Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Good morning, everybody. Welcome back. I'm Ron Wilson. You're in
the garden here on news radio six to ten w
TV in a two to one WTV in eight hundred
and sixty ten w TV in talking about yarding, and
before we talk to Barbie Blush, I just a couple
of things real quick. I just want to remind everybody,
you know, we were talking about the excess food that
we may have in our vegetable gardens this time of
(00:20):
the year. Extra tomatoes, you know, sometimes if it is
a good year for cucumbers or zooks, they're just coming
out your ears, anything, whatever it may be. If you,
you know, have more than what you're gonna cana give
to neighbors or whatever, please don't forget the food pantries
and food kitchens. They'll take those donations of produce and
use those to help feed other folks that don't have
(00:42):
vegetable gardens or don't have food to eat. So don't
forget to use that extra to donate to your food
local food pantries and food kitchens as well as yourself.
And by the way, I had a friend that this
past week that had some extra green tomatoes. So guess
what they did in our office during the week they
had for lunch, they did fried green tomatoes for everybody
(01:03):
in the luncheon. Was it good? Absolutely wonderful? All right?
As I promise, she is with us. She happens to
be our queen Bee Barbie. But Letcher, good.
Speaker 2 (01:13):
Morning, good morning.
Speaker 1 (01:16):
Before we talk about these books that you got me
started on here, one of which now are have an
hard time finding. But nevertheless, I got to get a
little update on the on the bees. First of all,
been a hot summer. Lots of hot days, a lot
of dry days, of course some rain in between. I mean,
how does that affect our honey bees?
Speaker 3 (01:36):
Well, you know, we overall, I think we've had a
good season, good honey crops. From what I've heard. Bees
don't mind the heat. They are used to heat, you know,
they're from the and yeah, they're they're they're they're used
(01:57):
to the heat, and they do just find you don't
necessarily want to get into the hive when on a
real hot day. Real thumb is if it's hot and
miserable for you, then you don't want to be messing
with the bees. But they they get a little cranky,
you know, if it's hot and especially hot and humid.
(02:17):
They're trying to fan up the high and keep it
cool and having us opening the top of house off
makes them kind of mad. Really, I just don't like
being bothered.
Speaker 1 (02:31):
Because it's hot, and you don't like being bothered, so
just leave me alone.
Speaker 3 (02:35):
Yeah, it's just real humid. They're trying to regulate the
temperature in the hive. Interesting, and we open the lead,
we throw off all their thermostats.
Speaker 1 (02:44):
So is it is it worth? I mean, do bee
heapers set up fans or anything like that, or try
to shade the hives in the summertime or not necessarily?
Speaker 3 (02:53):
You know what these actually do well? Beehives do better
in full sun. Okay, they can take the heat. Our
problem is moisture, and if it's too moist and high,
they don't. They can't dry it out. The humidity one,
we can't capt they can't cap the honey. So honey
has to be like seventeen eighteen percent moisture before they
(03:16):
can cap it. So this high humidity prevents them from
being able to dry out the honey.
Speaker 1 (03:24):
Cap the honey, meaning that, Yeah, I'm sorry.
Speaker 3 (03:33):
The forger bees are bringing in nectar. They're putting it
in these cells. Worker bees in the hive are all
fanning the hive to dry it out. They're drying out
those cells. They have to get it down to seventeen
or eighteen percent moisture before they can seal it. So
they'll seal it with beeswax and one sets sealed. You know,
(03:54):
nothing can get into it. So honey is hydrophobic. It
doesn't like water. It jarw out water. So if you
get too much moisture in the honey, it will ferment
and that'll be ruined.
Speaker 1 (04:08):
So we got we have bees that are forging to
bring back the nectar and the pollen, and then we
have bees that are in the in the hive that
never go anywhere, but their job is to fan the honey.
Speaker 3 (04:21):
Yeah, that's one of their jobs. And you know as
bees get older, they have they assume new jobs. So
the younger bees do the work and the hive, and
one of their tasks is to dry out the honey.
And you're older, then they have to go out in
the forge for honey to be defenders of the hive.
Speaker 1 (04:40):
And who determines that.
Speaker 3 (04:43):
It's just a question of age and the needs of
the hive. So if they have a huge you know,
lots of things are flowering, and they have a huge
demand for forging. Some of the older of the you know,
indoor bees, nurse bees, will go out and form, but
for the most part, the older bees, you know, forty
something days old, they're the ones that go out and floored,
(05:06):
and that's issue the.
Speaker 1 (05:07):
Last job they have, so they just automatically know it's
time to go do that. Yeah, amazing. What are the
drones doing nothing, dunes?
Speaker 3 (05:18):
Just hanging around Yeah, food, Yeah.
Speaker 1 (05:22):
Just hanging aroun at the bottom of the hive.
Speaker 2 (05:24):
Yeah, taking the droppings, go visit the other hive.
Speaker 1 (05:28):
Oh my gosh, I can't believe. So so you got
foragers that are bringing back the neck there in the pollen.
Then you got the younger ones that are fanning at
the work end to keep that, and they get to
a point where they're too old to do that at
forty days old. So I say, oh, I'm out of
here now, I'm gonna go out and forage myself.
Speaker 3 (05:47):
Yeah, because the foraging is the hardest job and it's
the most risky. You know, they're gonna get eaten by
birds and trying a mandases and hit by cars. So
it's it's swatted by people that wears them out.
Speaker 1 (06:02):
No doubt, no doubt. So all right, so they're collecting
the nectar and they collect the pollen, and they bring
both of them back. So you know, I have a
little bit left in my jar of Teresa Parker pollen
balls that she gave me probably a year and a
half ago, and they're in the freezer. Where are those
(06:23):
collected up? I mean, is that that's not something they use?
I mean, do you how do you get those?
Speaker 3 (06:29):
So bees are either collecting pollen or honey, depending on
the needs of the hive. Okay, the pollen, certain pollens
they stick. They have like an electromagnetic attraction to bees,
so they stick to the hairs and the bees. And
sometimes you'll see a honey bee she's just covered with pollen, right,
(06:49):
so she flies back in. Some of that pollen is
bound to drop off anyhow, So we have like a
series of screens like I's called a pollen catcher. They
go through these streams and as they do that, some
of the excess pollen will drop off. So then we
collect that every day, sort through it, make sure there's
(07:10):
no leaves or anything in there, and we freeze it.
And then we prepare it to sell. So it's it's
fresh right from the flowers basically.
Speaker 1 (07:19):
Wow. So and so where does the other pollen go
when they take it up? I mean they've got the nectar.
That's all part of the honey process, right.
Speaker 3 (07:27):
So yeah, and this is interesting too. So the bees
will take that pollen and they give it to they'll
put it in the cell. So the cells are either
going to have a honey or a nectar or pollen
one or the other. And so some of them are
going to be storing pollen away in these cells, and
they the yager bees and nurse bees are going to
(07:48):
work that pollen. They add some of their own liquids
to their own product by products to it, and that
that pollen will at that point we call it bee bread,
and it's sort of like a bees wine or like
a fermented food that we might eat and it will
(08:10):
last like that. It contains all the viamums and the
nutrients that the bees need, and so they can eat that,
they can feed it to the other bees and it
gives them a lot of nutrients that they get from
that fermented pollen. So that's how they digestice. Once it's fermented, so.
Speaker 1 (08:29):
They're feeding on both honey and this other stuff that's
made out of the pollen.
Speaker 3 (08:35):
Right, Yeah, we call it bee bread once once the
bees have worked it and it starts to ferment.
Speaker 1 (08:41):
So when you're collecting honey, do you get bee bread
in with the honey?
Speaker 3 (08:46):
No, because it's going to be in a separate cell.
Got it, Either the bee bread or the pollen is
going to be down with the brood, and the honey
that we take off is pure honey up on top.
Speaker 1 (08:56):
Got it, all right? So when you take that off
of there, then you know you you've always stayed in
touch with me as far as honey and the labeling
and the fact that a lot of the that you
buy it, like in some of the grocery stores, it's
just a syrup. It's not really honey. So you've got
to be That's why we always say support your local beekeepers,
buy local and whatever. What were you saying that? What
(09:19):
do they do with that that they won't dilute it down?
They add some kind of a flour or something.
Speaker 3 (09:25):
Yeah, who the people who cheat? And there's several big
companies that will do that, but for the most part,
they dilute the finished product of honey with corn syrup.
So corn syrup is sweet, it has pretty much the
same density as honey, and they will stir those together
(09:45):
and so you just end up having this sweet liquid
that may have a little bit of honey, but it's
mostly corn syrup. They've also been found to use rice syrup.
It's just the same thing. It's it's a very cheap
syrup that they can add to honey. It keeps their
price down, so then they can outcompete beekeepers who are
actually trying to, you know, make a little bit of
(10:06):
money on their product. So if you see bottles that say,
you know, bottled in X country or shipped from somewhere,
that probably means that they bought honey over caes or
some kind of honey product and they bottled it and
then they've shipped it, so it's not from an individual
(10:28):
beekeeper at all.
Speaker 1 (10:29):
So when you're buying, make sure it's labeled it's locally,
you know, the beekeeper. And like we've always said, support
your local beekeepers forget that other stuff.
Speaker 3 (10:38):
Yeah no, no, the know the person know that they
have hives who visit their apery. I mean, it's fascinating
to see how how honey is produced.
Speaker 1 (10:48):
Hey, every time I talk to you, I learned something new.
I've told you before. My head's like the Exorcist. It
just start spinning around when you guys start talking about bees.
Oh my gosh, I can't believe it. All right, just
take a quick break because I want to talk to
about a couple of books that you One of them
you sent to me, come to find out, and I'm
kind of mad at you because it's hard to find.
But anyway, there's a series of these, and then we'll
(11:10):
talk how you can get them all about them after
we take the bake break. Barbie Bletcher here on news
radio six to ten WTVN. We're talking bees here on
news radio six to ten WTVN with our Queen Bee,
Barbie Bletcher. And then about a year ago, Barb sent
me a little handbook that kind of briefed through and
(11:32):
didn't we were busy, I think at the time when
she sent it, But then I finally sat down and
looked through it. And it's called back Roads. It's written
by Dan Childs. It's a pictorial guide to common Midwestern forbes,
flowers and grasses that grow along the country's back roads, Well,
this has become a reference book for me because it's
exactly that. When you're driving down the road and you
(11:55):
see these things in flower grasses growing or whatever, you
wonder what they are. And this book is that's what
it is. And of course as you look at the acknowledgements,
he recognizes the folks that helped, including Barbie a lecture
for her amazing wealth of knowledge on the native pollinators. So, Barb,
you sent me this book. I absolutely love that. I said, well,
do you need to talk about this sometime on our show,
(12:15):
And come to find out it's not in print anymore.
Speaker 3 (12:19):
Yeah. That I didn't realize that it was actually published
back in twenty fifteen. That was his first of three books.
Speaker 1 (12:26):
So he has and it is absolutely outstanding. And again
he happens to be Dan Childs. And so although this
book is not available, I think you put a little
b in his ear saying that he probably should put
this thing back out the print. Again.
Speaker 3 (12:44):
Absolutely. Yeah. That's the nice thing about that book and
the others is he shows the the plant actually in
its natural environment. So it shows the whole plant, its
girl's habit. You can tell what time of year it is,
but it shows a whole plant and then it has
an insert with a close up of the photograph, so
(13:05):
it gives you a really good idea of how this
plant grows.
Speaker 1 (13:08):
Now, the second book that he wrote is called Into
the Woods, right, m Yeah, and.
Speaker 3 (13:13):
It's it's still available. It's it's thirteen dollars, but you
could buy an eBay for seventy five dollars.
Speaker 1 (13:21):
Yeah. I saw that. I didn't get I was like, what,
wait a second, this doesn't make sense to me. But
it's called Into the Woods. So again covering the woodland
wildflowers throughout the Midwest. Absolutely again great reference book, unbelievable.
And then the third one.
Speaker 3 (13:40):
Yeah, this this just came out. It's called a Prairie
View and it's mainly the wildflowers that you go to
see out in the prairies and the open more open areas.
And it's actually a bigger book. It's got more pages.
I think it has like one hundred and forty wildflower
picture of it. So slightly bigger book, but yeah, just
(14:03):
huge colors, a little bit of a description that me.
The photograph is the whole page.
Speaker 1 (14:10):
Wow. So and again and again his name is Dan Childs.
And if you're interested in these books. They are absolutely
wonderful reference books. Uh, it's he's got a website. It's
Wildflower Books by Dan. Pretty simple, wildflower books, Bye Dan
dot com. And again it's into the Woods. Uh. And
the other one is called A Prairie View, A Prairieview.
(14:33):
Some reason, I can't remember that one. And then of
course the one I hope that he comes back and
actually does another reprint is a back Roads. And again
that thing. I was just blown away when I went
through this, and now I use it as a reference
because I have folks will say I was driving down
whatever and I saw this particular whatever on the side
of the road. Can you tell me what it is?
And of course it's it's in here, So great job.
(14:55):
And again he lists everything, great pictures and then lists
everything as far as the dollinators that are attracted to them,
which is outstanding.
Speaker 2 (15:04):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (15:04):
I don't know if any other books that do that.
Speaker 1 (15:07):
No, and it's great. So again, if you're looking for
these wildflower books by Dan dot com and his name
is Dan Childs and highly recommended by Barbe Bletcher and
myself had great, great reference books. And again tell him
that we we'd love to see this back roads book
(15:28):
come back out again as in a second print, because
that's a that's absolutely wonderful as far as a reference book.
Speaker 3 (15:34):
They're gonna put a b in his bonnet.
Speaker 1 (15:36):
Put a bee in that man's bonnet. And so today
we can say we learned about dry drying down honey,
because nectar is watery. Seventeen to eighteen percent is where
they want to get it. My question to you is,
as they're fanning that, how do the bees know they
got it down to seventeen or eighteen percent?
Speaker 3 (16:00):
You know, we have to use a special piece of
equipment to do that. So I don't know how they know.
I guess they just keep tapping it with their fingers
until it gets the right density. But yeah, I don't
know how they do that. And think about you know,
they've got hundreds of cells that they're all testing. They're
all in various stages of drying out. So it's so
(16:23):
like all one frame is going to be the same.
Every frame, every cell is going to be different. I
wonder if.
Speaker 1 (16:30):
Some bees are better at drying them down than other bees.
Speaker 3 (16:34):
Oh yeah, you know, just just through their gen I trace,
someone don't be better than others.
Speaker 1 (16:41):
Yeah, you go. You go for it. You're not very
good at this. Get out of here. Let me fan
this because I know what I'm doing.
Speaker 2 (16:48):
Yeah, you go.
Speaker 3 (16:48):
You go back to your cell building.
Speaker 1 (16:51):
And we'll do this and we'll take care of the
dry down process. That that just absolutely fascinates. They gotta
have a little moisture meters or something in there. I
don't know what they're you and but that's crazy. Barbie Bletcher.
The information you share with me is always we always
a second. We got a question, it says, ask her
about b venom.
Speaker 3 (17:12):
Oh my gosh. So there are books on app what
we call appa therapy. Yes, people who have various elements,
especially arthritis. There's a whole science called beasting therapy where
people will get stung in certain pressure points. It's like acupuncture,
(17:34):
and some people swear by it. You know, some people
swear at it, but it's it's some people swear that
it works.
Speaker 1 (17:43):
Uh, it's I'm already starting to hurt just having this
beasting me.
Speaker 3 (17:50):
And I know what you do it religiously, who have
a lot of relief from there. And you think about it.
So when when we're stung by a bee, we produce
our bodies produce some cortizone at that spot right then
once it's no longer needed, that cortizone breaks down. What
doctors do is they have a synthetic courtizone that they
(18:10):
will inject us with which doesn't break down naturally. It
takes you know, it takes a longer period of time
and it may break down into other you know, byproducts,
so to speak. So you know, we our bodies will
produce that its own cortizone reaction to a beasting. So
that's what the beasting therapy is based on. As you're
(18:31):
producing your own cortizone that will break down naturally when
it's no longer needed.
Speaker 1 (18:37):
And there are actually doctors that do this, I.
Speaker 3 (18:41):
Would say, there are people practicing it.
Speaker 1 (18:43):
There you go, people that practice that, and we're not
we're not talking about just sticking your hand in the hive, right.
Speaker 3 (18:49):
I mean, oh no, it's it's a it's a true science.
They look at pressure points, certain parts of the body
will react differently. So yeah, they've been starting this probably
in some Middle Ages.
Speaker 1 (19:04):
I actually I have seen him do that. I just move.
I mean, I love the bees, I respect the bees,
but it hurts when he gets stung. I mean, let's
face it. But then again, look at you and Nina
and Teresa, the three stingers. You guys are always in
great health. So it must be because you get stung
all the time by your bees.
Speaker 3 (19:21):
Absolutely, And there's been proof also that we have a
natural resistance to some of the stars viruses. So I mean,
you don't want to take advantage of that, but we
do have some natural resistance just because we're being stung
all the time.
Speaker 1 (19:35):
So you're getting stung, you're eating the pollen and you're
eating the honey. What mortgage you asked for?
Speaker 3 (19:39):
Yeah, we get lots of exercise, so let me talk
to you, which is the best thing for us.
Speaker 1 (19:43):
And when the three of you together, you're always laughing,
and laughter is one of the best medicines you can
find out there, I tell you. The two reu just
crack me up. Barbie Bletcher always a pleasure. Tell mister
Childs his books are absolutely outstanding, and this back rounds.
We need to get that one republished again.
Speaker 3 (20:00):
I will certainly tell him that.
Speaker 1 (20:02):
All right, thank you so much for your time, and
we will talk to you this fall.
Speaker 3 (20:07):
Thanks for your support, all.
Speaker 1 (20:08):
Right, Barbi Bletcher our Queen Bee quick break, we come back.
Phone lines are open for you at eight two to
one WTVN, eight hundred and sixty ten WTVN. You know
where it's happening, news radio six to ten WTVN. Because
it's just then a totally fascinating what they can do,
(20:29):
how they all know to work together, you know, the
busy bee thing and all of that. I just it's
it's amazing stuff but crazy. But again, I think that
the bottom line here two things. One is, you know,
be pollinator friendly, which we've always talked about, and support
the local beekeepers. And it's very very important that you
do both of those, so please keep that in mind.
(20:49):
But and respect the bees. I mean, let's face respect
the bees. As a matter of fact, Joe, he and
I were talking this week about seeing more starting to
see now the hornets starting to now they're getting some
size to them, people are starting to notice them, and
of course yellowjackets, and of course their taste will start
to change as we start to get into the fall season,
going more towards the sweets and sugars and things like that,
(21:12):
so be cautious about that, but you know, they're how
beneficial they all really are if you can work with them.
But I'll tell you that the honeybee thing is just
and our native bees too, just phenomenal. What they do
and how they know to do all that is crazy,
especially the drying down of the honey that's crazy. Real quick,
before we go back to the guarding phone lines. Two
(21:34):
things going on. One coming up next two weeks Saturday,
August thirty first, we have two weeks one to five
on the thirty first and on Sunday one to four.
It is the Dahlias Show, the fifty eighth Dahlia Show.
We had Jeff and Linda Lane on last week talking
about this, talking about growing dahlias and if you'd like
to learn more about them, see Lots of Great Dahias
(21:57):
and meet Jeff and Linda Lane again. And it's August
the thirty first on Saturday one to five Sunday September
the first, one to four at the Union County YMCA
and Marysville. And for more information just go to their
website Columbus Dallyas dot com. That's Columbus Dallyas dot com.
And then if you're looking for a little bit of
(22:18):
a garden tour, well, the Columbus Garden Railway Society is
having their annual backyard tour, so you get to see
the garden railways plus with beautiful gardens that go along
with these. It's it's open to the public. I think
there are twelve gardens railway gardens for you to visit
on this particular tour. Again, it's on Sunday, September the eighth,
(22:40):
from one until five. It's absolutely free. For more information,
go to their website. It's the cg r S dot
com I believe on there. Yes, thecg RS dot org.
I'm sorry, get my orgs and comms mixed up, but
it's the cg R dot orgon They're they're garden tours
(23:02):
coming up on Sunday, September the eighth, so be sure
and check out both of those great events. Neil, thanks
for holding on. You're in the garden with Ron Wilson.
Speaker 2 (23:12):
Yes, Iron, Neil, we're changing our landscape and we pulled
the maulch up and I leveled the ground out with soil.
I sprayed it and now I'm putting a black mate
down that's water and I want to cover that with
landscaping stones. Am I going about this?
Speaker 1 (23:34):
The right way. Is it going to be just stones,
no plants all, just just a stone area.
Speaker 2 (23:40):
Well, we don't know where we're going to put the plants,
so I thought when I got ready to put the
plants in, I just pulled the stones back and make
a cross and pull the mat back and plant the plant.
Speaker 1 (23:55):
Okay, Yeah, you can do it that way, no doubt. Yeah,
and have yourself a tarp or something you put over
top of the gravel so you keep that soil out
of the gravel, because the last thing you want is
to start getting soil on top of that fabric and
then that gravel because then and it's going to happen
over time. But then when we seeds blow in, they've
(24:16):
got a little something to germinate in. So maybe you know,
keep it as clean as you can as you're digging
the holes to do that, so you know, really give
yourself a nice V error and X so you can
really open it up wide to dig the holes, get
them planted, get that back down again, and go from there.
But clean out as much as the dirt as you
can when you finally come back to put the gravel down.
(24:36):
But are you going about the right way? Yeah, I
mean that's absolutely, I mean you could. If it were me,
I would probably try to do it where I would
get the fabric down, get the plants planted, and then
come back and put the gravel down. But if you're
not ready to plant the plants yet, you know you can.
(24:57):
You can do what you were talking about and pull
the grap back.
Speaker 2 (25:00):
Yes, this is on the west side of the house.
We had some spruce trees in there, but over time
they were about thirty years old and they, you know,
by keeping them trim, they just got so woody. We
took them out. We've got a Japanese maple and four
junipers in there.
Speaker 1 (25:22):
Now.
Speaker 2 (25:22):
This is an area of the house where it's kind
of like a U exposed to.
Speaker 1 (25:25):
The west right.
Speaker 2 (25:27):
Would you have any suggestions on what type of plants
to put in.
Speaker 1 (25:32):
Without seeing it, I will say no. And the reason
I say that is i'd you know, I'd rather when
it suggest plants, like to see the house, like to
see the other plants around it, what we're looking at
as far as what we're filling in. So you know,
you can send me some pictures. I could throw some
ideas back at you. Take some pictures of it and
dimensions and go to a local garden center and let
(25:54):
somebody take a look at it. Right now is a
great time to do that, as a matter of fact,
because they're you know, they're getting geared up for the
fall season and can draw you a little sketch and
do some ideas for you. That way. I'll be more
happy to throw some plants at you as well, but
I'd rather see the location before I would give you
any suggestions as far as what to put in there.
And I think the other thing I do want to
suggest to you, I'm not a big landscape fabric fan.
(26:19):
In that particular case where you're gonna put gravel down,
that is the best way to go because that one
keeps the gravel from getting into the soil, because it'll
just sink and disappear. And secondly, if by chance, you
ever decide you want to change your mind and not
have that gravel, at least that landscape fabric makes it
a little bit easier for you to collect it up
and get rid of it. And that does happen somewhere
(26:41):
down the road. So you know, again, I'm not a
big fan of the fabric, but in that particular case,
that is the best way for you to go. But
if at all possible, Neil, I would certainly look to
get it every great thing to go. Put the fabric down, plant,
clean the fabric off, and then come back in and
(27:01):
do the gravel. As my final application.
Speaker 2 (27:05):
Okay, very good. Now, I was going to keep the
plant about four and a half to five feet away
from the house. It seemed like a corner.
Speaker 1 (27:13):
Yes, most give it plenty of room. Well most, yeah,
most definitely look look at go ahead and look whatever
plant you're going to do in there, give it plenty
of room because a lot of times we forget about
them growing up against the foundation. And you want to
give it both in a room to the front and
to the back. So depending on what you use, yes,
get it away from the foundation, so you've got room
(27:36):
that you would have room to work around behind the plant,
between it and the foundation of your home. Absolutely.
Speaker 2 (27:43):
Now I've noticed star House's brick and on the west
side when during the summer, that brick will be probably
twenty degrees hotter than the air temperature around the plant, yep,
And it seems like it kind of stunts the growth
on the rosebush on the side to the house.
Speaker 1 (28:02):
You've got to be careful when you're you know, not
only we now talking about full sun, but we're also
talking about the reflection of heat off of that brick building.
You're absolutely correct. You you're going to add to it
just a little bit by putting the stones down below,
because stones sometimes can heat up just a little bit
more than an actual bark mulch can, so you might
get a little bit more heat out of that too.
(28:23):
So again, plant selection, if you go to a local
garden center with your sketch to get your sketch, tell
them to you know, keep that in mind because that
can be a little bit tougher on some plants. And
that's where you know, as long as you're keeping water
to evergreens may wind up being your best shot. Hey,
we got to take a break, Neil. I appreciate it
if you send me the email or watch for it. Otherwise,
(28:45):
check out your local independent garden center, take a picture
of the area, dimensions of the area. Let them give
you some ideas, some suggestions. If they do, send those
to me and I'll you know, give you my thoughts
and feedback on that one as well. And right now
is a great time to do this because is a
couple weeks away, meteorological fall starts, and fall is a great, great,
great time to plant a two to one WTVN. That's
(29:08):
our number here at news Radio six to ten WTVN
talking to your arding here on news radio six '
ten WTVN. Real quick, before we go back to the
gardening phone lines. You know, this is a time in
August fifteenth through the thirtieth of September optimum seeding time.
If you want to renovate the lawn, you got thin
areas in the lawn you want to oversee or reced
(29:30):
Now's between now and the other September is the time
to do it. And if you've got to kill things out,
like I'm getting a lot of emails right now saying
I got this this area, and it's got this coming
up and that coming up, and what is it? Blah
blah blah. And the chances are as you look at
it as a combination maybe some crab grass and some
orchard grass or regular grass and a few other weeds,
(29:51):
where it's probably better off just to go in there
with a vegetation killer, kill everything out in that area
and reced it. I mean, that's just the usually the
best way to go than trying to spot weed and wait,
and you know Furtilum's Weed Free Zone, Bonny's a weed
Beater Ultra. Those are two weed killers that you can
(30:11):
put down and receed within about two to three weeks.
But that's very rare that you can do that. The
Tenacity is one that you can put down and take care.
But point being is this, if if you need to
clear an area out, you need to give it time
to kill everything out. So you need to get on
it soon to kill all that out, so it's ready
to go within our next this next six week period.
(30:32):
So if you're going in there and say you want
to just do okay, I'm gonna do a total vegetation killer,
and commonly we would say round Up, right, yeah, yeah,
use Roundup, go in there and clear it out. Remember
what we talked about. This spring, round Up has a
new label on their homeowner's version of round Up all
right of the ready to use and I think the
(30:55):
concentrate as well, but it's it's a new formula and
it says exclusive formula on there. And if it says
that on the label, because they still have some of
the old stuff still out there, it's not glyphosate anymore.
It's a combination of three different weed killers, and there
are new restrictions on the time you have to wait
before you can see the time you have to wait
(31:16):
before you can replant. I'd be very cautious about spraying
it around the bottom of trees and shrubs. There's a
lot of restrictions on this one, so check it out
before you use the newly formulated roundup for killing everything out,
because you might have to wait longer than you would
the old formula. So you would say, well, what else
(31:37):
is out there? Well, Fertilome another company like that that
makes another you know, another chemical company. We've we've always said,
you know, use roundup kills all cleanup well kills. All
is glyphosate and it's furtil homes vegetation killer, non selective
vegetation vegetation killer. If you're looking for the same formula
(31:59):
that round you used to have, that is Fertilome's kills
All Okay, if you want to go, And they've they've
got their own new one now where they've taken the
glyph of State out. They've got another one called Decimate,
which is glue fascinate. I don't want to confuse you here,
but that's available for you. And then if you want
to go all natural and kill everything out, there are
grass and weed killers that are all natural that are
(32:21):
made out of fatty acids from soaps. It's a folier burn,
but that's available for you as well. And again Fertilom
has them and there's several companies that have them as well.
But read the label as far as what you're spraying.
But you need to get on this right away to
get these areas cleared out so that you can come
back in and maybe do a little core air rating,
(32:42):
kind of do a little you know, as some organic
matter back to that particular area. Then come back in
and slice seed or overseed, you know, do whatever you
need to do over top of the seed, a little
starter fertilizer, and then of course keeping the moisture to
it as it continues to we get into the fall
season and continues to germinate and grow to re establish
those areas. But point being is, make sure you read
(33:04):
the label on these products if you are doing that,
and you need to get on it right away. Bob,
good morning, Ron.
Speaker 4 (33:13):
Good Hello, Ron, good morning, good morning. Quick question on sunflowers.
I know always a good topic. I called a few
weeks back. You mentioned mushroom composts or you know, just
sorrow moist and all, and it seems to be working.
Why did you know your ideas on truning? Uh? You know,
(33:35):
for some reason, this year has just totally gone back
with a ton flowers. They all died out when we
had all that rain, all the seedlings, you know, early spring.
And I've been doing sort of an experiment where uh,
I don't know, I have splurge, I just have you know, yellowing.
And also I've actually been tuning maybe half of them,
(33:56):
and that seem to have helped a little bit any time,
but I see it at least uh, you know, and
I left some u not proof and they're they're doing okay,
but still seem to be doing as well. So just
any timent time maybe truing off. You know, specifically sunflowers
when they're leads, you know, certainly you look.
Speaker 1 (34:16):
Bad, you know, if they are fifty or more brown,
not looking good, or if it's a leaf disease, which
you'd have to you know, somebody have to take a
look at, trying to diagnose. But typically that is a
good way to get rid of it. Just pick it
off and get rid of it. Obviously, they count on
those leaves for as far as feeding the roots, feeding
the plant developing eventually that seedhead on the top. So
(34:39):
you want to leave as many on as you can.
But if it's a I usually look at it and say,
if it's fifty percent or more that's damaged on the leaf,
doesn't look good. It's probably not doing the plant a
whole lot of good. You can get those off of
there and leave all of the rest. So you know
to do that, Yeah, I don't see why not. As
a matter of fact, one of the things I was
going to talk about today is the fact that if
you look at a vegetable, and right now you look
(35:00):
at tomatoes and some of the other plants really starting
to look kind of crappy. Really at the bottom, you're
starting to get all these brown leaves, and some are
diseased and some aren't. But just clip all, you know,
pick all those off, prod all those off of there,
so you've got just good green leaves left. It looks
a lot better you get all that all the dead
stuff away from everything, and I think the plants perform
(35:22):
better than carrying all that dead stuff. So you know,
without seeing that, I don't know what you got going on.
But yeah, if it's fifty percent or more damaged or
it doesn't look good, then I'd say pick it off,
get rid of it.
Speaker 4 (35:34):
Okay, Now that's just hoping you say that. And then
again I started doing tomatoes, same deal. I do know
I have slurge on some of the tomato plants, and
again the same thing, brown leaves dead.
Speaker 1 (35:47):
Yeah, just get it, clean it up. That's all we
got to go. Bob. I appreciate the call, but yeah,
you're right, all right, but that's it. You look at
the garden right now, clean stuff up, dayla. As we
were talking earlier about that. If they look nasty, cut
them off, they'll kind of lush back up a little bit.
But get rid of all the dead leaves right now
and dead branches that you see as you walk around
your yard and garden. Thanks all of our callers, Thanks
(36:07):
to our sponsors, Thanks of course to Ella, our producer,
because without Ella, none of this stuff would happen. So Ella,
thank you again for so much for all that you
do to make this show happen. Now do yourself a favor.
Want you to go out this weekend. Do a little gardening,
but make it the best weekend of your life. See
you
Good morning, everybody. Welcome back. I'm Ron Wilson. You're in
the garden here on news radio six to ten w
TV in a two to one WTV in eight hundred
and sixty ten w TV in talking about yarding, and
before we talk to Barbie Blush, I just a couple
of things real quick. I just want to remind everybody,
you know, we were talking about the excess food that
we may have in our vegetable gardens this time of
(00:20):
the year. Extra tomatoes, you know, sometimes if it is
a good year for cucumbers or zooks, they're just coming
out your ears, anything, whatever it may be. If you,
you know, have more than what you're gonna cana give
to neighbors or whatever, please don't forget the food pantries
and food kitchens. They'll take those donations of produce and
use those to help feed other folks that don't have
(00:42):
vegetable gardens or don't have food to eat. So don't
forget to use that extra to donate to your food
local food pantries and food kitchens as well as yourself.
And by the way, I had a friend that this
past week that had some extra green tomatoes. So guess
what they did in our office during the week they
had for lunch, they did fried green tomatoes for everybody
(01:03):
in the luncheon. Was it good? Absolutely wonderful? All right?
As I promise, she is with us. She happens to
be our queen Bee Barbie. But Letcher, good.
Speaker 2 (01:13):
Morning, good morning.
Speaker 1 (01:16):
Before we talk about these books that you got me
started on here, one of which now are have an
hard time finding. But nevertheless, I got to get a
little update on the on the bees. First of all,
been a hot summer. Lots of hot days, a lot
of dry days, of course some rain in between. I mean,
how does that affect our honey bees?
Speaker 3 (01:36):
Well, you know, we overall, I think we've had a
good season, good honey crops. From what I've heard. Bees
don't mind the heat. They are used to heat, you know,
they're from the and yeah, they're they're they're they're used
(01:57):
to the heat, and they do just find you don't
necessarily want to get into the hive when on a
real hot day. Real thumb is if it's hot and
miserable for you, then you don't want to be messing
with the bees. But they they get a little cranky,
you know, if it's hot and especially hot and humid.
(02:17):
They're trying to fan up the high and keep it
cool and having us opening the top of house off
makes them kind of mad. Really, I just don't like
being bothered.
Speaker 1 (02:31):
Because it's hot, and you don't like being bothered, so
just leave me alone.
Speaker 3 (02:35):
Yeah, it's just real humid. They're trying to regulate the
temperature in the hive. Interesting, and we open the lead,
we throw off all their thermostats.
Speaker 1 (02:44):
So is it is it worth? I mean, do bee
heapers set up fans or anything like that, or try
to shade the hives in the summertime or not necessarily?
Speaker 3 (02:53):
You know what these actually do well? Beehives do better
in full sun. Okay, they can take the heat. Our
problem is moisture, and if it's too moist and high,
they don't. They can't dry it out. The humidity one,
we can't capt they can't cap the honey. So honey
has to be like seventeen eighteen percent moisture before they
(03:16):
can cap it. So this high humidity prevents them from
being able to dry out the honey.
Speaker 1 (03:24):
Cap the honey, meaning that, Yeah, I'm sorry.
Speaker 3 (03:33):
The forger bees are bringing in nectar. They're putting it
in these cells. Worker bees in the hive are all
fanning the hive to dry it out. They're drying out
those cells. They have to get it down to seventeen
or eighteen percent moisture before they can seal it. So
they'll seal it with beeswax and one sets sealed. You know,
(03:54):
nothing can get into it. So honey is hydrophobic. It
doesn't like water. It jarw out water. So if you
get too much moisture in the honey, it will ferment
and that'll be ruined.
Speaker 1 (04:08):
So we got we have bees that are forging to
bring back the nectar and the pollen, and then we
have bees that are in the in the hive that
never go anywhere, but their job is to fan the honey.
Speaker 3 (04:21):
Yeah, that's one of their jobs. And you know as
bees get older, they have they assume new jobs. So
the younger bees do the work and the hive, and
one of their tasks is to dry out the honey.
And you're older, then they have to go out in
the forge for honey to be defenders of the hive.
Speaker 1 (04:40):
And who determines that.
Speaker 3 (04:43):
It's just a question of age and the needs of
the hive. So if they have a huge you know,
lots of things are flowering, and they have a huge
demand for forging. Some of the older of the you know,
indoor bees, nurse bees, will go out and form, but
for the most part, the older bees, you know, forty
something days old, they're the ones that go out and floored,
(05:06):
and that's issue the.
Speaker 1 (05:07):
Last job they have, so they just automatically know it's
time to go do that. Yeah, amazing. What are the
drones doing nothing, dunes?
Speaker 3 (05:18):
Just hanging around Yeah, food, Yeah.
Speaker 1 (05:22):
Just hanging aroun at the bottom of the hive.
Speaker 2 (05:24):
Yeah, taking the droppings, go visit the other hive.
Speaker 1 (05:28):
Oh my gosh, I can't believe. So so you got
foragers that are bringing back the neck there in the pollen.
Then you got the younger ones that are fanning at
the work end to keep that, and they get to
a point where they're too old to do that at
forty days old. So I say, oh, I'm out of
here now, I'm gonna go out and forage myself.
Speaker 3 (05:47):
Yeah, because the foraging is the hardest job and it's
the most risky. You know, they're gonna get eaten by
birds and trying a mandases and hit by cars. So
it's it's swatted by people that wears them out.
Speaker 1 (06:02):
No doubt, no doubt. So all right, so they're collecting
the nectar and they collect the pollen, and they bring
both of them back. So you know, I have a
little bit left in my jar of Teresa Parker pollen
balls that she gave me probably a year and a
half ago, and they're in the freezer. Where are those
(06:23):
collected up? I mean, is that that's not something they use?
I mean, do you how do you get those?
Speaker 3 (06:29):
So bees are either collecting pollen or honey, depending on
the needs of the hive. Okay, the pollen, certain pollens
they stick. They have like an electromagnetic attraction to bees,
so they stick to the hairs and the bees. And
sometimes you'll see a honey bee she's just covered with pollen, right,
(06:49):
so she flies back in. Some of that pollen is
bound to drop off anyhow, So we have like a
series of screens like I's called a pollen catcher. They
go through these streams and as they do that, some
of the excess pollen will drop off. So then we
collect that every day, sort through it, make sure there's
(07:10):
no leaves or anything in there, and we freeze it.
And then we prepare it to sell. So it's it's
fresh right from the flowers basically.
Speaker 1 (07:19):
Wow. So and so where does the other pollen go
when they take it up? I mean they've got the nectar.
That's all part of the honey process, right.
Speaker 3 (07:27):
So yeah, and this is interesting too. So the bees
will take that pollen and they give it to they'll
put it in the cell. So the cells are either
going to have a honey or a nectar or pollen
one or the other. And so some of them are
going to be storing pollen away in these cells, and
they the yager bees and nurse bees are going to
(07:48):
work that pollen. They add some of their own liquids
to their own product by products to it, and that
that pollen will at that point we call it bee bread,
and it's sort of like a bees wine or like
a fermented food that we might eat and it will
(08:10):
last like that. It contains all the viamums and the
nutrients that the bees need, and so they can eat that,
they can feed it to the other bees and it
gives them a lot of nutrients that they get from
that fermented pollen. So that's how they digestice. Once it's fermented, so.
Speaker 1 (08:29):
They're feeding on both honey and this other stuff that's
made out of the pollen.
Speaker 3 (08:35):
Right, Yeah, we call it bee bread once once the
bees have worked it and it starts to ferment.
Speaker 1 (08:41):
So when you're collecting honey, do you get bee bread
in with the honey?
Speaker 3 (08:46):
No, because it's going to be in a separate cell.
Got it, Either the bee bread or the pollen is
going to be down with the brood, and the honey
that we take off is pure honey up on top.
Speaker 1 (08:56):
Got it, all right? So when you take that off
of there, then you know you you've always stayed in
touch with me as far as honey and the labeling
and the fact that a lot of the that you
buy it, like in some of the grocery stores, it's
just a syrup. It's not really honey. So you've got
to be That's why we always say support your local beekeepers,
buy local and whatever. What were you saying that? What
(09:19):
do they do with that that they won't dilute it down?
They add some kind of a flour or something.
Speaker 3 (09:25):
Yeah, who the people who cheat? And there's several big
companies that will do that, but for the most part,
they dilute the finished product of honey with corn syrup.
So corn syrup is sweet, it has pretty much the
same density as honey, and they will stir those together
(09:45):
and so you just end up having this sweet liquid
that may have a little bit of honey, but it's
mostly corn syrup. They've also been found to use rice syrup.
It's just the same thing. It's it's a very cheap
syrup that they can add to honey. It keeps their
price down, so then they can outcompete beekeepers who are
actually trying to, you know, make a little bit of
(10:06):
money on their product. So if you see bottles that say,
you know, bottled in X country or shipped from somewhere,
that probably means that they bought honey over caes or
some kind of honey product and they bottled it and
then they've shipped it, so it's not from an individual
(10:28):
beekeeper at all.
Speaker 1 (10:29):
So when you're buying, make sure it's labeled it's locally,
you know, the beekeeper. And like we've always said, support
your local beekeepers forget that other stuff.
Speaker 3 (10:38):
Yeah no, no, the know the person know that they
have hives who visit their apery. I mean, it's fascinating
to see how how honey is produced.
Speaker 1 (10:48):
Hey, every time I talk to you, I learned something new.
I've told you before. My head's like the Exorcist. It
just start spinning around when you guys start talking about bees.
Oh my gosh, I can't believe it. All right, just
take a quick break because I want to talk to
about a couple of books that you One of them
you sent to me, come to find out, and I'm
kind of mad at you because it's hard to find.
But anyway, there's a series of these, and then we'll
(11:10):
talk how you can get them all about them after
we take the bake break. Barbie Bletcher here on news
radio six to ten WTVN. We're talking bees here on
news radio six to ten WTVN with our Queen Bee,
Barbie Bletcher. And then about a year ago, Barb sent
me a little handbook that kind of briefed through and
(11:32):
didn't we were busy, I think at the time when
she sent it, But then I finally sat down and
looked through it. And it's called back Roads. It's written
by Dan Childs. It's a pictorial guide to common Midwestern forbes,
flowers and grasses that grow along the country's back roads, Well,
this has become a reference book for me because it's
exactly that. When you're driving down the road and you
(11:55):
see these things in flower grasses growing or whatever, you
wonder what they are. And this book is that's what
it is. And of course as you look at the acknowledgements,
he recognizes the folks that helped, including Barbie a lecture
for her amazing wealth of knowledge on the native pollinators. So, Barb,
you sent me this book. I absolutely love that. I said, well,
do you need to talk about this sometime on our show,
(12:15):
And come to find out it's not in print anymore.
Speaker 3 (12:19):
Yeah. That I didn't realize that it was actually published
back in twenty fifteen. That was his first of three books.
Speaker 1 (12:26):
So he has and it is absolutely outstanding. And again
he happens to be Dan Childs. And so although this
book is not available, I think you put a little
b in his ear saying that he probably should put
this thing back out the print. Again.
Speaker 3 (12:44):
Absolutely. Yeah. That's the nice thing about that book and
the others is he shows the the plant actually in
its natural environment. So it shows the whole plant, its
girl's habit. You can tell what time of year it is,
but it shows a whole plant and then it has
an insert with a close up of the photograph, so
(13:05):
it gives you a really good idea of how this
plant grows.
Speaker 1 (13:08):
Now, the second book that he wrote is called Into
the Woods, right, m Yeah, and.
Speaker 3 (13:13):
It's it's still available. It's it's thirteen dollars, but you
could buy an eBay for seventy five dollars.
Speaker 1 (13:21):
Yeah. I saw that. I didn't get I was like, what,
wait a second, this doesn't make sense to me. But
it's called Into the Woods. So again covering the woodland
wildflowers throughout the Midwest. Absolutely again great reference book, unbelievable.
And then the third one.
Speaker 3 (13:40):
Yeah, this this just came out. It's called a Prairie
View and it's mainly the wildflowers that you go to
see out in the prairies and the open more open areas.
And it's actually a bigger book. It's got more pages.
I think it has like one hundred and forty wildflower
picture of it. So slightly bigger book, but yeah, just
(14:03):
huge colors, a little bit of a description that me.
The photograph is the whole page.
Speaker 1 (14:10):
Wow. So and again and again his name is Dan Childs.
And if you're interested in these books. They are absolutely
wonderful reference books. Uh, it's he's got a website. It's
Wildflower Books by Dan. Pretty simple, wildflower books, Bye Dan
dot com. And again it's into the Woods. Uh. And
the other one is called A Prairie View, A Prairieview.
(14:33):
Some reason, I can't remember that one. And then of
course the one I hope that he comes back and
actually does another reprint is a back Roads. And again
that thing. I was just blown away when I went
through this, and now I use it as a reference
because I have folks will say I was driving down
whatever and I saw this particular whatever on the side
of the road. Can you tell me what it is?
And of course it's it's in here, So great job.
(14:55):
And again he lists everything, great pictures and then lists
everything as far as the dollinators that are attracted to them,
which is outstanding.
Speaker 2 (15:04):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (15:04):
I don't know if any other books that do that.
Speaker 1 (15:07):
No, and it's great. So again, if you're looking for
these wildflower books by Dan dot com and his name
is Dan Childs and highly recommended by Barbe Bletcher and
myself had great, great reference books. And again tell him
that we we'd love to see this back roads book
(15:28):
come back out again as in a second print, because
that's a that's absolutely wonderful as far as a reference book.
Speaker 3 (15:34):
They're gonna put a b in his bonnet.
Speaker 1 (15:36):
Put a bee in that man's bonnet. And so today
we can say we learned about dry drying down honey,
because nectar is watery. Seventeen to eighteen percent is where
they want to get it. My question to you is,
as they're fanning that, how do the bees know they
got it down to seventeen or eighteen percent?
Speaker 3 (16:00):
You know, we have to use a special piece of
equipment to do that. So I don't know how they know.
I guess they just keep tapping it with their fingers
until it gets the right density. But yeah, I don't
know how they do that. And think about you know,
they've got hundreds of cells that they're all testing. They're
all in various stages of drying out. So it's so
(16:23):
like all one frame is going to be the same.
Every frame, every cell is going to be different. I
wonder if.
Speaker 1 (16:30):
Some bees are better at drying them down than other bees.
Speaker 3 (16:34):
Oh yeah, you know, just just through their gen I trace,
someone don't be better than others.
Speaker 1 (16:41):
Yeah, you go. You go for it. You're not very
good at this. Get out of here. Let me fan
this because I know what I'm doing.
Speaker 2 (16:48):
Yeah, you go.
Speaker 3 (16:48):
You go back to your cell building.
Speaker 1 (16:51):
And we'll do this and we'll take care of the
dry down process. That that just absolutely fascinates. They gotta
have a little moisture meters or something in there. I
don't know what they're you and but that's crazy. Barbie Bletcher.
The information you share with me is always we always
a second. We got a question, it says, ask her
about b venom.
Speaker 3 (17:12):
Oh my gosh. So there are books on app what
we call appa therapy. Yes, people who have various elements,
especially arthritis. There's a whole science called beasting therapy where
people will get stung in certain pressure points. It's like acupuncture,
(17:34):
and some people swear by it. You know, some people
swear at it, but it's it's some people swear that
it works.
Speaker 1 (17:43):
Uh, it's I'm already starting to hurt just having this
beasting me.
Speaker 3 (17:50):
And I know what you do it religiously, who have
a lot of relief from there. And you think about it.
So when when we're stung by a bee, we produce
our bodies produce some cortizone at that spot right then
once it's no longer needed, that cortizone breaks down. What
doctors do is they have a synthetic courtizone that they
(18:10):
will inject us with which doesn't break down naturally. It
takes you know, it takes a longer period of time
and it may break down into other you know, byproducts,
so to speak. So you know, we our bodies will
produce that its own cortizone reaction to a beasting. So
that's what the beasting therapy is based on. As you're
(18:31):
producing your own cortizone that will break down naturally when
it's no longer needed.
Speaker 1 (18:37):
And there are actually doctors that do this, I.
Speaker 3 (18:41):
Would say, there are people practicing it.
Speaker 1 (18:43):
There you go, people that practice that, and we're not
we're not talking about just sticking your hand in the hive, right.
Speaker 3 (18:49):
I mean, oh no, it's it's a it's a true science.
They look at pressure points, certain parts of the body
will react differently. So yeah, they've been starting this probably
in some Middle Ages.
Speaker 1 (19:04):
I actually I have seen him do that. I just move.
I mean, I love the bees, I respect the bees,
but it hurts when he gets stung. I mean, let's
face it. But then again, look at you and Nina
and Teresa, the three stingers. You guys are always in
great health. So it must be because you get stung
all the time by your bees.
Speaker 3 (19:21):
Absolutely, And there's been proof also that we have a
natural resistance to some of the stars viruses. So I mean,
you don't want to take advantage of that, but we
do have some natural resistance just because we're being stung
all the time.
Speaker 1 (19:35):
So you're getting stung, you're eating the pollen and you're
eating the honey. What mortgage you asked for?
Speaker 3 (19:39):
Yeah, we get lots of exercise, so let me talk
to you, which is the best thing for us.
Speaker 1 (19:43):
And when the three of you together, you're always laughing,
and laughter is one of the best medicines you can
find out there, I tell you. The two reu just
crack me up. Barbie Bletcher always a pleasure. Tell mister
Childs his books are absolutely outstanding, and this back rounds.
We need to get that one republished again.
Speaker 3 (20:00):
I will certainly tell him that.
Speaker 1 (20:02):
All right, thank you so much for your time, and
we will talk to you this fall.
Speaker 3 (20:07):
Thanks for your support, all.
Speaker 1 (20:08):
Right, Barbi Bletcher our Queen Bee quick break, we come back.
Phone lines are open for you at eight two to
one WTVN, eight hundred and sixty ten WTVN. You know
where it's happening, news radio six to ten WTVN. Because
it's just then a totally fascinating what they can do,
(20:29):
how they all know to work together, you know, the
busy bee thing and all of that. I just it's
it's amazing stuff but crazy. But again, I think that
the bottom line here two things. One is, you know,
be pollinator friendly, which we've always talked about, and support
the local beekeepers. And it's very very important that you
do both of those, so please keep that in mind.
(20:49):
But and respect the bees. I mean, let's face respect
the bees. As a matter of fact, Joe, he and
I were talking this week about seeing more starting to
see now the hornets starting to now they're getting some
size to them, people are starting to notice them, and
of course yellowjackets, and of course their taste will start
to change as we start to get into the fall season,
going more towards the sweets and sugars and things like that,
(21:12):
so be cautious about that, but you know, they're how
beneficial they all really are if you can work with them.
But I'll tell you that the honeybee thing is just
and our native bees too, just phenomenal. What they do
and how they know to do all that is crazy,
especially the drying down of the honey that's crazy. Real quick,
before we go back to the guarding phone lines. Two
(21:34):
things going on. One coming up next two weeks Saturday,
August thirty first, we have two weeks one to five
on the thirty first and on Sunday one to four.
It is the Dahlias Show, the fifty eighth Dahlia Show.
We had Jeff and Linda Lane on last week talking
about this, talking about growing dahlias and if you'd like
to learn more about them, see Lots of Great Dahias
(21:57):
and meet Jeff and Linda Lane again. And it's August
the thirty first on Saturday one to five Sunday September
the first, one to four at the Union County YMCA
and Marysville. And for more information just go to their
website Columbus Dallyas dot com. That's Columbus Dallyas dot com.
And then if you're looking for a little bit of
(22:18):
a garden tour, well, the Columbus Garden Railway Society is
having their annual backyard tour, so you get to see
the garden railways plus with beautiful gardens that go along
with these. It's it's open to the public. I think
there are twelve gardens railway gardens for you to visit
on this particular tour. Again, it's on Sunday, September the eighth,
(22:40):
from one until five. It's absolutely free. For more information,
go to their website. It's the cg r S dot
com I believe on there. Yes, thecg RS dot org.
I'm sorry, get my orgs and comms mixed up, but
it's the cg R dot orgon They're they're garden tours
(23:02):
coming up on Sunday, September the eighth, so be sure
and check out both of those great events. Neil, thanks
for holding on. You're in the garden with Ron Wilson.
Speaker 2 (23:12):
Yes, Iron, Neil, we're changing our landscape and we pulled
the maulch up and I leveled the ground out with soil.
I sprayed it and now I'm putting a black mate
down that's water and I want to cover that with
landscaping stones. Am I going about this?
Speaker 1 (23:34):
The right way. Is it going to be just stones,
no plants all, just just a stone area.
Speaker 2 (23:40):
Well, we don't know where we're going to put the plants,
so I thought when I got ready to put the
plants in, I just pulled the stones back and make
a cross and pull the mat back and plant the plant.
Speaker 1 (23:55):
Okay, Yeah, you can do it that way, no doubt. Yeah,
and have yourself a tarp or something you put over
top of the gravel so you keep that soil out
of the gravel, because the last thing you want is
to start getting soil on top of that fabric and
then that gravel because then and it's going to happen
over time. But then when we seeds blow in, they've
(24:16):
got a little something to germinate in. So maybe you know,
keep it as clean as you can as you're digging
the holes to do that, so you know, really give
yourself a nice V error and X so you can
really open it up wide to dig the holes, get
them planted, get that back down again, and go from there.
But clean out as much as the dirt as you
can when you finally come back to put the gravel down.
(24:36):
But are you going about the right way? Yeah, I
mean that's absolutely, I mean you could. If it were me,
I would probably try to do it where I would
get the fabric down, get the plants planted, and then
come back and put the gravel down. But if you're
not ready to plant the plants yet, you know you can.
(24:57):
You can do what you were talking about and pull
the grap back.
Speaker 2 (25:00):
Yes, this is on the west side of the house.
We had some spruce trees in there, but over time
they were about thirty years old and they, you know,
by keeping them trim, they just got so woody. We
took them out. We've got a Japanese maple and four
junipers in there.
Speaker 1 (25:22):
Now.
Speaker 2 (25:22):
This is an area of the house where it's kind
of like a U exposed to.
Speaker 1 (25:25):
The west right.
Speaker 2 (25:27):
Would you have any suggestions on what type of plants
to put in.
Speaker 1 (25:32):
Without seeing it, I will say no. And the reason
I say that is i'd you know, I'd rather when
it suggest plants, like to see the house, like to
see the other plants around it, what we're looking at
as far as what we're filling in. So you know,
you can send me some pictures. I could throw some
ideas back at you. Take some pictures of it and
dimensions and go to a local garden center and let
(25:54):
somebody take a look at it. Right now is a
great time to do that, as a matter of fact,
because they're you know, they're getting geared up for the
fall season and can draw you a little sketch and
do some ideas for you. That way. I'll be more
happy to throw some plants at you as well, but
I'd rather see the location before I would give you
any suggestions as far as what to put in there.
And I think the other thing I do want to
suggest to you, I'm not a big landscape fabric fan.
(26:19):
In that particular case where you're gonna put gravel down,
that is the best way to go because that one
keeps the gravel from getting into the soil, because it'll
just sink and disappear. And secondly, if by chance, you
ever decide you want to change your mind and not
have that gravel, at least that landscape fabric makes it
a little bit easier for you to collect it up
and get rid of it. And that does happen somewhere
(26:41):
down the road. So you know, again, I'm not a
big fan of the fabric, but in that particular case,
that is the best way for you to go. But
if at all possible, Neil, I would certainly look to
get it every great thing to go. Put the fabric down, plant,
clean the fabric off, and then come back in and
(27:01):
do the gravel. As my final application.
Speaker 2 (27:05):
Okay, very good. Now, I was going to keep the
plant about four and a half to five feet away
from the house. It seemed like a corner.
Speaker 1 (27:13):
Yes, most give it plenty of room. Well most, yeah,
most definitely look look at go ahead and look whatever
plant you're going to do in there, give it plenty
of room because a lot of times we forget about
them growing up against the foundation. And you want to
give it both in a room to the front and
to the back. So depending on what you use, yes,
get it away from the foundation, so you've got room
(27:36):
that you would have room to work around behind the plant,
between it and the foundation of your home. Absolutely.
Speaker 2 (27:43):
Now I've noticed star House's brick and on the west
side when during the summer, that brick will be probably
twenty degrees hotter than the air temperature around the plant, yep,
And it seems like it kind of stunts the growth
on the rosebush on the side to the house.
Speaker 1 (28:02):
You've got to be careful when you're you know, not
only we now talking about full sun, but we're also
talking about the reflection of heat off of that brick building.
You're absolutely correct. You you're going to add to it
just a little bit by putting the stones down below,
because stones sometimes can heat up just a little bit
more than an actual bark mulch can, so you might
get a little bit more heat out of that too.
(28:23):
So again, plant selection, if you go to a local
garden center with your sketch to get your sketch, tell
them to you know, keep that in mind because that
can be a little bit tougher on some plants. And
that's where you know, as long as you're keeping water
to evergreens may wind up being your best shot. Hey,
we got to take a break, Neil. I appreciate it
if you send me the email or watch for it. Otherwise,
(28:45):
check out your local independent garden center, take a picture
of the area, dimensions of the area. Let them give
you some ideas, some suggestions. If they do, send those
to me and I'll you know, give you my thoughts
and feedback on that one as well. And right now
is a great time to do this because is a
couple weeks away, meteorological fall starts, and fall is a great, great,
great time to plant a two to one WTVN. That's
(29:08):
our number here at news Radio six to ten WTVN
talking to your arding here on news radio six '
ten WTVN. Real quick, before we go back to the
gardening phone lines. You know, this is a time in
August fifteenth through the thirtieth of September optimum seeding time.
If you want to renovate the lawn, you got thin
areas in the lawn you want to oversee or reced
(29:30):
Now's between now and the other September is the time
to do it. And if you've got to kill things out,
like I'm getting a lot of emails right now saying
I got this this area, and it's got this coming
up and that coming up, and what is it? Blah
blah blah. And the chances are as you look at
it as a combination maybe some crab grass and some
orchard grass or regular grass and a few other weeds,
(29:51):
where it's probably better off just to go in there
with a vegetation killer, kill everything out in that area
and reced it. I mean, that's just the usually the
best way to go than trying to spot weed and wait,
and you know Furtilum's Weed Free Zone, Bonny's a weed
Beater Ultra. Those are two weed killers that you can
(30:11):
put down and receed within about two to three weeks.
But that's very rare that you can do that. The
Tenacity is one that you can put down and take care.
But point being is this, if if you need to
clear an area out, you need to give it time
to kill everything out. So you need to get on
it soon to kill all that out, so it's ready
to go within our next this next six week period.
(30:32):
So if you're going in there and say you want
to just do okay, I'm gonna do a total vegetation killer,
and commonly we would say round Up, right, yeah, yeah,
use Roundup, go in there and clear it out. Remember
what we talked about. This spring, round Up has a
new label on their homeowner's version of round Up all
right of the ready to use and I think the
(30:55):
concentrate as well, but it's it's a new formula and
it says exclusive formula on there. And if it says
that on the label, because they still have some of
the old stuff still out there, it's not glyphosate anymore.
It's a combination of three different weed killers, and there
are new restrictions on the time you have to wait
before you can see the time you have to wait
(31:16):
before you can replant. I'd be very cautious about spraying
it around the bottom of trees and shrubs. There's a
lot of restrictions on this one, so check it out
before you use the newly formulated roundup for killing everything out,
because you might have to wait longer than you would
the old formula. So you would say, well, what else
(31:37):
is out there? Well, Fertilome another company like that that
makes another you know, another chemical company. We've we've always said,
you know, use roundup kills all cleanup well kills. All
is glyphosate and it's furtil homes vegetation killer, non selective
vegetation vegetation killer. If you're looking for the same formula
(31:59):
that round you used to have, that is Fertilome's kills
All Okay, if you want to go, And they've they've
got their own new one now where they've taken the
glyph of State out. They've got another one called Decimate,
which is glue fascinate. I don't want to confuse you here,
but that's available for you. And then if you want
to go all natural and kill everything out, there are
grass and weed killers that are all natural that are
(32:21):
made out of fatty acids from soaps. It's a folier burn,
but that's available for you as well. And again Fertilom
has them and there's several companies that have them as well.
But read the label as far as what you're spraying.
But you need to get on this right away to
get these areas cleared out so that you can come
back in and maybe do a little core air rating,
(32:42):
kind of do a little you know, as some organic
matter back to that particular area. Then come back in
and slice seed or overseed, you know, do whatever you
need to do over top of the seed, a little
starter fertilizer, and then of course keeping the moisture to
it as it continues to we get into the fall
season and continues to germinate and grow to re establish
those areas. But point being is, make sure you read
(33:04):
the label on these products if you are doing that,
and you need to get on it right away. Bob,
good morning, Ron.
Speaker 4 (33:13):
Good Hello, Ron, good morning, good morning. Quick question on sunflowers.
I know always a good topic. I called a few
weeks back. You mentioned mushroom composts or you know, just
sorrow moist and all, and it seems to be working.
Why did you know your ideas on truning? Uh? You know,
(33:35):
for some reason, this year has just totally gone back
with a ton flowers. They all died out when we
had all that rain, all the seedlings, you know, early spring.
And I've been doing sort of an experiment where uh,
I don't know, I have splurge, I just have you know, yellowing.
And also I've actually been tuning maybe half of them,
(33:56):
and that seem to have helped a little bit any time,
but I see it at least uh, you know, and
I left some u not proof and they're they're doing okay,
but still seem to be doing as well. So just
any timent time maybe truing off. You know, specifically sunflowers
when they're leads, you know, certainly you look.
Speaker 1 (34:16):
Bad, you know, if they are fifty or more brown,
not looking good, or if it's a leaf disease, which
you'd have to you know, somebody have to take a
look at, trying to diagnose. But typically that is a
good way to get rid of it. Just pick it
off and get rid of it. Obviously, they count on
those leaves for as far as feeding the roots, feeding
the plant developing eventually that seedhead on the top. So
(34:39):
you want to leave as many on as you can.
But if it's a I usually look at it and say,
if it's fifty percent or more that's damaged on the leaf,
doesn't look good. It's probably not doing the plant a
whole lot of good. You can get those off of
there and leave all of the rest. So you know
to do that, Yeah, I don't see why not. As
a matter of fact, one of the things I was
going to talk about today is the fact that if
you look at a vegetable, and right now you look
(35:00):
at tomatoes and some of the other plants really starting
to look kind of crappy. Really at the bottom, you're
starting to get all these brown leaves, and some are
diseased and some aren't. But just clip all, you know,
pick all those off, prod all those off of there,
so you've got just good green leaves left. It looks
a lot better you get all that all the dead
stuff away from everything, and I think the plants perform
(35:22):
better than carrying all that dead stuff. So you know,
without seeing that, I don't know what you got going on.
But yeah, if it's fifty percent or more damaged or
it doesn't look good, then I'd say pick it off,
get rid of it.
Speaker 4 (35:34):
Okay, Now that's just hoping you say that. And then
again I started doing tomatoes, same deal. I do know
I have slurge on some of the tomato plants, and
again the same thing, brown leaves dead.
Speaker 1 (35:47):
Yeah, just get it, clean it up. That's all we
got to go. Bob. I appreciate the call, but yeah,
you're right, all right, but that's it. You look at
the garden right now, clean stuff up, dayla. As we
were talking earlier about that. If they look nasty, cut
them off, they'll kind of lush back up a little bit.
But get rid of all the dead leaves right now
and dead branches that you see as you walk around
your yard and garden. Thanks all of our callers, Thanks
(36:07):
to our sponsors, Thanks of course to Ella, our producer,
because without Ella, none of this stuff would happen. So Ella,
thank you again for so much for all that you
do to make this show happen. Now do yourself a favor.
Want you to go out this weekend. Do a little gardening,
but make it the best weekend of your life. See
you
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