a nuisance and the
fact that yes, indeed, ifyou do sit on him, they will
put a little red dot on yourclothes. So if you have him out

(20:26):
there, he's the best thing todo, which just hose everything down and
let it dry before you're ready touse it. In secticidal soaps if you
want to spray with that very safe. Helps a knock down some of the
populations as well. But they arejust a nuisance, that's all they are.
But they're called concrete mites, andthey're red, and they will stain
your clothes. So if you gotthem out there, just hose them off

(20:47):
or sweep them off, or alittle insecticidal soap and then hose them off
and then let it dry and typicallyyou should be good to go. But
I usually get a lot of emailsright now talking about one of these little
red things crawling all over my brickwalls and patio furniture and things like that,
concrete mites, And don't you forgetit, GigE, good morning,
Funny, you are a mind reader. Why is that I have that little

(21:11):
red bucks all over all over mydeck? And it's the pastor that what
I call it anyway, But they'reon the vivernum is what seems like what
they're coming off of. But theycould be those concrete you were just talking
about. Yeah, more than whyyeah, at this time of the year,
this early on, and they're reallysmall. I mean they're like the
size of the tip of your pin. But you can see them. I
mean they're very distinct, but anice bright red fire engine, red man

(21:34):
and they're everywhere right now. Theyare. But I have another question also,
since you answered that one already funny, I didn't know that. That's
a kind of interesting. Yeah.So around my um, I have a
wall that goes around my fire pit, and on the around that I have
gotti ge where it's my part thatI drew a map. Oh it it's

(21:57):
a busher And they seem to haveseveral of them seem to have died over
the winter. It looks like theydid. They're brown, they're dried,
and I thought maybe I didn't waterthem or something of enough last year.
I don't know what the problem iswith that. No, you're you know.
What I say they did is thatI'm agreeing with you. They did.

(22:18):
We we lost some you know aswe look around the landscapes. We
had that cold blast, remember thathappened right before Christmas, the three days
of sixty degrees to minus eight stayedthere for two or three days, high
winds. Everything was actively growing,not actively growing, but still very active
up until that point. Ita orsweet Spire if the common name, very

(22:41):
active again, probably hadn't lost allthe leaves yet at that point, and
the temperatures dropped and we lost alot of branches within those whigila did that
burning bush? Did that? Youwant them as did that very sporadically,
and in some cases we lost allof them, So it was a fluke.
They're tough, those things, you'reall hardy to zone five. They're

(23:02):
dependable, durable. I highly recommendusing them. But unfortunately that that drop,
being dry and warm up to thatpoint really dine a number on a
lot of ITAs that are out there. So yes, more than likely they
have died back or are dead.If I have seen something that we've cut
back really close to the ground andstarting to sprout back up from the roots

(23:22):
system, but you should start,you should start to see something at this
stage or within another week or so. And if you don't I'm gonna say,
you're probably gonna have to pull thoseout and plan some new ones,
and I would not hesitate to putthose right back in the same spot.
That was a fluke. Yeah,it was probably at least ten years.
Oh yeah, yep, great plan. But unfortunately, like I said,

(23:48):
white chield just think we wouldn't expectwhite gila. The it is the burning
bush. Talk about something tough,and we're seeing pieces all dead in those
I mean things like that just sporadicallyhappening. Obviously, I leaf evergreens like
hollies and laurels and boxwood all gotnipped pretty good. But some things that
we did not expect to happen,like the ia took it on a chin,

(24:10):
right right. Okay, well,thank you so much. You have
a lovely weekend. Thank you youtoo. Good talking to you. And
by the way, Ia, thevirginica that is a need. Those are
native to eastern United States. They'retough, they are durable. If you've
never seen it before, great.The flower kind of a suckering habit.
They'll kind of sucker out. Greatin a you know, if you're trying
to mass in an area or likeputting that wall around here and getting like

(24:33):
a solid planting around the outside ofthat wall. They're absolutely perfect for that.
But a nice little flour great fallcolor. They will tolerate moist areas,
kind of a red purple fall color. It's absolutely gorgeous, the flower
of the springtime, wonderful, likea players Chaponica with like little bells hanging
down. I do deadhead those whenthey're done and get rid of those.
I don't like them after they're finished, and that's usually sometime early Junie or

(24:56):
so. But it's Ita or SweetSpire and probably Little Henry. Little Henry
and probably Henry's Garden. It's probablythe two most popular ones that are out
there on the market. But againthere's another group of plants that in several
landscapes just really took it on achin thanks to the warm, dry fall
and then the drop from sixty tominus eight in a twelve hour period.

(25:19):
Look at the rest of the winterJanuary February, we were at a zone
seven readings Zone seven, that's Tennessee. So if we hadn't have had that
cold blast, we'd have been wayout of the schedule this year with things
coming back out into the leaf allright. One more break, we come
back, we'll finish up again.Phone lines are open for you at eight
two one wtv in here on newsradio six ten WTVN. I'll tell you

(25:44):
one thing I'd like to look atme and we're talking with schuber Ali there
talking about planning for pollinators. Thatis a great container to do, a
mixed planner that you would put togetheryourself. Four Mom, if she just
has a small patti or deck andyou want to put something together for you
can I mean, think of theplants that are that I'm going to miss
and real quick, that are allgreat pollinator magnets that are gonna flower all
summer long. For it would lookabsolutely gorgeous in a container. Talk about

(26:07):
dinner in the show verbenas Zennias Boridge, Yeah, Boridge, you can actually
use the leaves for a cucumber substitute. But the flowers, they absolutely love
the flowers on borage sunflowers and containerswork great cosmos. Lantanna, Oh my
gosh, the pollinators love lantanas,including the hummingbirds, will be all over

(26:29):
it. Salvia of all kinds,wonderful that vermilion Kupia, all the kupis
ceu Pheakupias are great, Selosia alistu moss rose portrelca. Those are great
ones. We forget about that one. And you can look at perennials too,
like cone flower rudbecki is all couldbe grown in containers. Flower all

(26:51):
summer long. Pollinators absolutely love it. And you put that out there,
and you can put a little pollinatorbar next to it with some sand and
gravel and some water in there sothey don't drown. They kind of land
on the sand and gravel and drinkwater at the same time. And you
have created a wonderful show for momto take a look at those flowers all
summer long, and the activity goingon around that pollinator planner all summer long

(27:14):
works great. Like I said earlier, I do containers for my mom every
year with the tomatoes and peppers andnerves, some herbs, a couple decorative
planners, a couple of dragon wingbagon. Yes she counts on those dragon
begonias hanging baskets in there, butthose cherry tomatoes got to have him.
And this year, of course,if you were listening to our show a
couple of weeks ago, when wewere out at the creek, Derby Creek.

(27:36):
She'll finally talk to me again becauseI planted a Ramapo tomato for her
several years ago that Jeff is exclusivefor growing, and he didn't have him
for a couple of years. Andthen I didn't see Jeff for a couple
of years and I didn't have himfor him, and she loved Ramapo tomatoes.
Fortunately, when we were there,I got myself a couple of rama
plants. So now my mom getsRamapo tomatoes in with her other tomatoes for

(28:00):
Mother's Day. So anyway, thoseare great things for mom to plant.
And of course that petite knockout roseswe were talking about earlier, great and
containers as well. So Mom's lovethings for the garden and from the garden.
Get out to your local, yourowned independent garden centers today and tomorrow
and see what you all the greatthings that are ailable for mom out there.
Take her with you, or gether a gift card from one of

(28:21):
those places. If you're not surewhat to get, let her go and
pick out whatever she'd like. Backto the gardening phone lines we go,
Cheryl, good morning, Well,hi Rod, thank you so much for
your program. I always learned somuch. Thank you. Yes, I
have a question about tree roots.In my front yard. I have a
gorgeous, great big I think it'scalled a Crimson maple. It's got those

(28:45):
red leaves in the spring that areyes, beautiful, yes, And then
the backyard or river birch, andwhat I'm seeing in the front yard the
king Crimson maple, the tree rootsare up at the grass line. I've
got several that are huge, likemaybe five inches or six inches in diameter,

(29:11):
and they are above the ground.And then in the backyard the river
birch, the tree roots have actuallyeroded away the grass and it's got all
this bear area. So I justwondered, first of all, if that's
any danger to the tree with thetree roots being you know, above ground.

(29:33):
And then I think the solution isto widen the beds and put mulch
of room. But I wanted tofirst of all know if there's any danger
to the tree with those tree rootsbeing Yeah, the danger the danger to
the trees, and not so muchfor the river birch, for the danger
to the maple. And at theCrimson king that's a that's a wonderful tree.

(29:56):
If you look around, you don'tsee a lot of them of any
large size. So if you've gotan specimen there, enjoy that because it's
a wonderful tree. But the problemis a lot of times, like you're
seeing, they will get those surfaceroots. The reason those come up is
because that's where all the moisture orthe fertilizer or the air. I mean,
it only makes sense, and that'swhy they come to the top of
the ground. Some trees are worsethan others. But you know a lot

(30:17):
of folks want to either cut thoseoff, which I do not recommend doing,
or come in with some top soiland cover over the top and then
plant more grass or whatever. Youcould technically do that one time, but
after about three or four years they'reright back up to the top of that
again. So that's not an answerfor you as well. So your answer
there about the mulch is perfect.Either expand the bed out and mulch it

(30:40):
in, or you can put aground cover on top of that. If
you don't want the mulched area.Some folks kind of flip out and say,
well, that's a huge bed wouldjust mulch in it. Well that's
fine, then just plant, youknow, low growing perennials or a ground
cover of some type that would fillin over the top. And then you've
got this more of a ground plantingunderneath the mape and you're good to go.
So that is the best answer ever. As far as the river birch,

(31:06):
if you could, if you couldtake an um an air blower and
blow all the soil off, youwould be totally amazed at this mass planting
of roots about twelve inches below theground, totally at the drip line and
into the center. That that thatthe birch tree thick with roots. That's
the way they grow. And andyou probably have noticed when we start getting

(31:29):
into the more warm times, Cheryl, they probably start to shed a few
leaves here in there, yes,oh yeah, yeah, yellow leaves everywhere.
Well, the reason they do thatis they love that the springtime,
they're getting lots of moisture, it'scooler, they're producing a lot of leaves,
no problem. But once we startedgetting where it's warm and now they
need more moisture, and they aren'tgetting more moisture, even though you may

(31:51):
have the irrigation system going, theystart to shed a lot of leaves because
they don't have enough moisture to supportthem, and that root system is massive
underneath there, and it gets somassive the fact that then you try to
grow stuff underneath it, even youcan't even get grass to grow there because
it's sucking all the nutrients and allthe moisture out of the ground as well.
So we go back to the sameanswer. What is the best answer.

(32:14):
You got it getting rid of thegrass and mulching it in, or
you can if you supplement watering duringhot, dry times of the year,
you can get some ground covers tofill in over the top as well.
But again, mulch is your bestshot. And you know, again it's
I know it's a lot of mulch, but that's the best way to go.

(32:34):
And a lot of times when youdo that, they don't drop the
leaves quite as bad because they canmaintain a little bit more moisture around the
base of that tree and around thoseroots system, and maybe not might be
much of a messy or as muchof a messy tree as it was without
it. But mulching is your bestoption as far as I'm concerned, one
of the only options besides the groundcover. Okay, I have a question.

(32:58):
You've in the past said like toput cardboard down. So would that
work? Like if I you know, in other words, I'll do I'll
get the edging you know done.But could I put cardboard down over top
of the grass that's there? Yeah, you can if you don't want to
spray it with anything. A lotof folks say, I don't want to
spray it with anything. Now whatdo I do? Right? Because if

(33:19):
you spray with roundup or kills All, it won't affect your tree. But
a lot of folks don't want todo that. In that case, what
I would do is stay away fromthe roots, but mow it down as
low as you can with the lawnmower. That really helps. And then lay
your cardboard right on top of that, and then put your mulch on top
of that, and I'll smother outthe grass. If by chance, it
starts to pop up a little bithere and there as a cardboard would disintegrate,

(33:42):
or in between where the seams arewhere the cardboard would overlap, you
know, you could spot treat thatwith the kills All or the roundup,
or just hand pull it out.There's also a product called over the top,
which doesn't hurt your plants. Andonly kills grasses, and that would
help you out as well, soyou could do that too, But that,
yeah, the cardboards a great wayto go. I personally do not
like using landscape fabrics around the anyI don't like using in the landscape period,

(34:08):
and I really don't like using itunderneath trees. I just it's a
nuisance, it's a pain. Ita lot of times trees will try to
root into that. It's just Idon't like doing it. But that cardboard
to get rid of the grass it'sthere, and then keeping a nice mulching
after that, do a little preemergent nerb side in the springtime, like
a little prene or dimension keep anyof the weed seeds from coming up.

(34:29):
You've got it made, and it'sthe best thing for the trees as well.
We've actually seen by doing that.And you hear me harp about this
all the time. If you've gotgrass growing up to the base of your
trees, especially if they're smaller,you shouldn't have it that way. You
should have a nice ring of maltaaround the outside of that one to keep
your lawnmower away from us so youdon't get lawnmore disease. Two to keep

(34:50):
your string trammor away from us soyou don't get string tremmor disease that's damaging
the bark. And three Having thatmulta on the top stays cooler, The
roots stay a little bit more andmore the earthworm and microbial activities better.
Your trees actually respond better without thegrass, but with the mulch. All
right, that's it for today.Thanks for roller to all of our colors,
Thanks to our sponsors. Thanks ofcourse Starry producer Ella Plarty, because

(35:13):
without Ella, none of the staffwould stuff what happened. So Ella,
thank you so much for all thatyou do. Now do yourself a favor.
It is Mother's Day weekend. Getout and plant a tree or two
or three. Maybe plant a treein honor of mom if your mom's not
still around, A great way tomemorialize your mom. Plane a tree and
watch you grow. Plant those nativeplants, beat pollinator friendly, pamper your
worms, get your kids and dogsinvolved with guarding, and by all means,
make it the best weekend of yourlife. See you