November 22, 2025 • 21 mins
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Welcome back here in the garden with Ron Wilson. And
as I promised, he is with us again. How are
we being so lucky they get this young man to
join us on our show. Is unbelievable. The checks must
be going through, ladies and gentlemen. Is time for Yes,
it is Professor Meredith of Horticulture or University of Georgia.
His website is Alan Armony's dot and that he's written
the more books than Carter's has liver pills, Ladies and gentlemen,
(00:23):
the one, the only doctor Alan apple Armitage. Sit down,
Sit down, you're giving him a bigger head.
Speaker 2 (00:36):
Yeah, good good morning, Come on, Yeah, my liver is
bothering me. I mean Messido's damn pills. Good morning everybody.
Hope all is well, Carters, like we're gonna have some
great weather.
Speaker 1 (00:53):
Finally we got some rain to move through here this
week and we get some moisture back in the ground,
so we're happy for that.
Speaker 2 (01:01):
Yeah, I'll tell you what, Well, fall always seems to
be that time when you know it's a little cooler
and then it it's warm again. And I don't know
about you guys, that we got up to seventy degrees
and stuff. It's like summer again. But we're going to
get cool like you are. And that's great and that
really helps everything.
Speaker 1 (01:15):
By the way, So you know, I'm assuming that doctor
Allen Armies is still out planting plants for the fall.
Speaker 2 (01:22):
He putting some, yeah, actually he is. Uh. He got
some late bulbs that he's throwing in the ground so
the squirrels can eat them for the winter. And he's
also putting in some just you know, the usual winter
stuff for down here, which there's pansies by older snap dragons,
et cetera. They look terrible in the winter, but they
come back in the spring, so it's good. You know.
(01:45):
I'm still doing a bit of that. Yeah.
Speaker 1 (01:46):
I still think ornamental cabbage and kale is way overlooked
when it comes to fall color because the colder it gets,
the colder it gets, the better they look.
Speaker 2 (01:56):
Yeah, and they tolerate that cold without a problem. Let
me know. You know, there's thing is of a you
know you're taking to put in these tale or biolas
or snaps, and it looks fairly lovely when you put
them in the fall, and uh, and then you know
gets cold. Yeah, and so they don't look so lovely,
and people complain about them, but the fact is, you know,
get a little bit of heat, a little bit of
(02:17):
break in the weather, and they come right back, you're correct,
mustards and kales and all those things.
Speaker 1 (02:22):
They looks oh yeah, And you know, I uh that
once I planned last year in I raised beds. We
had a snow in the middle of the winter and
they were peeking up through the snow with that pink
and maroon. I took pictures of that. It was spectacular
coming up through there. And they made it through the
winter and they flowered a course in the springtime, which
I little white flower. But you know, I still think
(02:42):
it's way under used in containers and then the landscape
for for winter color.
Speaker 2 (02:48):
Yeah no, no, I agree with you, hudred percent anytime
it's cool. And the fact is, I probably don't know
this your listeners, but ornamental ornamental kale is a huge
cut flower cut stem, I should say. You know, they've
been bred, so these stems expand and get taller and
they look quite lovely, you know, smaller heads that they're
(03:09):
actually bred for cuts. That's just yeah, you know, it's
really interesting.
Speaker 1 (03:15):
The first time I ever saw that we took a
y We had a garden center tour up in the
Toronto area aroout twenty years ago. Sheridan's Nursery hosted us
up there. Yeah, of course, yeah, and yeah, wheeling and
calling in all of those places. And that's where I
first saw some of those taller kales that were like
trees that were up. And then of course the the
(03:36):
colors up there were spectacular in the fall, I mean it,
which is unbelievable.
Speaker 2 (03:42):
Yeah. No, some of these little lone planets, like you say,
are actually pretty well known by certain segments. But kale
regardless should be should be planted more.
Speaker 3 (03:50):
Yep, no doubt.
Speaker 1 (03:51):
Talk about doctor Allan Armonies of course his website alan
Ormedies dot ned. Be sure and check it out. And
I think it's interesting you talk about the bulbs because
I tell folks right now guard centers, whoever happens to
sell bulbs in the fall, they're trying to get rid
of them right now. But as they go into the holidays,
size it. You can scarf those things up for a
great price. Still plenty of time to plant, and I
do I plant them in the ground, but I do
(04:12):
a few in the containers. In pots and overwinter them
in a somewhere and bring them out in the springtime
to give away as gifts or to use on the
in the in the whatever.
Speaker 3 (04:21):
Sure, and there's really no cost to them, no, they and.
Speaker 2 (04:25):
They need so little, and just give them some cold,
put out in the garden somewhere or put them wherever
where it gets cool, and they're gonna beautiful in the
spring and as gifts. I agree with you. Whatever sent
When I was teaching my class and they had to
my students be forcing bulbs, you know, and of course
they got graded on it. And but they're so simple,
you know. You put them in the containers, just you
(04:48):
get some cool on them for a certain amount of time,
bring them out where you go. So that's fay. And
of course in the garden itself. I'm you know, I
got looking at my garden right now. I can see
all these all these spots. I don't know what's in there,
but I hope there's bulbs in there. That's all I
can say.
Speaker 1 (05:03):
Now, now you talked about feeding the squirrels, I mean
they do stay away from a lot of the minor bulbs.
They stay away from the dafts obviously, tulips are candy
for them.
Speaker 2 (05:13):
Oh, the focus are real candy.
Speaker 3 (05:15):
Oh yeah. The crocus, yeah, at least at.
Speaker 2 (05:17):
Least for my squirrels. Anyway, I have non discerning squirrels
and chipmunks, of course, but I know they I love crokers,
I just truly love crokers. But every time I put
them in, they seem to not come up. And you know,
I think that's that's food. But you know, you do
your best. So but those are the kind of things
you can put in containers as well. And I say
(05:38):
garden containers even, and you can cover those in the
winter so they can't get in, and they'll hum reach through.
Speaker 1 (05:44):
Cincinnati Botanical Garden and Zoo does an excellent job, and
a lot of they're larger containers, and they'll layer and
do spring spring bulbs layered in these huge urns and
things where they have dafts down below, then tulips above
them and the miners up top, and just a great
show of us just spring garden, uh in April, and
when they're doing all their tulips and dafts and all
(06:04):
the other things as.
Speaker 2 (06:05):
Well, it's great stuff and people think it's I have
to plant each pole by itself head up and half
the time I don't know where the head is, just
putting on the ground. They'll figure it out, you're right.
Speaker 3 (06:17):
If you're not sure.
Speaker 2 (06:18):
They mix them all up and just let it.
Speaker 1 (06:19):
Go and let it go, no doubt about talking with
doctor Allen Armitage again. His website is Alan Armitage dot net.
So as you as we start to wind down the
season next week being Thanksgiving and all, when do you
do you put your garden? When do you've officially And
you're in Athens, Georgia, So when do you officially kind
of put the garden to bed? And what do you
do when you do put the garden to bed?
Speaker 2 (06:41):
Well, I'm officially putting to bed right now, doct They've
been doing it for the lo It looks like heck
because it's just things, you know, some something that disappeared.
The leaves are everywhere, they're all falling. No, I'm putting
it to bed right now. Mostly the leaves have come down,
and so I cut down any of those perennials just
you know, they're looking pretty shabby means, and you know,
(07:02):
just stuff. And of course the HELLI bares look great
right now, so they'll they'll be coming back up. I'm
looking right now at at you know, some shrubs, which
I'll cut them back, am I necessary knowing when they flower?
But in general, I just try to clean up all
the stuff that looks like because it's a garden around,
I just try to clean up so it looks howf
(07:22):
decent when I look out here. And then you know,
I'll try and keep most of the leaves and stuff
in the garden. But Susan being Susan, she wants a
little cleaner, so I sometimes break out those as well,
and just it's you know, it's putting it to bed
is not just chopping hole darn thing down. Putting it
to bed is you know, taking out that stuff that
looks like heck, because it's going to come back again.
(07:44):
For the perennials, you're generally getting all rid of all
the annuals that have died and and awhay you go.
Speaker 1 (07:49):
Do you do any feeding in the fall? Do you
say that for spring?
Speaker 2 (07:53):
I really do not. I do it for spring, yeah,
And I and I see fairly heavily in the spring,
and the whole the whole common sense thing about fertilizing
is just fertilized when they're actively growing. Most things aren't
actively growing right now. A few things are, and the
bulls don't need anything, so h and I stuck a
few digitalis into that. Maybe I'll fertilize a little bit
just to get them going. We're going to get some
(08:14):
cold run of this week too, so they're not going
to take up a whole lot of stuff when he
gets cold.
Speaker 1 (08:18):
You talk about common sense. Do you use common sense
a lot when you're gardening?
Speaker 2 (08:23):
Yeah? Common sense can make common sense, you know, can
be related to laziness. I guess I try to do
as little as I can, and therefore I call it
common sense.
Speaker 3 (08:33):
I don't know.
Speaker 1 (08:33):
I read that article about you out fighting the law
in your neighborhood trying to get things. It's like, is
he used to some common sense here? As far as
fighting the law or trying to get some horticulture.
Speaker 2 (08:44):
They're not, apparently not. This article just articling up on
the Facebook around these things go. I have no idea.
And my wife read it. She said, oh, you're going
to get arrested, ticket down, and I said, wow, what
do I know? Really it was a little us doing
some work for the community. But anyway, maybe I should
(09:06):
have changed the title, right.
Speaker 1 (09:09):
Just google how we fought the law and improved our
local green spaces, and you'll learn all about what doctor
Allan Arbidy's does in his downtime when he has everything
else to do. By the way, you know, we have
so many plants of the year. We have to take
a break here. We'll come back and we'll talk about
common sense gardening. But everybody has a plan of the
year now, you know, it's almost getting diluted. There's so
many plants of the year out there. I noticed one
(09:31):
the other day that I that I thought, you know
what we haven't I haven't talked about that one. Forever
Garden Club of America came up with their plan of
the year for twenty twenty six and it's iron weed.
But it's the one it's uh iron butterfly. Yeah, I
like that plant.
Speaker 2 (09:48):
Yeah. Do you know where that came from?
Speaker 3 (09:49):
Where?
Speaker 2 (09:51):
I'll tell you when we come back.
Speaker 1 (09:52):
All right, we'll take a break. We'll find out where
that iron weed iron butterfly came from from. Doctor Allan
Arbidi's website is Alan Arbony's dot net. Here in the
Garden with Ron Wilson.
Speaker 4 (10:02):
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(10:26):
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Speaker 3 (10:39):
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Speaker 5 (10:39):
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Speaker 1 (11:26):
Welcome back here in the Garden with Ron Wilson special
guest this morning, Doctor triple A, Alan Apple Armitage. Come on,
you're giving him a big head neighborhood rebel, belove it
horticulturist and storyteller, Doctor Allan Raminage and talking to him.
I was mentioning the plant, the ironweed, iron butterfly, and
(11:47):
you know how it got its name? Well I don't,
but he does. Are you there, doctor triple A.
Speaker 6 (11:59):
Hold on a second, come check, see Dan's got them.
I'll try again.
Speaker 3 (12:08):
Maybe not here there you are?
Speaker 2 (12:13):
Okay, Sorry, I don't know what happened. It's you know,
this greace technology of.
Speaker 6 (12:17):
It happens sometimes in our wonderful technology here.
Speaker 3 (12:20):
So we're talking.
Speaker 1 (12:20):
We're talking about iron weed, iron butterfly, which is one
of your favorite groups, right, iron butterfly.
Speaker 2 (12:29):
I love iron weed period.
Speaker 3 (12:30):
Okay.
Speaker 2 (12:31):
I think it's a it's a great native plant. Yes,
and many of our many of our natives have gone
through some evolutions so that they make a more garden,
more garden esk because most you know, iron weeds are
quite big and tall, and they're great if you have
a space but iron butterfly, and believe it or not,
I don't know. You probably don't is I developed that
so along with my homestead purples and my and my
(12:53):
sweet potatoes and all that kind of nonsense, I managed
to foist on people. I did iron butterfly number of
years ago. And it's taken quite a while for it.
I mean, it's always it caught on, but it never
kind of went right through the roof. And I'm plazed
to see that some people are finally seeing how wonderful
this plant is because it's still an iron weed and
it's still a great plant, and it just is more
(13:15):
and much more, and it works in the garden so
much nice and it has fabulous flowers. The best part
of it, or however, though, are the is the foliage. Yeah,
the foliage is just extraordinarily beautiful, which is why quite
truthfully introduced it. Flowers are okay, but the folders looks
nice all season.
Speaker 1 (13:30):
You know what's funny is I did not know that
you did that.
Speaker 2 (13:34):
Well, there's no reason why you should. And that was
a good A good ten years ago, I guess, I bet. Wow,
And it's been hanging around. It's been hanging around for
that time, and people really enjoyed it. I remember I
saw a ton of it in the Chicago Batandle Garden,
and I saw a bunch of probably at the Cincinnati
I bet.
Speaker 1 (13:51):
Yeah, we grow it. We grow it on our nurse.
You know, I've always enjoyed it. But you know, they
they had picked that as their plan of the year,
and I said, you know, boy, I haven't talked about
that no long time, so it's interesting I brought that up.
Speaker 2 (14:02):
Good for them, yeah, good for them. Well anyway, so
maybe we'll sell a few more. But it's a great plan.
And the whole the whole group of iron weeds are terrific,
but that one, to me is certainly my favorite. Of
course I'm a little biased, but it's a great plant.
Speaker 1 (14:15):
By the way, I thought of you because they were
I had to read an article the other day about
honey crisp apples. Of course, it's becoming one of the
most popular apple across the United States, but it's also
one of the hardest apples for them to produce in
big numbers.
Speaker 2 (14:27):
I mean, I didn't know that. Yeah, I didn't know that.
Speaker 1 (14:29):
It's a little bit tougher. I guess the growers are saying,
and it's and here it is the most popular. So
but I know you like Grandy Smith as well, So
I do.
Speaker 2 (14:38):
But I mean the Honey Cris find me out those
is kind of my snacks at night. I would have
this little cool little thing you can push down and
make little slices of that. Oh yeah, so it's real easy,
and that's a nice snack instead of potato chests, let
me tell you.
Speaker 1 (14:50):
Oh yeah, and when they're cold. We give those away
in the fall for our customers and they absolutely love them.
Speaker 3 (14:56):
So it's what I talking with doctor.
Speaker 1 (14:59):
You were talking about common one sense gardening. He brought
that up earlier, and common sense gardening is uh, well,
I tell you what, you know, somebody should write a
book about it. I brought this up, I don't know
a little while back, and guess what he did. And
it's now somewhat available. It's the newest book from doctor
Armony's called The Common Sense Gardener. And only you could
(15:21):
write this book and tell the story the way you did.
Speaker 2 (15:26):
Well. In fact, it is available. It came available yesterday.
The orders were available I think for a few days.
Now it's on the website and orders now are accepted.
But I just got literally physically, I got the book
two days ago, yesterday. Man. Anyway, so those of those
have gone out. My first order was, he'd love this
(15:48):
to a nursery who bought a hundred I love that.
And they're using it for gifts instead of your apples.
Are using this little book. And it is a little book.
Anybody who has seen this thing, it's common sense. This
is rather uncommon. So it was nice and that's us.
It's not one hundred pages, but uh, it was real
fun to write because Ron and anybody else out there
who takes groups around their garden, you know the questions
(16:11):
you're gonna get. You're gonna get something about deer pollinators,
soil shades. Don you know the questions and so everybody ever,
even though the question is the same, boy, everybody is
so confused about the answers. H you know, prooning good grief.
So anyway, I wrote this book as somebody asking somebody
about the best way to do pruning, and they said,
(16:32):
here's the common sense way. Let's not let's not sweat it.
So that's what the book is about. And and I
think you'll get yours in the mail run today or
certainly by Monday if not. But so anyway, it's it's
a great I'm really very pleased with it, mostly because
I took a chance on writing it very differently. It's
a narrative. It's like like a real book. And uh,
(16:53):
people really have have have responded. A lot of orders
come in already and some from your group run. So
thank you for mentioning it well.
Speaker 1 (17:00):
Good, And then I think, well I did, Actually I
read the book what about a month ago when you
were first put it out. We review it and it's
a it's a great book. And like I said, it's
a you know, you walk this garden, this guy through
life learning about common sense gardening, and what a great
way to put a little humor and a little bit
of wisdom and of course hands on experience from you
(17:22):
and the way you write.
Speaker 3 (17:23):
And it's just.
Speaker 1 (17:24):
Again another easy read, fun to read, and you get
you know, you get something out of it at the
same time. And it's pretty much, you know, down to earth,
and I think, you know, I don't care what level
of a gardener you are, you'll enjoy the book. And
it's a it's a fun read. And uh uh, it's
again perfect timing as far as Christmas goes and I
(17:45):
like that. I like what the company doing. One hundred
we have to may have to take a look at
that as well. That's a great, great idea. So this
thing is but.
Speaker 2 (17:52):
That the other thing for your readers. We just did
this for for November fifteenth to December fifteenth, so we're
also go to have a next spring, of course, but
anybody wants to do as a gift or I'm getting
lots of orders of two's and trees and stuff like that,
just get on it now so I can get it
to you in time.
Speaker 1 (18:08):
That's all okay. So that's available through the fifteenth. This
is the first run of this. It's a limited kind
of aliminated.
Speaker 2 (18:14):
Yeah, there'll be another run in the spring to be sure,
but I want we wanted to get this out for Christmas.
Speaker 1 (18:18):
So if you want to get this out for Christmas,
you got to get on it right away. Because of course,
missus armitage is in the basement right now packaging and labeling.
Speaker 2 (18:26):
These don't even go there, I'm telling you, and.
Speaker 1 (18:30):
You know, and hiding from the police because their rebel
husband's out there fighting the law in the community.
Speaker 2 (18:37):
Life, Oh life is good. In the past, Lane right, I.
Speaker 3 (18:42):
Tell you what.
Speaker 1 (18:42):
Anyway, it's called The Common Sense Gardener, Doctor Allen m Armitage.
It's a great one, but a limited time, limited edition.
And you can go to his website Alan Armony's dot
net and and uh and ordered and I have read
it and it as wonderful as usual. You do such
a great job. And we really appreciate you writing that.
And I think you, like I said, no matter what
level gardner are, you're all everybody's gonna appreciate it.
Speaker 2 (19:05):
Well, thank you. I enjoyed writing it, so I hope
people enjoy reading it.
Speaker 1 (19:08):
But now if you'll come back with a book that
I've asked you to write something about apples, it's not
about the apple.
Speaker 2 (19:17):
I listen. I watched the British making show Mary Darry.
I don't know if anybody watches that show. I love I
love Mary Barry. She did English scolds. Well, I want
to tell you, and they had apple in them. I'm
all over this now. Of course, I dare not get
all the material Susan, we will think I've really gone
off the deep end. But that's my next project.
Speaker 1 (19:35):
Well, sure, thank you've gone off the defense. She knows
you've gone off the deep End. It's the new book
from doctor Allen Armony's The Common Sense Gardner. Go to
his website Limited Edition Alan Armonis dot net. Just in
time for the holiday season, Dr armitys have a great Thanksgiving.
Speaker 3 (19:50):
Good talking with.
Speaker 2 (19:51):
You here too, Ron, Thank you and thank you everybody.
Enjoy the season.
Speaker 1 (19:55):
All right, take care, quick break, we come back phone. No,
we're going to go to the West coast. We're going
to talk to Sandra mau Her new book which is outstanding.
We got two books today, is called Vibrant Harvest Cultivating
a Kaleidoscope of Colors in your vegetable Garden with heirlooms,
modern hybrids, and a whole lot more. What a great
book to make your vegetable garden more colorful, healthy for you,
(20:17):
and how to grow them and how to can them,
and how to do the whole nine yards. Coming up
after the break here in the garden with Ron Wilson
Speaker 5 (20:36):
Green time or not Ron can help at one eight
hundred eighty two three talk and they says in the
garden went Ron Wilson.
Welcome back here in the garden with Ron Wilson. And
as I promised, he is with us again. How are
we being so lucky they get this young man to
join us on our show. Is unbelievable. The checks must
be going through, ladies and gentlemen. Is time for Yes,
it is Professor Meredith of Horticulture or University of Georgia.
His website is Alan Armony's dot and that he's written
the more books than Carter's has liver pills, Ladies and gentlemen,
(00:23):
the one, the only doctor Alan apple Armitage. Sit down,
Sit down, you're giving him a bigger head.
Speaker 2 (00:36):
Yeah, good good morning, Come on, Yeah, my liver is
bothering me. I mean Messido's damn pills. Good morning everybody.
Hope all is well, Carters, like we're gonna have some
great weather.
Speaker 1 (00:53):
Finally we got some rain to move through here this
week and we get some moisture back in the ground,
so we're happy for that.
Speaker 2 (01:01):
Yeah, I'll tell you what, Well, fall always seems to
be that time when you know it's a little cooler
and then it it's warm again. And I don't know
about you guys, that we got up to seventy degrees
and stuff. It's like summer again. But we're going to
get cool like you are. And that's great and that
really helps everything.
Speaker 1 (01:15):
By the way, So you know, I'm assuming that doctor
Allen Armies is still out planting plants for the fall.
Speaker 2 (01:22):
He putting some, yeah, actually he is. Uh. He got
some late bulbs that he's throwing in the ground so
the squirrels can eat them for the winter. And he's
also putting in some just you know, the usual winter
stuff for down here, which there's pansies by older snap dragons,
et cetera. They look terrible in the winter, but they
come back in the spring, so it's good. You know.
(01:45):
I'm still doing a bit of that. Yeah.
Speaker 1 (01:46):
I still think ornamental cabbage and kale is way overlooked
when it comes to fall color because the colder it gets,
the colder it gets, the better they look.
Speaker 2 (01:56):
Yeah, and they tolerate that cold without a problem. Let
me know. You know, there's thing is of a you
know you're taking to put in these tale or biolas
or snaps, and it looks fairly lovely when you put
them in the fall, and uh, and then you know
gets cold. Yeah, and so they don't look so lovely,
and people complain about them, but the fact is, you know,
get a little bit of heat, a little bit of
(02:17):
break in the weather, and they come right back, you're correct,
mustards and kales and all those things.
Speaker 1 (02:22):
They looks oh yeah, And you know, I uh that
once I planned last year in I raised beds. We
had a snow in the middle of the winter and
they were peeking up through the snow with that pink
and maroon. I took pictures of that. It was spectacular
coming up through there. And they made it through the
winter and they flowered a course in the springtime, which
I little white flower. But you know, I still think
(02:42):
it's way under used in containers and then the landscape
for for winter color.
Speaker 2 (02:48):
Yeah no, no, I agree with you, hudred percent anytime
it's cool. And the fact is, I probably don't know
this your listeners, but ornamental ornamental kale is a huge
cut flower cut stem, I should say. You know, they've
been bred, so these stems expand and get taller and
they look quite lovely, you know, smaller heads that they're
(03:09):
actually bred for cuts. That's just yeah, you know, it's
really interesting.
Speaker 1 (03:15):
The first time I ever saw that we took a
y We had a garden center tour up in the
Toronto area aroout twenty years ago. Sheridan's Nursery hosted us
up there. Yeah, of course, yeah, and yeah, wheeling and
calling in all of those places. And that's where I
first saw some of those taller kales that were like
trees that were up. And then of course the the
(03:36):
colors up there were spectacular in the fall, I mean it,
which is unbelievable.
Speaker 2 (03:42):
Yeah. No, some of these little lone planets, like you say,
are actually pretty well known by certain segments. But kale
regardless should be should be planted more.
Speaker 3 (03:50):
Yep, no doubt.
Speaker 1 (03:51):
Talk about doctor Allan Armonies of course his website alan
Ormedies dot ned. Be sure and check it out. And
I think it's interesting you talk about the bulbs because
I tell folks right now guard centers, whoever happens to
sell bulbs in the fall, they're trying to get rid
of them right now. But as they go into the holidays,
size it. You can scarf those things up for a
great price. Still plenty of time to plant, and I
do I plant them in the ground, but I do
(04:12):
a few in the containers. In pots and overwinter them
in a somewhere and bring them out in the springtime
to give away as gifts or to use on the
in the in the whatever.
Speaker 3 (04:21):
Sure, and there's really no cost to them, no, they and.
Speaker 2 (04:25):
They need so little, and just give them some cold,
put out in the garden somewhere or put them wherever
where it gets cool, and they're gonna beautiful in the
spring and as gifts. I agree with you. Whatever sent
When I was teaching my class and they had to
my students be forcing bulbs, you know, and of course
they got graded on it. And but they're so simple,
you know. You put them in the containers, just you
(04:48):
get some cool on them for a certain amount of time,
bring them out where you go. So that's fay. And
of course in the garden itself. I'm you know, I
got looking at my garden right now. I can see
all these all these spots. I don't know what's in there,
but I hope there's bulbs in there. That's all I
can say.
Speaker 1 (05:03):
Now, now you talked about feeding the squirrels, I mean
they do stay away from a lot of the minor bulbs.
They stay away from the dafts obviously, tulips are candy
for them.
Speaker 2 (05:13):
Oh, the focus are real candy.
Speaker 3 (05:15):
Oh yeah. The crocus, yeah, at least at.
Speaker 2 (05:17):
Least for my squirrels. Anyway, I have non discerning squirrels
and chipmunks, of course, but I know they I love crokers,
I just truly love crokers. But every time I put
them in, they seem to not come up. And you know,
I think that's that's food. But you know, you do
your best. So but those are the kind of things
you can put in containers as well. And I say
(05:38):
garden containers even, and you can cover those in the
winter so they can't get in, and they'll hum reach through.
Speaker 1 (05:44):
Cincinnati Botanical Garden and Zoo does an excellent job, and
a lot of they're larger containers, and they'll layer and
do spring spring bulbs layered in these huge urns and
things where they have dafts down below, then tulips above
them and the miners up top, and just a great
show of us just spring garden, uh in April, and
when they're doing all their tulips and dafts and all
(06:04):
the other things as.
Speaker 2 (06:05):
Well, it's great stuff and people think it's I have
to plant each pole by itself head up and half
the time I don't know where the head is, just
putting on the ground. They'll figure it out, you're right.
Speaker 3 (06:17):
If you're not sure.
Speaker 2 (06:18):
They mix them all up and just let it.
Speaker 1 (06:19):
Go and let it go, no doubt about talking with
doctor Allen Armitage again. His website is Alan Armitage dot net.
So as you as we start to wind down the
season next week being Thanksgiving and all, when do you
do you put your garden? When do you've officially And
you're in Athens, Georgia, So when do you officially kind
of put the garden to bed? And what do you
do when you do put the garden to bed?
Speaker 2 (06:41):
Well, I'm officially putting to bed right now, doct They've
been doing it for the lo It looks like heck
because it's just things, you know, some something that disappeared.
The leaves are everywhere, they're all falling. No, I'm putting
it to bed right now. Mostly the leaves have come down,
and so I cut down any of those perennials just
you know, they're looking pretty shabby means, and you know,
(07:02):
just stuff. And of course the HELLI bares look great
right now, so they'll they'll be coming back up. I'm
looking right now at at you know, some shrubs, which
I'll cut them back, am I necessary knowing when they flower?
But in general, I just try to clean up all
the stuff that looks like because it's a garden around,
I just try to clean up so it looks howf
(07:22):
decent when I look out here. And then you know,
I'll try and keep most of the leaves and stuff
in the garden. But Susan being Susan, she wants a
little cleaner, so I sometimes break out those as well,
and just it's you know, it's putting it to bed
is not just chopping hole darn thing down. Putting it
to bed is you know, taking out that stuff that
looks like heck, because it's going to come back again.
(07:44):
For the perennials, you're generally getting all rid of all
the annuals that have died and and awhay you go.
Speaker 1 (07:49):
Do you do any feeding in the fall? Do you
say that for spring?
Speaker 2 (07:53):
I really do not. I do it for spring, yeah,
And I and I see fairly heavily in the spring,
and the whole the whole common sense thing about fertilizing
is just fertilized when they're actively growing. Most things aren't
actively growing right now. A few things are, and the
bulls don't need anything, so h and I stuck a
few digitalis into that. Maybe I'll fertilize a little bit
just to get them going. We're going to get some
(08:14):
cold run of this week too, so they're not going
to take up a whole lot of stuff when he
gets cold.
Speaker 1 (08:18):
You talk about common sense. Do you use common sense
a lot when you're gardening?
Speaker 2 (08:23):
Yeah? Common sense can make common sense, you know, can
be related to laziness. I guess I try to do
as little as I can, and therefore I call it
common sense.
Speaker 3 (08:33):
I don't know.
Speaker 1 (08:33):
I read that article about you out fighting the law
in your neighborhood trying to get things. It's like, is
he used to some common sense here? As far as
fighting the law or trying to get some horticulture.
Speaker 2 (08:44):
They're not, apparently not. This article just articling up on
the Facebook around these things go. I have no idea.
And my wife read it. She said, oh, you're going
to get arrested, ticket down, and I said, wow, what
do I know? Really it was a little us doing
some work for the community. But anyway, maybe I should
(09:06):
have changed the title, right.
Speaker 1 (09:09):
Just google how we fought the law and improved our
local green spaces, and you'll learn all about what doctor
Allan Arbidy's does in his downtime when he has everything
else to do. By the way, you know, we have
so many plants of the year. We have to take
a break here. We'll come back and we'll talk about
common sense gardening. But everybody has a plan of the
year now, you know, it's almost getting diluted. There's so
many plants of the year out there. I noticed one
(09:31):
the other day that I that I thought, you know
what we haven't I haven't talked about that one. Forever
Garden Club of America came up with their plan of
the year for twenty twenty six and it's iron weed.
But it's the one it's uh iron butterfly. Yeah, I
like that plant.
Speaker 2 (09:48):
Yeah. Do you know where that came from?
Speaker 3 (09:49):
Where?
Speaker 2 (09:51):
I'll tell you when we come back.
Speaker 1 (09:52):
All right, we'll take a break. We'll find out where
that iron weed iron butterfly came from from. Doctor Allan
Arbidi's website is Alan Arbony's dot net. Here in the
Garden with Ron Wilson.
Speaker 4 (10:02):
Landscaping lad easier with your personal yard boy, he's in
the garden and he's Ron Wilson. Well, it's fall and
(10:26):
that means smart homeowners are preparing their homes for winter,
especially they're plumbing. Hi this scary solvent for Roto Ruter
plumbing and water cleanup. I want you to go outside,
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Speaker 3 (10:39):
Listen.
Speaker 5 (10:39):
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(11:24):
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Speaker 1 (11:26):
Welcome back here in the Garden with Ron Wilson special
guest this morning, Doctor triple A, Alan Apple Armitage. Come on,
you're giving him a big head neighborhood rebel, belove it
horticulturist and storyteller, Doctor Allan Raminage and talking to him.
I was mentioning the plant, the ironweed, iron butterfly, and
(11:47):
you know how it got its name? Well I don't,
but he does. Are you there, doctor triple A.
Speaker 6 (11:59):
Hold on a second, come check, see Dan's got them.
I'll try again.
Speaker 3 (12:08):
Maybe not here there you are?
Speaker 2 (12:13):
Okay, Sorry, I don't know what happened. It's you know,
this greace technology of.
Speaker 6 (12:17):
It happens sometimes in our wonderful technology here.
Speaker 3 (12:20):
So we're talking.
Speaker 1 (12:20):
We're talking about iron weed, iron butterfly, which is one
of your favorite groups, right, iron butterfly.
Speaker 2 (12:29):
I love iron weed period.
Speaker 3 (12:30):
Okay.
Speaker 2 (12:31):
I think it's a it's a great native plant. Yes,
and many of our many of our natives have gone
through some evolutions so that they make a more garden,
more garden esk because most you know, iron weeds are
quite big and tall, and they're great if you have
a space but iron butterfly, and believe it or not,
I don't know. You probably don't is I developed that
so along with my homestead purples and my and my
(12:53):
sweet potatoes and all that kind of nonsense, I managed
to foist on people. I did iron butterfly number of
years ago. And it's taken quite a while for it.
I mean, it's always it caught on, but it never
kind of went right through the roof. And I'm plazed
to see that some people are finally seeing how wonderful
this plant is because it's still an iron weed and
it's still a great plant, and it just is more
(13:15):
and much more, and it works in the garden so
much nice and it has fabulous flowers. The best part
of it, or however, though, are the is the foliage. Yeah,
the foliage is just extraordinarily beautiful, which is why quite
truthfully introduced it. Flowers are okay, but the folders looks
nice all season.
Speaker 1 (13:30):
You know what's funny is I did not know that
you did that.
Speaker 2 (13:34):
Well, there's no reason why you should. And that was
a good A good ten years ago, I guess, I bet. Wow,
And it's been hanging around. It's been hanging around for
that time, and people really enjoyed it. I remember I
saw a ton of it in the Chicago Batandle Garden,
and I saw a bunch of probably at the Cincinnati
I bet.
Speaker 1 (13:51):
Yeah, we grow it. We grow it on our nurse.
You know, I've always enjoyed it. But you know, they
they had picked that as their plan of the year,
and I said, you know, boy, I haven't talked about
that no long time, so it's interesting I brought that up.
Speaker 2 (14:02):
Good for them, yeah, good for them. Well anyway, so
maybe we'll sell a few more. But it's a great plan.
And the whole the whole group of iron weeds are terrific,
but that one, to me is certainly my favorite. Of
course I'm a little biased, but it's a great plant.
Speaker 1 (14:15):
By the way, I thought of you because they were
I had to read an article the other day about
honey crisp apples. Of course, it's becoming one of the
most popular apple across the United States, but it's also
one of the hardest apples for them to produce in
big numbers.
Speaker 2 (14:27):
I mean, I didn't know that. Yeah, I didn't know that.
Speaker 1 (14:29):
It's a little bit tougher. I guess the growers are saying,
and it's and here it is the most popular. So
but I know you like Grandy Smith as well, So
I do.
Speaker 2 (14:38):
But I mean the Honey Cris find me out those
is kind of my snacks at night. I would have
this little cool little thing you can push down and
make little slices of that. Oh yeah, so it's real easy,
and that's a nice snack instead of potato chests, let
me tell you.
Speaker 1 (14:50):
Oh yeah, and when they're cold. We give those away
in the fall for our customers and they absolutely love them.
Speaker 3 (14:56):
So it's what I talking with doctor.
Speaker 1 (14:59):
You were talking about common one sense gardening. He brought
that up earlier, and common sense gardening is uh, well,
I tell you what, you know, somebody should write a
book about it. I brought this up, I don't know
a little while back, and guess what he did. And
it's now somewhat available. It's the newest book from doctor
Armony's called The Common Sense Gardener. And only you could
(15:21):
write this book and tell the story the way you did.
Speaker 2 (15:26):
Well. In fact, it is available. It came available yesterday.
The orders were available I think for a few days.
Now it's on the website and orders now are accepted.
But I just got literally physically, I got the book
two days ago, yesterday. Man. Anyway, so those of those
have gone out. My first order was, he'd love this
(15:48):
to a nursery who bought a hundred I love that.
And they're using it for gifts instead of your apples.
Are using this little book. And it is a little book.
Anybody who has seen this thing, it's common sense. This
is rather uncommon. So it was nice and that's us.
It's not one hundred pages, but uh, it was real
fun to write because Ron and anybody else out there
who takes groups around their garden, you know the questions
(16:11):
you're gonna get. You're gonna get something about deer pollinators,
soil shades. Don you know the questions and so everybody ever,
even though the question is the same, boy, everybody is
so confused about the answers. H you know, prooning good grief.
So anyway, I wrote this book as somebody asking somebody
about the best way to do pruning, and they said,
(16:32):
here's the common sense way. Let's not let's not sweat it.
So that's what the book is about. And and I
think you'll get yours in the mail run today or
certainly by Monday if not. But so anyway, it's it's
a great I'm really very pleased with it, mostly because
I took a chance on writing it very differently. It's
a narrative. It's like like a real book. And uh,
(16:53):
people really have have have responded. A lot of orders
come in already and some from your group run. So
thank you for mentioning it well.
Speaker 1 (17:00):
Good, And then I think, well I did, Actually I
read the book what about a month ago when you
were first put it out. We review it and it's
a it's a great book. And like I said, it's
a you know, you walk this garden, this guy through
life learning about common sense gardening, and what a great
way to put a little humor and a little bit
of wisdom and of course hands on experience from you
(17:22):
and the way you write.
Speaker 3 (17:23):
And it's just.
Speaker 1 (17:24):
Again another easy read, fun to read, and you get
you know, you get something out of it at the
same time. And it's pretty much, you know, down to earth,
and I think, you know, I don't care what level
of a gardener you are, you'll enjoy the book. And
it's a it's a fun read. And uh uh, it's
again perfect timing as far as Christmas goes and I
(17:45):
like that. I like what the company doing. One hundred
we have to may have to take a look at
that as well. That's a great, great idea. So this
thing is but.
Speaker 2 (17:52):
That the other thing for your readers. We just did
this for for November fifteenth to December fifteenth, so we're
also go to have a next spring, of course, but
anybody wants to do as a gift or I'm getting
lots of orders of two's and trees and stuff like that,
just get on it now so I can get it
to you in time.
Speaker 1 (18:08):
That's all okay. So that's available through the fifteenth. This
is the first run of this. It's a limited kind
of aliminated.
Speaker 2 (18:14):
Yeah, there'll be another run in the spring to be sure,
but I want we wanted to get this out for Christmas.
Speaker 1 (18:18):
So if you want to get this out for Christmas,
you got to get on it right away. Because of course,
missus armitage is in the basement right now packaging and labeling.
Speaker 2 (18:26):
These don't even go there, I'm telling you, and.
Speaker 1 (18:30):
You know, and hiding from the police because their rebel
husband's out there fighting the law in the community.
Speaker 2 (18:37):
Life, Oh life is good. In the past, Lane right, I.
Speaker 3 (18:42):
Tell you what.
Speaker 1 (18:42):
Anyway, it's called The Common Sense Gardener, Doctor Allen m Armitage.
It's a great one, but a limited time, limited edition.
And you can go to his website Alan Armony's dot
net and and uh and ordered and I have read
it and it as wonderful as usual. You do such
a great job. And we really appreciate you writing that.
And I think you, like I said, no matter what
level gardner are, you're all everybody's gonna appreciate it.
Speaker 2 (19:05):
Well, thank you. I enjoyed writing it, so I hope
people enjoy reading it.
Speaker 1 (19:08):
But now if you'll come back with a book that
I've asked you to write something about apples, it's not
about the apple.
Speaker 2 (19:17):
I listen. I watched the British making show Mary Darry.
I don't know if anybody watches that show. I love I
love Mary Barry. She did English scolds. Well, I want
to tell you, and they had apple in them. I'm
all over this now. Of course, I dare not get
all the material Susan, we will think I've really gone
off the deep end. But that's my next project.
Speaker 1 (19:35):
Well, sure, thank you've gone off the defense. She knows
you've gone off the deep End. It's the new book
from doctor Allen Armony's The Common Sense Gardner. Go to
his website Limited Edition Alan Armonis dot net. Just in
time for the holiday season, Dr armitys have a great Thanksgiving.
Speaker 3 (19:50):
Good talking with.
Speaker 2 (19:51):
You here too, Ron, Thank you and thank you everybody.
Enjoy the season.
Speaker 1 (19:55):
All right, take care, quick break, we come back phone. No,
we're going to go to the West coast. We're going
to talk to Sandra mau Her new book which is outstanding.
We got two books today, is called Vibrant Harvest Cultivating
a Kaleidoscope of Colors in your vegetable Garden with heirlooms,
modern hybrids, and a whole lot more. What a great
book to make your vegetable garden more colorful, healthy for you,
(20:17):
and how to grow them and how to can them,
and how to do the whole nine yards. Coming up
after the break here in the garden with Ron Wilson
Speaker 5 (20:36):
Green time or not Ron can help at one eight
hundred eighty two three talk and they says in the
garden went Ron Wilson.
In The Garden with Ron Wilson News
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