Garden Horror Stories

<v Speaker 1>Coming to you from historic, iconic studio, a spooky studio,
<v Speaker 1>A here at proven winners, color choice shrubs. It's time
<v Speaker 1>for the Gardening Simplified Show with Stacy Hervella me, Rick
<v Speaker 1>weisst and our engineer and producer Adrianna Robinson. Well, today
<v Speaker 1>we talk about spooky stories.
<v Speaker 2>May hello, the lights went out in the studio.
<v Speaker 1>Maintain your I told you it was historic and iconic.
<v Speaker 1>Maintain your composture today as we share horror stories from
<v Speaker 1>our listeners, this is going to be fun. And of
<v Speaker 1>course we all have our share of well sheer madness
<v Speaker 1>stories in the landscape. I know I have plenty. And
<v Speaker 1>as a bonus today also Stacy's gonna share a spooky
<v Speaker 1>Halloween poem with us.
<v Speaker 2>Yes, an original word I love.
<v Speaker 1>It and a limb a rick that will have you shaking.
<v Speaker 1>It's based on my neighborhood and my experience in my neighborhood.
<v Speaker 1>That's that's all coming up today. It's gonna be fun.
<v Speaker 2>It's gonna be a great, big scary show. I know
<v Speaker 2>Halloween is officially over by a few days, but you know,
<v Speaker 2>the spirit continues into this weekend, so it continues on
<v Speaker 2>the Gardening simplified show as well.
<v Speaker 1>Well, let me share scary with you. Halloween maybe a
<v Speaker 1>couple days over, but that means it's time for daylight
<v Speaker 1>saving time.
<v Speaker 2>Yay, sleep, sweet sweet sleep, bright mornings.
<v Speaker 1>I am ready, don't forget to fall back. Well, we
<v Speaker 1>had petitioned folks to give us horror stories from their landscape,
<v Speaker 1>and why don't we Why don't we dive into something
<v Speaker 1>all right? Right off the back? Sure, Stacy Brook writes
<v Speaker 1>to us. We bought a house last fall where the
<v Speaker 1>previous homeowners didn't know what they had on their property,
<v Speaker 1>did plant management. We inherited about a two thousand square
<v Speaker 1>foot wall of buckthorn along two sides of the property
<v Speaker 1>and a poison ivy wall covering the chimney. And she
<v Speaker 1>attached a photo. That's quite a special it is.
<v Speaker 2>It is a admirable specimen of poison ivy. If it weren't
<v Speaker 2>so difficult to manage and growing up the chimney and
<v Speaker 2>onto the roof like that, imagine that is a nightmare.
<v Speaker 2>This is a legitimate nightmare.
<v Speaker 1>Misery loves company, So thanks for sharing with us, Brooke.
<v Speaker 1>We were able to kill the poison ivy with chemicals,
<v Speaker 1>but still had to remove sprouts multiple times this year.
<v Speaker 1>We had a landscaping company remove the buckthorn, and while
<v Speaker 1>we have a end quote lawn there now, it's actually
<v Speaker 1>a thick blanket of weeds invasives that we keep mowing down.
<v Speaker 1>We're currently trying to figure out how to best tackle
<v Speaker 1>this two thousand square foot area. Add this to thistle
<v Speaker 1>and tree of Heaven growing in most beds and chipmunks
<v Speaker 1>getting into the crevices of the house, We've got a
<v Speaker 1>great gardening haunted house for Halloween. Hooray for home ownership, Brook,
<v Speaker 1>How long has this been going on? Oh?
<v Speaker 2>My word, yeah, you know, I love the chi ends.
<v Speaker 2>Hooray for home ownership because I think anyone who has
<v Speaker 2>bought a new home, and especially if it was an
<v Speaker 2>older new home, has had their share of horror stories
<v Speaker 2>to deal with, you know, things that are difficult to manage.
<v Speaker 2>Like I know, when I moved into my house, one
<v Speaker 2>of my least favorite invasive plants, Agapodium also known as
<v Speaker 2>Bishop's me was well established. Yes, and you know it
<v Speaker 2>gives you something to do. But I think that Brook's
<v Speaker 2>photo of that poison ivy is definitely makes a case
<v Speaker 2>for this being a true horrse ory. No one wants
<v Speaker 2>any poison ivy that big, especially growing literally on their house.
<v Speaker 1>Yeah, and Brooke mentions here, we bought the house last fall.
<v Speaker 1>So if you're buying a house in fall or maybe
<v Speaker 1>in winter, and the lance cape is sight unseen in spring,
<v Speaker 1>unidentified flowering objects start popping.
<v Speaker 2>Up, right, You're like, what's that charming vine covering the chimney?
<v Speaker 2>It must be a climbing hydrangea. Unfortunately, no, And you know,
<v Speaker 2>poison ivy is so hard to manage. And I would
<v Speaker 2>just caution anybody out there who is sitting there going
<v Speaker 2>poison ivy. I never got poison ivy. I am not
<v Speaker 2>allergic to poison ivy. To always approach it with caution
<v Speaker 2>because I am also not super allergic to poison ivy.
<v Speaker 2>But anytime I have had to handle it directly, like
<v Speaker 2>if I've been hiking or walking and it kind of
<v Speaker 2>brushes your pants or your ankle, you know, for me,
<v Speaker 2>that's not usually an issue. But anytime I have handled
<v Speaker 2>it directly, I have gotten poison ivy. And I'll tell
<v Speaker 2>you that is an itch that is like nothing else. Oh,
<v Speaker 2>it's so painful, it's so irritating.
<v Speaker 1>You can engaged with poison ivy. You need divine intervention.
<v Speaker 1>Let me tell you now. To control poison ivy, it's
<v Speaker 1>gorgeous in the fall. The color is un believably beautiful.
<v Speaker 1>And to control poison ivy, I truly believe that fall
<v Speaker 1>and late fall is the time to control. Cutting the
<v Speaker 1>plant at the base, you don't necessarily have to handle it.
<v Speaker 1>Cutting it at the base, brushing on brush killer directly
<v Speaker 1>to the stump to undiluted while it's still fresh, because
<v Speaker 1>poison ivy is translocating into the root system, just like
<v Speaker 1>the trees are in fall. That's the key with poison
<v Speaker 1>ivy in my mind.
<v Speaker 2>And remember, never ever burn any poison ivy trimming.
<v Speaker 1>Yes, agree, I agree in.
<v Speaker 2>Case unless you want a real horse story on your ends.
<v Speaker 1>So Hey, Stacy Corey from Netta's Nursery in Posin' Michigan
<v Speaker 1>wrote to.
<v Speaker 2>Us, Oh, yeah, I love this story. And I think
<v Speaker 2>a lot of our listeners, if they're not familiar with
<v Speaker 2>this product, they may not immediately like I saw where
<v Speaker 2>this was going right away, and I'm sure you did
<v Speaker 2>as well. But this will paint a vivid picture for you.
<v Speaker 2>So Corey says, at my family's nursery, we noticed that
<v Speaker 2>some of our potted trees were shown signs of chlorosis.
<v Speaker 2>Since our water naturally has a high pH or an
<v Speaker 2>alkaline water, we were advised to add a powdered form
<v Speaker 2>of iron to the soil. A product was recommended supposedly
<v Speaker 2>perfect for potted trees, so we decided to give it
<v Speaker 2>a shut. The next morning, one of our high school
<v Speaker 2>aged waterers burst into the office wide eyed, exclaiming, it
<v Speaker 2>looks like someone was murdered in the apple trees.
<v Speaker 1>Oh, I love it.
<v Speaker 2>The powdered iron we had applied had turned a deep
<v Speaker 2>blood red color, which makes sense. Iron is abundant in
<v Speaker 2>blood so and most iron is probably sourced from animal
<v Speaker 2>blood that, when mixed with water, stained the soil. In
<v Speaker 2>some areas, It even ran from under the pots in streaks,
<v Speaker 2>creating a scene that could have been mistaken for a
<v Speaker 2>crime scene. To top it all off, my sister sent
<v Speaker 2>us a video of her washing out the iron stained
<v Speaker 2>buckets from the job. It looked as if she was
<v Speaker 2>scrubbing away evidence from a scene in Dexter, with splashes
<v Speaker 2>of red everywhere. She underestimated the products. She clearly didn't
<v Speaker 2>gear up properly. It took us a while to stop
<v Speaker 2>laughing and a tidy of the row before our customers arrived.
<v Speaker 1>What a fantastic story. That is fantastic. We call that
<v Speaker 1>involuntary plant slaughter.
<v Speaker 2>I guess so, and yeah, I mean it totally makes sense.
<v Speaker 2>Iron does have that deep kind of blood red color,
<v Speaker 2>not the bright blood red like the dried blood colors.
<v Speaker 2>So you can imagine some for high school student feeling like, yes,
<v Speaker 2>something very bad had happened in the apple trees. Thank
<v Speaker 2>you for that, Corey, Thank you so much. Is a
<v Speaker 2>great story.
<v Speaker 1>It is great. Let me share a limb a rick
<v Speaker 1>with you of my neighborhood. As long as we're talking
<v Speaker 1>about scary stories, these are neighbors in my neighborhood. So
<v Speaker 1>Frank lives down the street. His yard is a trick,
<v Speaker 1>not a treat. The ground's really hard in his lifeless yard.
<v Speaker 1>Plants die when they root in concrete. Victor in his tank,
<v Speaker 1>a spray is brewing. He does know what he's doing.
<v Speaker 1>He won't read we'd killer instruction and caused widespread destruction.
<v Speaker 1>Now my neighborhood is stewing. Zelda's plants are yellow and browning, watering,
<v Speaker 1>just leaves her frowning. Poor Zelda is in such a
<v Speaker 1>dither all her plants curl up and wither, either dead
<v Speaker 1>from drought or drowning. And Jack's backyard heap we should sabotage.
<v Speaker 1>Is it compost or just trash to camouflage exactly what's
<v Speaker 1>under that tarp? Why are is tools so sharp? What
<v Speaker 1>goes on behind his garage? Blair's yard ornaments are appalling.
<v Speaker 1>This one's for you, Stacy. Blair's yard ornaments are appalling.
<v Speaker 1>Her yard is tacky and sprawling. If not convicted for crimes,
<v Speaker 1>I can't silence her wind chimes, security cameras they're installing.
<v Speaker 1>And finally, Freddie, a perfectionist next door. Every blade of
<v Speaker 1>grass he can account for for one weed. He's frantic,
<v Speaker 1>completely pedantic, garage so clean you could eat off the floor.
<v Speaker 1>So here's the moral of the story with my neighbors.
<v Speaker 1>So as you peek through the curtains, let me remind
<v Speaker 1>to our neighbors we should be kind. They see all
<v Speaker 1>the things you are batching. When you trip on a hose,
<v Speaker 1>they are watching as you fall on your behind. That's
<v Speaker 1>my neighborhood where we'll be trick or.
<v Speaker 2>Treated I love it. I love it. It sounds like
<v Speaker 2>a very colorful place and very relatable.
<v Speaker 1>Yeah, exactly. So, you know, plenty of horror stories to
<v Speaker 1>go around. And I have fun with my neighbors. Okay,
<v Speaker 1>I mean, I've got two types of neighbors. When the
<v Speaker 1>type of neighbor when I walk out the door, they
<v Speaker 1>come running with their questions and there, you know, and
<v Speaker 1>the other ones that don't ask questions and are struggling
<v Speaker 1>out there and you can watch from a distance and
<v Speaker 1>it's a lot of fun. But I love my neighborhood.
<v Speaker 1>We're going to share more horror stories with you, and
<v Speaker 1>thanks for sending them to us. But we'll share more
<v Speaker 1>of those here in the upcoming segments, as well as
<v Speaker 1>Stacy's I'm not going to call it terrifying poem. What
<v Speaker 1>would we call it, Stacy, what's the correct adjective?
<v Speaker 2>Bone chilling?
<v Speaker 1>Bone chilling? A bone chilling poem coming up that's coming
<v Speaker 1>up next here On The Gardening Simplified.
<v Speaker 2>Show, Proven Winners Colored Choice Shrubs cares about your success
<v Speaker 2>in the garden. That's why we trial and test all
<v Speaker 2>of our shrubs for eight to ten years, making sure
<v Speaker 2>they outperform everything else. On the market, look for them
<v Speaker 2>in the distinctive white container at your local garden center.
<v Speaker 2>Greeting's Gardening friends, and welcome back to the Gardening Simplified Show.
<v Speaker 2>You know, usually we would be putting a plant on
<v Speaker 2>trial at this time in the show and telling you
<v Speaker 2>about one of the three hundred and fifty plus Proven
<v Speaker 2>Winner's Colored Choice Shrubs, but today we're devoting it all
<v Speaker 2>to our listener stories. So hang in there, plans and trial.
<v Speaker 2>We'll be back next week as you would expect. But
<v Speaker 2>as we're in the Halloween spirit, I wanted to mention
<v Speaker 2>that our team here Proven Winner's Colored Choice Shrubs contains
<v Speaker 2>many big time Halloween fans, especially our creative director Shannon.
<v Speaker 2>She is one of the biggest Halloween fans that I know.
<v Speaker 2>She makes elaborate costumes every year and she just loves it.
<v Speaker 2>And between Shannon and since Adriana joined the team as
<v Speaker 2>our videographer, we have a little maybe tradition we don't
<v Speaker 2>do it every year of making Halloween videos for Proven
<v Speaker 2>Winners Color Choice Shrubs, and very often, you know, these
<v Speaker 2>go on our YouTube channel and kind of get buried.
<v Speaker 2>So if you are a Halloween fan or would just
<v Speaker 2>like to prolong the Halloween spirit in this post Halloween weekend,
<v Speaker 2>I would encourage you to look at our very silly,
<v Speaker 2>tongue in cheek, very often fun Halloween videos. We have
<v Speaker 2>done everything from a spoof off the show ghost Hunters.
<v Speaker 2>Is that what it's called Ghost Hunters?
<v Speaker 1>Ghost?
<v Speaker 2>No, it's a show like a reality show. Yeah, ghost Adventures, Yeah,
<v Speaker 2>thank you Adriana. So we did a spoof on Ghost Adventures.
<v Speaker 2>We have done Shopping with the Monsters, where all the
<v Speaker 2>classic horror movie monsters were shopping in a garden center
<v Speaker 2>for plants. I won't spoil them all, so please do
<v Speaker 2>check that out. And of course we'll put a link
<v Speaker 2>on the show notes at Gardening Simplified on air dot
<v Speaker 2>com as well as in our YouTube description, so you
<v Speaker 2>don't have to miss those as we're in the season.
<v Speaker 2>But let's not take any more time talking about that.
<v Speaker 2>Let's talk about our stories. We are continuing on the theme,
<v Speaker 2>the not surprising theme of maintenance nightmares, because that's something
<v Speaker 2>that happens a lot, and we heard from Julia. She
<v Speaker 2>wrote a very nice note. And Julia's story is one
<v Speaker 2>that I can definitely relate to you, and I will
<v Speaker 2>tell you why after I have read it, So here's
<v Speaker 2>what Julia sent us. Our entire backyard was a horror
<v Speaker 2>story when we moved in two years ago. It had
<v Speaker 2>been neglected for years. Bamboo had invaded, and the previous
<v Speaker 2>owner tried to combat it with a cheap tarp and
<v Speaker 2>huge rocks. Good luck that is no match for bamboo,
<v Speaker 2>considering that even asphalt and concrete are not a.
<v Speaker 1>Match for lower bloom.
<v Speaker 2>Okay, and for some reason, we keep finding broken glass
<v Speaker 2>all over the yard, broken window panes, fine china, porcelain,
<v Speaker 2>halloween decor, in case, baseball cards, you name it. We've
<v Speaker 2>easily picked up fifty pounds of broken glass from every
<v Speaker 2>area of the yard. Not the safest place for our
<v Speaker 2>dog and our two little kids. This horror story does
<v Speaker 2>have a happy ending, though, and landscapers ripped out the bamboo,
<v Speaker 2>the tarp and the rocks. They put in a bamboo
<v Speaker 2>barrier so it looks like a yard and not an
<v Speaker 2>overgrown jungle now. But we're still finding the odd piece
<v Speaker 2>of broken glass. Wow, now I totally relate to. So
<v Speaker 2>my house was built like in the nineteen tens, and
<v Speaker 2>you know back then there was not municipal garbage pickup.
<v Speaker 2>There was not, you know, really even like trash bins
<v Speaker 2>in that kind of thing, and people buried their trash.
<v Speaker 2>They just buried their trash in the backyard. And of course,
<v Speaker 2>you know, when you think about it, like food was
<v Speaker 2>not didn't have as much packaging, so you generally would
<v Speaker 2>have less trash than you would have now. But the
<v Speaker 2>main trash you would have is when things broke, whether
<v Speaker 2>that was a window pane or a drinking glass or china,
<v Speaker 2>et cetera. And so yeah, I find all sorts of
<v Speaker 2>broken glass, broken glass bottles, like old china patterns. No
<v Speaker 2>matter where we dig in our yard, we always find
<v Speaker 2>these little bits and pieces, and I do save them
<v Speaker 2>because I find them quite interesting. I'm hoping to do
<v Speaker 2>something with them someday. And sometimes we'll find like a
<v Speaker 2>mother load where like a lot of stuff had been buried.
<v Speaker 2>Usually it's just kind of the odd piece here and there.
<v Speaker 2>But yeah, broken glass, it's definitely not great if you
<v Speaker 2>want your kids to actually play in your yard.
<v Speaker 1>You know, I've heard from some folks who have this problem,
<v Speaker 1>and I think you're right. People were just putting the
<v Speaker 1>trash in the yard. But there have been circumstances people
<v Speaker 1>have talked about the fact that crows will carry shiny
<v Speaker 1>things to the yard. Sometimes someone has back filled with
<v Speaker 1>really bad backfill. That has happened. And here's another theory
<v Speaker 1>on this spooky story. Maybe someone used the yard as
<v Speaker 1>a shooting range.
<v Speaker 2>Ah. That's yeah, the broken glass would definitely make sense
<v Speaker 2>in that case. But yeah, so it does take time
<v Speaker 2>to pick up. Some of the glass that I find
<v Speaker 2>is actually pretty interesting. It's blue or purple or kind
<v Speaker 2>of pretty, you know, not just like the regular boring
<v Speaker 2>glass someone you know shot just to break something.
<v Speaker 1>Well, thanks for sharing with us, Julia, and you are
<v Speaker 1>definitely a yard core gardener. All right. My garden horror story,
<v Speaker 1>Karma writes to us. My garden horror story occurred at
<v Speaker 1>my previous home, so I cannot give you pictures. My
<v Speaker 1>horror includes bermuda grass bindweed. Our lush, beautiful Kentucky bluegrass
<v Speaker 1>that we planted by seeds started getting bermuda grass creeping in.
<v Speaker 1>There was no way to control it. Soon the entire
<v Speaker 1>neighborhood suffered, as did our lawn. I prefer a lush
<v Speaker 1>green run barefoot as the grass tickles my feet kind
<v Speaker 1>of lawn. How many hours did I waste trying to
<v Speaker 1>pull that vertical growing curse that hurts your feet. Bind
<v Speaker 1>Weed came years later, but a horrible hard to kill
<v Speaker 1>weed solution. We moved to a new development.
<v Speaker 2>That is one way to deal with the nightmare. For sure.
<v Speaker 1>This two shell grass, yes, exactly. Wow, what a nightmare.
<v Speaker 1>And of course bindweed stacey you know, looks like little
<v Speaker 1>morning glory flowers on it, but the root system on
<v Speaker 1>that weed is very extensive.
<v Speaker 2>The root system is very extensive. I mean you can
<v Speaker 2>chase it down and dig out like huge kind of
<v Speaker 2>tubers and that kind of thing. And you know, I
<v Speaker 2>will confess, when I was a younger gardener doing landscaping,
<v Speaker 2>I often left bind weed because I did think it
<v Speaker 2>was a morning glory, even though the flowers it's kind
<v Speaker 2>of pretty, and I assumed that it was a morning glory.
<v Speaker 2>So I'm very sorry to the people in those developments
<v Speaker 2>where I was supposed to be weeding and I left
<v Speaker 2>your bind weed. But it's also called bind weed for
<v Speaker 2>a reason, and that is that it curves and crawls
<v Speaker 2>around things, and it can cause a lot of damage
<v Speaker 2>to plants.
<v Speaker 1>It can actually choke out a shrub, yes, see where
<v Speaker 1>they just and that's why they call it bind weed.
<v Speaker 1>So yeah, it's it's kind of a scary thing. And
<v Speaker 1>bermuda grass when you get that into a nice Kentucky
<v Speaker 1>bluegrass lawn, it's not like you can use weed killer
<v Speaker 1>on it. You're going to have to use a total
<v Speaker 1>kill herbicide to get rid of it. It's very, very
<v Speaker 1>difficult to control.
<v Speaker 2>Great bermuda grass is often used on its own as
<v Speaker 2>a grass, in which case it's a fact dive and
<v Speaker 2>find and know. As Karma points out, you won't get that,
<v Speaker 2>you know, lush, beautiful green lawn that you want to
<v Speaker 2>actually walk on. But it's effective, yes, but in competition
<v Speaker 2>with other grasses, it's a nightmare, absolutely hot weather grass.
<v Speaker 1>And here in the North, you're definitely going to want
<v Speaker 1>something other than.
<v Speaker 2>Yes, you should definitely make that clear. That is that
<v Speaker 2>is very important. So Judy writes with a horror story
<v Speaker 2>that I have seen this one happen before, although not
<v Speaker 2>to the extent that Judy shares. And we do have
<v Speaker 2>photos from Judy, so you can see those at Gardenings
<v Speaker 2>Simplified on air dot Com or on our YouTube version.
<v Speaker 2>So Judy says, our garden horror story happened just this season.
<v Speaker 2>I have some roses and other plants that I wanted
<v Speaker 2>to get planted, but we knew we wouldn't get to
<v Speaker 2>it right away, so my husband put a couple strips
<v Speaker 2>of plant fabric down in our large garden. Whatever you
<v Speaker 2>call this plant fabric, landscape fabric, so called weed barrier,
<v Speaker 2>any other name, whatever name you use, it is actually
<v Speaker 2>a nightmare. It's horrible. It was the cheap stuff because
<v Speaker 2>we didn't know about the good stuff at the time.
<v Speaker 2>So sometimes, yes, the thicker stuff can be a bit
<v Speaker 2>more effective, even though it is a lot more expensive
<v Speaker 2>and requires more effort to put down as well as
<v Speaker 2>to take up. Now the plant fabric has become incorporated
<v Speaker 2>into the garden, with weeds and grass growing in and
<v Speaker 2>through it, and there is no way to pull it up,
<v Speaker 2>and we're not sure how we're going to row to
<v Speaker 2>tillet for next spring. I'm thinking my husband is going
<v Speaker 2>to have to take a chisel plow through it, and
<v Speaker 2>then I'm going to have to walk around and try
<v Speaker 2>to pick up the pieces. Fortunately it was only a
<v Speaker 2>small section of the garden, but lesson learned. I included
<v Speaker 2>three photos of our garden in the past year, so
<v Speaker 2>you can see the size of it, and wow, this
<v Speaker 2>is a definition of knitted together. See these.
<v Speaker 1>It's nasty. I tell you what, I'm not a fan
<v Speaker 1>of landscape fabric. I'm just not into it.
<v Speaker 2>Well, as Judy's story of tests, it does not actually
<v Speaker 2>keep down weeds, so all it does really is create
<v Speaker 2>a more different, you know, situation if you want to
<v Speaker 2>move a plant or add to your garden or anything
<v Speaker 2>like that, and it can in some cases actually interfere
<v Speaker 2>with the moisture. It can cause too much moisture or
<v Speaker 2>too little moisture around the plants. I mean, I have
<v Speaker 2>seen so so many people kill outright their plants. But
<v Speaker 2>with with having landscape.
<v Speaker 1>You're talking about woven polyester fibers, and it's somewhat porous,
<v Speaker 1>not completely porous. And in my landscape too, the previous
<v Speaker 1>owner used it and I've been pulling it up for years,
<v Speaker 1>and in areas underneath that landscape fabric it is dry
<v Speaker 1>as dust.
<v Speaker 2>Yeah, it's hard for water to penetrate, and if water
<v Speaker 2>does penetrate, it's very hard for it to evaporate. So
<v Speaker 2>I have definitely seen a lot of people kill plants
<v Speaker 2>that are sensitive to lots of water in the soil,
<v Speaker 2>namely lilacs and panicle ranges, just because yeah, they watered it,
<v Speaker 2>and that moisture just never really evaporates because there's no
<v Speaker 2>sun hitting the soil, there's wind hitting the soil. And
<v Speaker 2>you know, this is one of those things. It sounds
<v Speaker 2>like such a good idea, it sounds like such a
<v Speaker 2>fool proof idea, but the reality is far from that,
<v Speaker 2>and it usually does, indeed create a maintenance nightmare.
<v Speaker 1>Yeah, because the original use was primarily for retaining walls,
<v Speaker 1>retaining areas for commercial applications, but for the home, I
<v Speaker 1>really believe you're better off using mulch.
<v Speaker 2>I agree one hundred percent. All right, So we're going
<v Speaker 2>to take a little break on that note, and when
<v Speaker 2>we come back, we have more gardening horror stories, So
<v Speaker 2>please stay tuned. At proven Winner's Color Choice, we've got
<v Speaker 2>a shrub for every taste and every space. Whether you're
<v Speaker 2>looking for an easy care rows and unforgettable hydrangea or
<v Speaker 2>something new and unique, you can be confident that the
<v Speaker 2>shrubs and the white containers have been trialed and tested
<v Speaker 2>for your success. Look for them at your local garden center.
<v Speaker 2>Breading's Gardening Friends and Welcome back to the Gardening Simplified show,
<v Speaker 2>where we are spending this post Halloween episode talking about
<v Speaker 2>your garden horror stories, and horror stories happen to everyone
<v Speaker 2>in the garden. They can take any range from truly
<v Speaker 2>scary to mildly frightening to total nightmare. But I do
<v Speaker 2>you know, it was so fun to hear from everybody
<v Speaker 2>reading through these stories when I was checking our inbox.
<v Speaker 2>And you can email us at help HLP at Gardeningsimplified
<v Speaker 2>on air dot com, or just visit Gardening Simplified on
<v Speaker 2>air dot com to send us a message through our
<v Speaker 2>contact form. And you know, while I was reading through these,
<v Speaker 2>I saw so many people sending us great follow ups
<v Speaker 2>of you know, things that we had helped them with
<v Speaker 2>earlier in the season and saying here's what I did.
<v Speaker 1>I love that.
<v Speaker 2>I love that too, So we are definitely going to
<v Speaker 2>be covering those on a future episode. But I did
<v Speaker 2>want to just encourage you. If you have a success
<v Speaker 2>story to share with us, we will accept and love
<v Speaker 2>your success stories as much as your horror stories, So
<v Speaker 2>please feel free to reach out. And of course you
<v Speaker 2>can always leave comment on YouTube and that way all
<v Speaker 2>of your fellow YouTube viewers will be able to to
<v Speaker 2>join in and hear your story. So briefly, before we
<v Speaker 2>move to the Creepy Crawley stories, which I have to
<v Speaker 2>confess are my favorite, we have one last maintenance nightmare
<v Speaker 2>from listener Kathy, and she has an interesting spin on
<v Speaker 2>this because she said that a garden nightmare is seeing
<v Speaker 2>what a new owner did to your garden after you sold.
<v Speaker 2>And I'm sure you've had this here right. So she
<v Speaker 2>says her new homeowner over her house paved over mature
<v Speaker 2>Japanese maples and five foot tall tree peonies so he
<v Speaker 2>could park his truck.
<v Speaker 1>Yikes.
<v Speaker 2>Yeah, different values there. And Kathy also confesses that she
<v Speaker 2>once used the deer spray sprayer for weed killer and
<v Speaker 2>that was not a good combination.
<v Speaker 1>Yeah, mixing the wrong thing in a tank. I've seen
<v Speaker 1>that happen before. Not.
<v Speaker 2>So what do we got for Creepy Crawley's.
<v Speaker 1>Lacey says, Hello, Rick and Stacey. I generally always garden
<v Speaker 1>in a baseball hat, and now I'm glad that I do.
<v Speaker 1>One day this summer, I was working along in my
<v Speaker 1>garden filming a video for my YouTube channel, my Rustic Gardens.
<v Speaker 1>Upon the video airing a viewer pointed out something horrifying.
<v Speaker 1>For most of the video, I had a very large
<v Speaker 1>spider perched on my hat. This still gives me the
<v Speaker 1>hebgb's to think back on, knowing that I had no idea.
<v Speaker 2>Fun all the YouTube audience, it's like, oh my gosh,
<v Speaker 2>I got a spider on red. So I did look
<v Speaker 2>at Lacey's channel. She gardens in Oregon, USDA Zone Fante
<v Speaker 2>puts out a lot of very interesting videos, so we
<v Speaker 2>will make sure that we linked to her and you
<v Speaker 2>can check out her channel and find out what it's
<v Speaker 2>like to garden over on the other side of the country.
<v Speaker 1>Yeah, and that spider just wanted to be on the
<v Speaker 1>world Wide Web. He was on a webcam with Lacey Way,
<v Speaker 1>good job.
<v Speaker 2>You know all this talk about Creepy Crawley's it does
<v Speaker 2>remind me that I wrote this poem. I honestly don't
<v Speaker 2>remember as a few years ago, and I don't even
<v Speaker 2>remember at this point what inspired me to write it.
<v Speaker 2>But I want to share it with you now as
<v Speaker 2>we're talking about the Creepy Crawleys. You know, if you've
<v Speaker 2>listened to the show before, you know that I love
<v Speaker 2>insects and I'm a big believer in integrated pest management.
<v Speaker 2>So if you have problems in the garden, learning about
<v Speaker 2>them and finding a way to resolve them in a
<v Speaker 2>non toxic, very as peaceful as possible way. But I
<v Speaker 2>guess I let my imagination run wild one day when
<v Speaker 2>I was thinking about IPM, and I wrote the Gardener's Nightmare.
<v Speaker 2>So here it is. The candy bowl was empty, the
<v Speaker 2>candles all burned down. So I picked up a volume
<v Speaker 2>of Garden Verse and went to bed in my long
<v Speaker 2>flannel gown. Though I read a few poems and horticultural tips,
<v Speaker 2>I soon began to doze and nod with the words
<v Speaker 2>plant the rest of those crocus still on my lips.
<v Speaker 2>I awoke quite suddenly to a din, a true cacophony,
<v Speaker 2>that was coming from out in the garden, somewhere around
<v Speaker 2>my beloved Daphne. I went to the window, pulled back
<v Speaker 2>the shade, then ran down to the yard to witness
<v Speaker 2>an eleven mile long garden pest parade. Slugs and snails
<v Speaker 2>led the way, leaving trails of slime. Yet not a
<v Speaker 2>single raven flew in the sky to prey upon these
<v Speaker 2>vile things. One at a time. A million Japanese beetles followed,
<v Speaker 2>shells shining in the light. They skeletonized every leaf they
<v Speaker 2>came across, with neither be tea nor bucket of soapy
<v Speaker 2>water in sight. After them came mice and voles and
<v Speaker 2>terrifying array. They gnawed at the roots and the trees.
<v Speaker 2>Where was that red tailed hawk I saw yesterday? Shouldn't
<v Speaker 2>she be taking care of these? Next, the gophers and
<v Speaker 2>woodchucks lumbered as is their way. They looked me square
<v Speaker 2>in the eye and cackled as they drank a bottle
<v Speaker 2>of hot pepper sprayed. Yet even they were nothing compared
<v Speaker 2>to two thousand rabbits, who mowed down every plant at
<v Speaker 2>its base, causing twice the damage than their normal habit. Deer,
<v Speaker 2>of course, were the main attraction. So regal they appear,
<v Speaker 2>and they browsed and rubbed every tree and shrub. I
<v Speaker 2>could only sit and watch, paralyzed with fear. At the
<v Speaker 2>very end were acres of poison ivy and weeds. There
<v Speaker 2>was dandelion and dock and grass galore, and each planet
<v Speaker 2>itself in the space that had just been freed, then
<v Speaker 2>cloned itself and planted one more. Wake up, It's just
<v Speaker 2>a dream yelled a voice in my head. But I
<v Speaker 2>woke to muddy footprints on my sheets and a trail
<v Speaker 2>of fallen leaves ending at my bed.
<v Speaker 1>Oh, how good, goose look at that? I got goose bumps.
<v Speaker 1>What a nightmare?
<v Speaker 2>Yeah, Hi, thank you for fabulous Let my thank you, Alea.
<v Speaker 2>Let my imagination run wild with that. So some fun
<v Speaker 2>well done?
<v Speaker 1>Excellent? All right?
<v Speaker 2>Uh?
<v Speaker 1>Talt am I getting that right?
<v Speaker 2>Station help So? I wasn't exactly sure, but t lot
<v Speaker 2>seems like a reasonable nciation.
<v Speaker 1>Okay as a Halloween story for us. I love gardening.
<v Speaker 1>I'm not afraid of bugs and critters around me. Early spring,
<v Speaker 1>I was cleaning, prepping one of my island beds for
<v Speaker 1>the season. I came across pieces of a kind of
<v Speaker 1>plastic bubble wrap material here and there, all together there
<v Speaker 1>were maybe four, and I figured winter winds blew them
<v Speaker 1>into the garden. I picked them up and threw them
<v Speaker 1>into my pile of garden waists. Suddenly I saw something
<v Speaker 1>out of the corner of my eye move and slither
<v Speaker 1>out of one of those bubble wrap pieces, and I jumped.
<v Speaker 1>Little did I know that what I thought was bubble
<v Speaker 1>wrap was the skin snakes shed as they grow bigger,
<v Speaker 1>and one was still around. Yikes, did I mention that
<v Speaker 1>snakes are the only thing I'm afraid of? I agree
<v Speaker 1>with you. I'm the same boat for me. Goodness gracious,
<v Speaker 1>I mean that his sterea with snakes.
<v Speaker 2>Yeah, I mean, we all know that snakes are so
<v Speaker 2>beneficial for the garden that they're gonna eat you know,
<v Speaker 2>snails and slugs and a lot of these things that
<v Speaker 2>we don't want. Of course, they also do eat some
<v Speaker 2>beneficial things like frogs and toads if you have those around,
<v Speaker 2>but you know, they're part of nature, and especially if
<v Speaker 2>you have a more rural garden, you may have snakes.
<v Speaker 2>I do not. I've never seen a snake in my
<v Speaker 2>garden right now.
<v Speaker 1>Oh, I know you have oh fangs for the memories.
<v Speaker 2>But when I was a landscaper, when I was going
<v Speaker 2>to college and then summers I would work landscaping, I
<v Speaker 2>had a lot of snake run ins, and you know
<v Speaker 2>the I remember one time I was coming up a
<v Speaker 2>hill with a load of mult You know how this happens.
<v Speaker 2>You always have to like bring the mulch up hill.
<v Speaker 2>I don't know, so I'm bringing the mulch up hill.
<v Speaker 2>It's a hot summer day. There's a little juniper standard,
<v Speaker 2>so like one of those like small trees with a
<v Speaker 2>juniper on, you know, on top there, and there is
<v Speaker 2>like the biggest garter snake all curled up like this
<v Speaker 2>juniper standard is its nest. You know. It's in the
<v Speaker 2>top of this little like three foot tall stand, having
<v Speaker 2>the time of its life. And it scared me so
<v Speaker 2>bad I dumped the mulch right there. Okay, so now
<v Speaker 2>the snake's there and I have to clean up all
<v Speaker 2>the mulch that I just dropped into the immaculate green
<v Speaker 2>lawn next to the snake in the juniper.
<v Speaker 1>I'd do the same thing, Stacy, I would run for
<v Speaker 1>my life, you know.
<v Speaker 2>But it's something that we have to get used to.
<v Speaker 2>And I guess the more often you see snakes in
<v Speaker 2>your garden, probably the less scared you will become of them. Yeah,
<v Speaker 2>you kind of get to know their habits and can
<v Speaker 2>avoid that area.
<v Speaker 1>You know that song. I don't like spiders and snakes,
<v Speaker 1>I do, yeah, but I don't have a problem with spiders.
<v Speaker 1>It's the snakes that I have a problem with.
<v Speaker 2>Yeah, I think it goes taps into like a deep
<v Speaker 2>lizard brain reaction that the humans have. So Laura shares
<v Speaker 2>that earlier this month, she and her son were helping
<v Speaker 2>her dad with some yardwork after he had a hip replacement.
<v Speaker 2>So they're moving a stack of bricks in his yard,
<v Speaker 2>and she says, inside the stack of bricks were many,
<v Speaker 2>in all roaches. As we took off each level of bricks,
<v Speaker 2>some of the roaches went further down into the pile
<v Speaker 2>and some scurried off into the leaves. The farther down
<v Speaker 2>we got into the stack of bricks, the more roaches
<v Speaker 2>we saw. It reminded me of the old commercial for
<v Speaker 2>roach motels. Those roaches checked in and did not check out,
<v Speaker 2>and we're still living there. It was disgusting. My son
<v Speaker 2>didn't have on gloves. After moving a few levels of
<v Speaker 2>the brick and with the roaches crawling on him, he
<v Speaker 2>decided I could finish since I did have on gloves.
<v Speaker 2>As I got lower in the pile, I finally decided
<v Speaker 2>I had to grab some roach spray because there were
<v Speaker 2>so many. All right, we got hev GBI's going around
<v Speaker 2>the studio right now. Both Rick and Adriana are visibly shivering.
<v Speaker 2>You know, I don't have a huge issue with roaches.
<v Speaker 2>The way they move is kind of creepy. But this
<v Speaker 2>is such a great example of how IPM can help
<v Speaker 2>you resolve those problems. You know, if you have a
<v Speaker 2>scenario like this where something in your yard is is
<v Speaker 2>creating good environment for past to live and thrive, you
<v Speaker 2>gotta get rid of it. And once you get rid
<v Speaker 2>of it, you'll usually get rid of the best. I mean,
<v Speaker 2>sometimes you have to kind of, you know, brave your
<v Speaker 2>way through the thousands of roaches.
<v Speaker 1>But it is that way through out gardening, whether it's
<v Speaker 1>a pest such as an insect or a disease. You're
<v Speaker 1>one hundred percent right, Stacey. You've got to focus on
<v Speaker 1>the environment. Yeah, there's a reason that they're there.
<v Speaker 2>Yeah, and you know, it's never too late to fix it.
<v Speaker 2>And very often simply removing that brick pile that the
<v Speaker 2>roaches were like, Hey, this is great, it's warm. There's
<v Speaker 2>all these cozy little spaces for us to do our roachy.
<v Speaker 1>Thing, a roachy thing.
<v Speaker 2>Hopefully they didn't get chased into the house. Although you know,
<v Speaker 2>normally we do have outdoor roaches and indoor roaches, it's
<v Speaker 2>not like necessarily the roaches, the cockroaches that can live
<v Speaker 2>outside are necessarily going to come in. But it all
<v Speaker 2>depends on the situation.
<v Speaker 1>So I'd go inside and have a bugweiser, That's what
<v Speaker 1>I would do. And you know, it does bring up
<v Speaker 1>the fact that this is the time of year, scary
<v Speaker 1>time of the year when on south facing walls, that's
<v Speaker 1>when you've got to be looking for those openings. As
<v Speaker 1>far as box elder bugs, spiders, Asian lady bugs, they're
<v Speaker 1>going to try and get inside for winters.
<v Speaker 2>Yeah, they want to stay warm and cozy.
<v Speaker 1>Yeah, and I and and I've had through the years
<v Speaker 1>in the garden center industry, so many people who rely
<v Speaker 1>on vix vapal rub what they rub it on the
<v Speaker 1>windows cell. You know, I'm recommending you look at the
<v Speaker 1>south facing of the house and look for cracks and
<v Speaker 1>crevices where they can get that's the practical thing to do.
<v Speaker 1>You'd be surprised how many people use vix vapo rub
<v Speaker 1>to combat these insects.
<v Speaker 2>Does it work?
<v Speaker 1>I don't think so.
<v Speaker 2>Okay, well, I guess it's worth a try. If you
<v Speaker 2>have bugs and it's too late for you to steal
<v Speaker 2>off the crevices spooking, give the vix vapor rub a
<v Speaker 2>wirl and let us know if it does or doesn't
<v Speaker 2>work out for you. We have to take a little
<v Speaker 2>break and when we come back, or going to wrap
<v Speaker 2>up the show with even more Halloween horror stories, so
<v Speaker 2>please stay tuned. The Gardening Simplified Show is brought to
<v Speaker 2>you by Proven Winner's Color Choice Shrubs. Our award winning
<v Speaker 2>flowering shrubs and evergreens have been trialed and tested for
<v Speaker 2>your success so you enjoy more beauty and less work.
<v Speaker 2>Look for Proven Winner's Color Choice Shrubs in the distinctive
<v Speaker 2>white container at your local garden center. Greening's Gardening friends,
<v Speaker 2>and welcome back to the Gardening Simplified Show. You are
<v Speaker 2>not hearing the normal segments of the Gardening Simplified Show.
<v Speaker 2>We're devoting the whole episode to our listener horror stories.
<v Speaker 2>This is an idea that Rick had because he has
<v Speaker 2>experienced so very many yes gardening horror stories over the
<v Speaker 2>years between working in a garden center and of course
<v Speaker 2>being a gardener yourself. So like, what's your favorite one?
<v Speaker 1>I do it yourself for I think you know. My
<v Speaker 1>worst horror story and all joking aside, was falling out
<v Speaker 1>of a tree with a chainsaw.
<v Speaker 2>Oh Yeah, well that's pretty horrified.
<v Speaker 1>I always advised people. You know, it was when I
<v Speaker 1>was young, stupid and invincible, dangerous combinations. You know, I've
<v Speaker 1>fallen off a greenhouse, I've walked away from all of
<v Speaker 1>these things. I do not recommend it as far as
<v Speaker 1>trees are concerned. Hire a professional who does it right
<v Speaker 1>and follows safety rules. But no, I could go. I
<v Speaker 1>could give you a two hour show of just my
<v Speaker 1>horror story.
<v Speaker 2>Some people might actually want to hear that. But we
<v Speaker 2>did get a great one from Luri. Now this is
<v Speaker 2>also kind of funny, and I will tell you I
<v Speaker 2>did not see this coming as I started reading Lori's story.
<v Speaker 2>So she says, we're fortunate to have purchased land in
<v Speaker 2>Georgia for recreation in twenty twenty and as a result,
<v Speaker 2>we bounce back and forth between Florida and Georgia. So
<v Speaker 2>set in the warm South here. In the fall of
<v Speaker 2>twenty twenty three, we purchased a beautiful bald cypress to
<v Speaker 2>put next to our new pond. So bald cypress, if
<v Speaker 2>you're not familiar, Taxodium distigum are beautiful native bald cypress.
<v Speaker 2>You see it everywhere if you go down to the
<v Speaker 2>swamps of New Orleans. It grows all through the South
<v Speaker 2>and usually in area.
<v Speaker 1>Beauty's on the East coast this past week.
<v Speaker 2>Yeah, beautiful plant, great plant, and we can actually grow
<v Speaker 2>it here in Michigan, and it especially loves wet soils,
<v Speaker 2>so she says. It was a beauty In a fifteen
<v Speaker 2>gallon pot, we planted it and anxiously awaited for the
<v Speaker 2>rains to fill our pond. Thankfully, after just a few weeks,
<v Speaker 2>the beautiful bald cypress had its toes in the water
<v Speaker 2>and we felt it was very happy. Fast forward to
<v Speaker 2>February twenty twenty four. That's just this past February. We
<v Speaker 2>pull into our property after a couple weeks away. I
<v Speaker 2>asked my husband, where's the bald cypress. I can't see it. Granted,
<v Speaker 2>it kind of blends in with all the other trees,
<v Speaker 2>especially when it's dormant, but I couldn't even see its
<v Speaker 2>trunk from a distance. We parked the truck and wandered
<v Speaker 2>over to the edge of the pond, and horror of horrors,
<v Speaker 2>our beautiful bald cypress tree had been fallen by a beaver.
<v Speaker 2>And Laurie has the pictures for proof. Here there is
<v Speaker 2>no mistaking that Yes, this bald cypress was definitely felled
<v Speaker 2>by a beaver, and well you can see the pictures
<v Speaker 2>on YouTube or at Gardeningsimplified on air dot com. We
<v Speaker 2>didn't know if it was dead or alive. We couldn't
<v Speaker 2>exactly extract it from the pond, so we left it
<v Speaker 2>wondering how in the world a beaver passed hundreds of
<v Speaker 2>trees to eat our one and only bald cypress. Guess
<v Speaker 2>it was just the right thickness and he didn't feel
<v Speaker 2>like working so hard for those mature trees. We did
<v Speaker 2>ask the nursery nursery where we purchased it, what we
<v Speaker 2>should do. They felt the best thing to do was
<v Speaker 2>to cut the stump straight across, so that's what we did.
<v Speaker 2>Plus we put fencing around it. Now fast forward to
<v Speaker 2>August and we have a cousin it bald cypress, and
<v Speaker 2>we even had to enlarge the fence. We anxiously await
<v Speaker 2>to see how this tree shapes up Happy Halloween.
<v Speaker 1>So it just goes to prove you that beaver's a
<v Speaker 1>log on to find the tastiest trees, you know, and
<v Speaker 1>in the landscape.
<v Speaker 2>I think it's also really interesting, you know, you would see. Especially,
<v Speaker 2>you know, if a beaver took down a tree, you'd think, okay,
<v Speaker 2>well that tree is dead. And it's very interesting to
<v Speaker 2>see how this plant has recovered and the kind of
<v Speaker 2>adaptations that nature makes to withstand these because you know,
<v Speaker 2>both the beavers and the bald cypress are native to
<v Speaker 2>this area, so it is kind of a survival strategy
<v Speaker 2>for both of them. And so now they're really going
<v Speaker 2>to have a bald cypress that's a shrub, not just
<v Speaker 2>a tree.
<v Speaker 1>It's already growing back cypress with a story.
<v Speaker 2>Yes, and definitely a bald cypress with a story.
<v Speaker 1>Yeah.
<v Speaker 2>So and it's a great story because not everyone can
<v Speaker 2>say that they have lost a tree or had a
<v Speaker 2>tree damaged due to beavers, beaver and speaking of fuzzy
<v Speaker 2>four legged critters damaging plants, Irene wrote that her story
<v Speaker 2>recently was planting some bargains from the garden Center Always
<v Speaker 2>love that to create a butterfly garden. She goes out
<v Speaker 2>to check on them daily and one day finds they
<v Speaker 2>are all pulled out. Put them back in. Happened again.
<v Speaker 2>She suspects raccoons.
<v Speaker 1>I like your spirit, Irene. Three times you did not
<v Speaker 1>give up.
<v Speaker 2>Neither did the raccoon unfortunately. But yeah, I mean I
<v Speaker 2>have definitely planted stuff in my yard. And even though
<v Speaker 2>I mostly plant deer resistant plants because I have such
<v Speaker 2>a severe deer issue, a lot of times, if it's
<v Speaker 2>fresh from the greenhouse it's really soft, they are more
<v Speaker 2>curious about it. They're more interested to try it. And yeah,
<v Speaker 2>when they're browsing it, they'll absolutely rip it right out
<v Speaker 2>of the ground and I'll find just a root pulseit
<v Speaker 2>in there.
<v Speaker 1>And that's when repellents can come in Handy repellance can
<v Speaker 1>be practical. If you have to be spraying repellents all
<v Speaker 1>the time, it's not practical. But when they first come
<v Speaker 1>out of the greenhouse shoe.
<v Speaker 2>Right, Yeah, and sometimes you have to, it's just you know,
<v Speaker 2>those plants have been given tons of water, tons of fertilizer.
<v Speaker 2>They're lush, they're soft. It's much different than when, yeah,
<v Speaker 2>when they come out in your yard and are stringy
<v Speaker 2>and fibrous and not so yummy.
<v Speaker 1>So in the cute not scary category. CJ writes to
<v Speaker 1>us Hi, Stacey, and Rick. This year, my garden was
<v Speaker 1>invaded by the extra chunky bumblebee species species cocker Spaniellie
<v Speaker 1>photo is attached, so if you're watching on YouTube or
<v Speaker 1>you go to our website Gardening Simplified. On air dot Com,
<v Speaker 1>CJ talks about this bumblebee could be found lounging every
<v Speaker 1>day amongst my romance mulberry numsia. Oh great plant, great
<v Speaker 1>annual numisia if you're keeping score at home. As a
<v Speaker 1>matter of fact, it's a great shoulder season plant, great
<v Speaker 1>for spring and fall. Kind of has a clove sent
<v Speaker 1>to it and proven winners has a great improved variety
<v Speaker 1>coming for twenty twenty five. It was her favorite spot
<v Speaker 1>in the garden. No persuasion could get this bea to
<v Speaker 1>leave these flowers alone, and sadly they diminished over the summer.
<v Speaker 1>Horror for something. But I think I'll plant a romance
<v Speaker 1>namesia here next year to lure in this same bumblebee.
<v Speaker 1>Best blooms CIJ and Pearl the bumble Bee.
<v Speaker 2>Yeah so CJ. If you haven't realized, Pearl the Bumblebee
<v Speaker 2>is a cocker spaniel, very cute, very epic hair, and
<v Speaker 2>obviously cute enough to be loved. Despite ruining the nmesia,
<v Speaker 2>it's great. And finally we heard from Kristin and the
<v Speaker 2>cute not scary category. She says, be careful when you
<v Speaker 2>open these pictures. I've made a ghastly mistake. Instead of
<v Speaker 2>something scary, I paired my gorgeous proven winners hydrangeas with
<v Speaker 2>halloween decor. I'm afraid I don't have a spooky taiale
<v Speaker 2>to share, just beautiful flowers that I couldn't let get
<v Speaker 2>snowed on. Because Western New York is expecting snow this week.
<v Speaker 2>I guess that could be a scary story health I
<v Speaker 2>did add a touch of Halloween spirit by comparing by
<v Speaker 2>pairing them with wicked witch colius, which might just be
<v Speaker 2>my new favorite plant or should I say shrub. Hope
<v Speaker 2>you enjoy the photos even if they're more enchanting than eerie.
<v Speaker 2>And Wow, the color on these hygdranges that Kristin cut
<v Speaker 2>is truly outstanding. I'm guessing she didn't say what variety there.
<v Speaker 2>I'm thinking they must be like Limelight Prime or little
<v Speaker 2>Lime Punch nice, just because the colors have that really rich,
<v Speaker 2>saturated tone that the newer varieties have, whereas a lot
<v Speaker 2>of the older varieties they can be kind of muddy.
<v Speaker 2>But she's obviously growing them beautifully because they're so pretty,
<v Speaker 2>they're so colorful, and she paired them with some fun
<v Speaker 2>Halloween de cor.
<v Speaker 1>That's fantastic way to go, Kristin. And you're right about
<v Speaker 1>the Colius. The color Blaze Colius from proven winners is fantastic.
<v Speaker 1>And you know, again, when I first started out in
<v Speaker 1>the garden center industry ages ago, that's a scary story
<v Speaker 1>of itself. You know, we just grew cold and shade.
<v Speaker 1>Now you can grow them in sun and shade, and
<v Speaker 1>Kristen says, here, yet it's almost like a shrub, and
<v Speaker 1>you're right, And I think part of the reason for
<v Speaker 1>that is these coliats also have been bred not to
<v Speaker 1>flower like the older varieties of Colius did, or at
<v Speaker 1>least not until late in the season, so they're putting
<v Speaker 1>all that energy into foliage. I just love the color
<v Speaker 1>blaze Colius and growing them in sun, great plant.
<v Speaker 2>I truly wish that I could grow them, But the
<v Speaker 2>deer love Colius as much as we do, so they
<v Speaker 2>are not an option for me. And actually my mom,
<v Speaker 2>I've talked about my mom's amazing red colis that she
<v Speaker 2>plants in front of a garage every year. The deer
<v Speaker 2>have even started nibbling hers, and she has some deer
<v Speaker 2>and they usually used to stick to her backyard. But
<v Speaker 2>one day she sent me a picture of her fabulous
<v Speaker 2>colius in September at its peak, and a little bit
<v Speaker 2>was missing, and I said that that is definitely dear.
<v Speaker 1>So it's no fun.
<v Speaker 2>Deer are kind of a nightmare, but a night where
<v Speaker 2>you can live.
<v Speaker 1>With and Stacy. One last scary story if you live
<v Speaker 1>in my neighborhood, I in the past week have been
<v Speaker 1>out stealing maple leaves from people's yards and then using
<v Speaker 1>my churninator, my grinder. I sent some pictures and video
<v Speaker 1>to Adriana that will share with you. So if you
<v Speaker 1>hear that grinding sound coming from my backyard, that's me
<v Speaker 1>churning up your maple leaves.
<v Speaker 2>Yeah, I think you could say that you're taking them,
<v Speaker 2>not stealing them, okay, because they were getting rid of
<v Speaker 2>them in the first place.
<v Speaker 1>I'm borrowing them all for a good cost.
<v Speaker 2>Yes, I think you're doing the right thing. And as
<v Speaker 2>you know, I have also been known to help myself
<v Speaker 2>to some leaves sitting on the curb if they're all
<v Speaker 2>bagged up and sitting there anyway, I mean, why not
<v Speaker 2>thank money it can, so we wanted to thank every
<v Speaker 2>single person who wrote to us with their story. We
<v Speaker 2>really appreciate you taking the time to share your experience,
<v Speaker 2>and we hope that you enjoyed listening to the stories
<v Speaker 2>as much as we enjoyed reading them to you. So
<v Speaker 2>we hope you have a wonderful week ahead, and I
<v Speaker 2>want to thank you Rick, thank you Adriana, and we're
<v Speaker 2>wishing you the best. M