Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:36):
Our toll free number eight hundred eight two three eight
two five five. Good morning. I am Ron Wilson, your
personal yard boy, talking about yard ding, working our way
through this month of July. Uh, it's hot. It's dry
in our area. It's hot. Did I say it was hot.
It's hot, There's no doubt about it.
Speaker 2 (00:54):
Hot.
Speaker 1 (00:54):
It is hot, Dan. I don't know if you noticed
it or not, but a little bit. It is a
little warm out there. And we've gotten showers here and there,
but very sporadic, not a lot in some areas. More
but it just is so dry now as you know.
Now you get those rainfall now it just kind of
runs off. It's hard to penetrate. So keep this in mind.
(01:15):
I always use these as this time like this as
an example of why we're always encouraging you to add
organic matter to the soil whenever you're gardening, no matter
what you're doing, when you're out there digging in the ground,
doing whatever, prepping a bed, planting some annuals, planting a
new tree core, aerating the lawn. Wherever you can add
(01:37):
or organic matter back to that soil helps your soil
become a better sponge for absorbing the showers that do
move through or absorbing the water that you do put
on it. Especially I look at the lawns when you
core air rate, and you know, we talk about this
(01:58):
all the time, and coming up this fall is going
to be a great time September October for core air rating.
If you core air rate your lawn, you pull those
little plugs out and you know, when you're done, it
looks like a herd of dogs went through and dumped
on your yard. But then they dry and you kind
of rake them out, and again it's really helpful because
it opens up your soil, puts little pores in there.
(02:18):
But if you can come back after you did that
and rake in very lightly a very fine compost of
some type and rake that back into those holes, and
so you're actually top dressing as well as trying to
get some of that down in those holes in your lawn.
And you do that two or three years in a row.
(02:39):
It's amazing how that alone helps your lawn out, especially
in times like now when we really start to get
hot and dry, because you know, not only does it
now open it up and lets you that soil absorb
what water does run across the top, but it also
encourages your lawn to root in deeper and better, so
(03:00):
you've got a better root system. You're gonna be mowing
it two and a half to three and a half inches,
so higher lawn so it shades down below. And then
you got the organic matter you've been opening up that
soil with you put those three things together, it really
does help in times where it's dry and water does
come through, whether Mother Nature's bringing it through or you're
(03:22):
adding it, and that really does suck it into the ground.
And the same goes for you your beds and you know,
your garden and the whole nine yards. So anytime you
can add organic matter back to the soil, when you
have an opportunity, do that. And that's why I always say,
you know, hopefully you've got a compost pile that you're
doing making your own compost Gardener's gold. But if you're
(03:42):
not doing your own composting, okay, that's fine, you should be.
It's not that hard. But if you're not doing that,
always have on hand, maybe in the garage or in
the garden, shad or whatever, have on hand some bags
of organic matter. The cow. I love that stuff. It's
composted Kalmanur with some other compost, maybe a little peed
(04:05):
in there as well. It's great stuff. Don't count on
it so much for the nutritional value. Count on it
for the organic manner that you're adding back to the soil.
But the cow's great pine finds fi nes pine fines
or pine soil conditioner. Those pine fines are a wonderful
(04:25):
soil amendment. Again, adding organic matter back to your soil.
And these small pine chips and they're really really small,
smells great, looks good. You can use this as a top
dressing if you'd like. But that's a great way. So
every time you dig out, you add some of that
to the soil, twenty thirty percent, mix it all together,
put it back for your backfill, you know, and use
that and use that as a top dressing as well.
(04:46):
You can even put that on the top. I have
taken the cow and pine findes, mix them together and
use that as a top dressing for beds. And I'm
trying to get them a little bit better than what
they are right now, and use that as a top dressing.
And then and every time I dig in there, I
add a little more organic matter. You hear me say
at the end of the show talking about pampering your worms.
Make sure you pamper your worms. That's one of the
(05:09):
ways that you pamper your worms, all right. And if
your worms are happy and you've got a good worm
count in your soils, you know you're doing a good thing.
And if you've got a good worm count in your
soils and the worms are happy, guess who else is
going to be happy? All the plants that are growing there.
So that's why I say it's important to pamper your worms.
(05:30):
Because everything you can do to make your worms happy
and make your worm populations increase in your soil, the
better off your plants are going to be as well.
So continue to add organic matter anytime you're planting, and
always have a bag or two or three sitting somewhere
that you can go grab it real quick and mix
it in with the soil. And again we're not don't
over mix now, we're talking using the same soil you
(05:52):
take out of the hole for your backfills, but maybe
a twenty or thirty percent of the organic matter, and
then when you're done, maybe sprinkle around a little bit
around the top as well. That's a great way to
do it, but always keep adding and adding and adding,
and over time, it's amazing how that soil will start
to improve and start to improve, and you see more
worms and more activity, and your plants are looking better
and they're looking nice and the whole nine yards. And
(06:13):
every time you water, they really react nicely because your
soil is soaking it in and holding it for a
while and grabbing that rainfall that comes through. So keep
that in mind. Please also again remember taking your calls
at eight hundred and eight two three eight two five five.
Don't forget our website Ron Wilson online dot com as well.
I do want to bring up one thing here bottom
(06:34):
of the hour, Gary Bachmann from our Southern Gardener, But
I want to bring this up for anybody in our
listening audience, especially locally here in south western Ohio, Cincinnati area,
Columbus area, Dayton, that little area right in there, or
anywhere in Ohio or any state that has boxwood. All right,
(06:57):
if you have boxwood, I want you to listen up.
Boxwood has had you know, it had other has had
its issues through the years. We got into a little
bit of boxwood leaf blight worse in some areas. We
aren't seeing it hardly at all here. As a matter
of fact, I haven't heard it reported in a long time.
So leaf blight has not been a major issue for us.
(07:17):
Although everything gets blamed on boxwood blight. It's a nice
generic term like tomato blight with's all different leaf diseases
and that it's just tomato blight. Well, the box would blite.
But we have seen some of that here and there
right and as seeing more I think in the Southern States,
and it's not pretty, you know. We've we've always dealt
with the boxwood scylid that causes that cupping of the
(07:40):
leaf the boxwood leaves at the very ends, not a
big deal, just looks kind of weird. We've dealt with
boxwood leaf minor, which was becoming a little bit more
of a problem because it was causing the tips of
boxwood to really brown out coming out of the winter
going into the spring season. Although you could shear all
that off and encourage new growth and you can control them,
(08:01):
but that was kind of an issue. Well, then we
had that real cut sudden cold snap three years ago,
and that set them up for all kinds of things,
including volutella, which we've always had uh stem diseases, things
like get cankers in that. Uh we're kind of gotten
through all that stuff now. I'm kind of getting back
into the groove again. But there's a new kid in
town and we've been talking about this bugget Joe and
(08:24):
I have been talking about this for a couple of
years now to try to get the word out there
just so you know what to look for. And I
think it's you know, it's we're not you know, we
just want to make sure folks know what it's out
there because this particular one, if you don't know what
you're looking for, the next thing, you know, your box
would are history. Well they some of them are recovering,
(08:47):
but they don't look too good for a long time. Right.
It's called a box tree moth, box tree moth, and
like I say, it's you know, it's nothing new. We've
been talking talking about it for a couple of years,
but we're seeing populations pop up more and more on
the east of the Mississippi. And you know, it's been
(09:09):
in been in Europe for a long time and that's
where it came from. They've been dealing with it in
Boxwood's a native plant in Europe, and they call it
box tree moth because boxwood there actually must of them
grow like trees if you leave them alone, but box
tree moth. And they've been battling it for a long time.
But here's this box tree moth now that came over
it we've found in Canada. It's been in Canada for
(09:30):
probably five six years, so they've been dealing with it
for quite some time. And you know, eventually it's going
to continue to move. You don't hope it doesn't, but
it does. And it's in the United States, and it
was in Michigan, and it's Michigan. New York has it
pretty much all through New York. It's amazing, Pennsylvania, a
(09:51):
little bit, Massachusetts, Delaware, and like I said, southwestern Ohio
has got in it as well. And now there's a
new report that is confirmed in West Virginia. It's called
again box tree moth. And if you want to learn
more about it, if you go and I have this
(10:15):
link and if you email me Ron Wilson at iHeartMedia
dot com. If you if you email me, I will
send you this link but tells you all about It's
a it's a three series info sheet that Buggy Joe
and the folks at OSU Extension put together to learn
about it, how to control it, et cetera, et cetera.
But the reason I'm bringing this up is that it's
moving unfortunately, you need to learn more about it. If
(10:40):
you have boxwood in our area where I think into
the second generation, can have multiple generations through the year.
And what happens is these caterpillars from this box tree moth.
It's it's it's a moth. Here's here's the basic boil
down a moth, all right, They breed, the female lays
eggs on the boxwood leaf, the eggs hatch out, the
(11:00):
caterpillars come out. They are voracious eaters, voracious heaters. Eight
they will yeah, I'm talking two three days. All of
sudden your box would start to turn brown. They pupate,
they go and turn in back into a moth they've made,
and they start all over again. And that process takes
several weeks. And that's why we say there are multiple
generations in our area. We thinking they could be three.
(11:23):
But anyway, if you don't notice them and you get them,
and then all of a sudden, three or four days
later you look at your box wood and they're turning brown.
That's what it was. And you know, if you had
noticed it earlier, we could have sprayed. They're easy to
get under control with a sprays, but if you don't,
they'll take them out quickly, very quickly. And we are
seeing some of them responding by cutting them back leafing
(11:46):
back out from down below and coming back out again.
But I just looked at some hedges the other day
in our area because it's really starting to roll here
that were, you know, all three to four feet high
and wide, been there for years, just had them. Sheared,
thought that that was what the problem was. Come to
find out it was a box moth. Box tree moth
really did a number on them. I want to bring
it up. No matter where you are east of the
(12:09):
Mississippi and you have boxwood, north south, Southern States, east coast,
I don't care. You need to keep your eyes open
for this thing because, like I said, it's on the move.
It's slowly but surely coming working its way down from
the north, and it can really do a number. Box
tree moth. And if you're in our area, the Cincinnati area,
(12:32):
Dayton area, even up, you know right now it's Dayton, Cincinnati,
that kind of southwest corner, but it's expanding. If you're
in those areas we're really getting I'm seeing so many
reports right now where these boxes are just getting hammered.
So keep that in mind. I've got a link for you. You
can go just google Box tree Moth. There's all kinds
of information out there for you, but I've got a
(12:54):
good link for you as well. Whatever it may be,
learn about it, watch your box with on a regular basis.
We'll talk more about it as we go along with
this sink and really do a number in a flash.
Whether it's new boxwood or boxwood you've had for thirty years,
doesn't matter, and it's a it can do a number.
Box tree Moth. Learn more about it quick break. We
(13:16):
come back back, Matt, You're coming up next. Phone eyes
are open for you at eight hundred eight two three,
eight two five five. Here in the garden with Ron Wilson.
Speaker 3 (13:24):
Help, so let's do it yourself gardener at one eight
hundred eight two three talk if you're in the garden
with Ron Wilson.
Speaker 4 (13:48):
Gerry Salvin here for rotor Ruter plumbing and water clean up.
They've been unclogging America's sewers and drained since nineteen thirty five.
But did you know they also are a full service
plumbing company, can handle any plumbing repairs. They're available twenty
four to seven. When you have a plumbing or water problem,
just called one eight hundred git Ruto and remember that
famous jingle.
Speaker 5 (14:10):
Well.
Speaker 1 (14:12):
Name and the way you go troubles down the drain.
Speaker 5 (14:16):
Hey Gary Salvin here. Odor Exits Eliminator has been receiving
rave reviews for years and there's a simple reason for that.
It works comments. I had guests coming over and just
before they arrived, my cat had an accident on the floor.
One application of Outer Exit Eliminator and the smell was gone.
No one even new. Thank you Eliminator. Don't be unprepared
(14:37):
for life smelly accidents. Be prepared with Oto Exits Eliminator.
Great prices ordering direct at otor exit dot com. That's
od O r xit dot com. Hey Gary Salvin here
for Zlar pumps. Zala's been keeping home safe and dry
since nineteen thirty nine, and their passion for excellence is
why it's the only name I trust to keep my
(14:57):
basement dry. For your home's ground water protection system, you
gotta check out the Zolar Model sixty three some pump
with the LED plug and the aquanot Fit five oh
eight battery backup system. Together, they're your guaranteed water protection
system when installed by a factory certified installer. To find
your installer today, go to zolarpumps dot com.
Speaker 4 (15:19):
Mosquitoes can transmit deadly diseases, including West noow virus, but
some mosquito dunks kill mosquitoes before they're old enough to bite.
Just float an organic mosquito dunk and ponds bird bass
rain barrels in any standing water to kill mosquito larvae
for thirty days or longer. Don't worry. Mosquito dunks won't
harm people, pets, fish, birds, or wildlife. Mosquito dunks are
(15:42):
available at garden centers, hardware stores, and online. Visit some
Responsible Solutions dot com.
Speaker 1 (16:42):
Welcome back here in the garden with Ron Wilson. Again
that toll free number eight hundred eight two three eight
two five five to Ohio we go. Matt, Good morning, sir.
Speaker 2 (16:52):
Good morning. I want to thank you for helping almost
black some people.
Speaker 3 (16:57):
My pleasure, ye I have.
Speaker 2 (17:03):
I call them lilac bushes. They were at my old
home place when I moved in in nineteen sixty nine,
and they looked okay. Last summer with the drought, they
looked rough. But I call them bushes because there's many
sprouts come off the roots like they do. And there
(17:27):
they leaved out this year, had a few blossoms and
now they're black. I mean there's no no live leaves anywhere.
Speaker 1 (17:38):
Yeah, and these have been in a long time. It
sounds like, well, yeah, yeah, six sixty nine, I.
Speaker 2 (17:45):
Mean well before that, Yeah, yeah, they may have been
there since the eighteen somethings, you know, when the house
was built.
Speaker 1 (17:50):
I don't know. Wow, here's the thing, and I'm assuming
it's probably just the old fashioned common lilac, real nice fragrance,
big purple flower, usually on the very end into the bre.
Speaker 2 (18:02):
Purple.
Speaker 1 (18:02):
Yeah, there you go, the O there's white. There are.
There were some white varieties as well. Over time, they
can decline over time. They can get a few things.
If they're get stressed out from drought or whatever it
may be. They could get lilac bore, which is pretty
common where something actually bores into the stem itself and
causes the stems to die. And typically you see individual
(18:25):
branches dying out. They also get lilac scale, which is
pretty common. And if you looked at the stems of
the lilac, you would see not a smooth bark that
you normally would get with the lilac, but you see
these little you know, like little scabs all over the branches.
Take a look for that and see if that's a possibility.
The obviously the board drilling into the stems causes vascular
(18:50):
issues and then eventually they just dry up and they die,
the stems do, and then the scale as a sucking insect,
so over time it just takes everything away from the plant.
Those branches weekend then they just start dying out one
by one. So I want you to take a look
for both of those to see if that's a possibility.
The other thing to do is if you're if you're
(19:10):
while you're out there, look at the old buds, the
budds that are on the stems right now, and they
should be formed for next year's leaves coming out. So
you'll see the buds there, see if they're still green.
Take your thumbnail and scratch the bark, see if it's
still green. If it is, you know there's still a
chance that you may be okay as far as you know,
(19:31):
you're going in there and you kind of cut it
back hard. Have you ever done that before with this lilacs. No,
they'll take a real good pruning. And sometimes lilacs need that.
You need to go in and just clean out the
old stuff, that big old stuff that may be two
inches in diameter, clean that out, totally, cut them back
hard and force them to come back up from the
(19:52):
root system and send more of that new stuff coming
up that sucker growth to fill back up again. And
you can do that over a couple of years period.
But I think right now the thing I'd be doing
is taking a look at the base, see if you
notice anything different. Take a look at the bottom of
the stems and see if you notice any boreoles. Take
a look at the stems themselves and look for scale
(20:13):
and try to do a little detective work. And the
other thing you can do, Matt is if you're still
not sure, take a picture of the lilac, Take a
picture of some of the stems. Take a picture where
it comes out of the ground. Email those to me.
It's Ron Wilson at iHeartMedia dot com, and let me
take a look at it, and I'll try to help
you out as much as I can, and maybe we
can revive those. At this point, I wouldn't give up
(20:34):
on them yet, but let's do a little detective work
and see what we can come up with. All right,
all right, we'll take a quick break to come back
Little Southern Gardening with Gary Bachman. Here in the garden
with Ron.
Speaker 3 (20:43):
Wilson, not gardening questions. Ron has the answers at one
eight hundred eighty two three talk You are in the
garden with Ron Wilson.
Speaker 6 (21:13):
Well, I've been recommending Blackjack driveway stealers for years, and
here's some great news. The Blackjack ten year Sealer drive
Max one thousand features accelerated drying time, incuring in cooler temperatures.
Drive Max one thousand adds curb appeal, delivering a light,
new black finish and as you're a thane, enhanced for
the longest life. Drive Max one thousand available at Low's
(21:33):
Home Depot, True Value ace in your local hardware store.
Visit Blackjack Coodings dot com for more information. Blackjack protecting
driveways for over one hundred years.
Speaker 5 (21:43):
Now's the time to ventilate your basement to prevent the
natural build up of pollutants, humidity and toxins that cause
stagnant musty odors. Stop the problem, win the battle with
your basement for good with an easy Breed ventilation system.
The easy Breed moves the bad air out. That's the
better air in. It's that simple poll installation only takes
two hours. The di y kits are available. Call eight
(22:05):
six six eight two two seventy three twenty eight or
visit easybreed dot com receive a free humidity monitoring kit.
That's easybreed dot com.
Speaker 1 (23:02):
Welcome back here in the garden with Ron Wilson again
that tot free number eight hundred eight two three eight
two five five talking about yardening, and it is hot
out there. I'll tell you what to keep up your
watering as best you can. Keep yourself cool, keep drinking
those fluids, keep yourself covered, use that the spray screen
and all that you know in the hats and the
whole nine yards. Have you ever had a cancer screening
(23:22):
before skin cancer screening. I went and did that for
the first time of my life this week, and I
can pass with flying colors. And you know, I was
all happy about that. She said, I don't know what
you've been doing, because I've been working out in the
sun all my life, really, and I'm bad about not
putting on sunscreen occasionally, and I do wear a hat
as much as I can, but I get the clear building.
(23:44):
But if you haven't done that before, it's something you
should go do. And like she said, if there's no issues,
you don't want to go, you know, I don't have
to go back for two or three or four years
and then have it checked again. But it's it's a
great thing to do, so you know, if you get
an opportunity, get that done, just to make sure you okay,
especially if you do spend a lot of time out
in the yard and garden. Unfortunately, we're trying to connect
(24:05):
with Gary. I haven't been able to connect them so
far to get our southern gardening going. But I'm sure
he'll connect what's that crickets in the South. I'm sure
he'll connect with us here shortly. But in the meantime,
I got I got lots to talk about, and the
phone lines are open for you at eight hundred eight
two three eight two five five. This past week, you know,
I'm you've heard me talk about the the Three Stingers,
(24:27):
And of course that's Nina Bagley who is a queen
bee breeder and lives in Germantown in Columbus. Barbie Bletcher,
who is our queen bee and keeps us totally informed
on all the b situations, what's going on out there,
et cetera, et cetera. And then Teresa Parker, she also
a bee keeper, huge gardener, and they all three are
(24:48):
little group. I call them the Three Stingers and their
their fun group. But anyway, this week getting emails from
them showing all of the honey they're harvesting right now,
and this is honey harvest time for the beekeepers, and
it looks like a pretty good harvest so far here
locally when it comes to honey. So point being is
(25:12):
this and then it's hard. This is hard work. They're
showing me pictures they're out. They try to get out
as early as they can in the morning before it
gets too hot in a day. But you're carrying all
of those you know that you have to take all
that out and scrape the honey off and then you
spin it and you put it in jars. It's a
lot of work, and they get stung As a matter
of fact, I'm gonna tell a little story on Nina.
(25:32):
She said in a picture, said somebody got mad at
me or one of the ladies, one of her beasts,
got it writ in a lip, and so she had
this nice little lump on the top of her lip.
It does happen. But my point being is this. Now
they're they're harvesting honey right now, So there's a lot
of new, good, fresh raw honey out there available for you.
Support your local beekeepers. Support your local beekeepers by buying
(25:56):
local honey. And these jars are going to be available
for you here very shortly. As a matter of fact,
I've seen some of them already out there, and we're
already putting some mortars in for locally. So support your
local beekeepers by buying local honey. That's how they help
to support their hives and what they're doing out there,
(26:17):
all right. And they don't make a lot of money
out of doing this, if any at all. It really
is to go back in to help support their beekeeping.
So you know, again, as you're out and about and
you're at festivals or produce, you know, markets or whatever
it may be, or if you know, local beekeepers that
sell their honey, make sure you support them, Okay, don't
take it. If you look on the shelves or where
(26:39):
you might buy honey at a favorite grocery store, chances
are it's not from local honey. It's from somewhere else
and usually not the United States. And a lot of
times it's not even honey. All right, It's labeled honey,
but it's not really honey. Get out there to your
local beekeepers. Support them real honey and the real beekeepers.
(27:01):
It's the real thing, and they need you to support them.
And this is really important because you know if they
lose a hive here and there that you know, there's
a lot of money has to go back into that
they need you to do that. So again, I've seen
some pictures. I've seen a lot of good harvests going
on right now. A couple of local beekeepers here that
I stay in touch with as well have indicated they've
(27:22):
taken quite a bit of honey. So this will be
good and this again helps to support them. So over
the next anytime you're buying honey, get it from hopefully
within your own state, when your own community. If you
can and support those local beekeepers very very important by
the way. You know, you talk about we talk about
planting for bees and the pollinators. You know, if you
(27:44):
talk about planting things that you don't have you know,
I was talking about having to water the rubekias that
I had planned earlier in this time of the year.
If you're looking for flowers that you don't have to
water very much, think about flowers that you see along
the expressway or big patches up of that typically are
not available for watering, and look at in those patches
(28:07):
and try to see what's growing there. And I'm going
to tell you, and think about it. You start looking
at those and those are typically heat loving flowering, mostly annuals.
There's the perennials in there, too, but mostly the annuals.
That you know, the more sun and the more heat,
the better they do. Think about it. Zenius man Zenias
(28:27):
are a pollinator magnet, and zenias love the sun and
they love the heat. And there are so many great
zenias out there that they and so many great colors.
It's crazy. But zenias are tough and durable, and again
the pollinators absolutely love them. Silosia, again, so many great
soilosia out there, and they are pollinator magnets. Bees love them.
(28:52):
They love the sun, take the heat, take the draft,
the whole nine yards once established. So keep Silosia in mind.
You talk about so far two groups of plants that
really give you lots of color. There's two cosmos. How
often have I ever said Cosmos on this show? Not
very often. But Cosmos a great annual, an old annual,
(29:15):
been around forever, and Cosmos comes in an assortment of colors,
very wispy and upright, move in the wind. And the
bees and the pollinators and the butterflies love Cosmos. And
you'll see Cosmos a lot in those plantings along the
expressway in between expressway where they're just doing these large
(29:38):
plantings trying to get some annuals in there during the
summer season. Cosmos is typically one of the main backbone
annual plants that are sewn in there because they're so
darn tough, so darn durable, and a great show and
a great dinner as well for the pollinators. So keep
Cosmos in mind. And yes you'll find Cosmos sold at
(29:59):
your local gardens centers. Probably not as many cosmos as
bogonias and impatients and things like that, but it should
be used a lot more and can be grown in
containers as well. But that's cosmos. So you've got Zelenus
or zenius silosia cosmos. And what other flower that really
stands out that everybody recognizes that's a huge bloomer, can
(30:25):
get a little bit of height to it, and the
pollinators love it, the birds love it, and we all
love it because we know what it is. And you
see them in huge fields and huge patches along the
expressway and once they're planted, they're planted and they're on
their own and they do a great job. I'm talking
about sunflowers, and it's still you know, there are some
(30:49):
sunflowers out there that you can still plant right now
and get a late crop of sunflowers out of those.
But sunflowers and research now showing that pollinators, especially the bees,
are benefiting from sunflowers more than they thought because there
are something in the pollen of sunflowers that helps the
bees medicinally help to fight off fight off some of
(31:10):
the viruses and things like that. So again keep those
in mind for drought resistant, heat resistant annuals that you
can sow by seed, get them up and growing and
they'll just hang in there for you all summer long.
Give you a great show, dinner in a show, great
for the pollinators against zennias, silosia, cosmos, I love cosmos,
(31:32):
and sunflowers. You can't beat all four of those for
heat loving blooms that go all summer long for you.
So keep that in mind. All right, quick break, we
come back. Phone lines are open for you at eight
hundred A two three eight two five five. Here in
the garden with Ron Wilson.
Speaker 3 (31:46):
Landscaping made easier with your personal yard boy. He's in
the garden and he's Ron Wilson.
Speaker 5 (32:09):
This summer clean smarter with Jaws the Just Add Water System,
Eco friendly, save for kids and pets. Jaws Street free
formulas deliver high performance cleaning for every surface, from glass
and granite to bathrooms and hardwood floors. Whatever summer throws
your way, Jaws is ready to clean it up. And
each Jaws refill saves eighty three percent of the plastic
(32:30):
compared to buying a new bottle. Just refill, reload, and reuse.
Jaws makes cleaning powerful, sustainable and smart. Jaws the Just
Add Water System Shop now at jawscleans dot com. Did
you know, multiple states building codes are requiring basement ventilation
in order to get permits for renovations. Why because basements
are a major source of air pollution. They need to
(32:52):
be properly ventilated for a healthy home. Easy Breathe Ventilation
provides solutions at work and are code compliant six six
eight two two seventy three, twenty eight. Or visit easybreed
dot com receive a free humidity monitoring kit while supplies last.
Easybreed dot Com Talking yarding at eight hundred eight two
(33:42):
three eight two five five.
Speaker 1 (33:44):
Good morning. I am Ron Wilson, your personal yard boy,
and we are talking yarding as we move our way
through a hot, hot, hot July. Hey, by the way,
if you're looking, uh, you know, you're sitting around, maybe
you're retired. You're saying I'd like to do something, maybe
a quick quick trip here or whatever. You like hydrangeas
you like the way hydranges look, especially you've been up
(34:06):
to the northeastern part of the United States and see
the hydranges. You go up there and see those macrofiles
and all the rest of them, and you come back
wanting hydrangees. Well, guess what you can turn it all
into a quick vacation. I just got this notice this week,
and uh, I wish I had known sooner. Starting tomorrow,
(34:27):
so you gotta hurry. You don't have to either get
a ticket or hopping a car start driving. But it's
a four day event. It's the cape Cod Hydrangua Festival.
Now does that sound like fun or what? See all
the cape Cod hydro interfestional events and open gardens information
by going to cape Cod hydrangjufest dot com and you
can download a booklet with day by day list of
(34:48):
open gardens, the events they've got going on, and then
no hold on yards. So you're in cape Cod all right.
You're enjoying their weather and you get to go around
and visit all kinds of gardens and see all kinds
of hydrangeas to make you jealous as heck, because they
do such a great job with their hydrange is in
the cape Cod area. But again, it starts tomorrow and
(35:09):
if you know you're just sitting around saying, wow, I
have nothing to do over the next four or five days,
I got it for you. Hit up the Cape Cod again.
If you want to learn more about their cape Cod
Hydrangja Festival, go to cape cod hydrangjafest dot com. And
by the way, speaking of hydrangeas, two things I want
to hit here real quick. If you have oak leaf hydrangea,
(35:32):
oakleaf hydranger one of my favorites because I love the
oak leaf. I love the xfoliating bark. I like the
way the thing grows. It's tough, it's durable, great winter characteristic.
I love the flowers. I love the fall color. Oak
leaf definitely a top of my list of all the hydrangeas.
But if you know, sometimes some of the varieties alice,
(35:54):
some of those older varieties can get pretty good size.
As a matter of fact, our next door neighbors I
planned one for her. I believe it's Alice. I'm pretty
sure that's what it was. Is now easily eight feet
tall in the center and probably eight to ten feet
in diameter. And it was cut back severely, not by me,
(36:15):
by a landscaper about two years ago. And it was
about six by six six by eight at the time
they cut it back in. It flowers like crazy. Those
flowers are beautiful white, they stick out. It's gorgeous, gorgeous hydranga.
But unfortunately they came in and unbekniced to hers. They
cut it back to about three feet off the ground.
(36:37):
Now you do that with Oakley phydrangas if you need
to rejuvenate them. And as a matter of fact, Steve
Foltz from the Cincinni Potanical Garden Zoo, I remember many
many years ago they were doing some experimenting at the
Spring Grove Cemetery and Arboretum and going through and looking
some of these plants, like Oakley phydrangas, the old fashioned
(36:59):
lilac plants that sucker out from the base and for
rejuvenation pruning literally cutting them back at or just above
ground level. And oakleyf. Hydranga responds really well to that
type of a cutback. I'm not telling you to do that,
but it can't. You can and does respond well. And
lilacs are the same way. For Scythia is that way.
(37:21):
There are many flowering plants out there that'll do that
and respond very nicely. But the problem is is that
remember when we talk about pruning hydrangas, is that if
you prune the hydrangea at the wrong time, depending on
what type it is, you may mess up the flowers
for the following season. All right, Like the macro filos
(37:45):
that we're talking about that you would see when you
go to the cape Cod Hydraja Festival. It starts tomorrow
up in Cape Cod. Those flower mostly on old wood,
so the wood that over winters you've got in the springtime,
you just kind of clean those up a little bit.
But the growth that comes off of that wood is
(38:06):
where your flowers come from. And if you cut them
back to the ground or cut them back hard or
they die back to the ground, which they do in
our area, you lose all those flowers. And that's why
they came out with the Endless Summer series as a
rebloomer et cetera, et cetera, and which still doesn't it
takes a long time for it. The flower later in
the season, but that's why you lose those. So if
(38:27):
you prune them at the wrong time, some hydrang just
flower on new growth, so you cut them back in
the fall or in the springtime, then they come right
back out again with that new growth and then you
got your flowers on those. So it depends on which
ones you grow as far as when you prune, well,
Oaklea Hydrangea is like the macrofile is not that they
tie back over the winter, not at all, but the
(38:48):
fact that those flower buds come off of the old wood.
So the growth that comes off the last year or
older wood would be the wood that would carry your
flowers for that season. So by cutting her six foot
by eight foot hydraae oakle ifhydrja back to three or
less feet from the ground, they lost all of the
(39:12):
old wood except for right at the bottom. Last year
she got a couple flowers right around the base on
the old wood, and that was it. And this thing
just shot out like an unbelievable new growth. And now
it's all of eight feet tall on the top, but
it's loaded with flowers because there was no pruning done
on it last year, all right, So it's got this
(39:33):
two years of growth, and it's amazing how it responded.
I don't think I've ever seen a plant respond like
that before. Nevertheless, lots of flowers, none last year for
the most part, So keep that in mind. But when
you have oakley five dranja, and if it can get
out of hand, there's no doubt. If you go in
right after those white flowers are finished with the white
and start to fade out into the beige or the
(39:56):
pink color, which hers are starting to do right now,
and you go back back in and cut back on
those branches a little bit and kind of cut it
back maybe a fourth, kind of clean it up, reduce
the size a little bit. You'll still you'll left a
lot of lash of older wood on there. You'll still
have some pretty good color for next year. So that's
(40:16):
the best way to prone these all right, is right
after that's done, because now that you'll you'll actually get
new growth from here on out that'll come out of
there and you're all set. You're going to sacrifice a
few of the fading flowers for the rest of the season.
But that's the best way to do it. If by
chance it gets way overgrown and you just really want
(40:37):
to cut it back hard and rejuvenate it, it can
be done. Like I just said, they cut it back
really hard. You could have cut it back even more
than that. It flushes back up, but sacrificing flowers for
at least one year, sometimes two, and then you get
back into the groove and it starts all over again.
So again that can be done. If you have the
oak leave and it's way out of hand and you
(40:58):
like to bring it back and down inside a little bit.
Right now is a good time to go in and
do some end pruning on those about a quarter of
the way back or so. Kind of tighten them up
a little bit and you'll still get a nice shot
of color of flowers next year. Doesn't mess it up.
And by the way, I do have that tip sheet
on pruning hydrangeas for timing and a few other tips
(41:18):
on there as well. Just email me It's Ron Wilson
at iHeartMedia dot com and I'll be more happy to
send that back to you to help you out a
little bit because it can be very confusing. The other
one would be we talked about the tree hydrangeas, where
they are look like a miniature tree, and basically they're
just the bush hydrangeas, either grafted on or trimmed up
(41:39):
so that they are a bush on top of a
tree trunk. That's what it boils down to. The problem
you get into this time of the year. If they
really come out with a lot of growth, and they
really come out with a lot of flowers on the ends,
and they will, those panico varieties can be very large
and very heavy. They can cause that thing to break
or fall over if it's not a more mature plant.
(42:02):
And typically the first four or five years after you
planted that tree Hydrangea, all right, are important to get
that thing rooted in well so it can support that head,
and getting the trunk diameter large enough to support the
head without breaking off. All right. So what you if
you're looking at it right now and you've got one
(42:23):
of those and it's not staked, you should stake it.
You'll wind up keeping those steaks. This is exception to
the rule. Probably I'm guessing three, four or five years,
and you're going to keep it staked to make sure
you've got it rooted in well and that trunk diameter
big enough, and then you can look to take the
steak off possibly at that point. But if you see
it it's just starting to sway a little bit and
(42:45):
it's not staked, i'd get it staked and then sacrifice
a few of the flowers. Cut some of those out
of there, leave some on, but take some off to
reduce the weight. And you say, well, I hate to
sacrifice all those flowers. Sacrifice a few flowers to reduce
the weight to save the plant. All right, you'll get
(43:06):
more flowers next year. Enjoy the ones that you leave
on there, but let's make sure the plant's good and
don't let it break off. So keep that in mind
as well. But if you like that tip sheet, Ron
wilsoniheartmedia dot com and I will send that the pruning
hydrangea tip sheet back to you next week. Quick break,
we come back. Phone lines are open at eight hundred
eight two three eight two five five. Joe, hang with us.
(43:27):
We'll come right to you after the break. Don't forget
our website, Ron Wilson Online dot com, our plants of
the week, Rita's Zucchini bread, and lots of postings from
Buggy Joe Boggs. It's all happening here in the garden
with Ron Wilson.
Speaker 3 (44:00):
How is your garden growing? Call Ron now at one
eight hundred eighty two three. Talk you're listening to In
the Garden with Ron Wilson.
Our toll free number eight hundred eight two three eight
two five five. Good morning. I am Ron Wilson, your
personal yard boy, talking about yard ding, working our way
through this month of July. Uh, it's hot. It's dry
in our area. It's hot. Did I say it was hot.
It's hot, There's no doubt about it.
Speaker 2 (00:54):
Hot.
Speaker 1 (00:54):
It is hot, Dan. I don't know if you noticed
it or not, but a little bit. It is a
little warm out there. And we've gotten showers here and there,
but very sporadic, not a lot in some areas. More
but it just is so dry now as you know.
Now you get those rainfall now it just kind of
runs off. It's hard to penetrate. So keep this in mind.
(01:15):
I always use these as this time like this as
an example of why we're always encouraging you to add
organic matter to the soil whenever you're gardening, no matter
what you're doing, when you're out there digging in the ground,
doing whatever, prepping a bed, planting some annuals, planting a
new tree core, aerating the lawn. Wherever you can add
(01:37):
or organic matter back to that soil helps your soil
become a better sponge for absorbing the showers that do
move through or absorbing the water that you do put
on it. Especially I look at the lawns when you
core air rate, and you know, we talk about this
(01:58):
all the time, and coming up this fall is going
to be a great time September October for core air rating.
If you core air rate your lawn, you pull those
little plugs out and you know, when you're done, it
looks like a herd of dogs went through and dumped
on your yard. But then they dry and you kind
of rake them out, and again it's really helpful because
it opens up your soil, puts little pores in there.
(02:18):
But if you can come back after you did that
and rake in very lightly a very fine compost of
some type and rake that back into those holes, and
so you're actually top dressing as well as trying to
get some of that down in those holes in your lawn.
And you do that two or three years in a row.
(02:39):
It's amazing how that alone helps your lawn out, especially
in times like now when we really start to get
hot and dry, because you know, not only does it
now open it up and lets you that soil absorb
what water does run across the top, but it also
encourages your lawn to root in deeper and better, so
(03:00):
you've got a better root system. You're gonna be mowing
it two and a half to three and a half inches,
so higher lawn so it shades down below. And then
you got the organic matter you've been opening up that
soil with you put those three things together, it really
does help in times where it's dry and water does
come through, whether Mother Nature's bringing it through or you're
(03:22):
adding it, and that really does suck it into the ground.
And the same goes for you your beds and you know,
your garden and the whole nine yards. So anytime you
can add organic matter back to the soil, when you
have an opportunity, do that. And that's why I always say,
you know, hopefully you've got a compost pile that you're
doing making your own compost Gardener's gold. But if you're
(03:42):
not doing your own composting, okay, that's fine, you should be.
It's not that hard. But if you're not doing that,
always have on hand, maybe in the garage or in
the garden, shad or whatever, have on hand some bags
of organic matter. The cow. I love that stuff. It's
composted Kalmanur with some other compost, maybe a little peed
(04:05):
in there as well. It's great stuff. Don't count on
it so much for the nutritional value. Count on it
for the organic manner that you're adding back to the soil.
But the cow's great pine finds fi nes pine fines
or pine soil conditioner. Those pine fines are a wonderful
(04:25):
soil amendment. Again, adding organic matter back to your soil.
And these small pine chips and they're really really small,
smells great, looks good. You can use this as a top
dressing if you'd like. But that's a great way. So
every time you dig out, you add some of that
to the soil, twenty thirty percent, mix it all together,
put it back for your backfill, you know, and use
that and use that as a top dressing as well.
(04:46):
You can even put that on the top. I have
taken the cow and pine findes, mix them together and
use that as a top dressing for beds. And I'm
trying to get them a little bit better than what
they are right now, and use that as a top dressing.
And then and every time I dig in there, I
add a little more organic matter. You hear me say
at the end of the show talking about pampering your worms.
Make sure you pamper your worms. That's one of the
(05:09):
ways that you pamper your worms, all right. And if
your worms are happy and you've got a good worm
count in your soils, you know you're doing a good thing.
And if you've got a good worm count in your
soils and the worms are happy, guess who else is
going to be happy? All the plants that are growing there.
So that's why I say it's important to pamper your worms.
(05:30):
Because everything you can do to make your worms happy
and make your worm populations increase in your soil, the
better off your plants are going to be as well.
So continue to add organic matter anytime you're planting, and
always have a bag or two or three sitting somewhere
that you can go grab it real quick and mix
it in with the soil. And again we're not don't
over mix now, we're talking using the same soil you
(05:52):
take out of the hole for your backfills, but maybe
a twenty or thirty percent of the organic matter, and
then when you're done, maybe sprinkle around a little bit
around the top as well. That's a great way to
do it, but always keep adding and adding and adding,
and over time, it's amazing how that soil will start
to improve and start to improve, and you see more
worms and more activity, and your plants are looking better
and they're looking nice and the whole nine yards. And
(06:13):
every time you water, they really react nicely because your
soil is soaking it in and holding it for a
while and grabbing that rainfall that comes through. So keep
that in mind. Please also again remember taking your calls
at eight hundred and eight two three eight two five five.
Don't forget our website Ron Wilson online dot com as well.
I do want to bring up one thing here bottom
(06:34):
of the hour, Gary Bachmann from our Southern Gardener, But
I want to bring this up for anybody in our
listening audience, especially locally here in south western Ohio, Cincinnati area,
Columbus area, Dayton, that little area right in there, or
anywhere in Ohio or any state that has boxwood. All right,
(06:57):
if you have boxwood, I want you to listen up.
Boxwood has had you know, it had other has had
its issues through the years. We got into a little
bit of boxwood leaf blight worse in some areas. We
aren't seeing it hardly at all here. As a matter
of fact, I haven't heard it reported in a long time.
So leaf blight has not been a major issue for us.
(07:17):
Although everything gets blamed on boxwood blight. It's a nice
generic term like tomato blight with's all different leaf diseases
and that it's just tomato blight. Well, the box would blite.
But we have seen some of that here and there
right and as seeing more I think in the Southern States,
and it's not pretty, you know. We've we've always dealt
with the boxwood scylid that causes that cupping of the
(07:40):
leaf the boxwood leaves at the very ends, not a
big deal, just looks kind of weird. We've dealt with
boxwood leaf minor, which was becoming a little bit more
of a problem because it was causing the tips of
boxwood to really brown out coming out of the winter
going into the spring season. Although you could shear all
that off and encourage new growth and you can control them,
(08:01):
but that was kind of an issue. Well, then we
had that real cut sudden cold snap three years ago,
and that set them up for all kinds of things,
including volutella, which we've always had uh stem diseases, things
like get cankers in that. Uh we're kind of gotten
through all that stuff now. I'm kind of getting back
into the groove again. But there's a new kid in
town and we've been talking about this bugget Joe and
(08:24):
I have been talking about this for a couple of
years now to try to get the word out there
just so you know what to look for. And I
think it's you know, it's we're not you know, we
just want to make sure folks know what it's out
there because this particular one, if you don't know what
you're looking for, the next thing, you know, your box
would are history. Well they some of them are recovering,
(08:47):
but they don't look too good for a long time. Right.
It's called a box tree moth, box tree moth, and
like I say, it's you know, it's nothing new. We've
been talking talking about it for a couple of years,
but we're seeing populations pop up more and more on
the east of the Mississippi. And you know, it's been
(09:09):
in been in Europe for a long time and that's
where it came from. They've been dealing with it in
Boxwood's a native plant in Europe, and they call it
box tree moth because boxwood there actually must of them
grow like trees if you leave them alone, but box
tree moth. And they've been battling it for a long time.
But here's this box tree moth now that came over
it we've found in Canada. It's been in Canada for
(09:30):
probably five six years, so they've been dealing with it
for quite some time. And you know, eventually it's going
to continue to move. You don't hope it doesn't, but
it does. And it's in the United States, and it
was in Michigan, and it's Michigan. New York has it
pretty much all through New York. It's amazing, Pennsylvania, a
(09:51):
little bit, Massachusetts, Delaware, and like I said, southwestern Ohio
has got in it as well. And now there's a
new report that is confirmed in West Virginia. It's called
again box tree moth. And if you want to learn
more about it, if you go and I have this
(10:15):
link and if you email me Ron Wilson at iHeartMedia
dot com. If you if you email me, I will
send you this link but tells you all about It's
a it's a three series info sheet that Buggy Joe
and the folks at OSU Extension put together to learn
about it, how to control it, et cetera, et cetera.
But the reason I'm bringing this up is that it's
moving unfortunately, you need to learn more about it. If
(10:40):
you have boxwood in our area where I think into
the second generation, can have multiple generations through the year.
And what happens is these caterpillars from this box tree moth.
It's it's it's a moth. Here's here's the basic boil
down a moth, all right, They breed, the female lays
eggs on the boxwood leaf, the eggs hatch out, the
(11:00):
caterpillars come out. They are voracious eaters, voracious heaters. Eight
they will yeah, I'm talking two three days. All of
sudden your box would start to turn brown. They pupate,
they go and turn in back into a moth they've made,
and they start all over again. And that process takes
several weeks. And that's why we say there are multiple
generations in our area. We thinking they could be three.
(11:23):
But anyway, if you don't notice them and you get them,
and then all of a sudden, three or four days
later you look at your box wood and they're turning brown.
That's what it was. And you know, if you had
noticed it earlier, we could have sprayed. They're easy to
get under control with a sprays, but if you don't,
they'll take them out quickly, very quickly. And we are
seeing some of them responding by cutting them back leafing
(11:46):
back out from down below and coming back out again.
But I just looked at some hedges the other day
in our area because it's really starting to roll here
that were, you know, all three to four feet high
and wide, been there for years, just had them. Sheared,
thought that that was what the problem was. Come to
find out it was a box moth. Box tree moth
really did a number on them. I want to bring
it up. No matter where you are east of the
(12:09):
Mississippi and you have boxwood, north south, Southern States, east coast,
I don't care. You need to keep your eyes open
for this thing because, like I said, it's on the move.
It's slowly but surely coming working its way down from
the north, and it can really do a number. Box
tree moth. And if you're in our area, the Cincinnati area,
(12:32):
Dayton area, even up, you know right now it's Dayton, Cincinnati,
that kind of southwest corner, but it's expanding. If you're
in those areas we're really getting I'm seeing so many
reports right now where these boxes are just getting hammered.
So keep that in mind. I've got a link for you. You
can go just google Box tree Moth. There's all kinds
of information out there for you, but I've got a
(12:54):
good link for you as well. Whatever it may be,
learn about it, watch your box with on a regular basis.
We'll talk more about it as we go along with
this sink and really do a number in a flash.
Whether it's new boxwood or boxwood you've had for thirty years,
doesn't matter, and it's a it can do a number.
Box tree Moth. Learn more about it quick break. We
(13:16):
come back back, Matt, You're coming up next. Phone eyes
are open for you at eight hundred eight two three,
eight two five five. Here in the garden with Ron Wilson.
Speaker 3 (13:24):
Help, so let's do it yourself gardener at one eight
hundred eight two three talk if you're in the garden
with Ron Wilson.
Speaker 4 (13:48):
Gerry Salvin here for rotor Ruter plumbing and water clean up.
They've been unclogging America's sewers and drained since nineteen thirty five.
But did you know they also are a full service
plumbing company, can handle any plumbing repairs. They're available twenty
four to seven. When you have a plumbing or water problem,
just called one eight hundred git Ruto and remember that
famous jingle.
Speaker 5 (14:10):
Well.
Speaker 1 (14:12):
Name and the way you go troubles down the drain.
Speaker 5 (14:16):
Hey Gary Salvin here. Odor Exits Eliminator has been receiving
rave reviews for years and there's a simple reason for that.
It works comments. I had guests coming over and just
before they arrived, my cat had an accident on the floor.
One application of Outer Exit Eliminator and the smell was gone.
No one even new. Thank you Eliminator. Don't be unprepared
(14:37):
for life smelly accidents. Be prepared with Oto Exits Eliminator.
Great prices ordering direct at otor exit dot com. That's
od O r xit dot com. Hey Gary Salvin here
for Zlar pumps. Zala's been keeping home safe and dry
since nineteen thirty nine, and their passion for excellence is
why it's the only name I trust to keep my
(14:57):
basement dry. For your home's ground water protection system, you
gotta check out the Zolar Model sixty three some pump
with the LED plug and the aquanot Fit five oh
eight battery backup system. Together, they're your guaranteed water protection
system when installed by a factory certified installer. To find
your installer today, go to zolarpumps dot com.
Speaker 4 (15:19):
Mosquitoes can transmit deadly diseases, including West noow virus, but
some mosquito dunks kill mosquitoes before they're old enough to bite.
Just float an organic mosquito dunk and ponds bird bass
rain barrels in any standing water to kill mosquito larvae
for thirty days or longer. Don't worry. Mosquito dunks won't
harm people, pets, fish, birds, or wildlife. Mosquito dunks are
(15:42):
available at garden centers, hardware stores, and online. Visit some
Responsible Solutions dot com.
Speaker 1 (16:42):
Welcome back here in the garden with Ron Wilson. Again
that toll free number eight hundred eight two three eight
two five five to Ohio we go. Matt, Good morning, sir.
Speaker 2 (16:52):
Good morning. I want to thank you for helping almost
black some people.
Speaker 3 (16:57):
My pleasure, ye I have.
Speaker 2 (17:03):
I call them lilac bushes. They were at my old
home place when I moved in in nineteen sixty nine,
and they looked okay. Last summer with the drought, they
looked rough. But I call them bushes because there's many
sprouts come off the roots like they do. And there
(17:27):
they leaved out this year, had a few blossoms and
now they're black. I mean there's no no live leaves anywhere.
Speaker 1 (17:38):
Yeah, and these have been in a long time. It
sounds like, well, yeah, yeah, six sixty nine, I.
Speaker 2 (17:45):
Mean well before that, Yeah, yeah, they may have been
there since the eighteen somethings, you know, when the house
was built.
Speaker 1 (17:50):
I don't know. Wow, here's the thing, and I'm assuming
it's probably just the old fashioned common lilac, real nice fragrance,
big purple flower, usually on the very end into the bre.
Speaker 2 (18:02):
Purple.
Speaker 1 (18:02):
Yeah, there you go, the O there's white. There are.
There were some white varieties as well. Over time, they
can decline over time. They can get a few things.
If they're get stressed out from drought or whatever it
may be. They could get lilac bore, which is pretty
common where something actually bores into the stem itself and
causes the stems to die. And typically you see individual
(18:25):
branches dying out. They also get lilac scale, which is
pretty common. And if you looked at the stems of
the lilac, you would see not a smooth bark that
you normally would get with the lilac, but you see
these little you know, like little scabs all over the branches.
Take a look for that and see if that's a possibility.
The obviously the board drilling into the stems causes vascular
(18:50):
issues and then eventually they just dry up and they die,
the stems do, and then the scale as a sucking insect,
so over time it just takes everything away from the plant.
Those branches weekend then they just start dying out one
by one. So I want you to take a look
for both of those to see if that's a possibility.
The other thing to do is if you're if you're
(19:10):
while you're out there, look at the old buds, the
budds that are on the stems right now, and they
should be formed for next year's leaves coming out. So
you'll see the buds there, see if they're still green.
Take your thumbnail and scratch the bark, see if it's
still green. If it is, you know there's still a
chance that you may be okay as far as you know,
(19:31):
you're going in there and you kind of cut it
back hard. Have you ever done that before with this lilacs. No,
they'll take a real good pruning. And sometimes lilacs need that.
You need to go in and just clean out the
old stuff, that big old stuff that may be two
inches in diameter, clean that out, totally, cut them back
hard and force them to come back up from the
(19:52):
root system and send more of that new stuff coming
up that sucker growth to fill back up again. And
you can do that over a couple of years period.
But I think right now the thing I'd be doing
is taking a look at the base, see if you
notice anything different. Take a look at the bottom of
the stems and see if you notice any boreoles. Take
a look at the stems themselves and look for scale
(20:13):
and try to do a little detective work. And the
other thing you can do, Matt is if you're still
not sure, take a picture of the lilac, Take a
picture of some of the stems. Take a picture where
it comes out of the ground. Email those to me.
It's Ron Wilson at iHeartMedia dot com, and let me
take a look at it, and I'll try to help
you out as much as I can, and maybe we
can revive those. At this point, I wouldn't give up
(20:34):
on them yet, but let's do a little detective work
and see what we can come up with. All right,
all right, we'll take a quick break to come back
Little Southern Gardening with Gary Bachman. Here in the garden
with Ron.
Speaker 3 (20:43):
Wilson, not gardening questions. Ron has the answers at one
eight hundred eighty two three talk You are in the
garden with Ron Wilson.
Speaker 6 (21:13):
Well, I've been recommending Blackjack driveway stealers for years, and
here's some great news. The Blackjack ten year Sealer drive
Max one thousand features accelerated drying time, incuring in cooler temperatures.
Drive Max one thousand adds curb appeal, delivering a light,
new black finish and as you're a thane, enhanced for
the longest life. Drive Max one thousand available at Low's
(21:33):
Home Depot, True Value ace in your local hardware store.
Visit Blackjack Coodings dot com for more information. Blackjack protecting
driveways for over one hundred years.
Speaker 5 (21:43):
Now's the time to ventilate your basement to prevent the
natural build up of pollutants, humidity and toxins that cause
stagnant musty odors. Stop the problem, win the battle with
your basement for good with an easy Breed ventilation system.
The easy Breed moves the bad air out. That's the
better air in. It's that simple poll installation only takes
two hours. The di y kits are available. Call eight
(22:05):
six six eight two two seventy three twenty eight or
visit easybreed dot com receive a free humidity monitoring kit.
That's easybreed dot com.
Speaker 1 (23:02):
Welcome back here in the garden with Ron Wilson again
that tot free number eight hundred eight two three eight
two five five talking about yardening, and it is hot
out there. I'll tell you what to keep up your
watering as best you can. Keep yourself cool, keep drinking
those fluids, keep yourself covered, use that the spray screen
and all that you know in the hats and the
whole nine yards. Have you ever had a cancer screening
(23:22):
before skin cancer screening. I went and did that for
the first time of my life this week, and I
can pass with flying colors. And you know, I was
all happy about that. She said, I don't know what
you've been doing, because I've been working out in the
sun all my life, really, and I'm bad about not
putting on sunscreen occasionally, and I do wear a hat
as much as I can, but I get the clear building.
(23:44):
But if you haven't done that before, it's something you
should go do. And like she said, if there's no issues,
you don't want to go, you know, I don't have
to go back for two or three or four years
and then have it checked again. But it's it's a
great thing to do, so you know, if you get
an opportunity, get that done, just to make sure you okay,
especially if you do spend a lot of time out
in the yard and garden. Unfortunately, we're trying to connect
(24:05):
with Gary. I haven't been able to connect them so
far to get our southern gardening going. But I'm sure
he'll connect what's that crickets in the South. I'm sure
he'll connect with us here shortly. But in the meantime,
I got I got lots to talk about, and the
phone lines are open for you at eight hundred eight
two three eight two five five. This past week, you know,
I'm you've heard me talk about the the Three Stingers,
(24:27):
And of course that's Nina Bagley who is a queen
bee breeder and lives in Germantown in Columbus. Barbie Bletcher,
who is our queen bee and keeps us totally informed
on all the b situations, what's going on out there,
et cetera, et cetera. And then Teresa Parker, she also
a bee keeper, huge gardener, and they all three are
(24:48):
little group. I call them the Three Stingers and their
their fun group. But anyway, this week getting emails from
them showing all of the honey they're harvesting right now,
and this is honey harvest time for the beekeepers, and
it looks like a pretty good harvest so far here
locally when it comes to honey. So point being is
(25:12):
this and then it's hard. This is hard work. They're
showing me pictures they're out. They try to get out
as early as they can in the morning before it
gets too hot in a day. But you're carrying all
of those you know that you have to take all
that out and scrape the honey off and then you
spin it and you put it in jars. It's a
lot of work, and they get stung As a matter
of fact, I'm gonna tell a little story on Nina.
(25:32):
She said in a picture, said somebody got mad at
me or one of the ladies, one of her beasts,
got it writ in a lip, and so she had
this nice little lump on the top of her lip.
It does happen. But my point being is this. Now
they're they're harvesting honey right now, So there's a lot
of new, good, fresh raw honey out there available for you.
Support your local beekeepers. Support your local beekeepers by buying
(25:56):
local honey. And these jars are going to be available
for you here very shortly. As a matter of fact,
I've seen some of them already out there, and we're
already putting some mortars in for locally. So support your
local beekeepers by buying local honey. That's how they help
to support their hives and what they're doing out there,
(26:17):
all right. And they don't make a lot of money
out of doing this, if any at all. It really
is to go back in to help support their beekeeping.
So you know, again, as you're out and about and
you're at festivals or produce, you know, markets or whatever
it may be, or if you know, local beekeepers that
sell their honey, make sure you support them, Okay, don't
take it. If you look on the shelves or where
(26:39):
you might buy honey at a favorite grocery store, chances
are it's not from local honey. It's from somewhere else
and usually not the United States. And a lot of
times it's not even honey. All right, It's labeled honey,
but it's not really honey. Get out there to your
local beekeepers. Support them real honey and the real beekeepers.
(27:01):
It's the real thing, and they need you to support them.
And this is really important because you know if they
lose a hive here and there that you know, there's
a lot of money has to go back into that
they need you to do that. So again, I've seen
some pictures. I've seen a lot of good harvests going
on right now. A couple of local beekeepers here that
I stay in touch with as well have indicated they've
(27:22):
taken quite a bit of honey. So this will be
good and this again helps to support them. So over
the next anytime you're buying honey, get it from hopefully
within your own state, when your own community. If you
can and support those local beekeepers very very important by
the way. You know, you talk about we talk about
planting for bees and the pollinators. You know, if you
(27:44):
talk about planting things that you don't have you know,
I was talking about having to water the rubekias that
I had planned earlier in this time of the year.
If you're looking for flowers that you don't have to
water very much, think about flowers that you see along
the expressway or big patches up of that typically are
not available for watering, and look at in those patches
(28:07):
and try to see what's growing there. And I'm going
to tell you, and think about it. You start looking
at those and those are typically heat loving flowering, mostly annuals.
There's the perennials in there, too, but mostly the annuals.
That you know, the more sun and the more heat,
the better they do. Think about it. Zenius man Zenias
(28:27):
are a pollinator magnet, and zenias love the sun and
they love the heat. And there are so many great
zenias out there that they and so many great colors.
It's crazy. But zenias are tough and durable, and again
the pollinators absolutely love them. Silosia, again, so many great
soilosia out there, and they are pollinator magnets. Bees love them.
(28:52):
They love the sun, take the heat, take the draft,
the whole nine yards once established. So keep Silosia in mind.
You talk about so far two groups of plants that
really give you lots of color. There's two cosmos. How
often have I ever said Cosmos on this show? Not
very often. But Cosmos a great annual, an old annual,
(29:15):
been around forever, and Cosmos comes in an assortment of colors,
very wispy and upright, move in the wind. And the
bees and the pollinators and the butterflies love Cosmos. And
you'll see Cosmos a lot in those plantings along the
expressway in between expressway where they're just doing these large
(29:38):
plantings trying to get some annuals in there during the
summer season. Cosmos is typically one of the main backbone
annual plants that are sewn in there because they're so
darn tough, so darn durable, and a great show and
a great dinner as well for the pollinators. So keep
Cosmos in mind. And yes you'll find Cosmos sold at
(29:59):
your local gardens centers. Probably not as many cosmos as
bogonias and impatients and things like that, but it should
be used a lot more and can be grown in
containers as well. But that's cosmos. So you've got Zelenus
or zenius silosia cosmos. And what other flower that really
stands out that everybody recognizes that's a huge bloomer, can
(30:25):
get a little bit of height to it, and the
pollinators love it, the birds love it, and we all
love it because we know what it is. And you
see them in huge fields and huge patches along the
expressway and once they're planted, they're planted and they're on
their own and they do a great job. I'm talking
about sunflowers, and it's still you know, there are some
(30:49):
sunflowers out there that you can still plant right now
and get a late crop of sunflowers out of those.
But sunflowers and research now showing that pollinators, especially the bees,
are benefiting from sunflowers more than they thought because there
are something in the pollen of sunflowers that helps the
bees medicinally help to fight off fight off some of
(31:10):
the viruses and things like that. So again keep those
in mind for drought resistant, heat resistant annuals that you
can sow by seed, get them up and growing and
they'll just hang in there for you all summer long.
Give you a great show, dinner in a show, great
for the pollinators against zennias, silosia, cosmos, I love cosmos,
(31:32):
and sunflowers. You can't beat all four of those for
heat loving blooms that go all summer long for you.
So keep that in mind. All right, quick break, we
come back. Phone lines are open for you at eight
hundred A two three eight two five five. Here in
the garden with Ron Wilson.
Speaker 3 (31:46):
Landscaping made easier with your personal yard boy. He's in
the garden and he's Ron Wilson.
Speaker 5 (32:09):
This summer clean smarter with Jaws the Just Add Water System,
Eco friendly, save for kids and pets. Jaws Street free
formulas deliver high performance cleaning for every surface, from glass
and granite to bathrooms and hardwood floors. Whatever summer throws
your way, Jaws is ready to clean it up. And
each Jaws refill saves eighty three percent of the plastic
(32:30):
compared to buying a new bottle. Just refill, reload, and reuse.
Jaws makes cleaning powerful, sustainable and smart. Jaws the Just
Add Water System Shop now at jawscleans dot com. Did
you know, multiple states building codes are requiring basement ventilation
in order to get permits for renovations. Why because basements
are a major source of air pollution. They need to
(32:52):
be properly ventilated for a healthy home. Easy Breathe Ventilation
provides solutions at work and are code compliant six six
eight two two seventy three, twenty eight. Or visit easybreed
dot com receive a free humidity monitoring kit while supplies last.
Easybreed dot Com Talking yarding at eight hundred eight two
(33:42):
three eight two five five.
Speaker 1 (33:44):
Good morning. I am Ron Wilson, your personal yard boy,
and we are talking yarding as we move our way
through a hot, hot, hot July. Hey, by the way,
if you're looking, uh, you know, you're sitting around, maybe
you're retired. You're saying I'd like to do something, maybe
a quick quick trip here or whatever. You like hydrangeas
you like the way hydranges look, especially you've been up
(34:06):
to the northeastern part of the United States and see
the hydranges. You go up there and see those macrofiles
and all the rest of them, and you come back
wanting hydrangees. Well, guess what you can turn it all
into a quick vacation. I just got this notice this week,
and uh, I wish I had known sooner. Starting tomorrow,
(34:27):
so you gotta hurry. You don't have to either get
a ticket or hopping a car start driving. But it's
a four day event. It's the cape Cod Hydrangua Festival.
Now does that sound like fun or what? See all
the cape Cod hydro interfestional events and open gardens information
by going to cape Cod hydrangjufest dot com and you
can download a booklet with day by day list of
(34:48):
open gardens, the events they've got going on, and then
no hold on yards. So you're in cape Cod all right.
You're enjoying their weather and you get to go around
and visit all kinds of gardens and see all kinds
of hydrangeas to make you jealous as heck, because they
do such a great job with their hydrange is in
the cape Cod area. But again, it starts tomorrow and
(35:09):
if you know you're just sitting around saying, wow, I
have nothing to do over the next four or five days,
I got it for you. Hit up the Cape Cod again.
If you want to learn more about their cape Cod
Hydrangja Festival, go to cape cod hydrangjafest dot com. And
by the way, speaking of hydrangeas, two things I want
to hit here real quick. If you have oak leaf hydrangea,
(35:32):
oakleaf hydranger one of my favorites because I love the
oak leaf. I love the xfoliating bark. I like the
way the thing grows. It's tough, it's durable, great winter characteristic.
I love the flowers. I love the fall color. Oak
leaf definitely a top of my list of all the hydrangeas.
But if you know, sometimes some of the varieties alice,
(35:54):
some of those older varieties can get pretty good size.
As a matter of fact, our next door neighbors I
planned one for her. I believe it's Alice. I'm pretty
sure that's what it was. Is now easily eight feet
tall in the center and probably eight to ten feet
in diameter. And it was cut back severely, not by me,
(36:15):
by a landscaper about two years ago. And it was
about six by six six by eight at the time
they cut it back in. It flowers like crazy. Those
flowers are beautiful white, they stick out. It's gorgeous, gorgeous hydranga.
But unfortunately they came in and unbekniced to hers. They
cut it back to about three feet off the ground.
(36:37):
Now you do that with Oakley phydrangas if you need
to rejuvenate them. And as a matter of fact, Steve
Foltz from the Cincinni Potanical Garden Zoo, I remember many
many years ago they were doing some experimenting at the
Spring Grove Cemetery and Arboretum and going through and looking
some of these plants, like Oakley phydrangas, the old fashioned
(36:59):
lilac plants that sucker out from the base and for
rejuvenation pruning literally cutting them back at or just above
ground level. And oakleyf. Hydranga responds really well to that
type of a cutback. I'm not telling you to do that,
but it can't. You can and does respond well. And
lilacs are the same way. For Scythia is that way.
(37:21):
There are many flowering plants out there that'll do that
and respond very nicely. But the problem is is that
remember when we talk about pruning hydrangas, is that if
you prune the hydrangea at the wrong time, depending on
what type it is, you may mess up the flowers
for the following season. All right, Like the macro filos
(37:45):
that we're talking about that you would see when you
go to the cape Cod Hydraja Festival. It starts tomorrow
up in Cape Cod. Those flower mostly on old wood,
so the wood that over winters you've got in the springtime,
you just kind of clean those up a little bit.
But the growth that comes off of that wood is
(38:06):
where your flowers come from. And if you cut them
back to the ground or cut them back hard or
they die back to the ground, which they do in
our area, you lose all those flowers. And that's why
they came out with the Endless Summer series as a
rebloomer et cetera, et cetera, and which still doesn't it
takes a long time for it. The flower later in
the season, but that's why you lose those. So if
(38:27):
you prune them at the wrong time, some hydrang just
flower on new growth, so you cut them back in
the fall or in the springtime, then they come right
back out again with that new growth and then you
got your flowers on those. So it depends on which
ones you grow as far as when you prune, well,
Oaklea Hydrangea is like the macrofile is not that they
tie back over the winter, not at all, but the
(38:48):
fact that those flower buds come off of the old wood.
So the growth that comes off the last year or
older wood would be the wood that would carry your
flowers for that season. So by cutting her six foot
by eight foot hydraae oakle ifhydrja back to three or
less feet from the ground, they lost all of the
(39:12):
old wood except for right at the bottom. Last year
she got a couple flowers right around the base on
the old wood, and that was it. And this thing
just shot out like an unbelievable new growth. And now
it's all of eight feet tall on the top, but
it's loaded with flowers because there was no pruning done
on it last year, all right, So it's got this
(39:33):
two years of growth, and it's amazing how it responded.
I don't think I've ever seen a plant respond like
that before. Nevertheless, lots of flowers, none last year for
the most part, So keep that in mind. But when
you have oakley five dranja, and if it can get
out of hand, there's no doubt. If you go in
right after those white flowers are finished with the white
and start to fade out into the beige or the
(39:56):
pink color, which hers are starting to do right now,
and you go back back in and cut back on
those branches a little bit and kind of cut it
back maybe a fourth, kind of clean it up, reduce
the size a little bit. You'll still you'll left a
lot of lash of older wood on there. You'll still
have some pretty good color for next year. So that's
(40:16):
the best way to prone these all right, is right
after that's done, because now that you'll you'll actually get
new growth from here on out that'll come out of
there and you're all set. You're going to sacrifice a
few of the fading flowers for the rest of the season.
But that's the best way to do it. If by
chance it gets way overgrown and you just really want
(40:37):
to cut it back hard and rejuvenate it, it can
be done. Like I just said, they cut it back
really hard. You could have cut it back even more
than that. It flushes back up, but sacrificing flowers for
at least one year, sometimes two, and then you get
back into the groove and it starts all over again.
So again that can be done. If you have the
oak leave and it's way out of hand and you
(40:58):
like to bring it back and down inside a little bit.
Right now is a good time to go in and
do some end pruning on those about a quarter of
the way back or so. Kind of tighten them up
a little bit and you'll still get a nice shot
of color of flowers next year. Doesn't mess it up.
And by the way, I do have that tip sheet
on pruning hydrangeas for timing and a few other tips
(41:18):
on there as well. Just email me It's Ron Wilson
at iHeartMedia dot com and I'll be more happy to
send that back to you to help you out a
little bit because it can be very confusing. The other
one would be we talked about the tree hydrangeas, where
they are look like a miniature tree, and basically they're
just the bush hydrangeas, either grafted on or trimmed up
(41:39):
so that they are a bush on top of a
tree trunk. That's what it boils down to. The problem
you get into this time of the year. If they
really come out with a lot of growth, and they
really come out with a lot of flowers on the ends,
and they will, those panico varieties can be very large
and very heavy. They can cause that thing to break
or fall over if it's not a more mature plant.
(42:02):
And typically the first four or five years after you
planted that tree Hydrangea, all right, are important to get
that thing rooted in well so it can support that head,
and getting the trunk diameter large enough to support the
head without breaking off. All right. So what you if
you're looking at it right now and you've got one
(42:23):
of those and it's not staked, you should stake it.
You'll wind up keeping those steaks. This is exception to
the rule. Probably I'm guessing three, four or five years,
and you're going to keep it staked to make sure
you've got it rooted in well and that trunk diameter
big enough, and then you can look to take the
steak off possibly at that point. But if you see
it it's just starting to sway a little bit and
(42:45):
it's not staked, i'd get it staked and then sacrifice
a few of the flowers. Cut some of those out
of there, leave some on, but take some off to
reduce the weight. And you say, well, I hate to
sacrifice all those flowers. Sacrifice a few flowers to reduce
the weight to save the plant. All right, you'll get
(43:06):
more flowers next year. Enjoy the ones that you leave
on there, but let's make sure the plant's good and
don't let it break off. So keep that in mind
as well. But if you like that tip sheet, Ron
wilsoniheartmedia dot com and I will send that the pruning
hydrangea tip sheet back to you next week. Quick break,
we come back. Phone lines are open at eight hundred
eight two three eight two five five. Joe, hang with us.
(43:27):
We'll come right to you after the break. Don't forget
our website, Ron Wilson Online dot com, our plants of
the week, Rita's Zucchini bread, and lots of postings from
Buggy Joe Boggs. It's all happening here in the garden
with Ron Wilson.
Speaker 3 (44:00):
How is your garden growing? Call Ron now at one
eight hundred eighty two three. Talk you're listening to In
the Garden with Ron Wilson.
In The Garden with Ron Wilson News
Popular Podcasts
Stuff You Should Know
If you've ever wanted to know about champagne, satanism, the Stonewall Uprising, chaos theory, LSD, El Nino, true crime and Rosa Parks, then look no further. Josh and Chuck have you covered.
The Joe Rogan Experience
The official podcast of comedian Joe Rogan.
Dateline NBC
Current and classic episodes, featuring compelling true-crime mysteries, powerful documentaries and in-depth investigations. Special Summer Offer: Exclusively on Apple Podcasts, try our Dateline Premium subscription completely free for one month! With Dateline Premium, you get every episode ad-free plus exclusive bonus content.