Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:23):
Welcome to Dakota Growing. I'm Kelsey Deckert, your horticulture agent
here in Burley County, joined in the radio Access studio
by my co host Tom Cobb, NDSU Extension horticulturist. How
you doing.
Speaker 2 (00:34):
Everything's great.
Speaker 1 (00:36):
It's cold this morning, that's right.
Speaker 2 (00:38):
We've had frost here finally, right, last couple nights, but
it's okay, okay, yeah, you know, and we'll be talking
about that in a few minutes. And but generally weather's
been right, sonny, pleasant, really nice, wonderful for the wind.
Speaker 1 (01:02):
Well even the next two days though, we're supposed to
warm up again, so that'll be nice.
Speaker 2 (01:06):
That's right. No snow on the forecast. Life's good, life's good.
I think it's everything's great. I love this time here.
Speaker 1 (01:14):
Do you watch the leaves blow off the trees?
Speaker 2 (01:17):
That's right? And uh no, I just like the weather.
And it's usually a little crisp and refreshing outside, and
it's comfortable working outside and and just trying to savor
you know, winter's coming, so it always does. So you
(01:41):
just say, we've got another nice week. So I'm gonna
appreciate that, appreciate it.
Speaker 1 (01:47):
That sounds good. What do you got today for us
to talk about.
Speaker 2 (01:50):
Looking of the wonderful October. We're going to talk about
Octoberfest in the garden for today.
Speaker 1 (01:58):
The slug's drinking beer or what?
Speaker 2 (02:01):
Wow? Now, why would I waste any beer on a slug?
Slugs can get their own beer. I'm not gonna read
any no slug beer, so I would rather just tolerate
a few slugs. I don't have a slug problem. And actually,
but I love October and so you know Octoberfest, huh,
(02:22):
that Bavarian festival.
Speaker 1 (02:24):
A little bit know a little bit about.
Speaker 2 (02:26):
It, you know, I just heard that. Did you know
Octoberfest is actually in September in Germany? I don't know
why it's I don't know. It's kind of different. But
that's just a little honest on the side there. It's
not really important, but we're going to talk about Octoberfest
because it's the time for celebration right now. And in
(02:48):
Germany they do celebrate. They have lots of music, and
they have, as you say, they drink a little bit
of beer, slugs or no slugs, and of course they
have a great time dancing. So October is a time
and September, should I say the fall is a time
to celebrate and right now here, not just in Germany,
(03:09):
but in North Dakota too. So we got these wonderful
the maples are spectacular right now, and just forget that
beautiful fall car that we got for a while until
the leaves blew off. Yeah, and I'm going to celebrate,
especially this October because we had such a long growing season.
(03:30):
You know, we had two weeks bonus of a growing
season this year, and so crops like our watermelons, they
had all the time they needed to have a wonderful,
delicious harvest. But frost has come to North Dakota. But
(03:50):
it's okay. It comes all the time, and there are
silver linings to frost. There's a good part. Like, for example,
the box cellar bugs are a frozen now, so they
were getting to be a little bit pesky the last
week or so.
Speaker 1 (04:04):
The flies as well. Celebrate every time I see those
little stripey wing flies in my house every day. Vacuum
up a few more.
Speaker 2 (04:15):
Yeah, you know one thing about a house fly or
that's a different type window pane fly.
Speaker 1 (04:20):
Yeah, I like the heat.
Speaker 2 (04:23):
Yeah, they're kind of they're slow motion, they're kind of they're.
Speaker 1 (04:26):
Easy to get but it's like it's like, you do
you feel like you have like a graveyard going on
every day. Oh, there's a few more. Wonder where they
came from.
Speaker 2 (04:38):
Yeah, yeah, in our house, they're very attracted to like
the south window, so they like so must be the
light and the heat. Yeah, and so they just keep
banging their head against the window until they knock themselves
out and then they die. So I guess that's you know,
that's not really a good way to go, actually, you know,
just banging your head against.
Speaker 1 (04:59):
The window and then you no, they kind of like
that's where we have, like our window faces kind of southeast,
our big window in our living room. And so yeah,
like every night they come home and I'm like, oh,
there's a little bit of movement across the floor, and
they just just die. I also haven't been hearing crickets,
(05:20):
so that's good.
Speaker 2 (05:21):
No crickets in cricket. They're all frozen. Yeah, and or
just they got old and died. It happens. Yeah, lots
of boxeller bugs. Like we got maple trees nearby and
they just the last like two weeks, they've just been
going nuts, those box ellar bugs. But they're all frozen.
So there's a good point, you know, frost has good points.
(05:42):
And we had our season, we had a nice growing season.
So it is October and and the clock is ticking
on on what we can do and what we cannot
do in the garden. So I want to just talk
a bit about that. And one thing that's the dan alliance.
And the weeds are still active. You don't see much
(06:03):
growth on them this time here, but actually I just
took this picture yesterday of a thistle and it's still
green and healthy. And so falls to the great time.
Now we still got I would say, we still got
until like this time of year, until we'll get really
a series of hard frauds. We still got time to
(06:23):
kill these weeds. And this is a great time to
do it because these weeds now you don't see them
putting them on a top growth, but their roots are
very active now, sucking up just bringing all their nutrients
down into their roots. And so that's the key to
killing thistles and other weeds is to get that chemical
down to the roots. So like tomorrow or probably the
(06:44):
next day, I'm gonna go out there, and this is
on my yard, I have to say. And so I'm
gonna go out there and I got a few thistle
and I'm just gonna spray it. I'm gonna have a
great kill because the thistle is gonna naturally bring the
chemical down into its roots. So if I don't like
spraying weeds, I don't like mess around with all those
toxic chemicals. But if you're gonna do it, the time
(07:06):
to do it is when it's most effective, and the
most effective time is fall, and now it's a great
time to do it. Okay. Now, another thing is mowing
the lawn. Okay, so like again, our lawns are not
actively growing at least the blades aren't doing much, but
the roots are still going right. But when you mow
(07:27):
your lawn, I usually like to mow tall because a
tall lawn has a deep root system. A tall lawn
will shade the soil and keep it cooler and the
turf stays greener longer. But the last time I mow,
I'm gonna drop the more down a notch down, not
to three inches, but more down, lower to like two
and a half inches this last time. And that's one
(07:51):
reason is I don't want to lush lawn over winter.
A lush lawn can mat down and get this thease disease.
And also lush lawn can attract exactly meatal mice. I
know how much you like mice. Yeah, we all got
to live on this planet together, and there is a
reason for mice. I guess, if nothing else but to
(08:13):
feed hawks. There you go, there, you so like one night?
Why why would a vol be attracted to a lush
lawn because it's hard, hard for the hawk to find it.
Speaker 1 (08:26):
Yeah, the brown grass is time when it gets browned up,
and yeah, shelter.
Speaker 2 (08:33):
So what we would do is wuld cut it low.
I would say exactly two to two and a half inches,
and then then they won't hang out on your lawn
and then they'll go to the neighbor's lawn, or they'll
go to the brush pile or something else. Right, So
don't forget you should have a nice, nicely trimline. Don't
go nuts. Don't scalp the thing down one inch because
(08:55):
you could injure the lawn. But I think about two
and a half inches is a good way to go. Okay,
So remember that the last time we mow, which is
about right now. You know it's not We're not gonna
get much growth now, so make sure your one is
nicely trimmed. In October.
Speaker 1 (09:13):
When you talked about the thistle and stuff, sometimes I
hear from people you should let it get like a
light frost and then spray it.
Speaker 2 (09:25):
Well, okay, yeah, that's uh because an enormal Yeah I can.
I can believe that, but I think the time the
whole key is you gotta do it in the fall,
right well, and I think that the thing about the thistle,
the whole key is the thistle is drawing its nutrients down.
(09:45):
So why is the thistle doing that. It's not because
oh I just got a light frost tonight and now
I'm going to start doing it. No, it's a trigger
mechanism from the longer nights and the cooler temperatures. So
I don't wait necessarily for light frost. I think like
late September, early October now this year, since you know,
(10:05):
we still have time to do it because we've had
an extended, extended warm period. But you can keep doing
it until you look at that this So and when
the thistle looks like it's really been frazzled, you know,
by frost, then it's then it's not going to have
much action down flow into the roots, so I don't
wait until light frost. Person specific, Yeah, I agree with you.
(10:31):
I think like late September is kind of what the
target is in a normal year, is what I do.
But I just notice that sometimes you don't get it
all right away, or you get busy, and I just say,
like this time of year, if if you've got dandelions,
or if you got even clover or feel bind weed
in law, you know you still have time to get it,
(10:52):
and as long as it's still green and appears healthy.
Speaker 1 (10:56):
Okay, sounds like a plant.
Speaker 2 (10:58):
How about fertilizing all lawn. That's generally I don't recommend
fertilizing a lawn in October because even I don't want
to stimulate any new growth late in the season. That
new growth can be succulent and subject to winter injury.
So I would say I would not fertilize my lawn
(11:20):
this time year. I would wait now until around Memorial
Day next year. Okay. So some I'm talking about somethings
we can still do in October, and some things that
you really got to be cautious about. I'm not gonna
say if you fertilize your lawn. It's going to die
over winter. I'm not saying that, but we passed the
best time and now there is risk of potential injury
(11:43):
to your lawn.
Speaker 1 (11:44):
And that would go for gardens. I asked you last week,
remember about adding a you know, a fertilizer into the garden,
a soil test. So would you say that as well?
Speaker 2 (11:56):
Like well, like I would say, like, okay, but you're
not doing it. You're just doing it because you've got
to sell the test. Oh, I need some cottash in
the garden, so I'm gonna go do it right now.
But even though there's nothing growing in the garden. So
I would just like, what is the advantage of the point, like,
like why are you doing it? And uh? Because I
(12:19):
mean there is a risk of some of it leeching,
like especially nitrogen that can leach out. That was your reea.
You were talking about a nyitrogen fertilizer and that can
leach out, it can volatilize, so you're gonna lose some
of it over winter. So I would I mean, if
I was if I was a farmer and I had
like ten thousand acres to fertilize, Okay, some you know
(12:40):
maybe I'll do that in a fall, because I don't
I won't have time in the spring and do it.
But if I just have a garden, my lord, how
long it takes like two minutes to fertilize your garden?
Like it right, So let's just wait until until you
canna grow your garden. Yeah, same with you know, same
with grassy Like like now, it's not the time to
(13:01):
put down grass seed. If you got beer spots, you know,
we should have been we should have done that a
month ago, because you put down grass seed now and
the ground is warm, and so the seed may germinate,
but it won't get well enough established before winter, especially
if we have winter where we don't get a lot
of snow on a blanket of protection. So I would say,
(13:23):
just don't bother so in your grass seed now if
you want to, you can dorman seed and that would
be like, that's what we're gonna do that like in
about a month in November when this when the ground
is cold and the seed won't germinate. See, we don't
want to see the germanate now because it won't get established.
It'll pop up and then the winter will just punch
(13:46):
it in the face. So we don't want that, so
let's just hold off. And to me, I preferred like
I prefer to do it earlier in the fall August
fifteenth to September fifteenth. The ground's warm, the seed Germany
trap rapidly, and I got a whole month for that
seed to get at those seed wings to get established.
(14:06):
But now it's too late, so let's just forget about that.
Do you agree?
Speaker 1 (14:12):
Yeah?
Speaker 2 (14:12):
Good. In fact, if you disagree on any of these comments,
please let me know if if you want to debate anything. Okay, Okay,
so that we're doing at the lawn, so that's some
things to do. We're gonna mow our lawn, but we're
not gonna fertilize our lawn. Okay. How about we're gonna
one thing that are trees. We're gonna wrap our trees.
(14:35):
And now is the time when we start getting frosts.
We need to protect our trees from frost injury that's
related to sun scalding. So the reason why we wrap
our trees in fall is not to get them a
little bit warm, like putting on a sweater. No, the
reason why we wrap trees in fall is to keep
(14:57):
the bark cool. Okay, And that's why we use a
light colored like a white guard here or light colored
craft paper, and we wrap it on the trees because
what happens is, I know, you see here we got
a tree on the left that's got the tree guard
on the tree on the right is a maple tree,
(15:17):
and maples have a very thin bark. And what happens
is this is on the south west side of the tree,
and on a winter day like in March, it got
very warm. There's no shade now on that bark, so
it's the bark is fully exposed, and the afternoon sun
beats down upon the side of that side of the tree,
and it can get very warm. And I heard once
(15:41):
red ones it can be seventy seven degrees warmer on
the southwest side compared to the northeast side of the
same tree. And so it gets so warm that this
activates the cells. They get out of their dormancy and
so the cells get active. But then when the sun
goes down and it gets frigid again, and those activated
(16:01):
cells can't adjust to that and they can freeze up
and burst, and that creates these vertical cracks. So fruit trees,
maple trees lindens very sensitives, and so you should wrap
your tree at least for the first five years. And
he's a white, not a black. He's a white tree
(16:22):
guard to reflect off that winter sun. And then and
again the cracks occur due to freezing temperatures. So when
the danger of frost is over in the spring, we
take off the tree guard, take off that white or
take off that paper, that white guard of the paper,
because there's no frost worry anymore. Okay, So that's something
(16:43):
we can still do in October. Another thing that we
can do this time of year, especially because it's so
dry in Bismarck Man Damn. Yeah, Like I saw in
the news they said, like this has been like this
last six weeks has been like the second driest ever
for this time of year. So it's very dry, and
(17:03):
so are trees. Their roots are still growing, so they
would appreciate if you can give them a drink of
water before the ground freezes, So if you can, so
it's not it's not life or death, but they you know,
they're thirsty. They would like a drink if you can,
especially if you've got a young tree that you planted
over the last couple of years. Okay, here's another thing
(17:24):
about that I see a lot in fall is people
planting trees, and I just have to say, I'm yeah,
this is like big trees suffer the most shock. Okay,
it's like this tree, this tree's lost over ninety five
percent of its feeding roots. And you know, I especially
get worried about evergreens when I see the tree spades
(17:48):
rolling down the street with evergreens, because again, those trees
have lost so much of their roots system. They've lost
over ninety five percent of their roots, and the needles
will be they're exposed all winter. So like we really
the best time we've passed, the best time of planting trees.
It was like a couple of weeks ago. And especially
(18:09):
if it's an evergreen, I would just have to say, like,
I think you know the tree. They'll tell you that
the tree will survive, Yes, but what's really the advantage
of planting a giant evergreen right before winter compared to
waiting till spring.
Speaker 1 (18:24):
I don't know. This picture makes me think that you
just throw out a lot of money for not a
high success rate.
Speaker 2 (18:32):
Probably well in this case, like when I see this,
I see this is like somebody who doesn't understand trees, right,
because this tree, like, what do we say for every
inch of trunk diameter, you have a year to a
year and a half of shock. So what's that This
is twelve inches, so that means we got about, let's say,
(18:52):
that's about eighteen years of transplant shock. So probably they
would have been better just planting a smaller tree and
saving a lot of money. But but my key here
is that we're past the best time to plant trees,
and especially if it's a big tree, and especially if
it's an evergreen, I just think it's a little bit risky,
(19:13):
and I would just encourage you to reconsider and think
about planting early in spring. It will be much less
stressful on the tree. And maybe you can also just
say that, hey, you know, like you don't have to
plant an instant landscape. You don't have to have a
you know, forty foot tree. You don't have to plant
a forty foot tree. So so there again, I want
(19:35):
to talk about things today, the things that you can
do and things to just be cautious about. So one
last thing I want to talk about, and we'll talk
about a few minutes here about it's tulips. Tuips is
definitely something that we can plant. And I just love
tuips and that bright, clear color and spring time. Yeah,
and there's all kinds of tuups. There's like botanical types
(19:58):
like this lilac wonder, you know, just like almost like
a water lily somewhat. And the Emperor tuops. This is
a very popular variety. It's one of the first of
the big tups to bloom and they bloom at the
same time as daffodils, and so you can have a
really nice combination when you use the Emperors. And the
triump tulips come next in blooming, and they're like the
(20:21):
classic tuop. They come in all kinds of color, including purple.
This is the negreta variety, very popular, and I like
Darwin hybrids. That's the ones I go for because they're hybrids.
It's a big bulb, it's a vigorous plant. And the
nice thing about if I get a vigorous plant, I
can keep that tuip blooming year after year after year.
(20:46):
And so I like the Darwin hybrids. They're the most
vigorous and they have big, big blossoms. So there's a
very here's one if you like a jolt of color
like Olympic flame. Really, this is very popular Darwin hybrid.
That's my favorite type because it's the easiest to grow.
We sometimes refer them to as perennial tulips just because
(21:07):
they're so reliable to come back year after year. One
that's not as reliable, but you just gotta try it.
It's a parrot tulip, and they're all like they're like
look like the feathers of a parrot, and they come
on all colors. There's yellows and there's a pink one
being shown here, and there's dark violet, the black parrot.
(21:28):
They're just fun to grow and if and I just
assume that when I plant a parrot twoop, I'll maybe
get two years out of that ball. But it's just
so it's just like it's so cool. I just gotta
try it. And there's lily types with the pointed petals
and peony types that it's this aque angelique is a
(21:49):
very popular tuip and it looks just like a pink peony.
So when you go buy your bulbs, I always look
for the biggest bulbs I can find because that's their
food is in that bulb. The bigger the bulb the better.
And if you look carefully, you'll say the size of
the bulb, and I want a twelve plus centimeter bulb,
(22:11):
you know, twelve to fourteen that's the best. If it's
eleven twelve, that's okay. But then when it gets smaller
like ten eleven size, that it's just I don't know
if it's even going to have a flower, or maybe
I'm just gonna get one one year bloom off there.
So keep in mind, the bigger the bulb, the better,
(22:32):
and then make sure the bulbs aren't soft. I want
them to be firm. And then also designing clumps, so
just don't buy like a couple black parrot tulips, for example,
get about least six of them, and then plant them
together in a clump for your greatest impact in the landscape. Okay,
don't plant them in straight rows. Okay, make them plant
(22:52):
them in clumps.
Speaker 1 (22:54):
So if I go plant those, do I, oh, you're
on it.
Speaker 2 (22:58):
You're on it as usual, one mon, No, just kidding,
But yeah, I'm gonna plant the tuup in a sunny
location and that's for the long term. You know, I
can plant tuups one time in a shady area, but
that plant's got to find this sun next spring and
regenerate itself. So I want a sunny spot that gets
at least six hours of sunlight. Tups gotta have a
(23:21):
well drained soil. They will rot in a wet spot.
And I plant them about six inches apart. I just
kind of use my Hawaiian how's it going at six
inches apart? And I plant them about six to eight
inches deep, and then I will sprinkle a bove fertilizer.
To me, that's a more complete fertilizer, works better than
just bone meal, and we do. It's about four cups
(23:45):
for every fifty square feet of planting area, and then
I water it and water deeplay so that way that
will trigger the bulb to start get the roots going.
And that's why we should plant the bulbs as soon
as possible, so we get the roots established before the
on freezes, and then after the ground freezes when it
comes in a November and before Thanksgiving, I'm going to
(24:06):
moult the planting to help stabilize the soil and keep
it frozen all winter. Okay, Now, to keep our tups
going for years, what we have to do is we
have to take care of them in spring time. So
I'm gonna give them a little bit of fertilizer again
in the spring, and then after they're done blooming, I'm
(24:26):
gonna quip off those flower stalks and then I will
not trim the leaves until they turn yellow. So just
to show you how it is, like, here's a mature planting,
and you see the petals are starting to fall off. Okay,
And so we've got to think about what's this tup
all about. Why does a flower have beautiful orange pink petals?
(24:48):
Why why do they have those petals? How come there's
not many green flowers, for example, because what's the purpose
of a petal? Anyhow?
Speaker 1 (24:58):
The petal they were talking about it. I don't know
where you're going with this one.
Speaker 2 (25:03):
No, oh yeah, stay with me.
Speaker 1 (25:05):
Here for the pollinators.
Speaker 2 (25:06):
You got it? Okay, Hey, I.
Speaker 1 (25:08):
Was gonna say obvious here I.
Speaker 2 (25:10):
Am, come here, I want I got pollen for you.
Let's go. Okay. So the pedals are there, not not
for you in your bouquet or your base. That's an
added effect for us. The plant has its own mindsets.
I want a bee to visit me. So that's why
you got these bright petals. And now the petals fall. Okay,
(25:32):
the bad did. They did their job. Now what does
the plant want to do? The plant wants to make seeds, right,
that's a It wants to reproduce. Every organism on Earth
wants to reproduce. And so I'm going to tell this
to a Sorry, buddy, I'm not gonna let you reproduce
because you're gonna put all your energy into your seed stalk.
(25:52):
I don't want that. I want you to bloom again.
So after the pedals are all faded out, I'm gonna
cut that seed stock all the way to the ground. Okay, sorry, buddy,
you're not gonna have any seeds this year. You've got
to try again next year. And then also, I'm not
gonna touch the leaves. The leaves are the food factory
(26:15):
of that tulip. So I want that that tulip bulb
is empty right now. It gave everything for that bloom
and the seed stock. So I'm gonna say sorry, you
got to refill that toul bulb. So the leaves. I
keep the leaves there, and they're gonna refill the tulip
bulb for next year's boom. And when the when the
leaves naturally turn yellow. That's a sign that they've done
(26:38):
their job filling up the bulb. So that way we
can have a great display next year. Okay, cut off
the seed stock, cut it right at the base, and
leave the leaves alone.
Speaker 1 (26:50):
But then when they turn yellow, you want to clip
those off too.
Speaker 2 (26:52):
Yeah, because they're because they're not doing anything and they're ugly. Yeah,
we're done with that. So and the bulbs old. So
now let's say you don't have a garden. Don't worry.
You can plant indoors and containers and so for now there.
You don't plan them six inches apart. You plant them
closer each other, just a couple inches apart, and you
plan them more shallow. Okay, just and I just have
(27:16):
this shown here just to let you see the spacing.
And now I'm going to top this off with some
more potting soil mix. Okay, it's got to be potting soil,
and I'm going to top it all the way to
the very tip of the bulb, so maybe you just
barely can't see the bulb, so it's not six to
eight inches deep. Now it's like right there near the
soil surface. And I'm gonna pretend give them mimic a winter.
(27:40):
So I'm gonna I'm going to cover them with soil,
I'm going to a good drink of water, and then
what I'm gonna do, I'm going to put them in
an unheated garage now someplace where it's forty to fifty,
like if you had an extra refrigerator, they'd love. That'd
be perfect. That mimics winter great, But my unheated gridge
does a good job for is. And then what's going
to happen after about like twelve fourteen weeks? But I
(28:02):
know it's is the sprouts themselves, or you'll start seeing
that some of the sprouts come out of the soil
like they've been they've been winter rized and they're ready
to come up. And so after you start seeing sprouts
after about fourteen weeks for tuips, I'm gonna bring them
indoors and then they're just gonna grow and have a
beautiful display. Okay, So you can plant tuops and containers.
(28:24):
I do that every year, just a few just for
just for the fun of it. And it's it doesn't
take much work at all.
Speaker 1 (28:30):
If you grew them in a container and then the
following year, could you transplant those bulbs outside.
Speaker 2 (28:36):
Yes you can if you want to be disappointed. Oh
so yeah, this is what we call forcing a bulb.
I force this bulb to bloom. It's not happy about
it wasn't so it's uh, it's such a traumatic thing
for this poor bulb and I just had such a
it's in a container. So when I grow a bulb
(28:59):
and a can I get one year? That's it. Then
I toss away the bulbs because I guess if I
if I really wanted to, or I could try to
get it going again, but it'll just rarely work. So
get a good quality bulb if you start them indoors.
Sometimes some varieties they say if this is a good
verty for forcing, that's the term. But then after the
(29:22):
bloom's done, just out to the compost pile. There you go.
So lastly, October is a great time. Enjoy dance, dance
in the garden, have a great time and celebrate and celebrate.
Now we got a couple of weeks before November. Get
(29:43):
out there in the garden, get the job done, and
let's we'll have a great spring.
Speaker 1 (29:48):
That sounds like a good plan. How about my last
final question, just because you're focusing on flowers. Yes, say
I got I mean I did get. I got a
P and E plan green plant. Okay, I just I
got it like last week, put it in the ground,
(30:08):
gave it a good drink water. Should I have Should
I have high hopes or low hopes?
Speaker 2 (30:15):
Well, generally in life, I keep my expectations low. So
like the time the transplant a peeny is September, so
it's mid October, so you're a little bit slow there,
but but still you know it's it's been a warm time,
(30:38):
warmed than usual. So I would say the most important
thing for you now is just make sure you mulch it. Okay,
when the ground freezes like a mid November, and that's
and then we'll just see what happens.
Speaker 1 (30:49):
Yeah. Should I continue to give it water every few days.
Speaker 2 (30:52):
To the ground every few days, No, okay, give it
a good drink and then at the ground. Yeah. Then
I would just like, if you like, you really love
this plant, so I will scratch this. So I'll go
a few inches and see if it's moist. If it's
If it's moist, don't water it. But if it's bone dry, yeah,
given another drink until the ground freezes. May see what
(31:18):
happened just once a week at the most, because you know,
there's there's generally not a lot of heat going on,
so there's a lot of evaporation. But yeah, if it's
bone dry, sure, given another drink and maybe it'll work. Yeah,
I'm was it free? Yeah, okay, there you go.
Speaker 1 (31:38):
Right, Well whatever, you're born scientists.
Speaker 2 (31:42):
I like doing it. Push it, Push it. Then you
can tell a story next year about how it worked
or how it failed. Good luck you planted it so
that the pink buds are only one inch deep.
Speaker 1 (31:56):
You know, I planted the plant that I got. They
were cut.
Speaker 2 (31:58):
It was a plant that was divided.
Speaker 1 (32:01):
Okay, so it had like big are those tubers with peonies? Yea, yeah,
had really big?
Speaker 2 (32:10):
Yeah yeah. The roots yeah. And so when you when
you transplant a peenie the keys, you should look at
those little pink buds and those roots. Well what exactly
the struct botanical structure is. But the roots you'll see
those pink buds and they should be only about an
inch below ground. Sometimes people it's a tendency to plant
(32:31):
peenies too deep. That okay, so now maybe I won't
bloom next.
Speaker 1 (32:35):
Year, but I'm not out anything. So we'll give her
a where I'll see what happens. Yeah, okay, I'm gonna
continue this fall fall October sem and I'm going to
talk a little bit about fall the core. Do you
decorate your porch.
Speaker 2 (32:50):
Uh pumpkins with pumpkins? Well, some years I do, some
years I don't. Sometimes you hit put out a few moms,
some hers, I don't.
Speaker 1 (33:03):
That's what I can appreciate. Again, we're gonna celebrate even
though end of the season. I can appreciate people's the
core by their mailboxes, front decks out in the yard.
So just some popular plants and stuff that we see
in there, obviously straw bales, corn stocks, people even do
bundles of wheat. You got your scarecrows, your pumpkins, your moms,
(33:26):
your golds. So this is actually my decare ladies front deck.
It's been fun watching her kind of continue to decorate,
and she's really gone way out. But you know, right
now a lot of times people have these straw bales
on their deck and you can see she's got cornstocks,
so they're easily and readily available, just because like this
(33:49):
is harvest season. The reason people use straw bales as
you can see in there, basically to elevate elements and
even to stick signs. And I had last year, the
last couple years I had of strawberries out at my
mailbox and stuff. But I just like, she's got a
lot going on. And then she added in like Halloween
decorations this this month as well, so.
Speaker 2 (34:13):
It looks good.
Speaker 1 (34:14):
Yeah, I'm gonna take us down a little bit of
a history lane. You know the history of scarecrows?
Speaker 2 (34:20):
Uh No, I can't.
Speaker 1 (34:23):
They originated.
Speaker 2 (34:24):
I think what happened is in the old days the
Puritans they took they had like one person that never behaved,
and so they said, you put on a you put
on a shirt, and we're gonna hang you up on
this trailis out in the garden. You scare the crows away.
And that guy was named they called him Jim Scarecrow.
(34:47):
Is that right?
Speaker 1 (34:47):
I didn't read that.
Speaker 2 (34:49):
Maybe I made that.
Speaker 1 (34:50):
I did some research and they say scarecrows actually date
back to the Egyptians. And the Egyptians used nets on
like wooden frames to scare quail away from their wheat
fields along the Nile River. So they actually said like
when they would do this is like farmers would hide
and they would basically jump to scare those quail, and
(35:14):
then they would catch the quail, and so they would
save the crop and have dinner that night and then whenever. However,
many years later, they say twenty five hundred BC, Greek
farmers started like carving wooden scarecrows to scare birds from
their vineyards. And then really they developed further when the
(35:37):
Japanese sometime later would create scarecrows that were shaped like
people dressed in raincoats and straw hats to protect the
rice fields. So that's kind of what I found out
some research on history. I did not did not see that,
you know, and really for today today's use, they're probably
(35:59):
more so seen in gardens or more so decorations. I
have a picture, you know, that one in the field,
but a lot of farmers and stuff, I know, like
up where I live where there's a lot of farmland,
like if there's sunflowers, which you get tons of blackbirds
in they got like the cannons going.
Speaker 2 (36:17):
On right and stuff. So yeah, not really.
Speaker 1 (36:21):
Used anymore, but something fun to the core.
Speaker 2 (36:25):
Definitely ornamental only Yeah, any bird can any crow could
figure that out. After a couple of days. You know,
it's just fucking this guy never moves, you know.
Speaker 1 (36:34):
I'd like to say it's no different than like putting
a deer blind up right, like the deer like, oh,
what's that? But then it never moves and never moves
and they just continue to come in.
Speaker 2 (36:44):
So I'll take that.
Speaker 1 (36:46):
Yeah, Okay. How about legends of where Jack o'laddin started?
You ever find out if there was no.
Speaker 2 (36:55):
I think there's a guy named Jack in the story.
Speaker 1 (36:57):
Is Jack?
Speaker 2 (36:58):
Is there?
Speaker 1 (36:58):
Yeah? And so this is an Irish legend. So again,
doing some research, there's some variations of this, but stingy
Jack one day, I guess, invited the devil to have
a drink with him, and true to his name, he
didn't want to pay for his drink, so he somehow
(37:20):
convinced the devil to turn himself into a coin so
he could Jack could use that to buy his drinks. Okay,
once the devil.
Speaker 2 (37:28):
Did that, Now what happened? Jack turned the devil into a.
Speaker 1 (37:32):
Coin, convinced the devil to turn himself into a coin.
The devil did.
Speaker 2 (37:39):
Oh, he convinced the devil.
Speaker 1 (37:41):
Convince the devil, because.
Speaker 2 (37:43):
Turn into a coin so I can pay for the drinks,
and the devil said yes.
Speaker 1 (37:47):
The devil said so well, Jack decided to keep the
money and he put it in his pocket next to
like a silver cross, which is supposed to prevent the
devil from changing back into his original sometime down the road.
He eventually freed the devil under the condition that he
couldn't come back and bother Jack at all for one year,
(38:09):
and if somehow Jack would die in that year, the
devil couldn't take his soul. So the next year, Jack
decided to trick the devil again by having him climb
into the tree to pick a piece of fruit. While
he was up there picking fruit, stingy, Jack decided to
(38:30):
carve a cross into the tree's bark so the devil
could not come down, basically until the devil promised Jack
that he would not bother him for ten more years,
so they made that deal. Sometime after that, Jack did die,
and as the legend goes, apparently God did not find
him fit to be in heaven, and the devil wanted
(38:54):
to keep up his end of the deal, so he
decided to not claim his soul and would not allow
Jack down in the southern region either, and so he
sent Jack off into the dark knight with only a
burning coal to light his way, and he put that
coal into a carved out turn up as you see there,
(39:18):
and legend has it he's been Roman the Earth ever since.
So the Irish started out with these carved out turn ups,
and Scotland kind of took that over as well. And
then you can see I put in there that I
found out England decided to use beats, and then it
was really when it came over to the US, this
(39:39):
legend that we started using pumpkins, and so the Irish
referred to it, referred to his ghostly figure as Jack
of the Lantern, and then it turned into Jack o' lantern.
Speaker 2 (39:52):
So Jacks inside that pumpkin.
Speaker 1 (39:54):
Jack is just Roman the Earth, is what the legend says.
But yes, with the that's why we.
Speaker 2 (40:00):
Put Devil didn't want them either.
Speaker 1 (40:02):
Devil and God said nope.
Speaker 2 (40:04):
He had no place to go.
Speaker 1 (40:05):
He had no place to go Hell, that's right. So
just by the lights of a burning coal, which he
put inside a carved he carved a turn.
Speaker 2 (40:17):
Up for Devil.
Speaker 1 (40:18):
Carved Jack.
Speaker 2 (40:20):
Did Jack did his own? Yeah, so like it as
he's walking through that, I get it. It's just a.
Speaker 1 (40:28):
Little bit of variations, but it's stingy. Jack is where
it all started. Yeah, so today I just have to show,
you know, in lots of different ways we can decorate
and carve our pumpkins. A lot of people paint pumpkins,
especially with younger kids, might be easier to do that.
(40:48):
But I thought i'd talked a little bit about some
different pumpkin varieties that are out there as well. So
I know you've mentioned this. When we look at like
jackal lanterns or pumps for carbon, you recommend like neon,
early King, early giants, those are going to be what
do you say, they usually average thirty pounds twenty.
Speaker 2 (41:09):
Pounds, Well, yeah, the neon. The thing about neon is
it's it's early, so that but it only gets about
eight pounds sixth that on that neon. That the key
to the neon is it's early and that's.
Speaker 1 (41:21):
A little for kids, perfect size.
Speaker 2 (41:23):
And also, yeah, the vines don't go nuts. But if
you want a bigger pumpkin, like like you say, thirty pounds,
early King and early Giant, they're you know, they're ripen
in the ninety days and so they're reliable in North Dakota,
and that's a nice thirty pound pumpkin. There go, there
you go.
Speaker 1 (41:40):
If you want something fun like these warty ones, recommended
varieties would be knucklehead, goosebumps or grizzly anything.
Speaker 2 (41:49):
You want to comment on those ones, Yeah, we do
a lot of it. We do tests with that, and uh,
I don't know, people don't really get that crazy abottom
it's a wardy goblin is another one, wardy goblin because
it goes warts are dark green on wordy goblin. That's
(42:11):
the one that I would grow. But yeah, it's just different.
Speaker 1 (42:14):
It's just different. There's also some colored varieties. So course,
up in the right hand corner there is the porcelain doll.
We've talked about that in the past, which I really
enjoy that pink pumpkin, pumpkin jaradell. That's gonna give you
kind of that greenish blue off color. And then if
you're looking at white pumpkins. A couple of varieties for
(42:36):
North Dakota would be polar bear and Casparita, which is
a mini so something kind of fun.
Speaker 2 (42:43):
Ye. Any other colored yards, well, there's red like scarlet
like Cinderella is a popular it's an old fashioned heirloom
that the vine goes like about forty feet long. But
it's a it's a cooking pumpkin, Cinderella and uh the.
Speaker 1 (43:02):
Jar oh yeah, yellow, mellow yellow, mellow yellow.
Speaker 2 (43:07):
Yeah, you know nobody, you know, our our team of
testers think like it's ugly. It just looks like a
pumpkin that didn't turn worm. Yeah, right, just forget about it.
The jaradale and all those blue grayish pompkins, they're they're
for cooking too. They haven't. It's it's kind of like
a squash actually, And so that would be going not
(43:30):
just for display, but you can after Halloween, you can
eat it. So that's and what the white ones, like
Polar Bear, some of the white ones have a tendency
to develop color a little bit. They'll start turning pinkish
or bluish.
Speaker 1 (43:45):
Wow.
Speaker 2 (43:46):
So what you want to do is you want to
get them out of the sunlight after you harvest them
so that they stay white and then you have them
on display right there and for Halloween. So I want
to pure white like Polar Bear. Casper Is that's a
very small one but very productive. Yeah, that's good choices there.
Speaker 1 (44:07):
The other thing I mentioned earlier is you said moms
chrysantheums and stuff, so they are perfect for that fall flowering,
fall color and stuff. They're fall blooming. You can get
a lot of different varieties out there, whether they're double flowers,
single daisy, even like the large pomp poms or bun moms.
(44:28):
The one thing is as if they are bought at
a store, most likely those aren't gonna bloom again because
they're not like the hearty varieties. You know, I always
see like Runnings Walmart, they have a grocery store that's
uh yeah, that's an ornamental only that's a.
Speaker 2 (44:50):
Yeah, that's not a hearty one. So you want to
look for ones that, like from Minnesota or as a
famous mom program. So yeah, like if you want moms,
go to a garden center to buy them a garden
center because those are they're going to sell you ones
that are hardy and may come back the next year.
(45:11):
Yeah yeah. The one you buy it at the grocery
store is not likely to come back. And it's also
generally it will bloom too late.
Speaker 1 (45:20):
Because you get frosted. Huh yeah.
Speaker 2 (45:23):
Just it's just not made for North Dakota. It's just
made for the Thanksgiving table.
Speaker 1 (45:29):
Yeah, huh do you ever get moms?
Speaker 2 (45:33):
No? No, because it's it's uh a.
Speaker 1 (45:38):
Wasting money for you. Stingy tom.
Speaker 2 (45:45):
My wife has, My wife has. Yeah, but.
Speaker 1 (45:50):
I would never buy them. They look very nice, yeah,
vibrant colors.
Speaker 2 (45:57):
Yeah, I would if I bought one, I'd buy one
of the like a weird one, like one that had
like spider petals or something like that. But just I
am stingy. Okay, excepted me.
Speaker 1 (46:10):
You both so it's frugal. It's okay.
Speaker 2 (46:15):
It's not a sin.
Speaker 1 (46:16):
No.
Speaker 2 (46:17):
You know, I don't care what happened to stingy Jack.
You know, there's nothing wrong with being frugal.
Speaker 1 (46:25):
That's right.
Speaker 2 (46:25):
I think Kevin will accept me.
Speaker 1 (46:27):
That's right.
Speaker 2 (46:28):
I'll try better, Okay.
Speaker 1 (46:31):
The last thing I want to talk about is gorgs. Then,
so gords. I think gords are fun. I think they're awesome.
I wrote an article on them this past week and stuff.
But you know, the big thing that I just got
to say is so last year I had outfire mailbox
decorated pumpkins gords. Literally after the frost, we took them down,
(46:54):
threw them down in the corral obviously on like where
the manure pile has been left them. What a surprise
this year to see half the corral is full of
gorge that I'm sure cross pollinated with lots with each other.
So I picked more than a couple of wag in
full and I was able to share them and stuff.
But they are fun. I think they add a lot
(47:16):
of extra to your decorations and everything like that. So
a lot of different variety of colors, whether they're yellow, orange, green, white, striped, spotted.
You know, they kind of can get even two colors,
three colors in one. You have fun shape brown pair
of apple, penguin and swan if you do want to
grow gorge again. I forgot them this year and mother
(47:40):
nature gave us ample rain that they were able to
survive and stuff. But they're like pumpkins. You can direct
seed them after the frost. You know. One thing I
would say is once they really do start to bind,
you don't have to worry at all about weeding at all.
They're going to shade those out. A lot of people
I see around the Bismarck neighborhoods do trellis them too,
(48:05):
So they're easy picking. Get them up off the ground,
and if you do grow them. You just want to
harvest them when the skin has hardened in the in
the stems start to brown.
Speaker 2 (48:16):
Yep. I like the swan type.
Speaker 1 (48:18):
That I have grown. I mean this year, but we
had all everything.
Speaker 2 (48:26):
It really looks like a swan. Yeah, it's kind of neat.
I like it.
Speaker 1 (48:30):
Yeah, here's some varieties that thought would be cool with
the show. But in the bottom left there you see
the turk's turbine. It's kind of I don't know. Those
always kind of look like mutants looking gourds, so do
the gremlins on the bottom right. And you have those
bottleneck or birdhouse that people let hard enough and then
(48:51):
just drill a hole in and hang them in a tree. Daisy.
I think it's kind of cool, just because if you
look down on it, it literally looks like you have
these petals on it. And then there's also the lufa
that people you can go and actually turn that into
a sponge.
Speaker 2 (49:09):
Make sure you get an early variety of loofah, that's
your goal, because that's that's a late ripening one. I
would start that one indoors if I was going to
grow a loofa, And as you see it, that's not
very that's just for that's for the Lufa sponge. It's
not for ornamental purposes. You can eat it too when
(49:30):
it's young, that's Have you tried it? Yeah, I've had it. Yeah.
Uh it's uh. It's not sweet, that's for sure. I
don't know kind of what the right word is. Is kind
of starchy, kind of bland, kind of like kind of
like a honeydew that has no flavor, kind of that
(49:51):
kind of thing, just like a flavorless honeydew. How about
that something or maybe like a kind of good Maybe
zucchini is because it's but it's really doesn't got much
flavor at all. It's a wax scord. It's another one
just like that. Yeap. So it's no gotta hars it
(50:12):
young if you're gonna eat it. So and nobody does that.
Nobody in North courtA gross New footwards for eating. That
was when I lived in Asia. They did.
Speaker 1 (50:22):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (50:23):
But I like the swan. That's the one I would get.
That's the coolest one kids. And then you can even
paint it so it looks like a swan. That's a Yeah,
that's a nice fun thing. Lots of good things to do.
Speaker 1 (50:35):
It fall October Fest. Right, that's right. That's all I
have for today, keeping the fall theme, the October theme. Okay,
try not to be stingy, to be stingy, it's right.
Speaker 2 (50:51):
That won't be a stingy jack, that's for sure. I'll
try my best.
Speaker 1 (50:57):
Any other last words of.
Speaker 2 (50:59):
Wisdoys, I would enjoy the you know, just October is
a wonderful month. Enjoy it, you know, like I.
Speaker 1 (51:05):
Say, hopefully no snow Halloween.
Speaker 2 (51:09):
Yeah yeah, just enjoy these beautiful Chris days and uh
because winter's coming.
Speaker 1 (51:18):
That's right. We just want to thank you as always
for joining us on today's episode of Dakota Growing and
hope that you will tune in for future episodes. Dakota
Growing is a gardening show brought to you by Dakota
Media Access and NDSU Extension. We discuss a variety of
(51:38):
timely topics pertaining to your landscape, along with giving you
tips and advice for your lawn, garden, and trees. If
you have questions, call seven oh one two two one
six eight sixty five or email NDSU dot Burley dot
Extension at NDSU dot com. Dakota Growing airs on Radio
Access one O two point five FM Community access Channel
(52:00):
twelve or six twelve HD, or online at FreeTV dot org.
Welcome to Dakota Growing. I'm Kelsey Deckert, your horticulture agent
here in Burley County, joined in the radio Access studio
by my co host Tom Cobb, NDSU Extension horticulturist. How
you doing.
Speaker 2 (00:34):
Everything's great.
Speaker 1 (00:36):
It's cold this morning, that's right.
Speaker 2 (00:38):
We've had frost here finally, right, last couple nights, but
it's okay, okay, yeah, you know, and we'll be talking
about that in a few minutes. And but generally weather's
been right, sonny, pleasant, really nice, wonderful for the wind.
Speaker 1 (01:02):
Well even the next two days though, we're supposed to
warm up again, so that'll be nice.
Speaker 2 (01:06):
That's right. No snow on the forecast. Life's good, life's good.
I think it's everything's great. I love this time here.
Speaker 1 (01:14):
Do you watch the leaves blow off the trees?
Speaker 2 (01:17):
That's right? And uh no, I just like the weather.
And it's usually a little crisp and refreshing outside, and
it's comfortable working outside and and just trying to savor
you know, winter's coming, so it always does. So you
(01:41):
just say, we've got another nice week. So I'm gonna
appreciate that, appreciate it.
Speaker 1 (01:47):
That sounds good. What do you got today for us
to talk about.
Speaker 2 (01:50):
Looking of the wonderful October. We're going to talk about
Octoberfest in the garden for today.
Speaker 1 (01:58):
The slug's drinking beer or what?
Speaker 2 (02:01):
Wow? Now, why would I waste any beer on a slug?
Slugs can get their own beer. I'm not gonna read
any no slug beer, so I would rather just tolerate
a few slugs. I don't have a slug problem. And actually,
but I love October and so you know Octoberfest, huh,
(02:22):
that Bavarian festival.
Speaker 1 (02:24):
A little bit know a little bit about.
Speaker 2 (02:26):
It, you know, I just heard that. Did you know
Octoberfest is actually in September in Germany? I don't know
why it's I don't know. It's kind of different. But
that's just a little honest on the side there. It's
not really important, but we're going to talk about Octoberfest
because it's the time for celebration right now. And in
(02:48):
Germany they do celebrate. They have lots of music, and
they have, as you say, they drink a little bit
of beer, slugs or no slugs, and of course they
have a great time dancing. So October is a time
and September, should I say the fall is a time
to celebrate and right now here, not just in Germany,
(03:09):
but in North Dakota too. So we got these wonderful
the maples are spectacular right now, and just forget that
beautiful fall car that we got for a while until
the leaves blew off. Yeah, and I'm going to celebrate,
especially this October because we had such a long growing season.
(03:30):
You know, we had two weeks bonus of a growing
season this year, and so crops like our watermelons, they
had all the time they needed to have a wonderful,
delicious harvest. But frost has come to North Dakota. But
(03:50):
it's okay. It comes all the time, and there are
silver linings to frost. There's a good part. Like, for example,
the box cellar bugs are a frozen now, so they
were getting to be a little bit pesky the last
week or so.
Speaker 1 (04:04):
The flies as well. Celebrate every time I see those
little stripey wing flies in my house every day. Vacuum
up a few more.
Speaker 2 (04:15):
Yeah, you know one thing about a house fly or
that's a different type window pane fly.
Speaker 1 (04:20):
Yeah, I like the heat.
Speaker 2 (04:23):
Yeah, they're kind of they're slow motion, they're kind of they're.
Speaker 1 (04:26):
Easy to get but it's like it's like, you do
you feel like you have like a graveyard going on
every day. Oh, there's a few more. Wonder where they
came from.
Speaker 2 (04:38):
Yeah, yeah, in our house, they're very attracted to like
the south window, so they like so must be the
light and the heat. Yeah, and so they just keep
banging their head against the window until they knock themselves
out and then they die. So I guess that's you know,
that's not really a good way to go, actually, you know,
just banging your head against.
Speaker 1 (04:59):
The window and then you no, they kind of like
that's where we have, like our window faces kind of southeast,
our big window in our living room. And so yeah,
like every night they come home and I'm like, oh,
there's a little bit of movement across the floor, and
they just just die. I also haven't been hearing crickets,
(05:20):
so that's good.
Speaker 2 (05:21):
No crickets in cricket. They're all frozen. Yeah, and or
just they got old and died. It happens. Yeah, lots
of boxeller bugs. Like we got maple trees nearby and
they just the last like two weeks, they've just been
going nuts, those box ellar bugs. But they're all frozen.
So there's a good point, you know, frost has good points.
(05:42):
And we had our season, we had a nice growing season.
So it is October and and the clock is ticking
on on what we can do and what we cannot
do in the garden. So I want to just talk
a bit about that. And one thing that's the dan alliance.
And the weeds are still active. You don't see much
(06:03):
growth on them this time here, but actually I just
took this picture yesterday of a thistle and it's still
green and healthy. And so falls to the great time.
Now we still got I would say, we still got
until like this time of year, until we'll get really
a series of hard frauds. We still got time to
(06:23):
kill these weeds. And this is a great time to
do it because these weeds now you don't see them
putting them on a top growth, but their roots are
very active now, sucking up just bringing all their nutrients
down into their roots. And so that's the key to
killing thistles and other weeds is to get that chemical
down to the roots. So like tomorrow or probably the
(06:44):
next day, I'm gonna go out there, and this is
on my yard, I have to say. And so I'm
gonna go out there and I got a few thistle
and I'm just gonna spray it. I'm gonna have a
great kill because the thistle is gonna naturally bring the
chemical down into its roots. So if I don't like
spraying weeds, I don't like mess around with all those
toxic chemicals. But if you're gonna do it, the time
(07:06):
to do it is when it's most effective, and the
most effective time is fall, and now it's a great
time to do it. Okay. Now, another thing is mowing
the lawn. Okay, so like again, our lawns are not
actively growing at least the blades aren't doing much, but
the roots are still going right. But when you mow
(07:27):
your lawn, I usually like to mow tall because a
tall lawn has a deep root system. A tall lawn
will shade the soil and keep it cooler and the
turf stays greener longer. But the last time I mow,
I'm gonna drop the more down a notch down, not
to three inches, but more down, lower to like two
and a half inches this last time. And that's one
(07:51):
reason is I don't want to lush lawn over winter.
A lush lawn can mat down and get this thease disease.
And also lush lawn can attract exactly meatal mice. I
know how much you like mice. Yeah, we all got
to live on this planet together, and there is a
reason for mice. I guess, if nothing else but to
(08:13):
feed hawks. There you go, there, you so like one night?
Why why would a vol be attracted to a lush
lawn because it's hard, hard for the hawk to find it.
Speaker 1 (08:26):
Yeah, the brown grass is time when it gets browned up,
and yeah, shelter.
Speaker 2 (08:33):
So what we would do is wuld cut it low.
I would say exactly two to two and a half inches,
and then then they won't hang out on your lawn
and then they'll go to the neighbor's lawn, or they'll
go to the brush pile or something else. Right, So
don't forget you should have a nice, nicely trimline. Don't
go nuts. Don't scalp the thing down one inch because
(08:55):
you could injure the lawn. But I think about two
and a half inches is a good way to go. Okay,
So remember that the last time we mow, which is
about right now. You know it's not We're not gonna
get much growth now, so make sure your one is
nicely trimmed. In October.
Speaker 1 (09:13):
When you talked about the thistle and stuff, sometimes I
hear from people you should let it get like a
light frost and then spray it.
Speaker 2 (09:25):
Well, okay, yeah, that's uh because an enormal Yeah I can.
I can believe that, but I think the time the
whole key is you gotta do it in the fall,
right well, and I think that the thing about the thistle,
the whole key is the thistle is drawing its nutrients down.
(09:45):
So why is the thistle doing that. It's not because
oh I just got a light frost tonight and now
I'm going to start doing it. No, it's a trigger
mechanism from the longer nights and the cooler temperatures. So
I don't wait necessarily for light frost. I think like
late September, early October now this year, since you know,
(10:05):
we still have time to do it because we've had
an extended, extended warm period. But you can keep doing
it until you look at that this So and when
the thistle looks like it's really been frazzled, you know,
by frost, then it's then it's not going to have
much action down flow into the roots, so I don't
wait until light frost. Person specific, Yeah, I agree with you.
(10:31):
I think like late September is kind of what the
target is in a normal year, is what I do.
But I just notice that sometimes you don't get it
all right away, or you get busy, and I just say,
like this time of year, if if you've got dandelions,
or if you got even clover or feel bind weed
in law, you know you still have time to get it,
(10:52):
and as long as it's still green and appears healthy.
Speaker 1 (10:56):
Okay, sounds like a plant.
Speaker 2 (10:58):
How about fertilizing all lawn. That's generally I don't recommend
fertilizing a lawn in October because even I don't want
to stimulate any new growth late in the season. That
new growth can be succulent and subject to winter injury.
So I would say I would not fertilize my lawn
(11:20):
this time year. I would wait now until around Memorial
Day next year. Okay. So some I'm talking about somethings
we can still do in October, and some things that
you really got to be cautious about. I'm not gonna
say if you fertilize your lawn. It's going to die
over winter. I'm not saying that, but we passed the
best time and now there is risk of potential injury
(11:43):
to your lawn.
Speaker 1 (11:44):
And that would go for gardens. I asked you last week,
remember about adding a you know, a fertilizer into the garden,
a soil test. So would you say that as well?
Speaker 2 (11:56):
Like well, like I would say, like, okay, but you're
not doing it. You're just doing it because you've got
to sell the test. Oh, I need some cottash in
the garden, so I'm gonna go do it right now.
But even though there's nothing growing in the garden. So
I would just like, what is the advantage of the point, like,
like why are you doing it? And uh? Because I
(12:19):
mean there is a risk of some of it leeching,
like especially nitrogen that can leach out. That was your reea.
You were talking about a nyitrogen fertilizer and that can
leach out, it can volatilize, so you're gonna lose some
of it over winter. So I would I mean, if
I was if I was a farmer and I had
like ten thousand acres to fertilize, Okay, some you know
(12:40):
maybe I'll do that in a fall, because I don't
I won't have time in the spring and do it.
But if I just have a garden, my lord, how
long it takes like two minutes to fertilize your garden?
Like it right, So let's just wait until until you
canna grow your garden. Yeah, same with you know, same
with grassy Like like now, it's not the time to
(13:01):
put down grass seed. If you got beer spots, you know,
we should have been we should have done that a
month ago, because you put down grass seed now and
the ground is warm, and so the seed may germinate,
but it won't get well enough established before winter, especially
if we have winter where we don't get a lot
of snow on a blanket of protection. So I would say,
(13:23):
just don't bother so in your grass seed now if
you want to, you can dorman seed and that would
be like, that's what we're gonna do that like in
about a month in November when this when the ground
is cold and the seed won't germinate. See, we don't
want to see the germanate now because it won't get established.
It'll pop up and then the winter will just punch
(13:46):
it in the face. So we don't want that, so
let's just hold off. And to me, I preferred like
I prefer to do it earlier in the fall August
fifteenth to September fifteenth. The ground's warm, the seed Germany
trap rapidly, and I got a whole month for that
seed to get at those seed wings to get established.
(14:06):
But now it's too late, so let's just forget about that.
Do you agree?
Speaker 1 (14:12):
Yeah?
Speaker 2 (14:12):
Good. In fact, if you disagree on any of these comments,
please let me know if if you want to debate anything. Okay, Okay,
so that we're doing at the lawn, so that's some
things to do. We're gonna mow our lawn, but we're
not gonna fertilize our lawn. Okay. How about we're gonna
one thing that are trees. We're gonna wrap our trees.
(14:35):
And now is the time when we start getting frosts.
We need to protect our trees from frost injury that's
related to sun scalding. So the reason why we wrap
our trees in fall is not to get them a
little bit warm, like putting on a sweater. No, the
reason why we wrap trees in fall is to keep
(14:57):
the bark cool. Okay, And that's why we use a
light colored like a white guard here or light colored
craft paper, and we wrap it on the trees because
what happens is, I know, you see here we got
a tree on the left that's got the tree guard
on the tree on the right is a maple tree,
(15:17):
and maples have a very thin bark. And what happens
is this is on the south west side of the tree,
and on a winter day like in March, it got
very warm. There's no shade now on that bark, so
it's the bark is fully exposed, and the afternoon sun
beats down upon the side of that side of the tree,
and it can get very warm. And I heard once
(15:41):
red ones it can be seventy seven degrees warmer on
the southwest side compared to the northeast side of the
same tree. And so it gets so warm that this
activates the cells. They get out of their dormancy and
so the cells get active. But then when the sun
goes down and it gets frigid again, and those activated
(16:01):
cells can't adjust to that and they can freeze up
and burst, and that creates these vertical cracks. So fruit trees,
maple trees lindens very sensitives, and so you should wrap
your tree at least for the first five years. And
he's a white, not a black. He's a white tree
(16:22):
guard to reflect off that winter sun. And then and
again the cracks occur due to freezing temperatures. So when
the danger of frost is over in the spring, we
take off the tree guard, take off that white or
take off that paper, that white guard of the paper,
because there's no frost worry anymore. Okay, So that's something
(16:43):
we can still do in October. Another thing that we
can do this time of year, especially because it's so
dry in Bismarck Man Damn. Yeah, Like I saw in
the news they said, like this has been like this
last six weeks has been like the second driest ever
for this time of year. So it's very dry, and
(17:03):
so are trees. Their roots are still growing, so they
would appreciate if you can give them a drink of
water before the ground freezes, So if you can, so
it's not it's not life or death, but they you know,
they're thirsty. They would like a drink if you can,
especially if you've got a young tree that you planted
over the last couple of years. Okay, here's another thing
(17:24):
about that I see a lot in fall is people
planting trees, and I just have to say, I'm yeah,
this is like big trees suffer the most shock. Okay,
it's like this tree, this tree's lost over ninety five
percent of its feeding roots. And you know, I especially
get worried about evergreens when I see the tree spades
(17:48):
rolling down the street with evergreens, because again, those trees
have lost so much of their roots system. They've lost
over ninety five percent of their roots, and the needles
will be they're exposed all winter. So like we really
the best time we've passed, the best time of planting trees.
It was like a couple of weeks ago. And especially
(18:09):
if it's an evergreen, I would just have to say, like,
I think you know the tree. They'll tell you that
the tree will survive, Yes, but what's really the advantage
of planting a giant evergreen right before winter compared to
waiting till spring.
Speaker 1 (18:24):
I don't know. This picture makes me think that you
just throw out a lot of money for not a
high success rate.
Speaker 2 (18:32):
Probably well in this case, like when I see this,
I see this is like somebody who doesn't understand trees, right,
because this tree, like, what do we say for every
inch of trunk diameter, you have a year to a
year and a half of shock. So what's that This
is twelve inches, so that means we got about, let's say,
(18:52):
that's about eighteen years of transplant shock. So probably they
would have been better just planting a smaller tree and
saving a lot of money. But but my key here
is that we're past the best time to plant trees,
and especially if it's a big tree, and especially if
it's an evergreen, I just think it's a little bit risky,
(19:13):
and I would just encourage you to reconsider and think
about planting early in spring. It will be much less
stressful on the tree. And maybe you can also just
say that, hey, you know, like you don't have to
plant an instant landscape. You don't have to have a
you know, forty foot tree. You don't have to plant
a forty foot tree. So so there again, I want
(19:35):
to talk about things today, the things that you can
do and things to just be cautious about. So one
last thing I want to talk about, and we'll talk
about a few minutes here about it's tulips. Tuips is
definitely something that we can plant. And I just love
tuips and that bright, clear color and spring time. Yeah,
and there's all kinds of tuups. There's like botanical types
(19:58):
like this lilac wonder, you know, just like almost like
a water lily somewhat. And the Emperor tuops. This is
a very popular variety. It's one of the first of
the big tups to bloom and they bloom at the
same time as daffodils, and so you can have a
really nice combination when you use the Emperors. And the
triump tulips come next in blooming, and they're like the
(20:21):
classic tuop. They come in all kinds of color, including purple.
This is the negreta variety, very popular, and I like
Darwin hybrids. That's the ones I go for because they're hybrids.
It's a big bulb, it's a vigorous plant. And the
nice thing about if I get a vigorous plant, I
can keep that tuip blooming year after year after year.
(20:46):
And so I like the Darwin hybrids. They're the most
vigorous and they have big, big blossoms. So there's a
very here's one if you like a jolt of color
like Olympic flame. Really, this is very popular Darwin hybrid.
That's my favorite type because it's the easiest to grow.
We sometimes refer them to as perennial tulips just because
(21:07):
they're so reliable to come back year after year. One
that's not as reliable, but you just gotta try it.
It's a parrot tulip, and they're all like they're like
look like the feathers of a parrot, and they come
on all colors. There's yellows and there's a pink one
being shown here, and there's dark violet, the black parrot.
(21:28):
They're just fun to grow and if and I just
assume that when I plant a parrot twoop, I'll maybe
get two years out of that ball. But it's just
so it's just like it's so cool. I just gotta
try it. And there's lily types with the pointed petals
and peony types that it's this aque angelique is a
(21:49):
very popular tuip and it looks just like a pink peony.
So when you go buy your bulbs, I always look
for the biggest bulbs I can find because that's their
food is in that bulb. The bigger the bulb the better.
And if you look carefully, you'll say the size of
the bulb, and I want a twelve plus centimeter bulb,
(22:11):
you know, twelve to fourteen that's the best. If it's
eleven twelve, that's okay. But then when it gets smaller
like ten eleven size, that it's just I don't know
if it's even going to have a flower, or maybe
I'm just gonna get one one year bloom off there.
So keep in mind, the bigger the bulb, the better,
(22:32):
and then make sure the bulbs aren't soft. I want
them to be firm. And then also designing clumps, so
just don't buy like a couple black parrot tulips, for example,
get about least six of them, and then plant them
together in a clump for your greatest impact in the landscape. Okay,
don't plant them in straight rows. Okay, make them plant
(22:52):
them in clumps.
Speaker 1 (22:54):
So if I go plant those, do I, oh, you're
on it.
Speaker 2 (22:58):
You're on it as usual, one mon, No, just kidding,
But yeah, I'm gonna plant the tuup in a sunny
location and that's for the long term. You know, I
can plant tuups one time in a shady area, but
that plant's got to find this sun next spring and
regenerate itself. So I want a sunny spot that gets
at least six hours of sunlight. Tups gotta have a
(23:21):
well drained soil. They will rot in a wet spot.
And I plant them about six inches apart. I just
kind of use my Hawaiian how's it going at six
inches apart? And I plant them about six to eight
inches deep, and then I will sprinkle a bove fertilizer.
To me, that's a more complete fertilizer, works better than
just bone meal, and we do. It's about four cups
(23:45):
for every fifty square feet of planting area, and then
I water it and water deeplay so that way that
will trigger the bulb to start get the roots going.
And that's why we should plant the bulbs as soon
as possible, so we get the roots established before the
on freezes, and then after the ground freezes when it
comes in a November and before Thanksgiving, I'm going to
(24:06):
moult the planting to help stabilize the soil and keep
it frozen all winter. Okay, Now, to keep our tups
going for years, what we have to do is we
have to take care of them in spring time. So
I'm gonna give them a little bit of fertilizer again
in the spring, and then after they're done blooming, I'm
(24:26):
gonna quip off those flower stalks and then I will
not trim the leaves until they turn yellow. So just
to show you how it is, like, here's a mature planting,
and you see the petals are starting to fall off. Okay,
And so we've got to think about what's this tup
all about. Why does a flower have beautiful orange pink petals?
(24:48):
Why why do they have those petals? How come there's
not many green flowers, for example, because what's the purpose
of a petal? Anyhow?
Speaker 1 (24:58):
The petal they were talking about it. I don't know
where you're going with this one.
Speaker 2 (25:03):
No, oh yeah, stay with me.
Speaker 1 (25:05):
Here for the pollinators.
Speaker 2 (25:06):
You got it? Okay, Hey, I.
Speaker 1 (25:08):
Was gonna say obvious here I.
Speaker 2 (25:10):
Am, come here, I want I got pollen for you.
Let's go. Okay. So the pedals are there, not not
for you in your bouquet or your base. That's an
added effect for us. The plant has its own mindsets.
I want a bee to visit me. So that's why
you got these bright petals. And now the petals fall. Okay,
(25:32):
the bad did. They did their job. Now what does
the plant want to do? The plant wants to make seeds, right,
that's a It wants to reproduce. Every organism on Earth
wants to reproduce. And so I'm going to tell this
to a Sorry, buddy, I'm not gonna let you reproduce
because you're gonna put all your energy into your seed stalk.
(25:52):
I don't want that. I want you to bloom again.
So after the pedals are all faded out, I'm gonna
cut that seed stock all the way to the ground. Okay, sorry, buddy,
you're not gonna have any seeds this year. You've got
to try again next year. And then also, I'm not
gonna touch the leaves. The leaves are the food factory
(26:15):
of that tulip. So I want that that tulip bulb
is empty right now. It gave everything for that bloom
and the seed stock. So I'm gonna say sorry, you
got to refill that toul bulb. So the leaves. I
keep the leaves there, and they're gonna refill the tulip
bulb for next year's boom. And when the when the
leaves naturally turn yellow. That's a sign that they've done
(26:38):
their job filling up the bulb. So that way we
can have a great display next year. Okay, cut off
the seed stock, cut it right at the base, and
leave the leaves alone.
Speaker 1 (26:50):
But then when they turn yellow, you want to clip
those off too.
Speaker 2 (26:52):
Yeah, because they're because they're not doing anything and they're ugly. Yeah,
we're done with that. So and the bulbs old. So
now let's say you don't have a garden. Don't worry.
You can plant indoors and containers and so for now there.
You don't plan them six inches apart. You plant them
closer each other, just a couple inches apart, and you
plan them more shallow. Okay, just and I just have
(27:16):
this shown here just to let you see the spacing.
And now I'm going to top this off with some
more potting soil mix. Okay, it's got to be potting soil,
and I'm going to top it all the way to
the very tip of the bulb, so maybe you just
barely can't see the bulb, so it's not six to
eight inches deep. Now it's like right there near the
soil surface. And I'm gonna pretend give them mimic a winter.
(27:40):
So I'm gonna I'm going to cover them with soil,
I'm going to a good drink of water, and then
what I'm gonna do, I'm going to put them in
an unheated garage now someplace where it's forty to fifty,
like if you had an extra refrigerator, they'd love. That'd
be perfect. That mimics winter great, But my unheated gridge
does a good job for is. And then what's going
to happen after about like twelve fourteen weeks? But I
(28:02):
know it's is the sprouts themselves, or you'll start seeing
that some of the sprouts come out of the soil
like they've been they've been winter rized and they're ready
to come up. And so after you start seeing sprouts
after about fourteen weeks for tuips, I'm gonna bring them
indoors and then they're just gonna grow and have a
beautiful display. Okay, So you can plant tuops and containers.
(28:24):
I do that every year, just a few just for
just for the fun of it. And it's it doesn't
take much work at all.
Speaker 1 (28:30):
If you grew them in a container and then the
following year, could you transplant those bulbs outside.
Speaker 2 (28:36):
Yes you can if you want to be disappointed. Oh
so yeah, this is what we call forcing a bulb.
I force this bulb to bloom. It's not happy about
it wasn't so it's uh, it's such a traumatic thing
for this poor bulb and I just had such a
it's in a container. So when I grow a bulb
(28:59):
and a can I get one year? That's it. Then
I toss away the bulbs because I guess if I
if I really wanted to, or I could try to
get it going again, but it'll just rarely work. So
get a good quality bulb if you start them indoors.
Sometimes some varieties they say if this is a good
verty for forcing, that's the term. But then after the
(29:22):
bloom's done, just out to the compost pile. There you go.
So lastly, October is a great time. Enjoy dance, dance
in the garden, have a great time and celebrate and celebrate.
Now we got a couple of weeks before November. Get
(29:43):
out there in the garden, get the job done, and
let's we'll have a great spring.
Speaker 1 (29:48):
That sounds like a good plan. How about my last
final question, just because you're focusing on flowers. Yes, say
I got I mean I did get. I got a
P and E plan green plant. Okay, I just I
got it like last week, put it in the ground,
(30:08):
gave it a good drink water. Should I have Should
I have high hopes or low hopes?
Speaker 2 (30:15):
Well, generally in life, I keep my expectations low. So
like the time the transplant a peeny is September, so
it's mid October, so you're a little bit slow there,
but but still you know it's it's been a warm time,
(30:38):
warmed than usual. So I would say the most important
thing for you now is just make sure you mulch it. Okay,
when the ground freezes like a mid November, and that's
and then we'll just see what happens.
Speaker 1 (30:49):
Yeah. Should I continue to give it water every few days.
Speaker 2 (30:52):
To the ground every few days, No, okay, give it
a good drink and then at the ground. Yeah. Then
I would just like, if you like, you really love
this plant, so I will scratch this. So I'll go
a few inches and see if it's moist. If it's
If it's moist, don't water it. But if it's bone dry, yeah,
given another drink until the ground freezes. May see what
(31:18):
happened just once a week at the most, because you know,
there's there's generally not a lot of heat going on,
so there's a lot of evaporation. But yeah, if it's
bone dry, sure, given another drink and maybe it'll work. Yeah,
I'm was it free? Yeah, okay, there you go.
Speaker 1 (31:38):
Right, Well whatever, you're born scientists.
Speaker 2 (31:42):
I like doing it. Push it, Push it. Then you
can tell a story next year about how it worked
or how it failed. Good luck you planted it so
that the pink buds are only one inch deep.
Speaker 1 (31:56):
You know, I planted the plant that I got. They
were cut.
Speaker 2 (31:58):
It was a plant that was divided.
Speaker 1 (32:01):
Okay, so it had like big are those tubers with peonies? Yea, yeah,
had really big?
Speaker 2 (32:10):
Yeah yeah. The roots yeah. And so when you when
you transplant a peenie the keys, you should look at
those little pink buds and those roots. Well what exactly
the struct botanical structure is. But the roots you'll see
those pink buds and they should be only about an
inch below ground. Sometimes people it's a tendency to plant
(32:31):
peenies too deep. That okay, so now maybe I won't
bloom next.
Speaker 1 (32:35):
Year, but I'm not out anything. So we'll give her
a where I'll see what happens. Yeah, okay, I'm gonna
continue this fall fall October sem and I'm going to
talk a little bit about fall the core. Do you
decorate your porch.
Speaker 2 (32:50):
Uh pumpkins with pumpkins? Well, some years I do, some
years I don't. Sometimes you hit put out a few moms,
some hers, I don't.
Speaker 1 (33:03):
That's what I can appreciate. Again, we're gonna celebrate even
though end of the season. I can appreciate people's the
core by their mailboxes, front decks out in the yard.
So just some popular plants and stuff that we see
in there, obviously straw bales, corn stocks, people even do
bundles of wheat. You got your scarecrows, your pumpkins, your moms,
(33:26):
your golds. So this is actually my decare ladies front deck.
It's been fun watching her kind of continue to decorate,
and she's really gone way out. But you know, right
now a lot of times people have these straw bales
on their deck and you can see she's got cornstocks,
so they're easily and readily available, just because like this
(33:49):
is harvest season. The reason people use straw bales as
you can see in there, basically to elevate elements and
even to stick signs. And I had last year, the
last couple years I had of strawberries out at my
mailbox and stuff. But I just like, she's got a
lot going on. And then she added in like Halloween
decorations this this month as well, so.
Speaker 2 (34:13):
It looks good.
Speaker 1 (34:14):
Yeah, I'm gonna take us down a little bit of
a history lane. You know the history of scarecrows?
Speaker 2 (34:20):
Uh No, I can't.
Speaker 1 (34:23):
They originated.
Speaker 2 (34:24):
I think what happened is in the old days the
Puritans they took they had like one person that never behaved,
and so they said, you put on a you put
on a shirt, and we're gonna hang you up on
this trailis out in the garden. You scare the crows away.
And that guy was named they called him Jim Scarecrow.
(34:47):
Is that right?
Speaker 1 (34:47):
I didn't read that.
Speaker 2 (34:49):
Maybe I made that.
Speaker 1 (34:50):
I did some research and they say scarecrows actually date
back to the Egyptians. And the Egyptians used nets on
like wooden frames to scare quail away from their wheat
fields along the Nile River. So they actually said like
when they would do this is like farmers would hide
and they would basically jump to scare those quail, and
(35:14):
then they would catch the quail, and so they would
save the crop and have dinner that night and then whenever. However,
many years later, they say twenty five hundred BC, Greek
farmers started like carving wooden scarecrows to scare birds from
their vineyards. And then really they developed further when the
(35:37):
Japanese sometime later would create scarecrows that were shaped like
people dressed in raincoats and straw hats to protect the
rice fields. So that's kind of what I found out
some research on history. I did not did not see that,
you know, and really for today today's use, they're probably
(35:59):
more so seen in gardens or more so decorations. I
have a picture, you know, that one in the field,
but a lot of farmers and stuff, I know, like
up where I live where there's a lot of farmland,
like if there's sunflowers, which you get tons of blackbirds
in they got like the cannons going.
Speaker 2 (36:17):
On right and stuff. So yeah, not really.
Speaker 1 (36:21):
Used anymore, but something fun to the core.
Speaker 2 (36:25):
Definitely ornamental only Yeah, any bird can any crow could
figure that out. After a couple of days. You know,
it's just fucking this guy never moves, you know.
Speaker 1 (36:34):
I'd like to say it's no different than like putting
a deer blind up right, like the deer like, oh,
what's that? But then it never moves and never moves
and they just continue to come in.
Speaker 2 (36:44):
So I'll take that.
Speaker 1 (36:46):
Yeah, Okay. How about legends of where Jack o'laddin started?
You ever find out if there was no.
Speaker 2 (36:55):
I think there's a guy named Jack in the story.
Speaker 1 (36:57):
Is Jack?
Speaker 2 (36:58):
Is there?
Speaker 1 (36:58):
Yeah? And so this is an Irish legend. So again,
doing some research, there's some variations of this, but stingy
Jack one day, I guess, invited the devil to have
a drink with him, and true to his name, he
didn't want to pay for his drink, so he somehow
(37:20):
convinced the devil to turn himself into a coin so
he could Jack could use that to buy his drinks. Okay,
once the devil.
Speaker 2 (37:28):
Did that, Now what happened? Jack turned the devil into a.
Speaker 1 (37:32):
Coin, convinced the devil to turn himself into a coin.
The devil did.
Speaker 2 (37:39):
Oh, he convinced the devil.
Speaker 1 (37:41):
Convince the devil, because.
Speaker 2 (37:43):
Turn into a coin so I can pay for the drinks,
and the devil said yes.
Speaker 1 (37:47):
The devil said so well, Jack decided to keep the
money and he put it in his pocket next to
like a silver cross, which is supposed to prevent the
devil from changing back into his original sometime down the road.
He eventually freed the devil under the condition that he
couldn't come back and bother Jack at all for one year,
(38:09):
and if somehow Jack would die in that year, the
devil couldn't take his soul. So the next year, Jack
decided to trick the devil again by having him climb
into the tree to pick a piece of fruit. While
he was up there picking fruit, stingy, Jack decided to
(38:30):
carve a cross into the tree's bark so the devil
could not come down, basically until the devil promised Jack
that he would not bother him for ten more years,
so they made that deal. Sometime after that, Jack did die,
and as the legend goes, apparently God did not find
him fit to be in heaven, and the devil wanted
(38:54):
to keep up his end of the deal, so he
decided to not claim his soul and would not allow
Jack down in the southern region either, and so he
sent Jack off into the dark knight with only a
burning coal to light his way, and he put that
coal into a carved out turn up as you see there,
(39:18):
and legend has it he's been Roman the Earth ever since.
So the Irish started out with these carved out turn ups,
and Scotland kind of took that over as well. And
then you can see I put in there that I
found out England decided to use beats, and then it
was really when it came over to the US, this
(39:39):
legend that we started using pumpkins, and so the Irish
referred to it, referred to his ghostly figure as Jack
of the Lantern, and then it turned into Jack o' lantern.
Speaker 2 (39:52):
So Jacks inside that pumpkin.
Speaker 1 (39:54):
Jack is just Roman the Earth, is what the legend says.
But yes, with the that's why we.
Speaker 2 (40:00):
Put Devil didn't want them either.
Speaker 1 (40:02):
Devil and God said nope.
Speaker 2 (40:04):
He had no place to go.
Speaker 1 (40:05):
He had no place to go Hell, that's right. So
just by the lights of a burning coal, which he
put inside a carved he carved a turn.
Speaker 2 (40:17):
Up for Devil.
Speaker 1 (40:18):
Carved Jack.
Speaker 2 (40:20):
Did Jack did his own? Yeah, so like it as
he's walking through that, I get it. It's just a.
Speaker 1 (40:28):
Little bit of variations, but it's stingy. Jack is where
it all started. Yeah, so today I just have to show,
you know, in lots of different ways we can decorate
and carve our pumpkins. A lot of people paint pumpkins,
especially with younger kids, might be easier to do that.
(40:48):
But I thought i'd talked a little bit about some
different pumpkin varieties that are out there as well. So
I know you've mentioned this. When we look at like
jackal lanterns or pumps for carbon, you recommend like neon,
early King, early giants, those are going to be what
do you say, they usually average thirty pounds twenty.
Speaker 2 (41:09):
Pounds, Well, yeah, the neon. The thing about neon is
it's it's early, so that but it only gets about
eight pounds sixth that on that neon. That the key
to the neon is it's early and that's.
Speaker 1 (41:21):
A little for kids, perfect size.
Speaker 2 (41:23):
And also, yeah, the vines don't go nuts. But if
you want a bigger pumpkin, like like you say, thirty pounds,
early King and early Giant, they're you know, they're ripen
in the ninety days and so they're reliable in North Dakota,
and that's a nice thirty pound pumpkin. There go, there
you go.
Speaker 1 (41:40):
If you want something fun like these warty ones, recommended
varieties would be knucklehead, goosebumps or grizzly anything.
Speaker 2 (41:49):
You want to comment on those ones, Yeah, we do
a lot of it. We do tests with that, and uh,
I don't know, people don't really get that crazy abottom
it's a wardy goblin is another one, wardy goblin because
it goes warts are dark green on wordy goblin. That's
(42:11):
the one that I would grow. But yeah, it's just different.
Speaker 1 (42:14):
It's just different. There's also some colored varieties. So course,
up in the right hand corner there is the porcelain doll.
We've talked about that in the past, which I really
enjoy that pink pumpkin, pumpkin jaradell. That's gonna give you
kind of that greenish blue off color. And then if
you're looking at white pumpkins. A couple of varieties for
(42:36):
North Dakota would be polar bear and Casparita, which is
a mini so something kind of fun.
Speaker 2 (42:43):
Ye. Any other colored yards, well, there's red like scarlet
like Cinderella is a popular it's an old fashioned heirloom
that the vine goes like about forty feet long. But
it's a it's a cooking pumpkin, Cinderella and uh the.
Speaker 1 (43:02):
Jar oh yeah, yellow, mellow yellow, mellow yellow.
Speaker 2 (43:07):
Yeah, you know nobody, you know, our our team of
testers think like it's ugly. It just looks like a
pumpkin that didn't turn worm. Yeah, right, just forget about it.
The jaradale and all those blue grayish pompkins, they're they're
for cooking too. They haven't. It's it's kind of like
a squash actually, And so that would be going not
(43:30):
just for display, but you can after Halloween, you can
eat it. So that's and what the white ones, like
Polar Bear, some of the white ones have a tendency
to develop color a little bit. They'll start turning pinkish
or bluish.
Speaker 1 (43:45):
Wow.
Speaker 2 (43:46):
So what you want to do is you want to
get them out of the sunlight after you harvest them
so that they stay white and then you have them
on display right there and for Halloween. So I want
to pure white like Polar Bear. Casper Is that's a
very small one but very productive. Yeah, that's good choices there.
Speaker 1 (44:07):
The other thing I mentioned earlier is you said moms
chrysantheums and stuff, so they are perfect for that fall flowering,
fall color and stuff. They're fall blooming. You can get
a lot of different varieties out there, whether they're double flowers,
single daisy, even like the large pomp poms or bun moms.
(44:28):
The one thing is as if they are bought at
a store, most likely those aren't gonna bloom again because
they're not like the hearty varieties. You know, I always
see like Runnings Walmart, they have a grocery store that's
uh yeah, that's an ornamental only that's a.
Speaker 2 (44:50):
Yeah, that's not a hearty one. So you want to
look for ones that, like from Minnesota or as a
famous mom program. So yeah, like if you want moms,
go to a garden center to buy them a garden
center because those are they're going to sell you ones
that are hardy and may come back the next year.
(45:11):
Yeah yeah. The one you buy it at the grocery
store is not likely to come back. And it's also
generally it will bloom too late.
Speaker 1 (45:20):
Because you get frosted. Huh yeah.
Speaker 2 (45:23):
Just it's just not made for North Dakota. It's just
made for the Thanksgiving table.
Speaker 1 (45:29):
Yeah, huh do you ever get moms?
Speaker 2 (45:33):
No? No, because it's it's uh a.
Speaker 1 (45:38):
Wasting money for you. Stingy tom.
Speaker 2 (45:45):
My wife has, My wife has. Yeah, but.
Speaker 1 (45:50):
I would never buy them. They look very nice, yeah,
vibrant colors.
Speaker 2 (45:57):
Yeah, I would if I bought one, I'd buy one
of the like a weird one, like one that had
like spider petals or something like that. But just I
am stingy. Okay, excepted me.
Speaker 1 (46:10):
You both so it's frugal. It's okay.
Speaker 2 (46:15):
It's not a sin.
Speaker 1 (46:16):
No.
Speaker 2 (46:17):
You know, I don't care what happened to stingy Jack.
You know, there's nothing wrong with being frugal.
Speaker 1 (46:25):
That's right.
Speaker 2 (46:25):
I think Kevin will accept me.
Speaker 1 (46:27):
That's right.
Speaker 2 (46:28):
I'll try better, Okay.
Speaker 1 (46:31):
The last thing I want to talk about is gorgs. Then,
so gords. I think gords are fun. I think they're awesome.
I wrote an article on them this past week and stuff.
But you know, the big thing that I just got
to say is so last year I had outfire mailbox
decorated pumpkins gords. Literally after the frost, we took them down,
(46:54):
threw them down in the corral obviously on like where
the manure pile has been left them. What a surprise
this year to see half the corral is full of
gorge that I'm sure cross pollinated with lots with each other.
So I picked more than a couple of wag in
full and I was able to share them and stuff.
But they are fun. I think they add a lot
(47:16):
of extra to your decorations and everything like that. So
a lot of different variety of colors, whether they're yellow, orange, green, white, striped, spotted.
You know, they kind of can get even two colors,
three colors in one. You have fun shape brown pair
of apple, penguin and swan if you do want to
grow gorge again. I forgot them this year and mother
(47:40):
nature gave us ample rain that they were able to
survive and stuff. But they're like pumpkins. You can direct
seed them after the frost. You know. One thing I
would say is once they really do start to bind,
you don't have to worry at all about weeding at all.
They're going to shade those out. A lot of people
I see around the Bismarck neighborhoods do trellis them too,
(48:05):
So they're easy picking. Get them up off the ground,
and if you do grow them. You just want to
harvest them when the skin has hardened in the in
the stems start to brown.
Speaker 2 (48:16):
Yep. I like the swan type.
Speaker 1 (48:18):
That I have grown. I mean this year, but we
had all everything.
Speaker 2 (48:26):
It really looks like a swan. Yeah, it's kind of neat.
I like it.
Speaker 1 (48:30):
Yeah, here's some varieties that thought would be cool with
the show. But in the bottom left there you see
the turk's turbine. It's kind of I don't know. Those
always kind of look like mutants looking gourds, so do
the gremlins on the bottom right. And you have those
bottleneck or birdhouse that people let hard enough and then
(48:51):
just drill a hole in and hang them in a tree. Daisy.
I think it's kind of cool, just because if you
look down on it, it literally looks like you have
these petals on it. And then there's also the lufa
that people you can go and actually turn that into
a sponge.
Speaker 2 (49:09):
Make sure you get an early variety of loofah, that's
your goal, because that's that's a late ripening one. I
would start that one indoors if I was going to
grow a loofa, And as you see it, that's not
very that's just for that's for the Lufa sponge. It's
not for ornamental purposes. You can eat it too when
(49:30):
it's young, that's Have you tried it? Yeah, I've had it. Yeah.
Uh it's uh. It's not sweet, that's for sure. I
don't know kind of what the right word is. Is kind
of starchy, kind of bland, kind of like kind of
like a honeydew that has no flavor, kind of that
(49:51):
kind of thing, just like a flavorless honeydew. How about
that something or maybe like a kind of good Maybe
zucchini is because it's but it's really doesn't got much
flavor at all. It's a wax scord. It's another one
just like that. Yeap. So it's no gotta hars it
(50:12):
young if you're gonna eat it. So and nobody does that.
Nobody in North courtA gross New footwards for eating. That
was when I lived in Asia. They did.
Speaker 1 (50:22):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (50:23):
But I like the swan. That's the one I would get.
That's the coolest one kids. And then you can even
paint it so it looks like a swan. That's a Yeah,
that's a nice fun thing. Lots of good things to do.
Speaker 1 (50:35):
It fall October Fest. Right, that's right. That's all I
have for today, keeping the fall theme, the October theme. Okay,
try not to be stingy, to be stingy, it's right.
Speaker 2 (50:51):
That won't be a stingy jack, that's for sure. I'll
try my best.
Speaker 1 (50:57):
Any other last words of.
Speaker 2 (50:59):
Wisdoys, I would enjoy the you know, just October is
a wonderful month. Enjoy it, you know, like I.
Speaker 1 (51:05):
Say, hopefully no snow Halloween.
Speaker 2 (51:09):
Yeah yeah, just enjoy these beautiful Chris days and uh
because winter's coming.
Speaker 1 (51:18):
That's right. We just want to thank you as always
for joining us on today's episode of Dakota Growing and
hope that you will tune in for future episodes. Dakota
Growing is a gardening show brought to you by Dakota
Media Access and NDSU Extension. We discuss a variety of
(51:38):
timely topics pertaining to your landscape, along with giving you
tips and advice for your lawn, garden, and trees. If
you have questions, call seven oh one two two one
six eight sixty five or email NDSU dot Burley dot
Extension at NDSU dot com. Dakota Growing airs on Radio
Access one O two point five FM Community access Channel
(52:00):
twelve or six twelve HD, or online at FreeTV dot org.
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