Garden Tunes and Birdman is Back

Coming to you from Studio a Ho Ho Ho. It's time for the Gardening
Simplified Show with Stacy Hervella me Rick Weisten, our engineer and producer Adrianna Robinson
Today. Well, to celebrate the holidays Christmas time, we'll talk garden tainment.
It's just a word I made up. But do you listen to music
while gardening? Well, if you do, it's likely that at some point
over the past year, you've listened to Fleetwood Mac's song Dreams. Now I
say that because Stacey I looked at some research here and it analyzed one hundred
and sixteen thousand, twenty one songs added to one thousand Spotify playlists with gardening
in the title, and Fleetwood Mac's Dreams came out on top, with Van
Morrison's Brown Eyed Girl following a close second. Well, Adriana approves. Adriana
is a Fleetwood Mac fan, so she is very excited. Now I do
have to say this is interesting. I do have a gardening playlist, but
it's not called gardening isn't in the title, so I think no, it's
called plants Songs to plant plants to, So you know, flutwood Max Dreams
is not on sid playlist. But I'm also just saying they are excluding a
lot of other potential gardening playlists by limiting it just to those with Garden in
the time. I agree, and on today's Gardeningtainment Show, we're going to
help you with a few additional songs to add to your list. Now.
Of course, Dreams is a great song. I was released the year I
graduated from high school nineteen seventy seven. Was that so? Yeah? And
Stevie next, of course, her voice just perfect for that song. I
guess, just like any other great song I was reading that she sat down
at a keyboard or piano and wrote it in ten minutes, so that's kind
of how it usually worked. There are a number of those. There's also
a number of great songs that were much more laborious, but those don't make
such a good story. Yeah, like some of Beethoven's works. But we're
going We're not going down that road today. Now. One of my favorite
Garden songs. I love the beginning of this song for me, it has
a great history, and that's Lynn Anderson's I Never Promised You a Rose Garden.
I love that song. Now there are people who claim that I loved
the song because I got a chance to meet Lynn Anderson and I was just
a youngster and she autographed a black and white picture for me and handed it
to me. And the impact that it made on me, which is a
great reminder for me to this day as adults, the things we say,
the things we do, or when we help out a kid, it's amazing
the impact that it can have on them years and years later, even though
you didn't think it was any big deal. It's you know, it's one
of those things that if you think about too much, you start to get
a little freaked out. Exactly exactly, Well, there's got to be a
little rain sometime. I could promise you a thing like diamond rings, but
you don't find roses growing on stalks of clover. Now. Another song that
I have my playlist is Jerry Reid. I love Jerry Reid, and he
had a song called stop and Smell the Flowers. I had a friend who
suddenly passed away one week before. This friend gave me a Jerry Reid CD
with this song on the CD, Smell the flowers while the roses bloom,
Take the time my friend and sing a happy tune. Oh how precious every
mile. So take a minute, learn to smile, my friend. Let's
stop a while and smell the flowers. That stuck with me obviously because of
what happened. So that's on my list. That's a good one. Yeah,
I love Jerry. I kind of wish you would have brought your guitar
and we could have had a little bit of live demo for these, for
these, that's true. Maybe sometime we'll do that. Carol King, Carol
King, I Feel the Earth Move. Now, if you're out in your
garden or your landscape, wouldn't that be a great song to listen to,
that one't you? Yeah? Very good? I Feel the Earth Move.
And Jimmy Buffett, of course, I like any Jimmy Buffett song. And
a number of people may not know when you take a look at Jimmy Buffett's
albums in the credits, there are a number of songs where he credits Marvin
Gardens not the location on your Monopoly board game, but he and a lot
of people feel it's a pseudonym. He just an alter ego of Jimmy Muffett,
and he would put Marvin Gardens on his album. And let me give
you another quick one. A minute here Elvis Presley poke Salad Annie the first
time it came up on the show, actually because I love the song and
I really like Elvis. So what's other songs that you'd have on your well?
So, like I said, I do you have a gardening playlist?
And I don't, you know, add stuff to it all the time.
And I have to say, I don't usually listen to music when I garden.
And the reason for that is because I'm kind of all over the place,
you know, and so we have speakers in our garage, and we
can put a little speaker on our back patio, So for in those areas,
we'll definitely be listening to music. But like when I'm out in the
garden, you know, I don't want to just bug the neighbors when I'm
not sitting there. Not that I listened to it that loud, but you
know, I'll listen to whatever. I usually just play whatever that well so
it won't stop and I don't have to go back up and change it.
But in my gardening playlist some expected tunes. But I was looking at your
list and I have some that you did not have. So there is a
Mountain by Donovan Okay, you know. First there is about uh oh,
sorry, I forget how it goes, but oh no, no, no,
look upon my garden. It's a snail, that's what it is.
So sixties jam Dead Flowers by the Rolling Stones always one of my favorites for
especially for driving to the nursery in January. Love It My Blue Heaven by
Fats Domino, So just a beautiful song done by so many people. One
of my all time favorite American songbook songs because it's about, you know,
sort of having the perfect domestic bliss area. You're driving up to it or
walking up to it at the end of a long day and you just have
this feeling like there's roses, there's a cozy fire, like this is why
I do everything that I do. And it's just a beautiful tune. And
his is particularly peppy for a good gardening playlist. Now you know you're gonna
appreciate this one. The Bug Song by Stomping Tom Conyers. Oh you know
that one? Yeah, oh yes, yugs, bugs bugs. If I
had them all in jugs, I dig the whole frod world's dug and I
could see someone like you really liking that song. Yeah, it's a comic
song, but you know, appreciating insects. Yes, and then I do
have some newer songs on there, but I didn't want to come off to
be like, oh, I'm too cool to for anyone to know this music.
So I'm not getting into like the deep cuts on the list. But
I did want to mention one called avant Gardner by Courtney Barnett, so a
very it's actually a very troubling story. She wakes up in the morning and
decides she's going to clean up yard. It's a very hot day. She
has an asthma attack that the ambulance comes. You can tell it's very autobiographical,
but in the end she's like, I probably have stayed in bed and
not tried to garden. But it's still a good story. And it's called
avant Gardner. So I also have a very lengthy, much more in depth
birding playlist. Oh I'll bet you do. I'll bet you do. And
I thought, you know, I would mention that since Birdman is joining us
late. Yes, in our fourth segment today, Branching News is mocking bird
on that list because it is Yeah, okay, there's you know, there's
always some unexpected ones, but it's the ones that you don't expect that make
a playlist really interesting in my opinion. Well, with mine, I think
it's expected because my list basically dates me. You know, I throw additional
ones in there. You remember Neil Diamond, you don't bring me flowers?
Oh yeah, right? Well was that was that Neil Diamond? That's Neil
Diamond saying a duet with oh yeah, Barber Straissan. I don't know,
I could have been. I don't know. I remember hearing it like in
the vackseat of my mom's car when I was like four. I'm sure if
I'm wrong, we'll be corrected on this. So Scott mackenzie, San Francisco,
be sure to wear flowers in your hair. See Eels and Cross Summer
Breeze. Of course, Simon and Garfuncle did a whole album Parsley Sage,
Rosemary in Time, Classic Right and Again to date Myself, Ricky Nelson Garden
Party, Tony Orlando and Dawn tie a yellow ribbon round the Old Oak Tree,
and Tom Jones Green Green Grass of Home. I mean, great title,
but that's a very depressing song, so veryferos so maybe not the best
for a gardening playlist. When you're out there in a beautiful day and you
know this song about a guy in prison comes on in all of his regret
exactly. Well, then let's talk about gifts just for a moment. Here
best garden gifts. I still think number one is a gift card. It
may sound boring, but, like we've talked about on this show, potting
soil is expensive, well, you know, and also I think when you
know someone who's a gardener, you might think, oh, I want to
get them X y Z, but I don't know what they have, I
don't know what they like. And the gift card kind of says I want
you to get what you like most and know that it's from me exactly exactly.
Gloves, pruner's comfortable clothing, kneelers or seats, a tumbler with a
lid. O, Hey, you want to take an adult beverage out there
while you're weeding, you know, to make to wile the time away.
Attack ning is thirsty work. It's thirsty work. Turtle box or any type
of weather proof Wi Fi speakers so you can listen to those songs, right,
Pottery, a lantern, tools to cut ornamental grasses. You can never
get enough tools to cut ornamental grasses, watering wands, sun hats, sunglasses,
and a great stocking stuffer is seed packets. Oh yeah, very good.
You know what a hat? Gardeners can never have too many hats.
They just have to have good sun protection and then you're golden. Well.
On next week's show, we're going to talk about resolutions, and I'm going
to bemoan the state of my garden shed and the resolution that I have in
the coming year. And we'll be talking about that next week, but even
this week too. We're interested as we head towards New Year's we celebrate Christmas
and the holidays. We're interested in your resolutions. Please send them to us
however you wish, Instagram, YouTube, or email us, visit our website.
We want to hear what your resolutions are and Stacy, for that matter,
share with us what your favorite garden song. Yeah, help us fill
out our gardening playlists. It sounds great. Plants on trial coming up next
here on the Gardening Simplified Show. Proven Winners. Colored Choice Shrubs cares about
your success in the garden. That's why we trial and test all of our
shrubs for eight to ten years, making sure they outperform everything else on the
market. Look for them and the distinctive white container at your local garden center.
Greeting's gardening friends, and welcome back to the Gardening Simplified Show. It's
the time of the show where we put a plant on trial. That is
to say, we're going to tell you about one of the proven winner's color
choice shrubs. We're going to tell you all about it, and it's up
to you to decide if it's going to earn a spot in your garden.
Let's do it so you know, I always like to tie it to the
feet of the show, and you know, over time, you got a
plant that sings if the wind hits it right. Okay. We have often
been asked why so many of our plants have been named after classic rock tunes,
and the answer is that Tim Wood, our marketing director, is a
big fan of classic rock, and you know, he's came up similar hu
in the seventies, and so he's had a lot of those. Some of
our songs with or some of our plants with really seventies classic rock song titles
have been dropped or changed. So I was kind of spoiled for choice.
But the one that I went with because it's also appropriate for this time of
year. Is White Album Winter Creeper interesting? And I'm looking forward to this
because I'm not familiar with the plant. Okay, yeah, well, so
winter creeper is definitely not one of those plants where people get super excited.
I mean, if you're not getting excited, Rick, that doesn't vode well
for the rest of of our audience. But I have to say it's it's
a good it's a workaday plant. Now, it's very durable, and it's
a broad leaf evergreen. So we just talked last week about broad leaf evergreens.
So these are evergreen plants that aren't conifers. They have literally broad leaves,
but they keep their foliage. Now, this is one that in very
cold weather, the foliage doesn't look great. So it's not going to be
those one of those ones where you look out in your backyard in say the
end of January, and you go, whoa, that looks amazing. But
it's got glossy foliage. And White Album has got its name because it's variegated
and it's a very nice crisp white with a deep green color, So like
a crisp white edge with a green section in the middle. And what I
really like about it is that it brings a lot of light to the shaded
areas. It's also got a very versatile habit, so people who have grown
winter creeper might have noticed this. They bought it in the garden center and
it was growing like a nice, tidy little shrub. They get it,
they put it in the backyard. A couple years later, they see it
starting to kind of climb up a tree and they're like, what just happened?
And that is what they do. So they grow shrubby until they reach
something that they can climb. Now, they're not going to climb up into
the heights of the tree. It's really they're only going to climb you know.
White album reaches one and a half to two feet tall, so it's
really only going to go up about two feet. But used correctly, I
have seen that be a very effective visual thing in a garden because it kind
of brings the ground up onto a tree and so really adds a lot of
color. I have that experience in my landscape. I have just a typical
green, broad leaved yuanis and it grew up the side of a pine tree
pretty significantly, and the birds use it for cover all the time. And
so at this time of the year when we long for anything living, anything
green, that uanimous is fantastic. And the birds hang out in it.
And you take that green euanimous and have a few red cardinals in there.
Ooh, it's eye popping. That sounds beautiful. And you know, speaking
of its beauty, it's a really nice plant. At this point in the
season, the cold has not gotten to it enough where its foliage is kind
of started to degrade in quality. So it would be a perfect plant to
just take a little snip to put on, you know, napkin place settings,
just to accent whatever holiday decor you're doing. Now again, as the
season goes on and it gets really cold and the plant's been through a bunch
of freezing and thawing kind of cycles, it's foliage. It doesn't look bad.
It just doesn't have that like beautiful, glossy look anymore. And that's
and that's totally normal. A lot of other broad leaf evergreens do that because,
as we talked about last week, most broad leaf evergreens tend not to
be from cold climates. They can just sort of tolerate it. Here,
they definitely prefer the warmer climates because they got those big broad leaves losing water
all winter, like your rhododendrons in the way they mope this time of the
exactly moping rhododendrons. That's a good name for a song, by the way,
right now. So White Album Winter Creeper you want to miss? Fortunii
is the botanical name is different. There's a lot of you want to miss
for Tuni eyes out there, and Ricky mentioned one. You mentioned a plain
green one that's very common. There's also a golden one. We have gold
Splash you want to miss, which is another version. And then White Album.
So White Album is an improvement over a classic variety that I know,
you know, Emerald Gaiety. Sure, so that thing has been around for
my word the Garden Center. We sold thousands. Yeah, I mean it's
you want to talk about a landscape staples, it's right up there. So
it's foliage is bigger, and so it's going to have more of a bold
look. It's the color. The white part of it is much whiter and
brighter, so emerald gaiety can kind of go creamy, and the difference between
the white and the green is much more distinctive. So some variegation things get
a little bit like swirly and kind of muddy. And in this one,
you're going to see like that really strong distinction between the white portion in the
green portion, almost like a hosta. You know, typically there's a very
noticeable difference between there. It's also less susceptible to leaf spot. Oh and
a lot of euonymous do get leaf spots, so they're going to have like
a you know, black yucky spot on them. Because they are an evergreen,
it's very easy for that to spread. You know, a lot of
times when something gets leaf spot, what we recommend is that the person clean
up all the foliage when it drops to prevent the leaf of the fungal leaf
spot from overwintering on that fallen foliage and reinfecting. When it's a broad leaf
evergreen, what are you going to do because it's got its foliage. So
it's important to have this leaf spot resistance to keep your plant looking really clean
and nice all season. I don't want to put you on the spot,
but it is plants on trial, So I have to ask this question when
I think about euanymous. Sometimes I think, eh, scale, scale,
Yeah, so scale. Now, I will try not to go off about
scale because I ass but I knew it. Scale is actually kind of a
dis gusting past. But it's fascinating, and we talked about this. We
had a it is fascinating. We had a guard a mailbag question from someone
who had scale very badly on their tropical hibiscus. I think it was as
I recall, So, yes, euantymis does get scale, and it's really
one of those things that's just like, it's just what it does. Sure,
so there's really not much that can be done as long as the plant
is, you know, kept really healthy and vigorous, so you're not trying
to grow it in conditions where it would be further struggling. Most of the
scale is going to remain at a pretty tolerable level, and like a lot
of scales, just because it's on the euanomis doesn't mean it's gonna spread to
anything else. You Know, a lot of times people see a pest or
a disease in the landscape and they start freaking out, thinking it's gonna spread
to everything. But the reality is that a number of things like scale and
leaf spot are actually very specific. They only infect a certain genus of plants
or group of plants. They're not like a generalist where they're just gonna it's
gonna spread through your garden like wildfire. Because I mean, if that we're
going to happen, it would probably have already happened for most people. So
not much you can do about scale. As we told that listener who had
it on her hibiscus scale can be managed with something non toxic, like a
soap or an oil, but the timing is really crucial because the scale,
the adult insects just kind of settles in there. The babies come out and
they're under the protection of the little mother scale. Then they have become crawlers
and they crawl and it's only in that crawler stage that you can actively manage
it. Why because the scale is sitting there with this kind of protective armor
on it that makes it impervious. So but you know, like I said,
all you want to miss will get it. Most people might not even
notice that theirs has it because it will it's you know, down under the
leaves, and because it is an evergreen, it's not really visible. But
I would say on a scale of one to ten. You nailed it,
and I would agree. I think it's important to note what you said,
Stacey, because I've seen this through the years and that as a uanimis that
is under stress is generally the type that you have a scale problem. Yeah,
and it's going to really explode. Like it can have a small population
and you won't really notice it. But if it does get stressed, you
know, that's when it's really going to proliferate. So important to have those
good conditions. The mythical moist but well drained soil always a good idea.
It is shade tolerant, you want good air circulation for it. So that's
another really important part of scale, good air circulation because if it's exposed,
natural enemies can come get the crawlers when they are out from under the protection
of the mother. So you know, there's so many plants that people think
are you know, hard to grow or susceptible, but really it's just a
matter of keeping plants healthy and vigorous. And a number of plants will have
pests on them and we won't even know because as long as the plant is
healthy and growing vigorously, they kind of stay under control. We see this
a lot with something like a plant that we grow outdoors in the summer and
then bring in in the winter, and everyone says, oh my gosh,
all these bugs came. No, the bugs were there all along. It's
just that now the plant is stressed, trying to readapt to your house,
and the bugs are like party time plants stressed time to shine. Hey,
Stacy, what I love about this Yuanimus too is for me at least sun
two shade. I mean it's quite flexible as far as light ist, Yes,
it's very flexible. And you know, like I said, I love
it in the shade because it adds so much color and lightness, and I
think anytime you get that white in a deep shade situation, it just really
livens it up and makes you want to go there. And it's a great
plant to pair with bulbs. Plant bulbs up under there and them get the
color intermixing. So it is hardy from USA zones five through eight, so
pretty okay range there full departs son and about one and a half to two
feet tall. And you can see pictures of white album uanymous at gardenings simplified
on air dot com and also on our Instagram page, so just look for
the Gardening Simplified Show and see it and then you can decide if you will
put it in your garden this spring. We're going to take a little break.
When we come back, we're answering your garden questions, so please stay
tuned. At proven winner's color choice, we've got a shrub for every taste
and every space. Whether you're looking for an easy care rose and unforgettable hydrangea,
or something new and unique, you can be confident that the shrubs and
the white containers have been trialed and tested for your success. Look for them
at your local garden center. Greetings gardeners, and welcome back to the Gardening
Simplified Show. It's one of my favorite parts of the show where we help
you with your gardening questions. And now you know, things are slowing down
a little bit. A lot of people their concentration has gone elsewhere, to
the interior of their homes. But that doesn't mean you don't recall things that
happened to you over the season, or you know that you're curious about something
that you're planning for the spring. So we're still accepting your questions. You
can send them in to us at help HLP a Gardening Simplified on aired,
or just visit Gardening Simplified on air dot com. We got a contact form
there and you can reach us that way. You can even attach a photo,
which is always so helpful to help people when they're saying, what is
this or how do I deal with this? It's helpful to know what this
is? Well, not grease Stacy. I consider gardening a three hundred and
sixty five day out of the year activity. Yes, we don't take a
day off, not even Christmas or Newties. The plants are still there,
there's still So what are we got in the mail bag this week? Great?
All right, Keith. Keith asked us down south they use evergreen needles
for a mulch or groundcover. I was wondering about using them and was wondering
how it interfered with the perennials. Great question, Keith, and you are
correct. Down south, you see a lot of pine mulch, and it's
something you just do not see much of here in the North. No,
we don't have as many pines, first of all, So pines are much
more abundant in the South, and they have a greater diversity of pines than
we have usually here in the But you know, certainly if you go up
north in Michigan, you're going to see those white pine forests and they'll have
their own, you know, beautiful soft mulch of needles. But yeah,
we're just not harvesting it. Whereas in the South, you could go to
any home improvement store and buy a bale of what they call pine straw.
So whether it's pine needle, malt or pine straw, they use those terms
interchangeably. You can buy a bale of it and put it in your arden.
We tried it in our garden center up north here, and people were
like, what the heck I'm buying? You want me to pay for pine
needles? And I did some reading and saw that pine maultch is the thing
Southerners love to hate. They hate it, love to hate. It's crazy
because the needles are everywhere. It's like, what am I going to do
with this? Well, I guess I'll use it as a mulch. And
you know, the the upside is it's less expensive than some of these fancy
bags of bart mult Well, sure, if you're in the South. Now,
if you're in the North and you want to use it. It's definitely
not less expensive exactly. I was when I was looking at and researching this
question. There were so many places that were selling like a box to cover
like ten square feet for like eighty dollars, because everybody wants what they don't
have, right, you know, that's true. The grass is greener on
the other side of the fence. And the other problem with it, and
I've tried straw mulch, is that you have to refresh it to keep it
looking. Yeah, so it does get kind of matted down, but when
it is freshly down, and I've visited a lot of gardens in the South
where I think it's just really beautiful and evocative of what it's like to garden
there. So yes, it's common down there. It's less common up here.
You can get it, but you're usually gonna have to pay for it,
and it's not really going to interfere with perennials or other plants in your
garden any more than any other mulch wood. You know, if you are
mulching, and especially before your plants come out in the spring, you're not
going to want to heap any kind of mulch onto those crowns, a little
bit of sprinkle is oh, is okay. You don't have to go crazy
trying to avoid it. But it's the same rules are going to apply in
terms of mu ching with pine straw pine needles as they would with shredded mark
or anything else that you're using. Thank you very mulch for bringing that up,
because you're so right sta see the same rules applying matting or overpiling it.
It's going to create problems for plants, so you know, in moderation,
just like you would with any other type of mok Now, one thing
I do want to add is that a lot of people when they think about
pine straw or pine needle mulch, they say, oh, no, that's
dangerous. It's going to make your soil acidic. And that is a myth
that is not true. It's kind of assumed because typically pines grow in more
acidic soils, but they themselves are not the agent of acidification. They aren't
the ones who made the soil acidic. It just happens to be that the
soil is like that. So there's really no effect on the pH of your
soil, So you don't have to worry about that. You know. This
is just to me a question of using what you have, and usually you're
going to want a softer needle, not one of those really prickly, which
brings up a point. Email us look us up gardening simplified on air dot
com. Tell us what mult you pine for to spruce the place up.
I'd love to do. That's good? Yeah, thanks, all right,
Melissa's writing to us Stacy, Melissa says, I have a question about espalire
plants. This is great. I would really like to have an espailure on
a fifteen foot by eight foot blank wall of my walkout basement that's covered by
a deck. What I am needing to figure out is what is best for
this? What is the best plant for this location? Zone five B,
Southwest Nebraska. I have kind of documented the amount of sun it gets about
four to five hours. So what kind of recommendations would you have? So
an espalier is something that people have seen but might not know the name for
it. It's when you take a tree or a shrub and you grow it
against a wall so that it's almost flat and almost looks like it becomes a
part of the wall. Now, espalier are generally much more popular in your
europe pace than they are here, but you do see them. I mean,
garden centers usually will sell an Espalier apple, and in this case,
of course, it hasn't been trained on your wall, but the grower has
trained it to take on a specific shape. But what people don't know about
Espalier, and I commend Melissa for asking this, is that really you can
Espalier almost any shrub or tree to fit your space. It's really just a
matter of pruning the plant with a specific intent. And so what you want
to do is just make sure there's no growth on the back growing towards the
wall, because you want it to be as flat up against the wall as
you can, and then you just cut off everything you don't want. Is
that oversimplifying No, I don't think it's oversimplifying at all. I do believe
that you're best off going with plants that have many spurs along the branch.
You can be more successful that way. It's similar to a grapevine in how
we support them on wire. So, Stacy, I would guess that that's
the reason why we often see apples or pairs used for that purpose, right,
And also because in that case you're able to produce a crop in very
little space and something that you would not normally be able to use. Now,
for Melissa, I don't think her site is really quite sunny enough to
do a classic apple or pear espalier. But that's why I wanted to say
that you can use a number of different plants. Now, like you said,
there are some plants that aren't suitable, So I would avoid plants that
have like triple branching. So if you think about like a panicle Hydrangea where
sometimes it can do kind of like a whorl of branches, same with smoke
bush. But one plant that I have seen that would work really well for
Melissa that the espalier is very well is elderberry. Oh and it's a nice
big plant, very forgiving of the pruning, very decorative. So if you
did something like our beautiful black lace elderberry where you have that nice lacy black
foliage, just while you're shopping and you're finding the plant for that, you're
just going to want to look for something that's going to be able to be
shaped into the habit that you want, So looking for branches for one side
that's like more or less flatter, you can easily take branches off and then
good branching to the side, and then also our lemony lace elderberry would be
just as nice. Now, I was going to bring that up yesterday.
I was looking at it bear in the landscape and a lot of spurs,
a lot of bud spurs along the stems, so I could see why that
would work. Well, yeah, we used to have one in our old
office here and it was really cool. So you inspired me. I like
that another project for the resolution today. That's great. All right, Pat
is wondering will a red twig or yellow twig dog would tree grow near black
walnut trees? If not, how far away would the dogwood tree need to
be from the black walnut trees? Thank you so much in advance. Well,
this is a question that I think kind of leads us into you maybe
we need to do a show about growing around black walnuts, because it's a
concern that a lot of people have, and if you're not familiar with this,
just briefly, black walnuts have a quality known as a lollopathy, where
they emit some chemicals that can actually hamper the growth of other plants. Certain
susceptible plants. Not all plants are susceptible to it, and it's just a
natural, you know, sort of defense to prevent weeds from growing around them.
Now, by and large, the effects of black walnut on most plants
are overstated. People think that they are much more dramatic than they actually are.
Now when it comes to susceptible plants like tomatoes, forget it that things
is going to die, But a lot of plants can easily tolerate it.
Because what people don't realize is that the issue is not so much from the
roots. It's from the fallen leaves, twigs and fruits. And they make
a mess. So if you say, wow, my tree is going to
behave and not make a mess with branches and walnuts and lea, No,
they make a mess. Like I said, I wouldn't park a rented car
underneath a walnut. They make a mess, but the squirrels do a good
job of cleaning it up. Yeah, I got a black walnut across this
street and the s girls are taking the walnuts over into my yard and having
a field day over there. But there are plants that are more tolerant of
jugg low and this chemical that walnut's emit, and the good news is that
redder, yellow twig dogwood is among them. Now, that said, even
if a plant is not known to be susceptible, you're still going to want
to make sure it has ample water, and you are going to want to
make sure that the area around it is clear of the fallen foliage, fruits,
and especially branches, because those are the ones. It's not just so
much the roots. It's that falling debris that what can really cause issues for
surrounding plants. So I think you're good. I'm going to put some links
into the show notes where you can do some research yourself. They're not exhaustive,
but it's a good starting point if you have a black walnut in your
yard to learn some things that you can grow. Now we're going to take
a little break. When we come back, we got a fan favorite.
It's the Birdman. Please stay tuned. The Gardening Simplified Show is brought to
you by proven winners Color Choice Shrubs. Our award winning flowering shrubs and evergreens
have been trialed and tested for your success so you enjoy more beauty and less
work. Look for proven winners Color Choice Shrubs and the distinctive white container at
your local garden center. Welcome back to the Gardening Simplified Show, and today
for Branching News, we get to interview a favorite here on the program,
the Birdman, who swoops in here during the holidays. He's busy working here
during the holidays. And by the way, for those of you watching on
YouTube, the set today is decorated. It's all lit up evergreen branches.
I hired a design firm that I know of called Trillium, Sage, gall
and Fungus, and they came in and did a nice job. I thought,
so there you go. All right, birdman. Great to have you
on the show. And I guess right off the top, we got to
ask you. Well, let's ask first of all, how you doing.
How are things doing? Fantasy say, hey, thanks for having me on.
You bet to talk with you. It's great to have you on the
show. So El Nino winter, strange weather, little snow, just kind
of odd here in Michigan, but also in the Midwest, warmer than usual
winter. And there are some people who would debate whether or not it well
it affects migratory habits of birds or habits of birds in general. What say
you to that topic. I believe it does. It has a good deal
to do with it. It has marked less to do with light and mart
to do with food. And as long as they can get food easily,
then they don't have to move as far. Birds are pretty mobile, so
they can go to wherever they need to get food. And when the weather
starts to clamp in, and then they go down farther south where they don't
have the snow and ice to fight with, and that's the whole whole premise
of it. Then there's a habit pattern that comes aboard too, with some
the larger birds that it's just the way that they've preserved themselves over the centuries
is to be in the north in the summer, in the south in the
winter. You know, you make a really good point there that is basic
and understood, and yet we don't think about it often. You're right,
birds are mobile, so they can move to where the food is. I
was reading the other day about robins and how robins have a tendency to stick
around a line that stays around thirty eight degrees as a minimum low in winter.
If you wanted to use a general rule of thumb, some will stay
up north all winter long. They just kind of migrate, so to speak,
based on available water and food. And it could be as far north
as Michigan or further north or down south right right, and there it's warmer
in the swamps where the cricks are flowing and where the water is open,
and that's where you're likely to find them. If it's really cold and the
snow is high. You look down along with the creeks and the bubbling along
there, you'll find the robins and the bluebirds both. So this applies primarily
to insectivorous birds, correct, because a lot of people say, oh,
don't feed the birds, it's going to disrupt their migration. But the seed
eating birds are going to be able to stay in their range anyway because there's
usually seeds around. Correct. Seed eating birds stay here right because they don't
care. I mean, they can go into your garden and pick the seeds
that are left from this if you'r's blooming, and they can pick in the
trees and you know the crab apples and the hawthorne that's that are like that.
They have plenty of food around and they eat plenty of insects. Also,
same with the woodpeckers. They can find insects in the bark and underneath
the bark all seas along, so those will be here the whole time.
It's the ones that are mostly the insect of the orioles and things like that.
Orioles go into South America even to get the similar kind of habitat that
they're accustomed to here during the summer. Yeah, of course, Robin's we
think of them digging out the earthworms in spring, but at this time of
the year picking off that fruit off the trees. I was on the Cornell
University site the other day and I was reading they said that Robin's don't sing
until it's time for mating, and they can be pulling earthworms out of the
ground. Otherwise they don't sing. And I know both Stacy and Bill are
fabulous birders. I don't know if you buy into that or not. But
now that I sit here and I think about it, I really only hear
them in the spring. The rest of the year, I'm not so sure
I hear robin singing. What do you think, Bill? It's pretty hard
to judge something when you can't hear it. You nailed it. This is
one of those philosophical questions. If a robin sings in a forest and no
one's are absolutely well, you know, in general birds sing less in the
winter because you know, of course it takes energy, and you know,
they still have a need to communicate. But a lot of the singing is
about mating and territory, and right now they're all like, hey, can
we just get through this winter and get to the good part of the year.
You're right. The territory is that they're in is where they are.
If you've got birds there now, they're going to be within five miles and
they're going to stay there. There are your birds. So when you're feeding
them, you're feeding your birds and they're the ones that are eating your insects.
Yeah, that's great. That's great. Now along the lines of migration,
Bill, let's get an update on the sand Hill cranes. What's going
on. Well, we're right on the place outside Marshall where and sixty years
ago we were down to seven pairs of Sanduel cranes, and so this is
their base of operation and they keep coming back to this region every fall,
and at this point in time, we probably have twenty thousand Sandual cranes.
Wow, in groups of one hundred, two hundred and five hundred sitting in
a field picking over the crops and things like that. But normally they'd be
going south by now, but they haven't left yet because of the weather.
The you know, the food is available and they don't feel the pressure,
so they just and they're waiting for the right wind to take them down.
But they haven't haven't made that decision. And I think it is a lot
to do with the weather. Yeah, so what are they eating right now?
Oh, they're out in the fields where the corn was and the uh,
you know, all all the things that are out there. Also,
they spread a lot of manure now and there's always a lot of good stuff
in that. I know that if you're a bird like that stuff. I
didn't question that. You're speaking from a bird's point of view. Birds can't
smell smells. For those turkey vultures, Oh yeah, I love them.
Put it on the bill. Yeah, well that's interesting. That's and again
that reinforces the fact that they're not following a calendar. They're not checking their
smartphones, they're not maintaining a calendar. They are they're going where the food
is. They're they're basically doing what's natural to them, and if the weather's
a little unusual, they're going to do what is natural. Bill, I
I had mentioned to you that I'm looking forward this holiday season to seeing the
movie Migration. Migration is a animated film, and it's about a Mallard family
that's kind of in a rut. And so Dad Mac is content to keep
his family just safe paddling around their New England pond forever. But Mom,
her name is Pam, she wants to shake things up a little bit,
take the kids and show them the big wide world. And so they migrate
south through New York City to Jamaica. And of course the advent ures are
amazing. So this is a movie i'd suggest seeing. I'm certainly going to
see it this holiday season. Migration. I'm in the right age group for
that too. I love animation right on fell Now, these Mallards are ducks,
right, and I was reading they call them dabbling ducks, as opposed
to let's say, the cormorants that I see I live on Lake Michigan.
The cormorants which can dive I was reading as deep as one hundred and fifty
feet, which is unreal to me. But I'll stand there on the pier
and I'll watch them dive into the water and a bird will disappear and he
doesn't come back up, and I'm like, he drowned, and then a
minute later he pops back up to the surface. It's amazing to watch.
But ducks are dabblers, right, They're just kind of dabbling for the food
at the surface. Well, there are a couple kinds of duck they're puddle
ducks, and those are the dabblers, and then there's the the divers and
uh uh, and that's we can categories a lot of the waterfowl is are
they are they puddle ducks or or you know, dabbling along or are they
divers? And you know, we've got the loons out here that can go
down a couple hundred feet and have red eyes so they can see better under
dark water. So it's it's just amazing. Prmarants are pretty closely related to
them, And cormorants were actually endangered and they came roaring back. And now
I understand that a lot of fishermen are are taking issue with the cormorant population,
have a problem with them. Yes, well, you talk to fishermen
on island area there there are very few little baths left just because of the
cormorant population. You know. But nature swings one way and then swings the
other. It's just their cycles. And I don't know but how to how
to reverse it. Uh, maybe it's not our business to do that.
Well, certainly, if they eat all the fish there, they'll just kind
of have a natural population decline and kind of a boom bus cycle like the
economy and everything else that we deal with in life, and go someplace else.
Yep, yep. So we're chatting with the birdman Bill Stove stoveoll wood
products and Bill. Christmas time's a busy time of the year for you.
Christmas is good for birders. It's a great opportunity to have a gift in
the stocking or under the tree. And I was curious, I'm thinking about
getting a new pair of binoculars. Do you think that's a good gift at
Christmas time? It's a fabulous gift that brings the world in closer. You
can see things more clearly, and it's always a centerpiece of conversation if you're
in a group to see something on past. The binoculars around and you have
birding in particular is good in the winter time because you're inside with a small
group people and you've got a lot of color and activity just outside the window
to talk about and watch. It's actually they're a really good thing. So
it's a just a living commercial. Good bird feeder is a good idea too,
sure, absolutely, you know. I was online. I saw a
pair of binoculars for nineteen ninety nine, and then they'd throw in a pair
of steak knives with it too. If you placed your order, I'm probably
going to be disappointed, aren't I What pair did you go to? I
think exactly, No. You need you need to get in a several hundred
dollars range. We talked earlier about three four five hundred dollars category for a
quality binoculars with good lenses and good good operation. But you can't get anything
for twenty bucks anymore. And you know it's so important too. I think
a lot of people don't realize when they are searching for a pair of binoculars
that it's kind of depends on what birds you're watching as well. You know,
eight by forty two is sort of the gold standard for birders for the
binocular range, and it's good, but like for us here, if you're
by the on large bodies of water, you might actually want something that goes
further, like a ten by forty two, because a lot of the birds
that you're seeing are further away and some of that resolution that you give up
might be worth it if you're trying to watch you know, buffaleads way out
in the water like I often them. Well, I've done a little different
way. I have that kind of a bird watcher's binocular. But then we
get a spotting scope which really helps, and they're not that expensive, and
get a tripod with it and you can do all kinds of things. That's
a bird and nests in the woods where they're moving in and out and you
don't have to hold that there, or you can do across the water a
long distances. So that's a spotting scope. You don't have to hold it
steady because you've got it down a tripod and it has as an axillary thing.
Maybe they already have binoculars, but a good spotting scope would be a
good idea surprise them is something they don't even know they want. I love
that we're chatting with the birdman. We're chatting with the birdman, Bill Stovell
Bill again, getting back to the al Nino issue. Then beyond the holidays
here, there are a number of birds that migrate. You know, when
we think migration, we think to warmer southern climates. But one of the
birds that I love to capture with my camera along the lake shore is the
snowy owl. But I'm hearing rumor I have not seen a snowy owl yet
this year. But I'm hearing rumor that there are some birds from the northern
parts, let's say, up in Canada that we're not seeing this year either
because of El Nino. Is that correct? Absolutely? Snowy owl is one.
But the little finch that's that way there, there's a uh, several
feederbirds that come down. Red sided nuthatch is not here. I haven't seen
them at all, and usually they're here by now. Fine systems are not
here yet, and they're a little brown bird with stripes on them. Red
pole is a little finish that's got a red dot on the top of his
head, and they're not here yet. And the list goes on of birds
that come. They come to here because it's warmer there's a winter rim that
likes it here during the during the winter, but they like it better up
north during the summer. So it has a cascading event. Right again,
if they're mobile, so they come to where it's comfortable for them. Yeah.
So, Bill, before we let you go, we are going to
be talking over the next few weeks about resolutions and resolutions that each of us
has has personally as far as gardening is, as far as birding is concerned.
Any resolutions on your list or a resolution you think somebody should have.
Maybe it's subscribing to a magazine or an app or whatever it may be.
What do you think is a good birding resolution for somebody that you know enjoys
birding. Well, there are a couple national birding magazines that are just excellent,
and if you're a member of the Michigan Audubon Society, they put out
a a pamphlet every quarter that's just stunning about the bird studies that are around.
So that kind of literature might be a possibility. I'm trying to think
what else. No, that's fine. My mom always had birds in Blooms
magazine. That's a classic, that's a standard. Yet, what do you
think is a resolution Stacey that somebody could make as a birder for the coming
year, maybe to to plant more shrubs or plants that produce berries or cover
or Yeah, and that's an obvious one. I mean absolutely, But I
think the best thing that a birder can resolve to do is bird more.
I mean, honestly, like, because that's how you build your skills,
and that's how you build the joy that you find in it is by spending
more time and deepening your knowledge and you know, expanding your observations and you
get to spend more time doing something really amazing. Yeah, that's true.
It's an easy resolution. Exactly. Walk in the wood and when you see
something you don't recognize, look it up in your book and figure out what
it is. Curiosity is another thing to keep sharp on your making the resolution.
I agree completely. Yeah, and you know, uh, that's so
true. I remember my dad is ninety four years old, and I remember
taking walks with him as a kid, and my dad loved birds. I
mean, he was totally into birds. But of course he was from the
Netherlands, and there's a lot of water in the Netherlands and a lot of
greats and so he was completely into it. So he was constantly talking to
me about bird calls or do you hear that? Or do you see that?
And once again, these are the things that stick with you as as
a kid. They say, as a kid, once you stick your face
in a lilac and you take a really good sniff, that that aroma sticks
with you the rest of your life. So if there's kids around, Bill,
exposing them to birding is a great thing to do. It certainly is.
And putting up a birdhouse and watching the little ones come out of it
that they'll stick them forever. Yeah, you bet. I'm looking forward to
that season in spring too. Birdman. I hope you have a wonderful Christmas,
wonderful holiday. Thank you for your enthusiasm and your interest in birds and
what you do for the birding community. And we really appreciate you here on
the Gardening Simplified Show. Well, thank you for the opportunity and back at
you. You got really wonderful shows going on and a great staff right there.
Those three of you just make make me laugh, love it, love
it a lot. Thanks for doing it. Thank you very much. Take
care of Bill. Merry Christmas, Merry Christmas. Well, that's our gift
to you because it's always such a pleasure to have Birdman on the show.
We love it as much as you do, so thank you so so much
for tuning in. We all wish you a very very merry Christmas and we'll
see you next week.