Can Plants Repel Spiders and Snakes? Myths, Tips, and More!

Don't like spiders and snakes? You're not alone! They are beneficial for gardens, though, so we're sharing advice on coexistence and safe, simple management. Featured shrub: Gatsby Moon oakleaf hydrangea.

Episode Transcript

(00:02):
You're tuned in to the Gardening SimplifiedYouTube podcast and radio show coming to you
from Studio A. Here at provenwinner's color choice shrubs. It's Stacy Hervella,
me, Rick weisst and our engineerand producer Adrianna Robinson. Yes,
folks, it's Adriana who makes thisshow blossom on your iPhones, iPads,

(00:24):
computers, car radio, whatever itmay be. And we thank you very
mulch for listening and watching. Well, I don't like spiders and snakes,
but that's not what it takes tolove me like I want to be loved
by you. Words from Jim Stafford, that famous nineteen seventy four song that
he wrote and released nineteen seventy four. I'm getting old. I can't believe

(00:48):
it, Stacey, you're telling methat's the year I was born. Well,
ask Jim Stafford, or you couldask Pat Wiggers. Pat Wiggers,
a wonder lady who stopped me thispast weekend, said every week she never
misses the Gardening Simplified Show, watchesit, listens to it, and Pat

(01:08):
was really proud of the fat factthat Pat Wiggers her name the initials were
p W p W and she likedthat, and I like that too.
What a nice lady. And shetold me she had an incredible climatis in
her backyard. She showed me apicture and she said one day she was
kind of working through that clematis withher hands and a big spider crawled out.

(01:32):
She also had a snake in heryard. She had to call her
husband, who picked up the snakeand carried it off into the woods.
Stacy, snakes and spiders are realityin the garden, and I think what
we have to remember is that theyneed three main things to survive, shelter,
water, and food. And ifthe conditions are right providing those three

(01:56):
things, odds are you're gonna seesnakes in your garden. Yeah. And
you know that food part. Thatis the really crucial thing, because as
much as people get a little bitfreaked out when they see a spider or
a snake, what these animals areeating in the garden. What attracts them
are things that are worse for plants. You know, the snakes and the
spiders are totally benign for plants.They don't eat plants, They eat the

(02:20):
things that eat and damage your plants. So it's kind of one of those
things where you don't want the cureto be worse than the poison exactly,
And the best long term solution ishabitat modification. If you have a rachnophobia,
is that what it's called, that'swhat they say, or you don't
like snakes, And personally I don'tlike snakes. I really don't. They

(02:43):
kind of creep me out. Now. I know that they're important in the
whole biodiversity of our gardens and ourlandscapes. But I found a novel way
to deal with snakes. I'm savingthat for segment for today, the limerick.
I'll teach you what I do whenit comes to snakes. But you
know, most snakes they're afraid ofyou. They quickly slither away when your

(03:08):
presence is known. Yeah, Imean here in North America are snakes.
We don't have a ton of veryvenomous or dangerous snakes. And even among
those, they tend to be veryreclusive, and they don't want to be
They just want to be out there, you know, chowing down mice and
stuff, not messing with you.So the key is eliminating low shade.

(03:29):
I had a big snake in mygarden A couple of years ago. Boy,
it freaked me out, but hewas underneath a gigantic tomato plant that
had foliage all the way down tothe ground, and so it was cool.
It was a great place to hidehang out. So you've got to
look for those areas of low shadeor areas where they can quickly slither away,

(03:52):
whether they're firewood piles or rock wallsor whatever they may be. You're
going to make it less hospital tosnakes if you have there's no need for
hysteria, so to speak. Butthe snakes eat insects and rodents, I
mean they are providing a benefit inthe landscape. Yeah, I mean a

(04:13):
lot of people have a really seriousissue with voles and mice, especially if
you have a lot of shrubs hydranges. They love to eat hydrange of bark,
and so in that case, learningto live with a snake is ultimately
going to do you way more goodthan trying to eradicate the snake. But
I get it, you know,I don't have a problem with snakes.
I also have no snakes in mygarden, so I can't speak to this
necessarily from personal experience, But Ilike hiking, and I have certainly taken

(04:35):
care of many gardens that did havesnakes, and to me, I have
no problem with their presence, butthey do rattle me when I see the
move. Good, oh, Ididn't even like that. I do tend
to get rattled if if I seea move like I just if I see
a snake like slither before I've youknow, identified that it's there, Like

(04:56):
I just have this sort of likeyou know, primal reaction of like oh
my gosh, you know, dangernoodle, as they say. But I
do like them, and I dodefinitely understand the benefit that they have too
stains. If I'm concerned and it'sa time when there's a lot of snakes
around, I'll carry a stick withme. In the garden, you can
kind of just rattle the bottoms ofthe bushes. I don't go in there

(05:17):
barefoot. I make sure that Ihave shoes on. You want to keep
grass mode regularly, keep shrubs prunedor pulled away from the house. There
are things you can do to dealwith snakes. And then, of course
the notorious area underneath the deck.But that's where raccoons and possums and everybody

(05:39):
else hangs out too, So youmay want to seal off the lower portion
of your deck. The snake repellence, I've found that they don't work.
They smell terrible like mothballs. ButI think it's more snake oil salesman stuff
than it is look at the environment. As far as spiders are concerned.

(06:00):
Spiders, of course are good websitedevelopers, right. I've got a lot
of great spider puns. I'll letthem go. You can look them up
on the web. But the Kingand Queen of garden predators are spiders.
I personally love spiders. I lovethe silk web that they weave, their
diversity venom to paralyze their prey.Of course, you've got garden black,

(06:21):
widow, brown recluse, wolf,crab jumping spiders. But that's you know.
I've read somewhere that about three tofifteen percent of people have a rechnofobia.
Oh that's pretty high. Yeah.Yeah. In the garden center the
other day, a lady came upto me. She says, can you
show me where the tarantulas are?I'm like, tarantula's We don't sell spiders.

(06:46):
She says, yeah, tarantulas,everybody's got them. So I walked
her over to the succulent. Shesaid, yeah, there they are the
tarantulas. I thought it was interesting. Okay, yeah, she calls them
tarantulas. Anyhow, the biggest benefitof garden spiders is that they eat insects,
mostly the unwanted pests that you don'twant in your flower beds like wasps,

(07:06):
beetles, mosquitoes, flies, mayflies, and tall plants help also attract
spiders to your garden. I've foundthat sunflower plants are a great plant for
attracting spiders to your garden. Soif you don't want to attract spiders to
your garden. But you know,I don't think that it's not easy to

(07:28):
just sort of generalize about spider habitatbecause they will, as you said at
the beginning, they'll go anywhere wherethere's food, and as far as like
making a home, they have manyoptions. Not all garden spiders spin webs
exactly, so you know, theorb they're called orb weavers, the ones
that make the beautiful sort of stereotypicalspider web. But then there's hunting spiders
like wolf spiders, and they don'tneed a tall plant. They're just going

(07:49):
to be on the ground hunting aroundfor you know, whatever they can find.
The simple fact is if there areinsects in your garden, and there
are insects in your garden, spidersare going to be there because that's a
good food source for them. Absolutely. And you mentioned the wolf spider.
That thing is really spectacular. It'squite something to watch, and you're right.
They see a wolf spider, Ibelieve burrows down into the ground or

(08:11):
has a little hole in the groundthat it comes out of. So they're
fascinating. And because of their size, wolf spiders can be kind of intimidating
to people. But they're out therecleaning your landscape of some of the nasty
insects that you contend with, andthey do a pretty good job of it.

(08:33):
Have you heard of the juro spiders. Oh yeah, lots of people
freaking out about these. Yeah.These are spiders that are native to Asia,
made their way to the US inrecent years and they feel they're going
to infiltrate more states in twenty twentyfour. They use a method called ballooning,
spinning that web. They get caughtin the wind and they travel and

(08:54):
they move. It's they have anatural mechanism called ballooning. But jiuro spiders
have been confirmed in Georgia, Alabama, North Carolina, South Carolina, and
Tennessee, West Virginia, and Maryland, and they figure it's going to continue
to move north. So familiarize yourselfwith this spider again. A spider using

(09:18):
venom to paralyze their prey, notnecessarily to cause injury to you. And
spiders are just like the snakes.They really don't want to hang out with
you and many times will just scurryaway when your presence is felt right,
and you know, a spider's venomis intended to paralyze prey. It's not
like they are malicious creatures that justare like, oh, who can I
go around and bite today? Youknow, they want to say it takes

(09:41):
energy, first of all, andthey want to save that venom for doing
what counts, which is feeding themselves. So I understand people's fear of spiders.
I think it very much connects tothe primal fear that I was talking
about with snakes and seeing them move. And there certainly are many areas of
the world where spiders can be extremelydangerous and extremely harmful. North America just
isn't really one of them. WellI'll tell you what if you do see

(10:03):
snakes or spiders in your garden orlandscape, it's an indication and frogs,
bats that there is good biodiversity thereand odds are you do have the healthy
landscape, but the case and plantssimplified wolf crab. But that's uh.

(10:26):
You know, I've read proven winners. Colored Choice Shrubs cares about your success
in the garden. That's why wetrial and test all of our shrubs for
eight to ten years, making surethey outperform everything else on the market.
Look for them and the distinctive whitecontainer at your local garden centers and gardens.

(10:48):
The order of the day is spidersand snakes. And you know,
I think that if you do havea fear of either of these animals or
really anything in your garden or inlife when it comes to animals, the
best thing you can do is totake the IPM approach, which is to
say, learn everything that you canabout the animal, and then that helps

(11:09):
you understand their behavior. That helpsyou better understand. You know what the
issues are and what you can do, what you can change in your garden
to make it less friendly for them. And like you said, that's going
to be shelter. That's going tobe water, and that's going to mostly
be food. Correct, So thereyou can't always, you know, stop

(11:30):
certainly insects from being in your garden. But for example, if you do
have snakes, that could indicate thatyou really have a bigger issue with voles,
with mice, with moles, withany number of small mammals. Chipmunks
is another good one, and inthat case you could look at trying to
control those, maybe modifying the habitto make it less friendly for those,
rather than trying to modify the habitto be less friendly for the snake,

(11:54):
because that's that's going to be amuch taller order. If there is food
there, they are going to bethere. And this is why I've said
it on the show multiple times.If you have spiders in your house,
you need to be a lot moreconcerned about what they're eating than the spiders
themselves, because there is something inyour house that is making it hospitable enough
for this spider to be well fedand happy in your home. Well said

(12:16):
exactly right on it. Do yourresearch. It really helps. And it's
it's kind of like the old proverbto know your enemy, And I'm not
saying there are enemies or that theright approach is to think of them as
your enemy. But the more youlearn, the more you can do to
you know, better, make yourenvironment less friendly. And it just seems
a lot less scary. I usea unique i PM approach that I use

(12:39):
myself. We'll share it with youin segment four. In the business we
call this a radio tas So allright, I am eager to hear it
myself. So I did not,you said before, I can't wait to
hear how Stacey ties us into snakes, and I didn't. I'm not tying
today's plan on trial into snakes.If I could have thought of a way
to do that, I would have. But I'm tying it into spiders.

(13:01):
So you know, there are allsorts if you look online, all sorts
of websites and things telling you tenplants that you can plant to repel spiders,
and this all based on myth andsuperstition. You know, it made
me laugh because one of the plantsthat kept coming up in these articles was
lavender. Oh. Now, ofcourse lavender has a strong fragrance, but

(13:22):
you know what, lavender also hasa flower that attracts a ton of insects,
a lot of inserts like a lota lot full of nectar. So
you know, if you're planting lavenderin the hopes of deterring spiders, it's
not gonna work because all you're inthis wall. You know, they bloom
fairly long, about a month,so in that period you're gonna have bees

(13:43):
and flies and moths and butterflies andall these things that spiders are going after.
So, uh, you know thatthat kind of mentality of like,
oh, ten plants to repel spiders, it almost makes these plants out like
they are spider kryptonite, Like,oh, they can't they can't cross the
lavender line. And that's just nothow it works. Spiders do have somewhat
of a sense of smell. It'snot like our sense of smell. It's

(14:07):
sort of just helping them distinguish between, you know, the things that they
encounter. But they're not like whoalavender, better leave, you know.
And then and so many of thesesites do kind of imply that that is
the case. Spiders just view itas clickbait on the World Wide Web.
They ignore it. You should,yeah, and again, whenever you see

(14:28):
these things, you do have tolike ask yourself, is this a reputable
source. And when I search forplants that repel spiders with the command site
ste colon dot eedu, because thatwill limit your results to just university websites.
So you know, everything is reputableand reliable, not just you know,
some person just posting stuff on onlineto get clicks. Not a single

(14:50):
site said that these plants would wouldrepel spiders. And if in the off
chance maybe essential oils or something mighthave a chance, it's only going to
be indoors. It's not going towork outside. I mean, the outside
is just it's just too big.So you have to if you want to
deter spiders in your garden, youhave to deter insects. You have to

(15:11):
deter their prey. And then,of course is easier said than done,
because as we all know, plantsand insects go hand in hand. That
is nature's way. But what youcan do is to plant things that are
less attractive to insects and and maybethat will prevent the spiders from taking up
residents in your garden. And somy example of this, if you're thinking,

(15:33):
like, well, what are youtalking about, just like ornamental grasses
or pines or something with no flowers, no I'm talking about a mophead hydrangea.
Really, yes, specifically gatsby moonmophead oak leaf hydrangea. Now why
would that be okay? So peopleare familiar with the concept that there are
oak leaf or sorry, that thereare mophead and lace cap hydrangels. So

(15:54):
lace cap hydrangeas. Hydrangs have twodifferent flower types, flourete types. They
have a steryl floret, which isthe one that you see that's real showy.
That's what most people think of whenthey think of a hydrangea flower.
They're seeing the sterile florets, andthen they have the fertile florets, which
are small, they're star like,and those are full of pollen and nectar
everything that in insects of pollinating insectswould want. Now, in nature,

(16:18):
most hydrangeas are inherently lace cap becausethey exist for the pollen and nectar so
that they can set seed and reproduceand keep being you know, keep that
hydrange of population going. Well.Along comes humans and they're all like,
hey, these steril flourettes are prettyI want more of them. And so
they breed plants selectively and they've developedmophead versions and in a mophead hydrangea,

(16:38):
and this is true of any typeof hydrangea, because mophead and lace cap
aren't specific types of hydrangea, theyare specific types of hydrorange of flowers.
So an oak leaf hydrangea can bea mophead, A smooth hydrangea can be
a mophead piniculat as. All ofthem can be either or so in these
mophead when the sterile florets far faroutnumber those fertile fluoret pollinators can't get to

(17:00):
them. Now that's interesting, Andyou know a programming note here. I
know Stacey, and she loves insects. She knows a lot about insects.
She enjoys attracting insects to her yard. So in this case, you're just
kind of painting a scenario for someonewho maybe has arachnophobia and doesn't want as

(17:21):
many spiders in there yet, right, so oractophobia if you don't want as
many spiders. A lot of peopleare allergic to bees. A lot of
people are just plaint afraid of bees, and so planting mophead hydrangees can be
an effective strategy if you want toreduce you know, if you still have
hydranges, you still want summer colorand all of that, it can be
an effective way to reduce pollinating insectsin your garden. Now that is not

(17:42):
something I personally would want to door would recommend, but I understand that
everybody is me, and so Iwanted to speak about Gatsby moon. Oak
leaf hydrange specifically is today's plant ontrial because generally speaking, oak leaf hydrangees,
as North American native shrubs, arevery pollinator friendly. So I have
Gatsby pink in my garden. They'vegrown tall enough that the deer can't eat

(18:04):
them. So I do get someflowers, which is awesome, but yeah,
they are pollinator magnets. When theyare in flower, they're fragrant,
they're just covered in those fertile florets. And so yeah, I get bees.
I see all sorts of really interestinginsects, and that again, especially
those orb weaving spiders. They setup and they say, hey, this
is a hot spot for insects.I'm gonna I'm gonna weave a web right

(18:25):
here, and I've got a frontrow seat to the buffet. So when
you have these plants that don't attractthem, is they don't attract those pollinating
insects. The spider is just gonnago elsewhere to where there is is better
fixings. As it were. Sothe Gatsby moon as a mophead oakly fydra
enge, which is not that common. Most oakly fighter anges are lace cap.
The flowers are big and full,and when you see one of these

(18:48):
flowers, and if you see itat a garden center, at a garden
or something, you just try toget in there. They're so densely packed
in the inflorescence that you can't evenhardly like separate them with your hands to
get down to those fertile florets,and so neither can the insects. If
it's hard enough to do with yourfingers, imagine how hard it would be
for a little bee trying to getin there. It's not worth the effort.
There's other things that it can do. So it's a good choice in

(19:12):
that way, and it's still abeautiful plant. And you know, I
always recommend oak leaf hydrangeas as oneof my all time favorites because in my
opinion, they are the true fourseason hydrangea. A lot of other hydrangeas
they just don't look that great inwinter. A lot of them don't have
fall color. Whereas the oak leafHydrangea has these beautiful oak shaped leaves that

(19:33):
come out with fuzzy white growth onthem in spring flowering just starting to flower
here in Michigan right now in lateJune, and then the flowers persist through
summer. In fall amazing fall color, beautiful burgundy red. So you see,
for a deciduous plant to have fourseasons of interest, that's pretty special.
Yeah, and especially for a hydrangea. Then in winter you get the
beautiful peeling bark. So it's kindof like a having your cake and eating

(19:56):
it to kind of plant. Now, it's not to say that you won't
get any in because I have seensome really interesting wool carter bees on my
oak leaf hydrangeas that harvest the flufffor their nests. So that's always a
fun thing to see. So,I mean, it's impossible to have a
plant without some insects. But again, you can do these things, make
these choices of you know, havinga mophead versus a lace cap to try

(20:19):
to reduce the insects and to hopefullyin turn reduce the spiders or you know,
like I said at the beginning,another alternative is just to learn everything
you can try to make peace withthem, you know, and you know,
carry a stick. It works forthe spiders and it works for the
snakes, so you can kind of, you know, go ahead and clear
the pass and scare the spiders andsnakes. But even if you aren't concerned

(20:44):
about insects, Gatsby Moon is abeautiful addition to your hydrange collection. It
really is very very unique. Therejust aren't a lot of those big,
full mopheads that you see, especiallywhen it comes to oak leaf, even
though they're way more popular in thebig leaf and the mountain Hydrangeas you just
see how much with the with theoak leaf. It's true and boy gets
my stump of approval. That isa gorgeous plant, so gets by moon.

(21:08):
Oakleaf hydrange is hardy from USDA zonesfive heat tolerant to USDA Zone nine
six to eight feet tall and wide, so this is a bigger plant.
But if you have a large spotin your garden, you can't do much
better than this beautiful native oak leafHYDRANGEA look for it at your local garden
center, or of course you canvisit us at Gardening Simplified on air dot
com to find all the details anda link to find a direct if you

(21:30):
are so a lot of people are. People are just playing afraid effectively strategy.
If you know if you still havehydrangeas, you still have want summer
color and all of that, itcan be an effective way to you.
At Proven Winner's Color Choice, we'vegot a shrub for every taste and every
space. Whether you're looking for aneasy care rose, an unforgettable hydrangea,

(21:51):
or something new and unique, youcan be confident that the shrubs and the
white containers have been trialed and testedfor your success. Look for them at
your local garden center. Greetings gardeningfriends, and welcome back to the Gardening
Simplified Show, where it's, inmy opinion, the best time of the
show because I love knowing what's goingon out there. I know what's going
on in my garden. I knowwhat's going on in the trial gardens here

(22:11):
around Proven Winner's Color Choice shrubs,but I don't know what's going on in
your garden. So I love readingpeople's questions and especially your garden celebrations and
your garden quandaries and conundrums, sowe can help you resolve them. So
if you have a garden quandary,conundrum or celebration. We would love to
hear from you too. Gardening Simplifiedon Air dot Com is our website.
There's a contact form there, andyou know, you can reach out to

(22:33):
us there with your pictures and tellus what's going on, because it's a
busy time in the garden. Andyou know, when we get into hydrange
season, which for some people havealready started. If you live in a
warmer climate, ooh, that's whenthe questions really start rolling in. So
I believe that our first question todayis home in fact hydrange question. Yes
it is, Tina writes to us, I would love a blue hydrange of

(22:55):
for my garden. My current youknow, that's got to be one of
the most desired color plan chands downa garden, hands down. My current
macrophilla is pink despite my adding loadsof soil acid of fire. Will the
blue Jangles variety remain blue even inmy assuming higher pH soil? Thanks?

(23:15):
Okay, So great question, Tina. I'm going to try to answer this
as quickly and clearly as I can. So it is there's a big there's
a big fact of confusion out therewith hydrange's changing their flower color. So
first of all, as Tina pointsout, only hydrange of Macrophylla, which
is also known as big leaf Hydrangeafluoris hydrangea will change their flower color based

(23:37):
on soil chemistry. Other flowers otherhydrangeas will not. This is unique to
this species of Hydrangea, and thecolor change does not happen solely based on
soil pH A lot of people thinkthat if it's in acidic soil, it'll
be blue, if it's an basicor alkaline or neutral soil, it'll be
pink. But that's not actually thewhole story, greed, because you do

(23:59):
need it to be acidic for blueand alkaline for pink or red, but
you also need aluminum in the soil, and aluminum is a naturally occurring soil
mineral, so it's but it's morepresent in clay soils than in sandy soils.
So Here out in West Michigan,our hydrangeas definitely tend more to the
pink and red. Our soil isneutral to acidic, but we just because

(24:23):
it's so sandy out here, wejust don't have the aluminum to get that
blue color. Now, to compoundmatters, the majority of color change products
that are out there on the marketto change the color of your hydrangea are
simply soil acidifiers, so they willmake your soil more acid But if the
issue with your hydrange or color changeis that it doesn't have aluminum, they

(24:47):
will do nothing. And so you'llkeep applying it and applying it and applying
it and making your soil more andmore acidic without ever getting the color change
that you were hoping to get.Oh, very true and Stacey and the
garden center industry. I remember sellingsome product in a bright blue package and
it was called aluminium sulfate. Yes, is that something we're looking Yes,

(25:07):
aluminum right there, the name yougot. I figured that I thought I'd
take a shot at you need aluminumsulfate. Now. I would not encourage
you to just go out there andapply STEPH willy nilly. This is a
great opportunity to get a soil testand find out what's really going on.
But if you have been applying asoil acidifier and it's not giving you results,
then chances are the aluminium is theissue, and you are going to

(25:30):
want to put down aluminum sulfate insteadof just the soil acidifier, and then
that will add the aluminium ions thatneed to be there for the chemical reaction
to take place for the flowers toturn blue. No, so that tells
you what you need. But nowas for the variety, let's stands blue
jangles, which is indeed a provenWinter's color choice variety. Not every hydrangea

(25:52):
is equally able to go from blueto pink to purple and morph through those
color changes. The more red ahydrange has in it inherently, the less
likely it will be to go blue. So when we put blue in the
name of one of our hydrange ofvarieties, what that means is that it
will go blue more easily. Ifconditions are right, it will be blue.

(26:14):
But that if the conditions are rightis still important. So yes,
blue jangles will be blue in acidicsoil that contains aluminum. But if you
have a soil that doesn't contain aluminumand or it's not acidic, it won't
be blue. That's just the waythat it is. But it's to signify
that it can if conditions are right, but that those conditions are really really

(26:36):
crucial. So Tina, I wouldsay, since you have been applying acidifier,
I would just switch to aluminum sulfatemake sure that you are reading those
directions very carefully. An over applicationof aluminum sulfate can actually be very toxic
for plants, so you don't wantthat to happen. And you also need
to be patient because typically what needsto happen is that the aluminum sulfate needs

(26:56):
to be present when the flower budsare being made, when it blooms.
So it's not like you're going tobe able to put aluin himself eight down
and then come out in a weekin surprise it's blue. You might see
a little color change, but forthose like deep, rich, true blues
that most people are after, it'sgoing to take some time, and you're
going to need to keep applying itover the course of time, and you
will if you want to have ablue hydraena, you'll need to do it

(27:18):
in perpetuity because you're so I willjust go back to its natural conditions without
it. So Tina and Blue Jangles, we have our eye on you.
Did you get that? I did? I like that. It's a good
one. Yeah, I thought thatwas pretty good too, right, I
feel very positive about that. Allright, let's continue on here. Thanks
for the note, Tina, Rogerwrites, to us. I have a

(27:40):
semi dwarf peach tree that I goton Mother's Day. Since then, it's
been going downhill. I've been watering. Other than adding compost dirt around it
and a layer of wood chips overthe top, I have added no other
fertilizers. And Roger sends us apicture in Stacey. I took a look
at that picture. One thing Iwant to note right off the bat is

(28:03):
something I see often, and thatis the tree is staked with a steak
that they use in the nursery industryto ship these trees. But it's not
the proper way to steak a tree, so it's right up next to the
trunk. So I would pull thatsteak off. Initially, it's not causing
your problem, but I recommend pullingthat steak off and getting that tree steaked

(28:25):
appropriately. What I saw in thepicture Stacey, I commonly see with the
peaches. My personal opinion is it'speach scab. Do you agree or disagree
with me? I don't know thatI disagree, But I also what I'm
seeing in this plant is just generalstress, okay. And you know a
plant when a plant goes from thegrower, which you just bought this recently.

(28:51):
As recently as may goes from thegrower it goes to the garden center.
It makes a dramatic change in theconditions that it's experiencing. And the
leaves that a plant makes under amore shaded or protected environment are different than
the leaves that it's going to needwhen it's out in full sun and wind
and all of that. And sothat's what a lot of people will see

(29:12):
happen after they plant something out inthe full sun, out in the wind,
and the plant is just like youknow, the leaves don't have the
right type of chlorophyll in them,and so a lot of times the plant
will really struggle. And that's whatI feel like I'm seeing here is leaf
scorch from the sun. But itabsolutely could be a fungus. I mean,
peach trees are, of all fruittrees you can grow at home,

(29:33):
the most notorious for all the crazydiseases that they can get notorious. And
if it's not peach scab, andI would understand that. The important thing
here is if you're irrigating, don'tbe irrigating over the top and soaking that
foliage or wet foliage into the eveninghours, because that's when you're going to
start getting those diseases. Yep.So here's what I would recommend. Take

(29:56):
that steak out. Like Rick said, it's not really doing any good and
it could cause the could cause thebark to get injured and leave an opening
there. I would definitely scratch upthe mulch so that water can penetrate a
little bit better. It looks fairlymatted down and that can become hydrophobic and
make it difficult for water to reachthe roots. And then I would just

(30:17):
continue to care for it as youhave been. I would be hopeful that
in the next couple weeks the foliagethat emerges is going to be adapted to
the outdoors and be just fine.But just to be on the safe side,
when autumn comes and the plant dropsits foliage, make sure you clean
all that up and discard it.Don't compost it, just throw it away,
and that way any fungal spores thatare on it will be hauled away

(30:38):
and less likely to harm your plant. But I don't think you have any
huge cause for concern. I'm notseeing welting, I'm not seeing water stress.
I'm just seeing a plant that's alittle like WHOA. I've been through
some crazy stuff lately. Gillian writesto us Bonjour, Rick, and Stacy.
I love that I always had thatphrase I've used through the years,

(30:59):
Bone Jour. My mom has beendealing with this groundcover for years. She
sends us a picture. Thank you, Jillian. A friend from my childhood
gave it to her. It seemsto be spreading by runners and does not
want to take leaf of the areaby spraying, cutting, or pulling.
Can you identify what this plant ishow best to eliminate it? Thank you,
very mulch. She also mentions Ienjoy listening to the show while with

(31:22):
my horse. I'd love for itto be longer, especially the details section
of the plants on trial segment.And Stacy, looking at that picture,
you nailed it right off the back. Yes, I did. And I
was laughing about this, Gillian,because this is a plant that just last
episode, Rick was talking about thisplant and he said, I do not

(31:45):
recommend that you plant This is whenwe were talking about the plants that undergo
color changes. It is chameleon plantknown as houtunia. And yeah, it
is a nightmare. Honestly, it'sI don't know if you could call this
a friend. I'm sure they werewell intentioned, permanent It is one of
the worst weeds, worse, mostaggressive groundcovers, and worse weeds to try

(32:07):
to deal with in the garden becauseit does spread by runners, and those
runners are really thin and really fragile, and so you try to pull it
out in any little piece of thoserunners still in the soil is just going
to cause the plant to come backproper dated. So probably the easiest way
to try to control this is,if possible, make the soil dryer.

(32:28):
They cannot deal with dry soil.They love moist, wet conditions. So
if you have an irrigation system orother ways that this area is being watered,
try cutting back on that. That'snot going to take care of it,
but that can certainly help the helpit spread less aggressively. It is
even hard if you're willing to usean herbicide on it. It's hard to
control with an herbicide because it's reallyreally waxy. If you are going to

(32:51):
try it, I have found thatmore of a two four D based herbicide
works better than a glyc of stateherbicide on those plants. Where it's hard
for things to stick. But ifyou are going to try it, I
would actually try it in spring beforethat waxy coating comes off develops, because
then you should be able to getbetter contact. And hopefully it's going to
take repeated applications. This is oneof those weeds that you can't just say,

(33:13):
Okay, I weeded and I'm good. It's going to take many seasons
of concerted effort, and I wouldsay a variety of techniques to try to
control it. Karma chamelia yes,also known as chameleon plant, although yours,
for some reason it is all greeninstead of colorful, which so you're
not even getting color. You justhave this obnoxious speed. So I will
put some resources for you on theshow. Outes at Gardening Simplified on air

(33:37):
dot com. We got to takea break. When we come back,
we've got branching news. The GardeningSimplified Show is brought to you by proven
Winner's Color Choice Shrubs. Our awardwinning flowering shrubs and evergreens have been trialed
and tested for your success so youenjoy more beauty and less work. Look

(33:57):
for proven Winners color Choice shrubs inthe distinct of white container at your local
garden center. Welcome back to theGardening Simplified Show. It's time for branching
News and Stacey. I threw thisstory in this week for Branching News.
A very nice lady by the nameof Nary Brown was visiting the Walmart in

(34:17):
Pineville, Louisiana last week when shefound an unexpected item in her shopping cart,
right where she normally stows her kids. In the cart, there was
a venomous snake. Yikes. Yes, this has made the rounds on Facebook.
Her Facebook post that she didn't evensee the snake at first, an
other customer pointed it out to her. She says she's grateful she took her

(34:42):
kids to daycare instead of to thestore with her. The snake appears to
be a juvenile cotton mouth snake.Wow, yikes, and that brings up
the point I mentioned in the firstsegment my IPM. Wait, wait,
they didn't say how it got there, No, they don't. She just
looked down in her cart and allof a sudden, cotton mouth. I'm

(35:04):
gonna guess that the cart was probablyout in the parking lot, and then
when they collected it up, itkind of coiled up inside. That makes
sense. Yeah, that makes sense. There you have it. Surprise free
snake with every purchase. Like Isaid, hysteria at the wal Mart.
So there you go. Gave herquite a fright. It would me too.
So my IPM approach for dealing withsnakes me personally is this. I'll

(35:29):
give it to you in the formthis week of a limb a rick,
and that is how do I proceedwith a level of class with reptiles.
I'll take a pass. I'm notmuch of a snake charmer. As a
matter of fact, I wear armorwhen faced with a snake in the grass.
Snakes aren't for everyone, so notto be outdone when faced with a

(35:51):
slithering serpent or any other intruding insurgent. I've trained myself to run, and
boy, Stacy, can I unfast? I know you, so running is
always an option. That's my IPMapproach to dealing with snakes in the garden.
I've taught myself how to run,and you know, perhaps the impact

(36:13):
of your feet on the earth willmake the snake go away. On the
cycle, I probably scare the snakeaway to that way. Hey, this
is a fabulous story. I lovethis. This is right in my wheelhouse.
And again, any of these storieswe post them to Gardening Simplified on
air dot com. That's our website. You'll find links there and links to

(36:34):
stories, information, pictures, somake sure to visit Gardeningsimplified on air dot
com. A mechanic has built thefastest wheelburrow in the world in his garage.
Dylan Phillips has modified the wheelbarrow tofit an engine and a sled so
it can hit a top speed ofmore than fifty miles per hour. We

(36:55):
heard that right, a wheelburrow that'sfaster than fifty miles per hour. After
two years of tinkering, Phillips,who's thirty eight years old, has claimed
a spot in the Guinness Book ofWorld Records after the wheelbarrow reached an average
of fifty two point five eight milesper hour and a high speed of fifty
six point eight two miles per hour. The previous record, held by Kevin

(37:20):
Nix was forty four point six milesper hour. He just did it for
fun. The videos fun to watch, the story's fun, and kudos to
him. I consider him a trueentre manere. Dylan Phillips, the world's
fastest wheelbarrow. Well, so I'mtaking at this is not a wheelbarrow that
you stand behind and and propel.He sits behind it. Okay. So

(37:45):
he made a little sled and he'ssaid, okay, God, that's the
sled part. Okay. Because hedoesn't run beyond then he is that when
I was installing all my mulch afew weeks ago, fifty miles an hour
would have been helpful. How abouta story. Tolos out today's show in
VideA is a company led by CEOJensen Huang. He says a Japanese gardener

(38:10):
taught him one of the most profoundlearnings of his life, and it's why
he can be on top of everydetail of his three point two trillion dollar
chip Giant I mean amazing. Jensenis known in Silicon Valley for his meticulous
attention to detail, and it wasa chance encounter with a Japanese gardener that

(38:35):
helped the CEO realize he has thetime to be a perfectionist instead of racing
to the next project. He usedto work in one of their overseas offices.
He learned this lesson while on vacationwith his family. He was in
Kyoto, Japan, at the SilverTemple and the Mosque garden, and they

(39:00):
visited. He said, it wassuffocatingly hot and humid. Sticky heat is
radiating from the ground. And alongwith the other tourists, they wandered through
this meticulously groomed moss garden. Henoticed a loan gardener. Now, remember,
this moss garden is gigantic and it'sexquisitely maintained. He noticed a loan

(39:22):
gardener squatting carefully picking at the mosswith a bamboo tweezer and putting it into
a bamboo basket. Now he thoughtthat what in the world is going on
here. He walks up to him, and he says, what are you
doing, he says, and thegardener says, I'm picking dead moss.
I'm taking care of my garden.Now, Jensen said, but your garden

(39:44):
is so big, and the gardenerresponded, I've cared for my garden for
twenty five years. I have plentyof time. Now that's really really something,
because Jensen Huang has twenty six thousandemployees, and he he now feels
that he has the capacity to supportthem, that he's not too busy for

(40:06):
them. He used this in agraduation address, and I thought that that
was that was really neat the impactthat this gardener at that mosque garden had
on this the CEO in his work, he was meticulous. Yeah, you
know, I have been to Japanand I've actually been to that garden,
and yeah, you see in anygarden that you go to in the Kyoto

(40:29):
area, you will see gardeners,you know, crouching down and weeding areas
with tweezers. It's it is definitelyan exercise in care and in patience.
But you know, I feel likegardening is so poignant like that. I
mean, have you ever read thebook Being There by Jersey Kauz Escape or
seen the movie very much like TheGardener comes out with all these life insights

(40:49):
that completely change the financial world.Now, speaking of gardening the financial world,
I saw I was watching financial TVa couple days ago and I saw
this thing and it said so andso oh will now move to whatever company
after a period of gardening leave.And I stood right, I said,
gardening leave? Is this a realthing? And I but my instinct said

(41:12):
no. My instinct said no,this person did not take leave to work
on their garden as lovely as thatwould be, and as much as I
was thinking, well, gee,I could take some gardening leave to no.
It turns out gardening leave is aterm for when someone leaves a company
but is under like a non disclosurebecause I have like a big project that's
going to be, you know,coming out. So the company still pays

(41:34):
them, but they don't have towork. And that is in financial sector
and probably tech as well known asgardening leave. Wow, I'd like that,
get I know. So whether thisperson actually did any gardening on their
gardening leave, I don't know,but I was extremely disappointed to find out
it was not, in fact aleave dedicated to horticulture. That's great,

(41:54):
you could add that to your investmenthorfolio, right, are you good?
Hey? Real quickly? You knowhow much I disliked garden hoses? Yeah,
oh yeah, So I was happyto see this story. A homeowner
uses his garden hose to save hishouse from serious fire damage. It happened
last week in Fargo, North Dakota. A Fargo homeowner's quick actions potentially saved

(42:17):
his home from significant damage. Afire started on his deck was spreading to
his home by the time the firedepartment got there he had put it out
with the garden hose. So gardenhoses, you know, they have a
reputation of getting kinky and you tripon him and hoses frustrate me. But

(42:39):
in this case, this homeowner usedhis garden hose to do a good thing.
He did the work before the firefightersgot there and saved his home.
I thought that was a good,feel good It is a feel good story.
I'm just shocked that he didn't haveany kinks in the hose, that
it wasn't all knotted up, andthat he was able to, you know,
quickly turn on the water and deliverit where it needed to be,

(43:00):
because that does not seem didn't getcaught on the edge of the bed while
he's trying to go put out thefire exactly. So I'm glad that everything
worked out well and that for once, garden hoses did not live up to
their frustrating reputation. There you go. Thanks for watching and listening to the
Gardening Simplified Show. Remember we area podcast, YouTube show, and radio

(43:21):
show. You can get more informationat Gardeningsimplified on air dot com, and
we'd love to have you send picturesand notes. We always love to hear
from you. Thank you, Stacy, thank you Rick, thank you Adriana,
and thanks to you for making theGardening Simplified Show part of your weekly
habit. Take care,