The 2025 Tree and Plant sale is Bringing Color to your Backyard

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Good morning everybody. Welcome back. I'm Ron Wilson, and you
are in the garden here on news radio six '
ten WTVN talking about yardning as we move our way
through the month of January eighteenth, already, can you believe
that it's gonna fly by? Trust me, get your plans
in place. We'll talk more about that as we go along,
but right now, it's always fun to have this young

(00:21):
lady on our show. She's always so full of great
information and it's a great way to kick off the
twenty twenty five yardening season. Their website Franklin SWCD dot org. That's,
of course, Franklin Soil of Water Conservation District. She is
the chief enforcer of their pop program and of course
always sharing lots of great information as well. Back with

(00:43):
us this morning, ladies and gentlemen, Corey said Mac, good morning.

Speaker 2 (00:47):
Good morning, Ron. How are you.

Speaker 1 (00:49):
I'm good? Where you been.

Speaker 2 (00:52):
Working working hard at work? Yeah? The more I work,
the less time I have to yeap with wonderful folks
like you.

Speaker 1 (01:01):
It's yeah, yeah great. So where yeahppen we are. I'm
going to write that well, I'm going to I'm going
to write that down. Corey and I, yeah, say these days.
Oh is that what it is?

Speaker 2 (01:15):
Yeah, I'm keeping you hip.

Speaker 1 (01:17):
Well, thank me, thanks for keeping me hip. I appreciate it.
First of all, before we get to the what we
really want to talk about today, I want to do
a couple reminders. One the pickup poop. I always have
to bring that up, the pup program, picking up your
dog poop. That's kind of tough to do this time
any year, don't you think?

Speaker 2 (01:33):
It definitely is. But one thing I feel like I've
seen popping up recently is a lot of landscape and
long hair companies have started adding dog poop scooping to
their list of services.

Speaker 1 (01:46):
Yeah.

Speaker 2 (01:47):
I think it's a nice way for them to make
an extra book when they're not mowing lawns or if
they don't have snow to shovel and that kind of thing.
So that's something to explore if you don't want to
be bundling up and going out out in the snow
and searching for that stuff.

Speaker 1 (02:02):
And of course it's if they're mowing your grass. Is
a good thing for them to do that before they
mow the grass exactly.

Speaker 2 (02:08):
Yeah, So win win for you and the long air company.

Speaker 1 (02:10):
And for the Long Air Company as well, But it
is a major issue. It is a major problem with
our water runoff. When you threw I remember many many
years ago we first had you on the show and
you threw out that one hundred and four tons of
dog poop every day just in Franklin County alone, I
was like, you got to be kidding me. But it
is a series issue, and that's why I always bring

(02:32):
it up. It's kind of fun anyway, but to bring
it up to folks just to remind that that is
very important to pick up after your dog as best
you can. The other one is I love it when
I because I keep this every year going through the winter.
I get all your newsletters in all and you always
send out the be Smart, Be Salt Smart three page
thing telling you all about using salt and you know,

(02:54):
ice and snow melters and all of that. It's a
that is a such a great three day earth free
page report. And it always again kind of blew me
back when you first told me a tea spoon of
road salt permanently pollutes five gallons of water.

Speaker 2 (03:09):
Yeah, it really doesn't take very much, and it's a
growing issue. It's something we're starting to see concentrations of
salt slowly rising in groundwater, so a source of water
that doesn't move around quite as much as surface water does.
So something we're starting to see folks keeping better track of,
and obviously people like us are trying to get the

(03:30):
word out. You know, let's kind of nip this problem
in the bud and get this information out on how
to salt in the best most eco friendly way possible
so we can prevent this from becoming a major issue
in our drinking water.

Speaker 1 (03:44):
Well, you know, one thing I noticed in here if
you were going to use solt, this correct salt application,
which obviously when you go out on the street and
it's just piled on there, it's not the way to
do it. Is that those granules, what is it about
three to five inches apart?

Speaker 2 (04:00):
Yeah, about three inches of spread is what we tell
folks to take for between each granule. Another way to
think about it is one coffee cup full of salts
that's usually about a pound of salt is good for
two hundred and fifty square feet of your driveway, sidewalks
and things like that. So the average driveway you really

(04:20):
only need about the coffee cups worth of salt to
melt the ice effectively.

Speaker 1 (04:25):
Yeah, two hundred and fifty square feet one pound of
the salt is all you would need. And of course,
when it's all said and done, and if they're salt
on the driveway, just don't hose it off into the
street or whatever. Sweep it up and put it back
in the container. You can use it again somewhere down
the road. Of course, there are other de icers that
are used out there. You always have that comparison chart.

(04:46):
I think it's outstanding. But again you can get this information.
Just go to their website it's Franklin SWCD dot org
to learn more about it, and of course all the
great things that you do and great information and gardening
tips in a whole nine yards. So we certainly appreciate that.
Now every year, how long have you guys been doing this,
by the way, get the tree sale.

Speaker 2 (05:09):
We're going on probably seventy five years or so of
tree sailing.

Speaker 1 (05:13):
Seventy five years of doing this over a long time, obviously,
and it just seems to get better and better every year.
It looks like it's already started as far as online ordering,
but their twenty twenty five Tree and Plant Sale is
now in effect, and I like your theme this year,

(05:33):
bringing color to your backyard.

Speaker 2 (05:36):
Yeah, it's a really fun one. And I'm always excited
because our selections change around a little bit every year,
but the color theme is really exciting, especially, I mean,
January's been so gray and cold and kind of sad,
and it's nice to have all these bright plants to
think about putting into your garden.

Speaker 1 (05:54):
And so again, you guys, you go through and you
do you change it up every year this list and
we'll go through this the list after the break, but
you change it up every year. Are what's your criteria
when you come up with the next year's list of
plants that you're going to sell?

Speaker 2 (06:11):
Yeah, so we look at what's sold well in past years,
so what folks are really excited about already. We're also
looking at things that are doing better in a warmer,
wetter climate. So a lot of times we'll have a
couple species that are native just south of Ohio or
to southern Ohio, so things that will survive her long

(06:32):
term as we see things getting a little warmer and wetter,
and also really looking at native plants that are really
good benefit to wildlife. And then every other year. We
throw some fruits into there as well, so some things
for our veggi and fruit gardeners and community gardens and
things like that.

Speaker 1 (06:52):
And you have done an excellent job this year. As
far as the plant list, you can find this at
Franklin sw CD dot org, forward slash tree and plant sale.
Let's take a real quick break. We come back, or
take a break, we'll come back. We'll go over the
list here with Corey, said Mac from Franklin Soil and
Water Conservation District here on news radio six to ten WTVN.

(07:15):
Corey said Mac, Franklin's Soil and Water Conservation District. I
bet you'd never danced to this song.

Speaker 2 (07:23):
I can't say, halpen it might have to later. That's
a good one.

Speaker 1 (07:26):
See it is a good one back in my old days.
See you're teaching me the new kids stuff. We're teaching
the old school stuff.

Speaker 2 (07:35):
I love it. Theret go good sharing of knowledge.

Speaker 1 (07:38):
There you go, Corey said Mac. With us this morning
school new kids stuff, old school new kids. Remember getting
tickets and new kids on the block. Yeah, and both
my kids fell asleep. Never fails, talking about Corey, said Mac.
Website is Franklin SWCD dot org. You got your your
tree and plant sale going on twenty twenty five. It

(07:59):
started January sixth, so it's already underway. Goes through March
the twenty third.

Speaker 2 (08:06):
Yes, that is the last day you can order, although
we are already about to sell out of a couple things,
so I highly recommend ordering as swiftly as you can.

Speaker 1 (08:16):
Let me guess. Spice bush.

Speaker 2 (08:21):
Actually, no, we're doing well on spice bush.

Speaker 3 (08:24):
Oh cool, We usually do.

Speaker 2 (08:26):
That is usually a really popular one though.

Speaker 1 (08:29):
Yeah, because it gets a lot of obviously we talk
about a lot as far as a good native and
good for the pollinators, but it's one of that can
be kind of tough to find sometimes out there.

Speaker 2 (08:39):
Yeah, and it's I feel like dry shade. Folks are
always looking for something to put in dry shady spots
in it just as great and dry shade.

Speaker 1 (08:47):
Yep, most definitely. But again, so you put the list together,
you go over it every year, you update the list
from season to season. The theme this year is bringing
color to your backyard. I kind of like the way
you went through the rainbow of offer this year with
the sassafrass for the orange and the tulip tree for
the green, the yellow and the green and the blue
at all. Pretty cool. I like it. You guys shows

(09:11):
you guys are having a lot of fun. But again,
walking through this thing, now, these are you've got like
the deciduous trees you got per salmon, and oaks and sassafrass,
and tool trees. You got white pine, white cedar. Smaller
trees as well, including red bud, which hazel which I love.
Pawpaws are in the in the list too. What size containers?

(09:31):
What can folks expect when they when they buy these plants?
How big are they?

Speaker 3 (09:35):
Yeah?

Speaker 2 (09:35):
So most of these are bear roots, so they're only
a foot or too tall, and you'll actually get them
in a bag and the roots will have some soil
moist on them, but otherwise they'll just kind of be
hanging out a little bit exposed. So they are smaller trees.
But the nice thing is you get them in a bundle,
so you get either five trees usually or ten shrubs,

(09:59):
so you kind of have room for a little bit
of failure there. And the price reflects that size too,
so usually it's a bundle of five for eleven or
twelve dollars. A bundle of ten is nineteen dollars I
think this year. So they're really affordable for a larger
number of plants. So if you have a larger area,

(10:20):
maybe you got rid of a bunch of honeysuckle and
you're looking for something economical to put in that space,
and this is a really good sale for that.

Speaker 1 (10:28):
Yeah. Absolutely, bladder nut, coralberry, spice bush, shining sumac, that'
steeple bush which is a spire. We have probably a
lot of folks don't know about winterbery I experts. A
lot of absolutely gorgeous plant all available for you in there.
And then of course you've got you got the live stakes,
you have available, you have the the native perennial kits,
which you did you had that last year too, right, Yeah, Yeah, we've.

Speaker 2 (10:52):
Been doing these the last couple of years. We have
quite a few more selections this year. So these are
little plug kits. They're actually pretty big. They're fifty plants
and you get ten different species, so five of each
species there in this kit. Most of them are about
one hundred square feet when you totally plant them out
on eighteen inch centers for each plant. But these are great,

(11:15):
I mean, if you have a wet spot in your yard.
You have some rain garden kits of some plants that
will thrive there. You can just take out that turf
that's suffering through having wet feet in the spring and
put in these lovely flowers. We have a prairie grass
kit this year, so it's all just grasses. If you

(11:36):
already have enough flowers and you're looking to play with
texture a little more and get some of those grasses
in there, that's a good one. But yeah, a couple
of different interesting themes this year for those, and those
just ship right to your door in June, so you
order them and then a nice lovely day in June,
you'll have some plants that you can plant.

Speaker 1 (11:55):
Also, you get those flat cardboard box and you open
it up in surprise.

Speaker 2 (12:00):
Yep, yep, get to work.

Speaker 1 (12:01):
Get to work. You start planting. Mushroom kits available this year.

Speaker 2 (12:06):
Yes, so we do Chataki mushroom plugs, so you get
some wooden plugs that are inoculated with the Chataki mic orrisi.
We do not have logs this year, so you do
need to find a log. Most hardwoods are great for
that and put them somewhere like shady and kind of
moist in the yard and you'll get some chataki mushrooms out.

Speaker 1 (12:28):
Of those and uh and the flavors outstanding and they
are very easy to grow really And then of course
you have your pollinator wildflower mix.

Speaker 2 (12:39):
Yeah, so we have these seed mixes that are really
nice if you have a bear area. They're definitely a
little less work than putting all those plugs in and
they're very economical too. And those are all Ohio native
species that are in those seed packets as well.

Speaker 1 (12:57):
You know, we're starting to see flowering lawns and that
being used lot more, you know, getting rid of the turf,
making the perennial beds bigger, increasing more of the pollinator
plants and native plants and all. And I'm just curious
at the said mac estate. Have we considered going into
the flowering lawn versus a turf Ooh.

Speaker 2 (13:16):
I have not yet.

Speaker 1 (13:19):
Geez.

Speaker 2 (13:20):
I'm trying to kind of think critically about why. I
do already have a lot of flowers in my lawn,
so they're not necessarily native plants. And we do have
quite a few violets, but there's a lot of clover,
lots of plantain, which one of our plantain species is
a native plant, and even just having some of those

(13:40):
things sprinkled in. You know, I noticed monarchs stopping at
the clovers, and like this time of year, the junkos
and little sparrows love to eat the seeds off the plantain.
But yeah, I guess my current turf situation is okay,
And if I'm going to do work, it's probably just
going to be removing all the turf and weeds and

(14:01):
putting in trees and perennials and things as opposed to
seting a different type of lawn.

Speaker 1 (14:06):
There you go, Well, you know a lot of folks
have gotten into the they had like the turf type
tall fescues, but then they go with those micro clovers
which down low and feeds it naturally so you don't
have to use a fertilizer which cuts down again on
that water runoff and polluting the water as well. So
might be something you want to take a look at.

Speaker 2 (14:25):
Yeah, there's also some really interesting research with sedges, especially
the Mount Cuba Center recently put out a really cool
little booklet on some of their sedge trials where they
were specifically looking at sedges that can handle some mowing
and grow and less of a clump and more of
a swoth that kind of stuff.

Speaker 1 (14:44):
You know. When they did I had them on the show.
I think it was last year when they put that
report out. They found they discovered some kind of a
native turtle that they didn't know that was in the
area and they wound up living in their sedge patches
or something. I don't know. It's kind of kind of interesting. Last,
but not least in this mix, which I saved to
the last. Berries and apples.

Speaker 2 (15:06):
Yes, yes, and we are selling out of blueberries, so
this is I think the first time we've sold blueberries
since I've been working here. But you get two different varieties,
which is great. One is an earlier variety, one is
a little later, so they kind of compliment each other
that way. Blueberries can be a little tough to grow,
so definitely be looking up some of that cultural information.

(15:30):
They need really good drainage and they need acidic soil,
so a little extra love than most plants. And then
a couple apple varieties. I always love our apple varieties
because they're semi dwarf, so you really don't need much
more than a step ladder to harvest them once they
reach their max height and they're also varieties that are
bred for, you know, the backyard grower. They're pretty disease resistant,

(15:54):
so you don't need to be out there spraying them
all the time, that kind of thing.

Speaker 1 (15:58):
Yeah, Crimson crisp and gold rush are the two varieties,
and then they will pollinate each other, so that works
for you as well. And of course it's blue crop
and Elliott and blue crops the earlier blueberry and Elliot's
the later one, so you get two different crops there
as well, So great choices all the way around. And again,
if you're interested, go to the just go to the
website right and you can order right on the website

(16:20):
is Franklin SWCD dot org.

Speaker 2 (16:23):
Yep, yeah, you can go on there in order and
then pick up this year. Ohg's I better check my dates.
It's in the middle of April. April eleventh and April
twelfth is a Friday and a Saturday. You can swing
by our office pick up your plants, and that kind
of early April day is perfect for planting these bear roots.
They love to have all that ring.

Speaker 1 (16:43):
Will you be the one out loading all these in
everybody's car.

Speaker 2 (16:48):
Probably at least one of the days if not both
of them or last year I was absent, but this
year I will definitely be there.

Speaker 1 (16:55):
Well, that was my lead to, or will you be
in Kansas observing some prairie bird?

Speaker 2 (17:00):
What was that thing again, prairie chicken?

Speaker 1 (17:03):
Prairie chicken.

Speaker 2 (17:04):
You don't remember your I forgot.

Speaker 1 (17:06):
I'm getting old this year. I'm getting old. Remember. But yeah,
you were out doing the prairie chicken thing last year?

Speaker 2 (17:13):
Yes, yes, I was, but not this year. This year
I got I gotta sell some trees.

Speaker 1 (17:17):
Okay, Well, which was interesting because after we talked about that,
I had all kinds of people email and going, you
got to try it out. It's pretty cool. And then
you know, prairie chicken, I said, only Corey said, Mac
would do something that's really cool.

Speaker 2 (17:30):
I try, I'll try to include you on whatever my
next adventure is.

Speaker 1 (17:34):
Well, we've we've kind of called you our roving reporter.
I mean, you did report from the what was that
the pop off FESTI while you were.

Speaker 2 (17:40):
At one time, yes, which is amazing. Hopefully I inspired
some people to go and well I.

Speaker 1 (17:45):
Think you were. Well I can't say for sure. In
testing the Paw Paul beer at that time.

Speaker 2 (17:54):
I must not have been on the talk.

Speaker 1 (17:56):
Then at ten fifteen in the morning, there you go,
Corey said Mac again. The website is Franklin SWCD dot org.
Their tree and plant sale is underway. Jump on it
early because they sell out a lot of these things early,
so take advantage of it. And then when you go
to pick them up on April eleventh and twelfth, Corey
will personally put those in the back of your car
or truck. Thank you so much for being with us

(18:17):
this morning.

Speaker 2 (18:19):
Of course I have a great weekend, all.

Speaker 1 (18:20):
Right, you too, Corey. Good talking with you. Quick break,
we come back. Phone lines are open for you at
eight two one WTVN eight hundred and sixty ten WTVN.
And you know what's happening right here on news radio
six to ten WTVN eight two to one WTVN Talk
on the yardning here on news Radio six y ten WTVN.

(18:41):
I am Ron Wilson, your personal personal yard boy, trying
to help you out as much as I can so
you can be a little bit more successful in your
gardening and yarning endeavors.

Speaker 3 (18:51):
Uh.

Speaker 1 (18:51):
And of course we're always taking your call at a
two to one WTVN eight hundred sixt n WTVN and
always taking your tips if you've got things that have
worked for you and yard and garden. I love hearing
from you plants that did well, tomatoes whatever, putting together
tomato lists for growing for this year and the different varieties.
And I don't know if I mentioned this earlier or not,

(19:12):
but kind of looking I did a lot of research
this past December and early January talking looking at some
of the miniature plants. And I was talking I think
with the Melinda Myers last week about this, but some
of the miniature plants that are available out there, vegetable
plants that are now available for homeowners that for both
indoor and outdoor growing. It's phenomenal what plant breeders have

(19:35):
come up with today in these smaller vegetable plants that
are good producers. So the percentage of fruit that you get,
like tomatoes, you know, you get these dwarf tomato plants,
and it used to be the you get those little
guys in the four inch pot and they would have
like six or eight little cherry tomatoes on there, and
they were determined it. So they would flower what you
saw and they would fruit and then that would be it.

(19:57):
And it would be done. And the ones today flower,
they're not indeterminates, but they will continue to grow a
little bit and have some more flowers and give you
a more extended period of fruiting. And the size of
the fruit on some of these in the mouth that
you get is crazy. And again trying to research and
figure out which ones we thought were the best, you know,

(20:20):
as far as trying to grow and put on that list.
But even through those, the peppers that are available today
that are dwarf again twelve fourteen inches high and wide,
perfect for growing in containers. Again, indoors or out. The
selection's crazy. And I found okra, I found well, I

(20:41):
got it all broccoli, cauliflower, and again I don't have
the list with me, and I will go with this
with you in a couple of weeks. But I even
found cauliflower that only gets about you know, it just
gets a set of leaves and then it gets a
cauliflower right in the center. So it's only ten or
twelve inches high and wide, perfect again for growing in
small containers, and it does work. Indoors are out. As

(21:02):
a matter of fact, we somebody sent me a picture
this past week of their ornamental cabbage and kale, and
I think this is a kale. It's one of the purple, pinky,
purple ones that they took a picture of it just
before we got the big snowfall, and this thing was
just glowing with color. And I still think that the

(21:24):
ornamental cabbage and kales that you plant in the fall
are way underused for fall planting. You know, we do
the moms and the asters and the pansies and all that.
But I'm telling you, if you get these planet early
and let them grow so they and get some size
to them by the time you get to the holidays,
by the time you get the Christmas, you know, the
color on these is phenomenal. And I still got six

(21:48):
in a planter that was by our patio, and before
the snow came in, these things were absolutely glowing. And
as the snow has started to melt off here I
can see them. They're still glowing. They're kind of flat,
kind of smushy, but I think they made it through.
And we used to call these flowering ornamental cabbage and
kale because if they made it through the winter, then

(22:08):
they would flower the next season. And they do. It's
a it's a white flower comes up little daisy like
flowers and smells like cabbage and kale. But I'm telling
you that's those are way underused. Put those on your radar,
on your list for fall plantings next year, and containers
around the front door, on the patio or whatever, because
they continue to get better as the fall season goes along.

(22:30):
And I'm telling you they are a tremendous show. But
I found many of those the same way that you know,
stay small, but high producers, cut and come agains that
can all be grown in six eight inch pots. Again
perfect for indoor right now. So I think you'll be
amazed at the garden centers this year. I hope a
lot of them jump onto that those smaller varieties for
those that may be listening to the show, or are

(22:53):
or may you know, live in a patio an apartment
with a small patio, or small patio at a condo,
or just not doing as much gardening anymore, doing most
of it in containers or your pop up gardener, whatever
it may be. These smaller selections are great producers and
doing a great job, and if you get them to
go through the summer, you may be able to bring
him back inside the house. And do them inside as well.

(23:14):
As a matter of fact, I got an email and
I got to put a shout out to Mark Stutter
or Matt Stutter. I'm sorry Matt sent me. I said,
listen to the show, send me a picture. He got,
I guess for Christmas a arrow garden. Have you seen those?
I mean, they've been around forever. It's an indoor hydropontic

(23:34):
gardening system that you basically punch in you kind of
a computer computerized hydroponding system that you can grow multiple
plants in. They come in different sizes, fit right on
the kitchen counter. He's got a picture of his on
the counter and he says, look, I've got a little
bit of greens coming up already. He's grown lettuce in his,
but the lighted just as the plants grow. They're pretty cool.

(23:56):
They're not cheap, but they're pretty cool. They had a
lot of fun for indoor growing. But it's call an
arrow garden. And there he is growing his greens this
winter and his new arrow garden. So check. Though I
always wanted one, maybe I'll break down some day and
buy one of those. But they're pretty cool. But I
appreciate the email there. I also want to say hello

(24:16):
to Tammy and Ray Hughes send me a picture. They
do this every year, pictures of their Amarillis. For some
reason they've been able to get amarillis flowers that the
stalks are like three and four feet tall, and this
year they sent me pictures said, not quite as tall
as in the past, but still lots of color. In
this picture there are six pots of amaryllis. All six

(24:39):
are in different stages of growing and flowering. So they
they've got one it's in full color right now, one
is just starting to open just a little bit. The
other one's right behind I see some flower buds, and
then the other ones are shorter and a couple of
them are just now starting to come out from the
top of those amarillis bulbs. But again they've got great color.

(25:00):
And then this looking at those six pots right there
will probably give them color from and this is probably
going on for about two or three weeks now, uh,
right on through easily through February with some great winter color.
So absolutely thank you for sending that in. And then
just another great reason why those Amarilla's kids are phenomenal

(25:21):
for a gift and phenomenal for winter color. Insights, so
so easy to do, and they redo theirs every year,
and they do a very good job at that as well.
Right quick break, we come back. We'll jump into the
guarding phone lines at a two to one WTVN. Here
on news radio six to ten WTVN, we are talking
you arder here on news radio six ten WTVN. A

(25:41):
two to one about WTVN is our number, and letus
go to the gardening phone lines to talk with Dave. Dave,
good morning, Good morning Ron.

Speaker 3 (25:52):
Okay, you may have already answered you may have already
answered this at some point. But I've been prepping to
put in a bunch of tomato plants this year along
the side of our house. We live up northwestern north
of Westerville, Okay, in Genoa Township. We're in a subdivision,
but still kind of country. My neighbor did tomatoes last year,
and our wonderful deer friends came in and just took

(26:15):
the entire tops of the plants all the way down.
Any ideas I mean other than fencing, obviously, but the
deer evidently loved tomato plants.

Speaker 1 (26:26):
Yep. They love taking the top right out of them,
and they'll take a nibble out of the tomatoes as well.
Every now and then.

Speaker 3 (26:34):
If you use the deer repellent, does it do anything?

Speaker 1 (26:38):
Right? Here's here's the deal with deer repellents. Yes, deer
repellants work, and you know, but I think the kicker
is this. And if you read the label all of them,
they say a hundred percent guarantee to work, and they do.
But if a deer's coming through, they will browse and
even though they may smell the deer repellent that you have.
And by the way, not all deer repellents can be

(26:58):
used on edibles. You have to look and read the
label to make sure you can use it on edibles. Now,
some could be sprinkled around the base, but to spray
it on the plant, not all of them are labeled
for that, so you have to be sure to get
the one that's labeled and it would have to be reapplied.
So remember, these tomato plants or anything growing in the
vegetable garden is always you know, it's always putting out
new growth and always growing, and that new growth that

(27:20):
comes out doesn't have the repelling on it, so you've
got to kind of refresh it. Talking with doctor Allan army.
He's a couple of years ago. One of the things
he said was, you know, in his perennial garden and
annual guard, just to keep the deer away, he said,
he uses the repellents and he mixes it up. But
what he does is he also keeps a couple of
bottles on hand of fresh diluted repellents. That what he

(27:44):
can go out when he's walking through and just sprints
it every now and into freshen it up, so it's
always fresh and always there. But they're never one hundred percent.
You know, they can come through and maybe they move on,
but many times they may just stop and say, oh,
well so, and then they just go have at it,
So they're never hundred percent. The only sure cure, obviously

(28:05):
is a fencing to put up some kind of a
fallacy barrier.

Speaker 3 (28:09):
Yeah, we have two a large green space behind our
it's kind of a circle behind ours, and we have
a herd of seven that tends to come in in
the evenings and bed down there for a little while
and then they move on. But you know, it's fun
to have them. But they were playing havoc on the
tomato plants and hostas of course, Now, the.

Speaker 1 (28:32):
Other thing to do is that you know there's a
there's a product out there called a there's many of them,
but one of them is called Scarecrow. But they're a
water They're a motion sensor detector. Okay, so when they
detect any motion, you hook them up to a garden
hose and they're battery operated, and so when something moves,
they turn toward it and they shoot water at it.

(28:54):
Those things are really effective and they do a nice job,
and you can get them now for like thirty five
forty fifty bucks and they are very very effective, and
you could put one on each end or one on
one end, and it's amazing how well they do work.
So you know, you could take a look at that
and see it's kind of the end between. It's not
a repellent, but it does do it. When they shoot

(29:16):
them with water, they run, I mean, they take off.
So it's pretty cool. You might want to try both
the repellents and that motion detector. I'll tell you I've
had some pretty good success with a repellent called deer
Guard Ribbon, And you have to check around to see
which garden centers may be selling it, or you can
google it. Deer guard ribbon, and it's a ribbon that

(29:39):
you kind of twine through your plants and you can
use it in nettibles or anything. Really, and I'm getting
some pretty good results from folks using that deer guard ribbon,
So if you try a repellent, don't give that one
a shot as well. But again, physical barriers are your
only sure protection against critter damage, there's no doubt about it.

Speaker 3 (30:01):
Well, I'll let you know if we get the garden
going with the tomatoes, and I'll keep track of what
we use, and I'll give you a feedback at the
end of the growing season or growing season next year.

Speaker 1 (30:13):
Sounds good.

Speaker 3 (30:14):
I appreciate it, all right, thanks for your advice.

Speaker 1 (30:17):
All right, thanks Dave. And again, you know, when if
you're growing, especially if you're doing it on the side
of the house, sometimes just you know, making something that
out of PVC pipe very easy to do. And you
can use nylon netting like the bird netting or erosion
netting and zip tie that on there. You can make
all kinds of cool things to create these fences that's

(30:39):
easy to hinge that you could just kind of slide
it up, harvest the tomato, put it back down. It
doesn't have to cover over the top, but it could
be up, you know, four feet high in front of
the tomatoes and do that and then of course back
that up with a little bit of repellent maybe out
in front of it. And I think the thing about
using repellents we have to remember is that a lot

(30:59):
of times we use them improperly. So your goal was
to get out away from where they come in and
try to get them to move on. So if you
can start to create a barrier out further away from
the vegetable garden, out further away from your specimen plants
that they come through and chew on, that helps to
keep them moving on and then do the protection as
well by those specific plants. So it's kind of a

(31:22):
twofold and you want to keep that going all the time.
So once you start it, keep it going, and I
think use it doing that, mixing it up. Those motion detectors,
I'm telling you folks that invest and and and seriously
set those up and keep it on a regular basis
have had tremendous success repelling all kinds of critters, including

(31:43):
deer away from the garden, putting mike of one on
all four corners of a garden. They do. They do work, absolutely,
but doing those and again it doesn't waste water. It's
just a quick shot when it picks up the motion.
And then of course you can take it off and
walk to your garden and put it back on there. Again,
excuse me, but they do work, and many of them

(32:06):
have videos to show you how they work. But I
know the one that I've always you recommended and sold
and used in the past was called a scarecrow. But
there are many of them available out there. But that's good.

Speaker 2 (32:17):
Uh.

Speaker 1 (32:17):
And then of course physical barriers, and I still think
PVC pipe or whatever is easy to do. I used
to make critter I used to make these critter protectors
rectangular or whatever shape to put over top of containers
where they had you know, your own tomatoes or whatever,
and do it or so it would fit over the top,
pick it up, take it off, put it back on,

(32:39):
or hinge it so that it was four sided, no
top on it, or you could put a top on them,
but no top on it. That you could open it up,
pick what you want and then close it back up
like a door. I mean, there's there's so many creative
ways you can do that with the Like I said,
I like using PVC pipe because it's so lightweight, easy,
it lasts forever. You know, with the nylon netting on it, it

(33:01):
does a pretty decent job. So you know you can
do that as well. But yeah, keep me posting, and
if you have a great way of keeping deer and
other things out of your vegetable garden, let us know.
And I'd like to share that with us. You know,
so many times you bring up squirrels and people love
calling it talking about what they do to get squirrels away. Well,
if you've got some things that work to keep the

(33:23):
deer out of your vegetable garden, let us know about
that as well. Speaking of deer, I last couple of
weeks have gotten several emails about late deer rub on
their smaller trees, even though it's snowy out there, even
though the deer you know, it's late, you know, we're
into the winter time. Now, guess what does buck Deer

(33:45):
will still rub on the trunks of smaller trees. They
still do it. They'll continue to do it. That's why
I usually say leave those tree trunk protectors on there
till about late March early April. Typically by then they're finished,
and then you put them back by mid to late
August versus September because they've been doing buck rubs a
little bit earlier than usual. But anyway, again several of

(34:08):
them saying, you know what do I do at this stage,
And the bottom line is to remember it. Don't. When
you go out and you find that a buck's rubbed
on a tree, two things you want to do. One
is do whatever you need to do to protect the tree.
So go out and get some fencing to put around it,
get some tubing to put around it, put some tree
trunk protect around it, whatever it may be, so they

(34:29):
don't come back and do it a second time. The
other thing to remember is you don't have to wrap
it with burr lap or tree wrap or something like
that to help protect that wound. Not at all. Don't
get tree wound dressing, don't get the tree tar, don't
use any of that. All you want to do is
try to get rid of any of the real loose bark.

(34:51):
And it's called bark tracing, and I've got a tip
sheet on that. So if you ever need to do that,
email me, you know, send you. It's got a couple
the pictures. They'll show you how to do that to
remove the loose park. But otherwise you want that wound
to be exposed to wind and sun, and that wind
and sun causes that wound to start to seal over.

(35:13):
The tree automatically starts to seal that back over with
a callus that forms on the right around the rim
of the wound. So it's called bark tracing. I'll send
you the tip sheet. You can learn more about it,
but that's all you want to do, and leave it
alone and let it seal itself over. And remember, if
that buck rub goes all the way around the tree,

(35:34):
not good. If it only goes less than halfway around
the tree, there's a good chance, depending on the type
of tree, it will recover over time. But again it's
always a weight and sea. You just have to wait
and see what it does in the springtime. I've even
seen something that we're severely damaged to flower or start
to leave found in the springtime, not be able to

(35:55):
cut if that's where all the food and water's going
up and down, and not be able to supplement and
eventually die. But it's a wait and see, But don't
use a tree tard. Don't use the paint, don't have
to wrap it, just clean that bark off and let
it seal itself over And I have a tip sheet
for you if you're interested in learning more about that.
Thanks to our callers, thanks to our sponsors, Thanks to
Ella Palarti, our producer, because without all none of this

(36:15):
stuff would happened. Not feeling good today, so thank you
for suffering through the show in more ways than one.
We really appreciate it, and I hope you feel much
better as the week goes along. Go home and get
some rest. In the meantime this weekend, of course, go
out and get ready to watch Bucks game on Monday night.
Go Bucks and make it the best weekend of your life.
See you,