The fall bulb of the year, plus which bulbs the deer won't bother

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Our toll free number eight hundred eight two three eight
two five five. Good morning. I am Ron Wilson, your
personal yard boy. As I promised, it is time for
are you erbally experienced with our ccpc M major Award
winning syndicated journalist. She is an Appalachian herbal scholar, cooking teacher,
media personality, motivational speaker, motivators Rina Hikenfeld. You can hear

(00:21):
on Sacred Heart Radio as well as our show iHeart Radio,
Ladies and Gentlemen, the One the Only Rita Nator Hike
and Feld. Good morning, Well, good morning.

Speaker 2 (00:38):
You could be my pr agent.

Speaker 1 (00:40):
I have been.

Speaker 2 (00:42):
Yes, you're you just don't get what ten or twenty
percent I still get.

Speaker 1 (00:46):
Take my Mike cut of the pie. By the way,
a great website. It's about eating dot com. I forgot
to mention that when how are you this morning?

Speaker 2 (00:55):
We are really really good. I heard you and Joe
talk about berm I only caught the end of it.
You mean when you're barefoot or not?

Speaker 1 (01:05):
His mom always said the months that lived at the
end in e Er, you don't go outside without your
shoes on. You can't go bare can't go barefoot in
the grass or you'll get it or you'll catch a cold.

Speaker 2 (01:21):
Oh my gosh, that's so old fashioned. Sounds like something
not my mom would say. But thanks Mom certainly too. Yeah,
that's what they wore shoes everywhere.

Speaker 1 (01:30):
Yeah, that's what she believes, so you know, And maybe
it's the old German mom. You know, they can have
to go to I don't know, so there you go.
So anyway, that's what I say, because I happen to
slip outside the other morning. It was cool, and I
got my shoes on. I stuffed in that grass and
I thought it felt outstanding, how loved.

Speaker 2 (01:49):
Oh yeah, it's funny because most of the kids down
the road where I live, you know, at the end
of the old country road, if you come in the
back way, they show up at my back door all
the time barefoot. And I was barefoot yesterday. Yeah, I
have trouble. No, no, I don't do that anymore. I've

(02:09):
come into the fold.

Speaker 1 (02:11):
You know, And you're wearing the socks. One wearing the socks.

Speaker 2 (02:14):
Well, you didn't hear me say that I wear clothes.
I were on perfectly. Okay, legit, how's that all right?

Speaker 1 (02:22):
I hear you? You know that world I did read
an article a couple of weeks ago. I don't know
if I sent that to you or not, but talking
about how kids now they're you know, almost writing a
prescription telling me to get out and play in the mud.

Speaker 2 (02:34):
Yes, I had heard that, and that's so true. Do
you think of immunity in the first what five years?
If they're exposed to all the bacteria outside and and
all that stuff, they do better. And walking their foot
so healthy for you too, don't you think.

Speaker 1 (02:50):
I think so. And I'm sure there's a compromise there
when you, you know, wear shoes and correct your arch.
I don't know, I don't know all that stuff, but yeah,
I think that. And again the talking about the the
playing in the mud and eating a little bit of
dirt or whatever. Standing in the grass barefoot is also
part of like forest bathing that they're saying. You know,

(03:10):
if you go out there, and how many people do that,
just take your shoes off and go stand in the
grass and go walk through your yard. Now Joe said
he wouldn't do that because he has four dogs.

Speaker 2 (03:20):
Yeah I heard that. Yeah, there would a few land
mines there, Yeah, a.

Speaker 1 (03:25):
Few land mines, But you know it's I agree with him.
I think it's just it's outstanding, all right. Talking with
Rita Hikenfeld, it's are you urbally experienced? Her website about
eating dot com? Uh, kind of a special recipe this week.
It's one of those it's almost like your cherry bounce recipe.
It's one of those that folks like to get. I
have never had anybody when you put this one out

(03:47):
there that has ever said it didn't work for me.
I always get responses two months from now saying, man,
that was the easiest way to pickle peppers and the
flavor was outstanding.

Speaker 2 (04:01):
Well yeah, and you know that's from are not our mom?
Your mom? Now?

Speaker 1 (04:06):
Wilson, Oh did you say our mom?

Speaker 2 (04:09):
Well? See, well no, she would be my sister. He
wouldn't be my mom. But anyway, she pickled peppers much
like the way my mom and grandparents did. Very simple,
and the difference with now and we'll go over the recipe.
My mom just basically used clear vinegar and sometimes water
and now adds a little bit of sugar to take

(04:32):
away the bite, depending on the peppers you used. But
it's one that we share every year because it's that good.
It's iconic, and I know you love them. It's so easy.
All you do is whatever hot peppers you gather, you
can mix them up and you can put some sweet
ones in there or whatever. And a lot of times
I'll leave my hole and then just slip them down

(04:54):
the center, mister Wilson, so you know the brian gets
in there. Or you can cut them into slices and
take the seeds and membranes out if you want. I don't.
They make the peppers hotter. And then my tip here
is when you put the peppers in the jars, regardless
of how you prep them, pack them really really tight.

(05:14):
Otherwise they're going to float in the jar. And that's
not going to hurt them. It won't make them unedible.
It's just not as pretty as they would look. And
then all you do is take Nell's brine, which is
six cups of clear vinegar always five percent acid. Make
sure it says that two cups of water, and she
uses about two cups of sugar, and I use sometimes none,

(05:37):
sometimes afford the cups, so that's up to you. You
can taste it, and you basically pour that boiling brine
over those peppers in jars that you serialize and wipe
the jars clean. And now the old fashioned way is
simply keeping those in the pantry. But now the recommendation

(05:57):
is you should put them in a boiling water BAF.
I think for twenty minutes or so. But when you
think of the high acid content of the vinegar, I
think you'd be just fine. But professionally now basically we
got to boil water bath everything. But anyway, they keep
for several years and just to pull one of those

(06:19):
out like a Thanksgiving or February, even with a bowl
of soup, delicious summer in a jar, and they're beautiful
and so good for you, and I know that's one
of your favorites.

Speaker 1 (06:29):
It is. And you know what's funny is when she
first gave us this recipe, it was really just for
pickling peppers, right, and somehow we switched it to pickling
hot peppers. So I want folks to remain you know,
even though it says pickled hot peppers, it works for
us if you want to just do sweet peppers and
not any because what she would do is a lot
of sweet peppers, bells, yellow bananas, things like that, and

(06:52):
then slip in a habin arrow or slip in something
to heat it up a little bit if you just
like a little bit of kick, and you don't even
have to do that. And the other thing I always
liked is to slip in you know what I'm going
to say, green cherry tomatoes.

Speaker 2 (07:09):
Yes, and you know I have candos for you. You
know made that, Brian, And I don't know if I
gave it. I didn't give you any this year, but
I will have to save some green cherries. Yeah, that,
Brian is perfect because when they infuse in the brine,
oh my goodness, they're still crunchy and green and even
delicious on green salads. I know you like to put

(07:31):
green tomatoes on salads, so yeah, lots of ways you
can do that with the sweet peppers or whatever. And
you can add bay leaves or garlic or dial I mean,
there's no wrong way to do that. And we have
to thank your mom new because she's just an excellent
cook and canner and her wisdom. You're not going to
find that in a book.

Speaker 1 (07:52):
Nope, Nope, no doubt about it, although you have to
really beg her to share some of her recipes with you.

Speaker 2 (07:58):
Those are special. I know her carrot cake, oh f I.

Speaker 1 (08:02):
Know that did she give you that recipe.

Speaker 2 (08:05):
Uh, I don't remember she did. If she did, yes,
but you know what, you know, I write publicly and
it's one that she gave me just to use for
my family, and I will never share it.

Speaker 1 (08:17):
So yeah, yeah, she has sold her cakes at the
church fundraisers and stuff for like one hundred bucks or whatever.
I don't know. So yeah, everybody, I know, everybody wants
her famous carrot cakes. Talking with Rita Hikenfeld to get
her website about eating dot com. A recipe this week
is pickled peppers. It can be pickled hot peppers, sweet peppers,
throwing a little uh bailey for garlic ordill. I like

(08:40):
the dill in there, and again some green cherry tomatoes,
or you can take a green tomato and quarter it
and put it in there as well. It works for
all of them. So it's basically the basis for doing
all kinds of things. And if you didn't grow peppers
at all, Rita, they can just go to the produce
stand or the local farm market or whatever and buy
an assortment of peppers and do their own from that.

Speaker 2 (09:04):
Oh yeah, right now, the farm stands farmers markets are
just abundant with those peppers and you'll get you know,
locally homegrown, really good peppers at a great price. So
good advice.

Speaker 1 (09:15):
Mel Wilson's simple pickled peppers or pickled hot peppers if
you want to do them that way as well. That's
our recipe of the week. Go to our website at
Ron Wilson online dot com to find it. Let's take
a break, we come back. We'll go out into Rita's
hiking Feld Aikenfeld's garden. Here in the Garden with Ron Wilson.
Welcome back, here in the garden with Ron Wilson. Are
you urbally experienced. We've got Rita hiking Feld with us

(09:38):
this morning. Sit down, sit down, giving her big head.

Speaker 2 (09:46):
I don't think so.

Speaker 1 (09:47):
I don't think so. Website about eating dot com. Hey,
you know, going on into the garden right now. I
know things are actually starting to wind down. It's kind
of hard to believe that's happening, but it is. You
do fig trees in containers? How do those do for you?

Speaker 2 (10:03):
Well, you know I do, and containers because I take
them in over winter and put them in my unheated
garage that that's attached to the house. They did pretty well.
I got a good amount of figs, but they're much
smaller than usual, and they're very very sweet. But usually, gosh,
they're they're huge. I mean they fit in the ground.

(10:25):
When the little grandkids come over, they fill the palm
of their hand. But this year they're a lot smaller,
as I said, And I have what's called a white
fig from my friend Sally, and then I have the Chicago,
Hardy and Turkish. They're all doing really well, but they've
everything struggled with that. There's that blistering heat and no rain.

(10:48):
But you know, I got a harvest, so I'm good.

Speaker 1 (10:51):
Yeah. So that's and you know what Bill Knox and
I were talking yesterday, and you know, Bill and we
were saying, you know, if anything with those figs, if
you just never even if you never got fig off
of them, the foliage and the plant itself is gorgeous,
oh it is.

Speaker 2 (11:05):
And it's just bright green leaves. And you know, you
talk about herbs and foods with biblical history, think of
the fig tree in the garden of Eden. I mean,
when Adam and Ebe were chased out, so to speak,
they covered themselves with fig leaves. And I gotta say,
mister Wilson, going off subject. But anyway, the fig leaves
on my tree that wouldn't work so well. I don't know.

(11:29):
It must have been bigger back then, but yeah, it's
a lovely plant and easy, easy to grow into propagates,
So I'm glad you recommend them.

Speaker 1 (11:37):
I think in containers that the leaves may stay a
little bit smaller, but they could be pretty good size.
I've heard I've heard rumors from the neighbors about you
two running around the garden of your fig leaves.

Speaker 2 (11:49):
Yeah, well we'll go on to another.

Speaker 1 (11:52):
There you go. Hey, we harvested our volunteer pumpkin vine
this week, and yeah, I got some nice pump because
the squirrels are just a houring them, so we had
to get them off of there and try to protect them.
They're just We came home from dinner and I was
once dinner with his head stuck in one just chewing away.

Speaker 2 (12:10):
So no kidding.

Speaker 1 (12:11):
Yeah, but that pretty good crop. You the same way.

Speaker 2 (12:15):
No, mine are doing okay, but they're gonna be late
because we planted them much later than usual, and then
again the weather. I can't get out the water. But
they're looking okay. The deer liked the flowers. You know,
they liked a munch on those, and the rabbits sometimes.
But I think we're gonna do okay, not a huge harvest,
but again something worthwhile and it makes you appreciate next year.

(12:39):
But we haven't seen any squirrels yet because we haven't
seen any fruit yet. So I'll let you know what
kind did you just have? Regular little pumpkins?

Speaker 1 (12:45):
Yeah, the little pie pumpkins. And you know they did great.
It was and it's a it's a neighborhood thing because
everybody comes to look and you know, see the male flower,
female flowers, and how many pumpkins you got, and they're
hidding down inside and all that, so you know, and
it's all volunteer. We don't I never played them and
I never watter them. I don't feed them on do
anything to them.

Speaker 2 (13:03):
So they must love where you live.

Speaker 1 (13:04):
They must love that particular location. Talking with Rita Hikenfeld
about eating dot com as her website, Butterfly blue peavine.
We grew that and got you a couple so you
could experiment with it, because I know you've used it
in all kinds of things. So what do you think
now that you've grown them? For a season and a container.
Is there something we should continue to grow in the future.

Speaker 2 (13:26):
Yes, And you know the leaves are bright green, sort
of oval, beautiful, beautiful climbing plant, very delicate looking but
actually pretty hardy. And the flowers are the butterfly blue pea,
dark dark blue, and they have so many health qualities
as far as not only being anti inflammatory but just
good overall for your health. But the kicker is when

(13:48):
you put them in water, they actually turn whatever liquid blue,
and then if you add an acid, they will turn
the liquid purple. So they're very trendy and cocktails right now,
but you could add some the lemonade and grind them
up powder. The flowers use them in many many ways,

(14:09):
but that's going to be mainstream, I think, sort of
just like Stevia was ages and ages ago. So yeah,
I would definitely say grow those because I think people
will love them just with the little education and that's
all they needn't know.

Speaker 1 (14:22):
Yeah, and you've been talking about them for a couple
three years now, and you know, we gave it a
shot to see how easy they were to grow from seed.
So yeah, we'll add that to our list. Next your
butterfly blue pea vine and I have one myself, and yeah,
it's been really cool watching this thing flower. Very aggressive.
Little vine looks tender, but it's pretty tough. It's hanging
in there when we don't water it, or if we

(14:42):
do water it. And all of that. Got about a
minute and a half to go doing a lot of
right now, radishes, beats, turnips, bock joy, mixed greens and
containers right now, like in a fourteen sixteen inch bowl.
And it's amazing how easy that is to have the
salad green type harvest. You can have a lot of

(15:05):
table right on your patio and harvest for another month
and a half or so.

Speaker 2 (15:10):
Oh yeah, it's funny because my friend Charlene and Blich,
my Appellation friends, just brought me a bag of beets
and turnip greens, both the root and the greens. That
turnip greens for the tops really delicious and they grow
in the ground. But I have to tell you I
shouldn't even admit this, but I will. I'm going to

(15:30):
be planning the kale and turnip greens and all of
that in my flower boxes and containers because they're up,
you know, elevated, a little bit easy to pick and
then I'll have them hacked throughout the cold season. So yeah,
thanks for all those tips about the ornamental kale and
all that. We forget that, but they're beautiful when nothing
else is growing.

Speaker 1 (15:49):
Oh my gosh. I mean, it just gives you get
better and better as the season finishes out. They're coming
on stronger and stronger all the time. So way underused,
Rita Heigenfeld. It's all. That's a pleasure having you on
the show. And I'm sure in a couple of weeks
here we'll start talking about how to shut down that
herb garden, what to do with the annual herbs and
the perennial herbs well, how to dry and the center,

(16:10):
et cetera. So we look forward to talking to you
in a couple of weeks, and we appreciate your weekly
recipes that you can find on our websitet Ron Wilson
online dot com and of course about eating dot com
as well.

Speaker 2 (16:21):
Well. I always enjoy talking to you, and mister Hikinfeld
would have said hello, but he's still lying in shape,
so consider that later on and we'll talk to you too.

Speaker 1 (16:32):
He's a great man. I'm sure he's waiting for that
hearty breckas as soon as he wakes up, you'll have
it on a tray ready for him to eat.

Speaker 2 (16:39):
Okay, well, it's time to say goodbye.

Speaker 1 (16:42):
Rina hiking feun at our website about eating dot com.
We'll take a quick break. We come back. Coming up
next Peggy and Montgomery. When Peggy's on our show, we're
talking bulbs and we're gonna talk it. Stintson plotting hooting
Morgan in the whole nine yards Here in the Garden
with Ron Wilson. Welcome back here in the Garden with
Ron Wilson. You know, if you want to light up
your yard next spring, what do you do? Will you

(17:05):
plant bulbs in the fall? And of course when it
comes to talking about bulbs, whether there's spring bulbs or
fall bulbs or summer bulbs. And you got questions about bulbs,
who do we go to? We go to the bulb
lady and she has all of our answers. Who happens
to that be? Well, that happens to be. And by
the way, the website is flowerbub dot Eu. Peggy and

(17:27):
Montgomery put Morgan, how are you this morning?

Speaker 3 (17:34):
I am great. I'll tell you I love this cool weather.

Speaker 1 (17:37):
Oh it's absolutely outstanding. Are you ever in a bad mood?

Speaker 2 (17:42):
Oh?

Speaker 3 (17:42):
I suppose sometimes.

Speaker 1 (17:44):
I have never talked to you, emailed you texted you
that you were you know you were? You were always
so up? Is that because of the bulbs that you're
planting bulbs all the time?

Speaker 4 (17:55):
You know what, I have a pretty great job. I
get to tell people about bulbs and get them excited
about using them. And that's pretty as much as good
as they get. So I'll tell you what flowers make
people happy? And Ron, you and I have always known that,
but science proves it too.

Speaker 1 (18:13):
No doubt about now. We were talking earlier in our
show about you know, scientists are seeing how kids should
be playing more in the dirt because they benefit from
the microbes and things that are in the soil that
they need to do that, And also about psychologists saying,
you know, you got to just take your shoes off
when you're really stressed and take a walk through the turf,
through the lawn. How relaxing that could be. For some reason,

(18:36):
I picture Peggy and Montgomery as someone who probably does
that on a regular.

Speaker 4 (18:39):
Basis, you know I do. And there's a lot of
talk now about grounding, you know, and getting you know,
by being barefoot and instead of wearing shoes with rubber.

Speaker 3 (18:50):
That's a really good thing. And when you're out.

Speaker 4 (18:52):
Gardening, there's microbes in the soil that are getting inside
you and triggering all the happy horn. And so we
know that getting out and gardening.

Speaker 3 (19:03):
Is great for you, it's great for your kids.

Speaker 4 (19:06):
And guess what, you can even go over to grabby
Grandpa's house and do some gardening, plant some bulbs for
a surprise next spring.

Speaker 1 (19:13):
I love it all right, So let's get started here.
First of all, are they fall bulbs or spring bulbs?

Speaker 3 (19:21):
Isn't that crazy?

Speaker 4 (19:22):
I think that's one thing that makes it hard for
consumers sometimes we're on so I kind of always add
the word planted, fall planted bulbs, spring blooming bulbs to
try to make it a little more clear. So in
the fall, we're planting things like tulips and daffodils and
grape hyacinths, And next spring we'll be planting things like

(19:43):
lilies and dahlia's.

Speaker 1 (19:46):
Yeah, and and and those are things that that will
flower forest mostly in the summer. But uh, planting these
in the fall. The reason being is what.

Speaker 4 (19:56):
You know they come from areas where they do have
a cold period like a Turkey and you know in
the in the Far East, and so they need to
have that cold period in order to bloom. So we
like to get them in the ground in the fall
before your soil is frozen, so they can put down

(20:17):
some roots and get established and then they go through
the cold period that is normal to them from where
they hail, and then they will bloom for us in
the spring.

Speaker 1 (20:27):
So planning in the fall gives them that cold period
that they need. And then of course in flower I
set that ball the flower head, and of course they
flower for in the spring. What if folks do that
are down in Florida that want a few balls, I
guess they've got to refrigerate.

Speaker 4 (20:39):
Those, right, Yeah, there is there is a way you
can refrigerate them to kind of mimic a cold cycle.

Speaker 3 (20:48):
And many places.

Speaker 4 (20:49):
Where you buy bulbs and I would you know, you
can look online or other places they have bulbs that
have already been professionally pre chilled.

Speaker 1 (20:58):
Yes, so when you're looking and you see those hyacinths
in there, and it says pre chilled, that's what they're
talking about. So they're ready to go. So if you
potted them up in a pot or you planted them
in the ground, they're ready to start to grow and
flower for you right away. And that's what the pre
chilled means when you see that. Talking with Peggy and Montgomery,
she's the horticulturals for flowerbulb dot Eu, a great website,

(21:20):
be sure and check it out, talking about planting those
spring flowering bulbs and a fall planting. And that's why
we plan the fall now. If we go out to
our local independent garden centers right now and we look around,
they've started to bring just starting to bring in all
of their spring flowering bulbs. So now's a great time
as far as selection. But what do you recommend planting?

Speaker 4 (21:42):
You know, it kind of depends on your zone. Ideally
you want to get them in the ground, you know,
for six weeks before your soil is going to freeze.
So you know we're looking at depending on where you
are late September October here in the mid Atlantic, we
can even and go into November.

Speaker 1 (22:02):
Yeah, you know, I've actually gotten into you know, we're
the same way. We don't get a real good actual
soil freeze until you get to the end of the year,
and you know, if you're lucky, I mean, even if
you get it that soon. So you know, we were
fortunate enough to be able to actually plant. And that's
why a lot of times, you know, and I always whisper,
but you know, around the mid November a lot of

(22:23):
garden centers trying to get rid of whatever is left over.
Great time to scarf those up. Still plenty of time
to plant.

Speaker 4 (22:30):
Yeah, I got to tell you my husband, as you know,
is a horticulturist, and he breaks the rule every year
and he plants right through November and sometimes into December.

Speaker 1 (22:40):
Good man, he's I always knew he was a rebel
because he hangs out with you.

Speaker 3 (22:47):
Yeah, must be.

Speaker 1 (22:49):
Talking with Peggy and Montgomery again. The websites are great
when flowerball dot eu. So we're going to talk after
the break. We're going to talk about planting balls in
your yard. But I noticed that the kind of a
spring flowering bulb, actually a late winter early spring flowering bulb,
that kind of I think it gets overlooked and we
don't notice this one as much, and it's actually a

(23:12):
wonderful welcome to the spring season. Is the twenty twenty
five fall bulb of the year and that snow.

Speaker 3 (23:18):
Drops, Oh my favorite, Ron.

Speaker 4 (23:22):
I don't know how many thousands we must have in
our yard, but they're a my favorite spring bloom.

Speaker 1 (23:29):
And it really is early. I mean, you will see
them coming up through the snow as we're getting through
the late winter and in the early spring. And one
of the good things about them too, which happens with
a lot of these bulbs, is the fact they're so
good for the early pollinators.

Speaker 4 (23:45):
Great for the early pollinators, and snowdrops are kind of
magical because they even produce some of their own heat,
and that's how they can come up to the snow.

Speaker 1 (23:54):
Yes, all a sudden, you look and all of a sudden,
the snow kind of disappears around where that foliage is
coming up. And they're able to do that kind of
like skunk cabbage.

Speaker 4 (24:03):
Exactly like skunk cabbage. It's the same process.

Speaker 1 (24:06):
There you go talk with Peggy and mctgomery. Let's take
a quick break. We come back. We'll talk more about
planting early spring flowering bulbs, including planting them in the lawn.
Believe it or not, Here in the garden with Ron Wilson.
Welcome back here in the garden with Ron Wilson Special Guests.
We always have so much fun when this young lady
is on with us. We're talking bulbs with Peggy and

(24:27):
Montgomery website flowerbub dot Eu. Peggy and Mtgomery. We're talking
about the snowdrops being the twenty twenty five fall Bulb
of the year fallball meaning fall planting of spring flowering bulbs.
You know, some folks are gonna be sitt out there
going you know what, I'm tired of planting bulbs because
all I get are the deer and the rabbits eating those.

(24:47):
What about the snowdrops.

Speaker 3 (24:51):
No, they don't bother those.

Speaker 4 (24:53):
And Ron, this is actually really great. If you go
to flower bull dot eu, you can search it and
they'll be artic to tell you more about this. And
we don't sell anything there. This is just vacation inspiration.
But there are a lot of minor bulbs, spring flowering
bulbs that deer do not eat, and you know, daffodils

(25:14):
being one of them. They do like tulips, however, but
I know people that have had great luck planting their
tulips here and there with the daffodils.

Speaker 1 (25:25):
Back in the daffodils, so the deer don't recognize.

Speaker 4 (25:27):
Them, yeah, exactly, and they don't like the smell of
those daffodils, so they leave the tulips alone. But there
are plenty of bulbs that deer won't bother.

Speaker 1 (25:38):
And I think the other thing too, remember is we
keep talking about pollinators and being pollinator polite in you
in all of your gardening, and a lot of these
spring flowering bulbs are excellent for all the pollinators out there.

Speaker 3 (25:50):
You know, they really are.

Speaker 4 (25:52):
And when the bumble bees and solitary bees emerge very early,
they don't have energy to fly very far. And so
when you plant a big stand of early flower involves
they have a place to go and eat. And it's
a really important time because very little else is flowering.

Speaker 1 (26:11):
Yep. Now, listen, when you're out and you're gonna buy
if you're looking to go to the snow drops. So
you're going to go to your garden center this weekend
or next two weekend and you say, Okay, I'm gonna
get some snowdrops and plant them. Don't just get five
or six or eight, right, get twenty five or fifty
or one hundred. And the time you spend it won't
take you very long to get those planted, and they
do naturalize, so they'll continue to spread for you. But

(26:33):
once you get those planet and when you see the
results next spring, you will be thanking Peggy and Montgomery
for buying a whole bunch of them planting those.

Speaker 4 (26:42):
Yeah, think about it as an investment because you put
them in this fall, and that is something you know
they're going to multiply. They multiply fairly quickly, and so
you're gonna have a bigger and better show every single year.
You can't get better bang for your buck.

Speaker 1 (26:57):
I got to tell you a quick story here. For
all my life, in all my life, all my married life,
I've been most the main gardener. My wife really doesn't
get involved too much with gardening. Over the last couple years,
all of a sudden, she's just started getting involved with
container gardening and house plants and things like that. A
couple days ago, we got a Ball catalog in the
mail and she was going through the Ball catalog and

(27:18):
showed it up. She said, she showed me this picture
of crocus and she said, let's plant these in the grass.
And I said, oh yeah. I kind of laughed, and
I said, you know what, why don't you listen to
the show on Saturday, because we're going to talk about
Stenson plantting and planting those in the grass. And she said,
what is Stinton pluttin I spelled it for. I said,

(27:39):
you look it up. And then she came back said
how do you know all this? I said, because I
talked to Peggy and Montgomery.

Speaker 3 (27:46):
It's so great. Yeah, we have a Stinton garden.

Speaker 4 (27:49):
And what that really is, it's a lot of very
early flowering bulbs that we grow right in our grass.
We let them flower. It extends our gardening season by
a couple of months, and then we let the foliage
naturally cines, and then we don't mow it until that's happened,

(28:10):
so you know, and I have a border of cut
grass around the stins of garden, so it looks intentional
and neat for my neighbors. But some people still don't
like to mow that late. And for those folks, a
crocus lawn is where it's at. You go ahead, a
plant as many crocus as you possibly.

Speaker 3 (28:28):
Can in the lawn.

Speaker 4 (28:29):
They're going to come up, they're going to bloom. They
are going to entice you to get outside and believe
spring's coming. They're going to feed the pollinators and there's
a little foliage that dies back very quickly, so you
can just keep going with your normal mowing pattern.

Speaker 1 (28:44):
Yeah, and so think about that. I mean, really, when
these come up, these crocus come up, is very early
in the springtime. The lawns are starting to green a
little bit, starting to come up. But here are these crocus.
They're flowering in that lawn. You get to enjoy those,
and right when the lawn's probably starting to reach a
point where it's time start thinking about mowing, guess who's
all finished and done, and that would be the crocus. Now,

(29:04):
the only limitation here would be which just like with
any flowering lawn, is that you've got to be more
cautious about weed control, using weed killers and things like that.
In the law that would affect those bulbs. But other
than that, it's it doesn't really mess up your routine
of spring maintenance of the turf.

Speaker 3 (29:23):
Yeah, you're absolutely right.

Speaker 4 (29:24):
And if turf is very important to you and you
have built in irrigation and use chemicals like that, maybe
bablon isn't for you, But you can still plant those
crocus under your deciduous shrubs and trees because they'll get light.

Speaker 1 (29:39):
In the spring exactly. And again, I think the thing
of it, you know, you get if you can get
some of the get some of the catalogs just so
you get them just for inspiration, and then get out
here locally owned independent garden centers and see all the
great things that they're going to have on their shelves
over the next month, month and a half maybe two
for you to plant that will flower in the springtime.
And you'll be amazed. And I think, you know when

(30:02):
I look at that when it comes to planting spring
flowering bulbs, and you know there are and again your
your website flowerbulb dot eu. The information there is phenomenal
is to do a little bit of homework, go to
that website or whatever it may be, look at the
catalogs and start looking at the different stages of when
things flower so that you can plant it out. You could.

(30:22):
I mean, Peggy and Montgomery have things flowering from late February,
early March right on through April and into May.

Speaker 4 (30:32):
Oh absolutely, you know on a light you know winter
year here, we'll start getting flowers winter aconites in January.
It's going to go right through every month of spring,
and then because of the alliums, we're going to go
right through June.

Speaker 1 (30:47):
Oh yeah, I mean that's that's the one that my
wife has gotten into now, the alliums. I planted her
a mix of aliums two years ago, and now she's
into all the different she was. Those are the pages
she ripped out of that bulb catalog. What do you
do you sell these? Do you sell those? We want?
She loves the aliums.

Speaker 3 (31:05):
Oh.

Speaker 4 (31:06):
They are an extraordinary plant, great pollinator plant. They've got
a lot of give a lot of structure to any border.

Speaker 3 (31:13):
You can plant them in amongst perennials.

Speaker 4 (31:16):
Because they're long, tall stems are not going to crowd
them or shade them out. And there is no reason
not to plant alium they can fit.

Speaker 3 (31:24):
There is one for every yard.

Speaker 1 (31:26):
Do you consider bulbs a high or low or medium
maintenance planting?

Speaker 4 (31:35):
I consider it very low maintenance because you know, for instance,
our bulb lawn, Dan and I planted that one morning,
you know, we had augurs on our drills and we
planted you know, thousands of bulbs, you know, half a day,
and every year that comes back without me planting, without
a lot of you know, kinds of maintenance.

Speaker 3 (31:57):
The only maintenance I really.

Speaker 4 (31:59):
Have is that in a few places, and not all,
I need to cut the foliage back most places, you know,
undershrubs in the lawn and everything like that.

Speaker 3 (32:08):
I certainly don't bother with that.

Speaker 4 (32:10):
But there's a few areas, like up near the entrance
of the house where I cut back the forwards.

Speaker 3 (32:15):
Before the next perennials come up and do their thing.

Speaker 4 (32:19):
So, you know, bulbs, if you use perennial bulbs, you
plant them once and forget them. And even if I
want to plant tulips, you know for a show that
I know aren't perennial, it's fine. You know.

Speaker 3 (32:30):
They cost about the same as.

Speaker 4 (32:31):
Annuals, so I grow them, compost them and get my
other annuals in.

Speaker 1 (32:37):
I love it talk with Peggy and Montgomery and again
great informational website at flower bulb dot eu talking about
planting those fall planted spring flowering bulbs. And I think
that's a great way to say that because it pretty
much explains what we're talking about.

Speaker 2 (32:51):
You know.

Speaker 1 (32:51):
One, I think the flies under the radar that's a
tremendous show and the critters stay away from as well.
Is fritill area.

Speaker 3 (32:59):
Oh and pay special.

Speaker 4 (33:01):
I think that's kind of I call it a gateway
bulb rod because they're so unique with that checker pattern
that new gardeners see those and can't imagine that they
can grow them, and when they do, they're so excited.

Speaker 1 (33:15):
Oh yeah, And I think that when you buy them,
remember they're gonna smell, and that bulb smell and that's
what repels all the critters. They smell that and they
don't go after it either. But that's that's another one
one of those that again I think we used to
sell tons of them, and they kind of I don't know,
I think they kind of disappeared in the garden. But
that's one that you should definitely take a look at.

(33:35):
Good height to them come back every year. Nice plan,
but it's called fritillaria, so keep that in mind as well.
Talking about Peggy and mctgarmiy again that website flowerbulb dot eu.
Do your homework. Peggy mcgarmery's got all the info of
it for you right there to do your planning before
you do your planting. And I kind of chuckled when
I to myself here when you were talking about got

(33:57):
your palt and your planter, the power planter, those augs
out and started planting. And you've been doing this for
quite some time as well. Remember the old days when
you used to use those hand bulb planters or the
one that you had to like a shovel and you
put your foot on it, shoved it down in the
ground and pop that hole out.

Speaker 3 (34:16):
Oh my gosh, that is too much work. I'd rather
work smarter than harder.

Speaker 1 (34:21):
Yeah, really, I look at and we don't you know,
we don't sell those like we used to. As a
matter of fact, I still remember the one and I
think we still sell them, the hand one that you
put in the ground and then you can squeeze it
and let the dirt out. The Uh, too much work
for me. Those those powers are too easy.

Speaker 4 (34:39):
They're really easy. They make very light work of planting bulbs.
And you know, that's a fun way to do it,
even to like get the kids involved. If you can
drill the holes and the kids can pop the bulbs
in and put the soil back in, it's fun, fast work.

Speaker 1 (34:55):
Well, we're at the beginning of the planting season for
fall planting of spring flowering bulbs, so do a little homework.
Get out to your local independent garden center see what
they've gotten stock flowerbulb dot Eu. We'll get you started
at Peggy A. Montgomery. I'm sure we'll talk to you
one more time at least before the end of the
fall planting of for spring flowering bulbs. Thank you so much,

(35:16):
always a pleasure. Thanks all right, take care Peggy and
Montgomery again the website flower bulb dot Eu. All right,
we're gonna take another break. When we come back, phone
Innes will be open for you. Eight hundred eight two
three eight two five five Talking about yardning. Uh, the
end of the September already fall season is here. Has

(35:37):
been absolutely wonderful so far. It looks like you might
warm up a little bit next week, but still wonderful.
A little dry, your plants are thirsty. Take it out
and make sure you're watering. But otherwise it's fall time
to get out and let's do some planting here in
the garden with Ron Wilson