The Fundamentals of Container Gardening and the Birdman is Back!

Hello, my friends across the fruited and rooted plane. Yes, it's time
for another Gardening Simplified show with Stacy Hervella me, Rick weisst and our engineer
and producer Adriana Robinson. We're broadcasting from studio away here at proven Winners Color
Choice Shrubs. Container gardens have personality, they reflect your personality and Stacy,
I like to think you can create chaos with control limited by the boundaries of
the pot. I experienced that last year with trufflea paint Gomfrina, which just
went NUTSI cuckou and but fortunately the boundaries of the pot was there. Well,
you know, I think an annual going nutsy cuckoo is exactly what it
is programmed and supposed to do for you. I mean, if an annuals
not going nutzy cucko, kind of a boring summer, true, yeah,
and we like some excitement. So there's so many benefits to container gardening,
for being able to grow plants in small spaces, to be able to move
your garden to sun or shade conditions contingent on what you're planting. And then
of course you've got to remember that the plants you put in the container are
going to have to coexist in that same container, so you want plants with
similar needs. But stacy container gardening is just perfect for gardeners and folks who
want to experiment with different plant combinations, textures and colors. You know,
it's so true, and it really so. You and I are on the
older side. We've been around for a while, been gardening for many years.
But I mean, but still, like, do you remember when containers
basically meant one of those swan planters or those black cauldrons, those plastic black
cauldrons. Yes, my mom had those, and whiskey barrels. Let us
not forget whiskey barrels. But it used to be not all that long ago
that that was it for container gardening. And the only thing that people really
put in containers pretty much was like geraniums. You know, they didn't done
yeah, yeah, a spike, And you know, it was so limited
and it was so constrained, and I think it's just so amazing that we
have been able to witness this transformation of container gardening from being this very uh
you know, conventional, rather dull practice in the garden to this creative endeavor
that you can use to express your personality to expand your garden space. You
know, not just the different plants and combinations that we use in containers nowadays,
but the containers themselves. Oh, the containers unbelievable. You're right,
and that's where we start. Uh. And of course, if you're going
to do some container gardening, take a look at the size of the containers.
You want a big enough container to be able to provide some root mass
and some soil. And you know, if you look at proven winners,
you look at self watering containers like the aqua pots yea. The selection of
pots and containers today and the colors and styles. Wow, it's it's such
a big difference. And I think you make a great point about the size
of the containers. So when people are asking me about like containers, you
know, I'd say, you want to put the majority of your money in
pretty large containers. So to me, that means like sixteen inches diameter or
more. What do you consider a large No, I agree with that.
As a matter of fact. On next week's show, we're going to talk
about hanging baskets, and I'll go off on hanging baskets. I'm so opinionated.
I'm I'm about hanging baskets like you are with wind chimes. I've got
a strong opinion and I'm gonna bring it, but we won't go there today.
So yes, at least sixteen inches. Yeah, and you know,
I think it's useful. So a lot of times I buy containers in sets.
You know, they'll be sold in a set, you know, three
of the same color, sort of small, medium, large, And I
do like having that. It's it's really nice and easy to arrange. But
of course, in that little contain you're probably just planting a single thing,
just one plants the media, maybe one bigger plant, and then it's those
larger ones where you really get to combine and use some of those tips that
our guests when they Claremont shared with us on last week's show about designing containers.
Yeah, exactly. Of course, the soil is important. We talk
about that often. A good potting mix, a good lightweight mix. But
Stacy, a question that I've had through the years for a lot of people
is you can kind of go broke on potting mix. It's not cheap.
It is not cheap, And I will say right now, I reuse my
potting mixes every year because because I do the same, and generally I recommend
to people, you know, at least keep half to three quarters of last
year and then amend that soil. And of course there are great four months
slow release fertilizers that you can use. Amended maybe with a water soluble fertilizer,
and you'll be off to the races. Yeah, you know, potting
soil is not only expensive, but it also is a natural resource. I
mean, most of our potting mix is our pete base. Pete is a
natural resource, and so I think that we have an obligation and responsibility to
treat potting soil, you know, not like a product that we just buy
every single year, but as something that we invest in and continue to use.
So I do what you what you might recommend. I store all my
potting mix into in big bin storage bins in the winter, and then come
spring, I take it out, I amend it with compost or composted manure
mix that in and then I'm like multiplying my volume of potting mix, which
means I get to have more containers. So let's win win. Yeah,
yeah, I like that. While I'm into containers too. So this week's
limb a Rick, I'm gonna lay this on you. Here, I'm growing
my personal camelot, a haven of planters. I've given great thought with many
of every container. The end result is a no brainer. My yard has
gone to pot. So there you go. I love it now with containers,
Stacy, we often talk about starting from the center, working our way
out with thriller plants, and you know, we know the various thrillers.
Of course, I love canas I love cord lines. As the thriller in
the center. One thing that's fun to do is to put a vine in
the center of a container. Put some steaks, like some bamboo steaks in
the center. You could even plant seeds of vining plants like a hyacinth bean
or whatever, and vines take over the center as a thriller. Oh that's
such a good idea, because you know, sometimes you get tired of doing
the same old, same old. My go to thriller one that I always
have to have every year is rock and deep purple salvia. So for you
know, I probably a lot of our listeners, you know, are like
us in the garden, both in the ground and in container. So I
have my in ground garden out there in the yard, and I put containers
on my porch and patios for a little bit of extra color. But I
really focus my container plantings on attracting hummingbirds and butterflies, because what could be
better than attracting them to write where you sit? And so every choice that
I make is based on color, of course, and colors of my containers.
But rock and deep purple and vermilion or kufia are my must haves every
year because they attract so many hummingbirds, and I just adore the color and
look of those plants. I love that. And for people keeping score at
home, Stacy's talking about the Rocking series of Salvia proven winners, I agree
with you. They are a kick in the plants. I love them.
After the thrillers, of course, we have the fillers, plants that tend
to be rounded or mounded and make the container look full. And then we
have some fun with the spillers placed close to the edge of the containers,
so dichondra silver falls or potato vines, and of course potato vines too.
Today there's so many advancements tricolor, scartrus colors, different leaf shapes. They're
fun to grow, they have come a long way since Margharita, that golden
one busted onto the market several years ago. They have really become a standard.
And that's another really cool thing that's happened with container plants is there's just
been all of these new introductions that have just completely changed the way that we
plant them. But I do want to go back briefly to fillers, because
you know, thriller, that's easy, spiller, that's easy fillers where things
get a little bit tricky, people are like, what is that? And
you know, I think a great example of a filler that a lot of
people are familiar with is diamond frostyphobia. So if you know, I'm sure
a lot of our listeners have grown it or at least seen it in hanging
baskets and so forth. And that's a really great example because it's kind of
poofy, you know, it's rounded, but also it blooms all summer.
It has a nice neutral color, it's white, so it's very easy to
work in with other plants, and it's see through. That's one thing I
love about it is that it's not just like a big clump of plant.
I mean, not that I have any any problems with big clumps of plants.
I love them, but it's it's light and airy, so that when
you have all these plants in combination and it contain you can see through it
to see everything and get that layered lush effect of all different colors and shapes
and textures. You nailed at Stacy, because I agree. What you want
is you want different leaf sizes if that's the way I put it in the
container. You want that contrast, and that's what's going to make your container
pop. Boy, you can't beat something like colias in a container, well
unless you have deer, and then you can. But I was just shopping
with my mom over last weekend for our summer plants. We couldn't get everythingcause
not everything was out, but she always plants colias in her front yard,
and I was just thinking how jealous I was of her that she gets to
grow these big, beautiful, lush colias, because I have tried, and
the deer have climbed up my front steps to show them right down. Well,
I grow them in my containers, inside the compound, the compounds so
the deer don't eat them. Yes, the links that will go to but
you know we're talking about a kind of composing your container, and I actually
compose my containers right in the garden center when I'm shopping, kind of on
the cart saying Okay, you know, how are these going to look together.
I don't just buy a whole bunch of plants and then go home and
figure it out. So I'm kind of working through it in my mind as
I'm shopping. I love that And if you need some help with that as
we go to break here, I want to recommend that Proven Winners is into
recipes. We call them recipes, and if you're looking for ideas, you
can go to proven Winners dot com and all you have to do is search
container garden recipes, container garden recipes and you'll get a lot of ideas.
You sure will coming up. Plants on Trial. That's next. Stacy's gonna
give us a good swift kicking the plants. Plants on trial here on the
Gardening Simplified Show. The Gardening Simplified Podcast is brought to you by Proven Winners
Color Choice Shrubs with over three hundred flowering shrubs and evergreens, all trialed and
tested for your success. There's one for every taste in every space. See
them all at Proven Winners color Choice dot Com. Greetings gardening friends, and
welcome back to the Gardening Simplified Show. This is Stacey Harrella. I'm here
with Rick and this is normally the time of the show where we put a
plant on trial talk about one of the three hundred plus proven when there's Color
Choice shrubs, and you decide if you want to add it to your garden.
But in the theme of today's show of container gardening, I wanted to
kind of shift the segment a little bit and talk about growing shrubs and containers
because we get so many questions about whether people can grow shrubs and containers,
How do they do this, what soil do they use? So so many
questions, And you know, I would like to think that's because we have
so many wonderful choices with Improven Winners Color Choice shrubs. People say, WHOA,
I don't have any more ruined my garden or I'm not you know,
I'm not making a new bed, but I really really want this cool new
shrub that you've got, So how about a container? And so I think
it's really good to kind of give our listeners sort of a base understanding of
what it takes to grow shrub and container so they can do it at home.
I think it's a great, great idea, Stacey. And I think
part of the reason folks want to do this is because they see it in
public places or out in front of a hotel, and they want to do
that at home. Yeah, and it is very simple. And you know,
I think the number one question that we get is can I grow X
in a container? You know, whatever plant they've encountered that's with it,
you know, or shrub rather, because we are focusing specifically on shrubs here,
can I grow in a container? And the answer to that is that
pretty much, you can grow any shrub in a container. In theory,
I'm going to give you a couple of caveats to that, but you know,
my response when people are surprised by that is to think of bones.
Eye plants and boneside are trees, you know, real trees that would grow
to you know, very very tall, one hundred or more feet tall if
left to their own devices and unlimited soil in space. But once you take
that tree and you force it to grow in this very very tiny container,
and you're pruning it and trimming the roots, and you know, really restricting
its space it can grow and stay in scale, and containers naturally have a
similar effect on shrubs. Okay, just by keeping it in that confined space,
even something that would get quite tall is generally going to you know,
stay proportional and be a little bit smaller. Now that said, some plants
that I don't recommend growing in containers are those that sucker really vigorously. So
something like I know we talked about mister mustard Sorberia or ural full spyrhea a
few weeks ago, that would be one that I would not recommend because that
it's it's like have you ever tried to grow mint in a container? Everyone
thinks like, oh, you know mint, it's so rambunctious. I'm going
to grow it in a container and that will be great. But mints like
mmmmm, I'm not going to be constrained by this container for me, can't
do it. And so it's like almost like with some of these plants,
when you try to change their inherent nature, they're just rebelling certainly teenagers,
I guess, and they won't be they won't they won't have it. So
it wasn't meant to be. I was not meant to be exactly. So
Sorberia ita is another one that I wouldn't necessarily recommend in containers. Winterberry,
holly, staghorn sumac, and there's so many beautiful saghorn root, so many.
But there are some beautiful staghorn sumac varieties out on the market, but
that will not be happy in a container. And if it's not happy in
a container, then neither are you as a gardener. Well, Stacy.
For me, I struggle with evergreens, and you'll see people in fall or
towards Christmas plant evergreens in containers and then by spring you have this brown shell
of what used to be a plant, brown shell of sadness. Sadness.
Yes, indeed you do. Oh, you answered your own question when you
are asking that, Because the reason that so many people fail with planting evergreens
is because they do it in fall in winter. And it's not that you
can't grow evergreens in containers. Yes, you absolutely have to, you know,
be more careful about watering. But when you plant something like that in
fall in winter, what happens is it doesn't have a chance to get established,
no roots. That soil freezes a lot of times. This is happening
at like restaurants and things like that, so people aren't like really caring for
them. If that soil around that container freezes without you know, reasonably good
watering, that is just absolutely going to dry up. Well, I would
have to say I've had some success, and what I have done is when
I put the soil in the container, I leave an inch or two from
the top of the pot so that I can mulch. Oh yeah, melch
will be hugely yeah, absolutely, And you know, people don't think about
mulching their containers, but it's always a good idea. If you have extra
mulch, just sprinkle it right over the surface of your container around your plants.
It will help so much to keep that moisture in. But along the
lines of evergreens, I would also say, if you're considering evergreens in a
container, you're probably best off with a need a leafed evergreen like a dwarf
pine or or juniper or something like that, rather than a broadly shiver green
like a boxwood or chamelia or something like that. Those are going to it's
right there in the name. They're broad leaf, so they are going to
lose a lot of water out their leaf surface and that's going to make it
a lot harder for them to deal with this situation in the container of limited
water. Okay, that makes sense. So there's my recommendation on that.
Now, what you can grow some that I know do really well, And
of course what we get the most questions about is hydranges. Hydranges and containers.
We have articles on our website about this, and generally speaking, I
think hydranges do great in containers. I've seen Bobo in containers that looks gorgeous.
Oh, Bobo is a great chose. So Bobo is a dwarf panicle
hydrangea, reaching just about three to five feet tall and wide. So especially
when you're dealing with these more dwarf varieties, they're really really suitable to just
staying in scale, you know, with that can tainer. Let's Dan's hydrangeas.
Now, I mean these are the these are big leaf hydrangeas, the
kinds of the purple or blue full the flowers that everybody and their brother wants
to grow and a lot of people can't or haven't had success, but they
can do okay in containers. They are one you might want to move to
a protected spot rather than just leave you know, exposed out in the middle
of your yard or something like that. Now, I do want to briefly
address container size when it comes to shrubs, because this is another question that
we get a lot and so basically what I recommend is that you match the
container size close to the size of the shrub that you purchase. So if
you buy a one gallon container, that container is about ten inches, so
you're buying the hydrange or the plant in a one gallon that container is about
ten inches in diameter, So you're probably gonna want to go with something that's
about twelve to fourteen inches diameter and approximately as tall. So you don't want
to just have a huge container in a little tiny plant in the middle,
not just from a dedic standpoint, but from a plant health standpoint too,
because that just leaves a lot of soil to sit there and absorb moisture and
you know, allow for root rot because all that wet soil sitting around with
no roots to take it up, but no evaporative forces to take it away.
Sure that makes sense. Now, I have tried stacy growing shrubs in
containers, but what I've resorted to is pulling them out of the ground in
October and planting them directly into the soil next to the container, and then
replanting them again the next spring. You know, I could understand why people
don't want to do that. Well. I think it's a great idea.
It's a great solution if you have the space. But not everyone has the
ground space. And I think a lot of the people that we hear from
who want to grow shrubs and containers, you know, they have a condo
or very small space, you know, not enough room to allow for that.
So it is possible now a lot of times when you hear people talking
about growing shrubs and containers, they say, choose a shrub that's chwoo.
Zones hardier than the zone that you live in. So if you live in
zone six like we do, you would only be planting shrubs that are hardy
to USCA zone four. That's okay advice. I don't think it's bad advice
at all, but I don't think that it tells the whole story. And
I also think it's very limiting because a lot of times, yeah, that's
that's cutting out five. Then you're basically limited to what potent till practically,
and maybe cornice a couple of other things. Oh, write your tongue.
But so it's okay advice, But again it doesn't tell the whole story because
what I have found, and I was a rooftop gardener in New York City
where everything was in containers and conditions. Of course we're very extreme because we're
way up on the top of buildings. But what I've found, more than
anything, the key to success is not so much that hardiness, but its
ability to withstand periods of wet soil. Because what happens with a container when
you have something in a container through the winter is that when it gets real
cold, that container freezes solid, and so all that soil you know,
matrix, is completely frozen. And then when this temperature starts to get a
little bit warmer in late winter and early spring, it starts to thaw,
but of course it's sawing from the outside in, so that deepest central core
of the container remains a big frozen ice cube. And then at this point
in the season it's starting to rain. There's still some like wet snow happening,
and so all that moisture is going in, but it can't drain out
because the center is still frozen. So really, I think that's the key
to success. Almost more so, or indeed more so than hardiness, is
that ability to withstand that. So I think that's an important consideration for people.
It's one reason why I think butterfly bush are not necessarily the best for
containers unless you can put them sort of under an overhang or something like that
to prevent that rainfall that you can't control from riding the roots. Of course,
you still then need to monitor the moisture, you know, by hand,
going out there and checking it. But I think that that really is
what I have seen. Kill plants more than cold. Plants are just like
people, and with people, you know what you think about a March day
or whatever, and it's cold and wet. There's nothing worse than having wet
feet. Oh don't you hate that? It's just and you know, my
mom would send me to school with bread bags in my boots just to avoid
that. Yeah, that wet feet is no fun at any time of the
year, but especially in March. So we could go on and on about
growing shrubs and containers, and we would love to, but we're out of
time for the moment, So I'm going to put everything that you need to
know in our show noteech Gardening Simplified on air dot com all link you to
some additional articles that we have and you'll see some pictures of shrubs and containers
because we're going to take a break and then we've got gardening questions and it
is garden question go time, so please stay tuned. Thanks for listening to
the Gardening Simplified Podcast sponsored by Proven Winners Color Choice Shrubs. Learn more about
our trial tested and proven flowering shrubs and evergreens and find a local retailer at
Proven Winners color Choice dot com. Greetings gardening friends, and welcome back to
the Gardening It's Simplified Show. One of the ways that we try to simplify
gardening for you here on The Gardening Simplified Show is that we answer your garden
questions, because, of course, one of the most confusing things about gardening
if you're getting started, or you know, even if you've been doing it
for years, plants can do weird things. You can find yourself in new
situations that you don't know how to resolve. And Rick and I have seen
a lot and we can put our heads together and try to help you.
So they're all the time, you know. I say that I've been a
professional horticulturist for some twenty plus years now, and I swear plants get weirder
to me every years. Where am I? How did I get here?
And that's a wonderful thing because they never stop being fascinating and wonderful and it
never Gardening is just a lifelong pursuit. So if you have the garden question
for us, you can write us at help HLP at Gardeningslified OnAir dot com,
or just go to Gardening Simplified on air dot com and click the contact
form. You can write it's a letter. You can even you can write
us an email, I guess not a letter. You can even attach a
photo a photo, which is very helpful in many cases because some people have
very specific questions. So don't hesitate to reach out. And Rick is going
to see what's in the mail bag this week. Well, let's dip in
here and take a look. Deb has a question for the Canna King That
would be me. Canna conundrum. I like that I bought a pot of
Canna's last fall, placed it in a dark room, but it wasn't cold
enough, and they started to grow again in December. It's now April and
it's blooming. My question is do canna rhizomes need a downtime or can they
just keep on growing? That's a great question, and I would mention that
I dig mine up in fall and put them away. And the reason I
do that is basically that rhizome is a storage vessel, and in fall,
as the days start to get shorter, I wait to cut back the cannas
and dig them up because, just like with other plants, you're translocating nutrients,
food into that rhizome or that root, and you want to give it
plenty of time to do that. So do I feel that they need a
resting period? Yeah? Could you grow a canna similar to how you would
grow a houseplant indoors? Sure you could, but it's not going to be
as robust, in my opinion, as it is if you were to follow
that cycle of digging them up in November, putting them into storage, and
then replanted. You know it's yeah, it's Cannas are are funny because if
you go to a warm climate, say like USCA Zone nine or warmer,
cannas are pretty much a year round plants like a house plot. If they
get a little frost, it will knock them back, They'll take a little
rest, and then they'll come back up once, you know, the days
are longer and the temperatures are warmer. So it's kind of like they can
go dormant if they need to, but they don't strictly have to. Now,
I don't know exactly what's going to happen with your cannas, but I
think they will be fine. I would definitely go ahead and plant them in
a container, water them. They might benefit from a little bit of extra
fertilizer since they have been expending a lot of energy from that storage rhizome blooming
in your basement with hopefully someone to enjoy them. But I think they'll be
fine, And I would say, by all means, plant them outside in
some good rich potting mix. Fertilize them, you know, every two weeks
or so, and I think by this summer you won't even know in the
next fall, go ahead and let a frost knock them back, It's what
a lot of people do. Or just cut them back, wait until like
mid to late October, and then they should be fine. Yeah, I
agree. I think you're going to be fine. Deb And right now,
now that you're at this point, one thing you could consider doing, and
I know it'll you know it'll hurt, but take a pruning shears and just
clip those few blooms off right now, get it outside, and let's get
that plant off to the races right, which will say the plant the energy
it would otherwise put into developing seed, which you don't want anyway. Terry's
asking us, what is the range of temps appropriate for planting grass seed?
Here in West Michigan. Soil temperatures of fifty five to sixty degrees is and
that's usually when we see the four scythias in bloom. That really sort of
prompts a lot of garden activity when those for scythia are in bloom. You
know, I think I don't know a whole whole lot about grass, but
what I do know is that it is also a variety specific. So if
you've decided to, I know, my husband and I brought I forget which
type it was. We bought a very drought tolerant grass because our yard is
so sandy and sunny, and it recommended a fall planting instead of a spring
one. So whatever grass seed you're buying, it should come with instructions.
But overall, you know grass seeds, as any gardener who's had to contend
with it in their beds can tell you, it's kind of hard to get
it from not growing. So there is an old adage grass grows best where
you wish it wouldn't. Yes, I have certainly found that that's the truth
and the cracks of your driveway and your planting beds. But it's all about
soil temperatures. So in spring, when we get to fifty five sixty degrees,
that's when you're going to That's when you're going to plant grass seed.
And I agree with Stacy. The optimum time in the Northern States to establish
a lawn and plant grass seed, in my opinion is August September, when
the soil's nice and warm, but the temperatures are going to start cooling down
we get regular rainfall, that's a great time to establish seed. Not everybody
carries a soil thermometer around in their vehicle like I do, or multiple or
multiple Steve's writing to us thanks for the great shows. I have two questions.
Is it helpful to apply corn gluten to the lawn for weed control,
and if so, when is the best time to apply. I am building
a wicking, not wicked, a wicking raised bed garden for my vegetables.
Do you have any advice or experience with these? The corn gluten, of
course, is great for suppressing weed seed. It's not going to kill weeds.
But what it's going to do is suppress weed seed. And what time
of the year is that a problem for us in our lawns well spring,
think crabgrass, and then again in fall with winter annuals. So I recommend
if you want to take the corn gluten approach, and I believe it's a
great choice because it's also a natural nitrogen source, go ahead and put it
down. And my recommendation would be to be using it in spring and fall.
Well, you know, I have a joke as I'm walking through my
garden in the summer, if it wasn't for crabgrass, I wouldn't have no
grass at all. So if I were to ever become a blue singer,
that would be my first You're gonna climb the country charts here with that song.
Oh but as for his question about the wicking garden bed, so I
had not heard of this, but I looked it up when I saw this
question, and basically, it's like taking it's like making a raised bed into
a self watering container. So you have like your PVC pipe, you build
it over a reservoir of some type. You've got your PVC pipe so you
can you know, get the water down in there. And so basically this
is a raised bed that's built over that. And people are familiar I think
with self watering containers. They've become more and more popular over the coming years
and or the most recent years, and I think I think it's a great
idea. I think it's very interesting. I saw a lot of pictures of
this online, and it's nice because you don't see the reservoir or just like
with a self watering container, you're not like, well, there's a self
watering container. You know, it's all hidden within. And I would say
there's two things, sort of two caveats that I give to people when they're
talking about self watering containers. Number one, and a lot of instructions don't
actually factor this in or tell you. But until the plants are rooted in,
the self watering effect is meaningless. It doesn't happen until there's root growth
deeper down into the soil because the roots need to take up the water.
So you need to actually water manually for probably the first four to six weeks
after planting, whether that is a wicking bed or a self watering container.
And that's particularly true if you're growing from seed, because you know the seed
is just that little tiny seed with no roots, that water is not going
to get all the way up to the surface of the wicking bed to actually
get that seed to imbibe the water. It needs to go on and germinate,
So that means you're going to be hand watering, and you have to
be very careful about that because of course, any self watering container is contained
and you can it's easy to overwater, so you could end up, you
know, flooding it out, so you have to be very careful about that.
Well, we're all looking for set it and forget it solutions with lots
of things. Right, and set it and forget it can often get you
into a lot of trouble. He can and along those lines, and I've
heard a couple of horror stories before someone says, oh, you know what,
I'm going on vacation I'm going to ask my neighbor to water my plants.
I said, oh, don't worry, they're self watering containers. Watering
a self watering container is not equally obvious to everybody, nor is it equally
obvious from container to container. Sometimes it's really not clear where you actually put
the water in. So if you're relying on someone else to help you refill
those reservoirs and keep your plants growing well, make sure you give them a
little tutorial before you just hand over the keys to the garden. That's why
I just wet my plants, because this just continues. People struggle with watering
and pruning. Yeah, watering and pruning well. Watering is definitely the one
people say, I would like to know exactly how much water and went,
and we can't know. And if I were to say them, and I've
experienced that in the garden center, if I said, okay, well,
hold the watering can face east, elevate your left leg into the air,
and poor progressively, they would follow the because they're writing it and how often
once a week? Okay? And it doesn't work that way. We just
don't have a set it or forget it solution and you know. If that's
why we say gardening is both an art and a science, you got it.
So if we can help you with the art or science part, don't
hesitate to reach out at help at Gardening Simplified OnAir dot com or just visit
the website Gardening Simplified on air dot com for the show notes and to ask
your questions. We're going to take a little break, but when we come
back, guess what, the Birdman is back all right, so please stay
tuned at proven Winner's Color Choice Shrubs. We love plants. That's why we
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proven Winner's Color Choice dot com. Welcome back to the Gardening Simplified Show.
It's time for branching news, not breaking news, and this week back by
popular demand, or as an arborist would say, by popular demand the Birdman.
He's going to swoop in to tweet us with some more bird talk and
Birdman thanks again for joining us here on the Gardening Simplified show, always a
pleasure. Rick thinks you bet you yeah. And speaking of lively, CNN
did a story this past week which was fabulous. Parrots learning to call each
other on video chat. They're using like an iPad or a phone, and
they're called, they select who they want to call, and then they just
have this conversation and they kind of just have some fun together. It's amazing.
Does the other bird answer? Yes, they do, even if they
don't feel like talking. YEA two can play that game. The bill is
in the mail. That's right. Polly wants more than a cracker. I
can tell you that they want a FaceTime together. So anyhow, we'll put
that link on our website, Gardening Simplified OnAir dot com. So birdman,
give us an update on the loons on the lake. How they're doing.
Our loons are just in the perfect spot. They're sitting on their raft.
She went on her nest on the twenty fifth. I watched her a couple
of days ago and she was rolling an egg over in the nest. I
can look right out in my window and in my spotting spoke and watch her.
And she'll be on the nest for about twenty eight days and then off
will come another one or two little loons. By the way, since nineteen
ninety two, Uh, we've had um twenty eight chicks. Oh wow,
awesome on our on our lake that's in plugon and you know so uh loon.
Uh. Their their life expectancy is twenty eight to thirty five years.
So they can replace themselves quite a few times. That's amazing. And yeah,
but they're losing a habitat, so we have to be very careful with
them and watch them closely and be aware of them. Yeah. I was
watching a special on the Smithsonian Channel about the Great Lakes and the importance of
the loons. What what an amazing bird and uh yeah, the work that's
being done to to preserve the loons is a very important work. Let's talk
a minute about goldfinches. I love seeing goldfinches at my bird feeder, and
it never ceases to amaze me birdman, how they how they can kind of
change color, and they're almost like the flowers they bloom in spring, at
least it feels that way. Well, they really do. Their feathers change.
The males in particular, they're kind of gray and gray grays or yellow
and during the during the winter in their little flock and their little nomadic flock,
and they come into your feeder. But now they come in and they've
changed to a bright yellow and black and uh, and they're chattering a lot
more. They're up there in the trees just make a noise, but they
don't. They don't nest until the late summer. Oh really, I didn't
realize that I have sorry, go ahead. Uh. They wait until the
thistles ye are ripe, and then they use to thistle down for their nests.
Yeah, you're right. Uh, in August, for example, when
the globe thistle have finished blooming, I will see globe thistle covered in goldfinches.
So yeah, that's pretty cool and gathering bedding. I've seen their nests
before and they are just like the softest, comfious, little fluffy nest um.
So how late in the season and their young still have enough time to
mature before conditions get really harsh. They do, it's usually audus and then
um. But when you start to see if you're familiar with what the little
ones look like when they fly and when they speak, they don't speak the
radular chatter like a goldfinch does. It's a different kind of a sound.
That means that fall is on its way. Oh. Interesting, that's about
the time they least start to begin to turn. It's about when they're when
they're just totally fledged and ready to ready to meet the winter. Now,
are there other birds that also nest that late in the season. I don't
know of that. You could get a third nesting of blue birds that would
be fairly late. Interesting, that happens pretty regularly because bluebird's uh nest two
or three times. And that's that's really one reason that they were coming back
so nicely. Well, and it's uh, it's another good reason. If
you have some wild growth around your property and you have some globe thistle growing,
maybe just let it grow and let the finches enjoy it. So birdman,
uh, I had to throw on our list today killed ears and I
had to throw killed deers on the list because Adriana just loves killed ears.
And what a what a fascinating bird. It's it's a plover uh. And
so I guess one of the one of the fascinations with the bird is how
it lays its eggs and goes about doing that. They are right, absolutely
fascinating and you don't even know that you're coming on them when you're in their
nesting territory because it's usually just a field or a rocky spot or an open
open place. If you grab, we're and their eggs are down in between,
looking that's at and you'll flush them off the nest and then they'll they'll
look like they're wounded. They'll drag you away from where that nest is by
flopping along and flapping their wings and calling and limping and they're drave, you
crazy son. But if you move away from that and watch, they'll come
back to where the nest is. But to figure out where that is is
really tough because they those little speckled eggs really look like rocks. Yeah,
they're so camouflaged. And you know, being in horticulture, Um here at
our nursery, we get a ton of killed ears because we do have so
many gravel spaces. And when I lived in New York, a friend of
mine owned nursery upstate and they had similar you know, all the surfaces were
gravel, and they also had a little long haired jack Russell terrier and she
would fall for the killed ears act every single time. Remember, year after
year after that, that killed deer would walk away with its fake broken wing,
and she would just be following it and following it, and it was
it was so fun to watch the two of them together. Um. But
you know, I've seen killed deer really in any gravelly spot. And I
do see them a lot here in Grand Haven along the edges of our bayous
and swamps, so kind of when they recede, when they get a little
bit drier. I see them all the time, just running all around.
That is that common to see them in those wetter areas. Well. Just
think about you've got a little gravelly spot. What a perfect place to hide
your nest in both pebbles. Yeah, yeah, have you ever seen have
you ever seen the babies? Yes, they are so cute. It's like
a ping pong ball and still a little ping pong ball. You just waddle
around and chase and but there they've got to be three feet or three inches
tall. It looks like there's three feet tall, but three inches tall on
this little round spot on the top. Chase and mom, Yeah, that's
great. They're fascinating. I love plovers. And of course, here along
the shoreline of Lake Michigan, piping plovers very important. A lot of important
work being done trying to preserve that bird. And again they're they're pension for
laying those eggs and camouflaging them on the ground, and of course that's uh
predators, foot traffic going to become a problem. But they are continuing to
survive and multiply, so they're and they're protecting those areas rick uh to keep
some people out at least, and they're they're increasingly population. It was it
was nip and tuck there for a while whether they were going to have fighting,
but it looks like they've saved them. But we have to keep watching
them. Okay, birdman, hummingbirds. Everybody's ready to have you put out
your hummingbird feeder. Yet I did put out my hummingbird feeders because last year
I saw my first one on April twenty fifth, and foos counting, and
I have not seen any this year, but even though and it's been very
cold, so I don't think that's terribly surprising. But my fear, of
course, is that if they are coming back, they're going to need energy
more than ever because it has been so cold and so gray and so gloomy,
so obviously they've been working their way up from the south birdman here in
the north. Is it a good idea to put out the feeders now?
It's a particularly good idea because it's cool and your nectar is not likely to
spoil particularly quickly. But I do have two reports of orioles being seen in
this last week. And when the orioles show up, so to the hummingbirds.
So they're gonna they're here, or they're about to be here, just
it's momentarily and to have your you have your oranges out for the orioles,
and get the hummingbird feeders out for the hummingbirds. And the also spot the
hummingbird feeders too, so you're about to see a party of colors. I
can't wait. You know. My neighbor put out oranges for the orioles because
she always gets them. But the housefinches are doing a number on her oranges
in the meantime, so they are the worst, you know. But I'm
worried the oriole is going to come back and be quite indignant when it finds
that orange to be completely picked out for well, they know how to compete,
you know. And maybe there'll be another orange one day. No it's
true, and we have both my neighbor and I put out a lot of
hummingbird feeders. So between the two of us and all the flowers and coverage
and everything that we offer, I hope that we make a pretty nice welcome
spot for them when they get back to Michigan. Even if it does turn
out to be as cold and crummy as it was these past couple of weeks,
I think we're going to move right into some nice weather right now.
But putting out brightly colored perennials and annuals and shrub that has good colored flowering
shrubbery, it's just it's good for all of all the animals and birds,
but particularly hummingbirds in the oioles here here, and the shrubbery and trees and
other plants also. Birdman are going to provide a little bit of protection for
those robins who are hopping around on our lawns and in our garden beds.
They're nesting too, and we'll see those nests if you're observant, right in
the crevices of the branches here. And that's something I always look forward to
in spring. Look in the Forsisia bushes. They love for sisias like last
yes or last week's program. And I'm a lover of forsissia, particularly when
they go kind of gangling and wild. Yeah, and their branches touch the
ground and they root again, and you've got more of them, and you
make a hedge out of the things they are. And that type of shrubbery
is perfect for all kinds of nesting birds. Yeah. Birds really love that
sort of uninterrupted wall of you know, brand and leaves and coverage so that
they can find a lot of hiding places. And it's great for them with
so many natural predators like feral cats and that kind of thing. Correct,
absolutely, yeah, and cans are a problem, but if they can hide
away and them birds have been quite successful here in southwest Michigan. Right.
Well, you don't have to twist our arms to point to plant more shrubs
and burt and eels and that kind of thing. Well, birdman, thanks
so much for swooping in. We appreciate it. Of course, I have
found through the years that folks who love plants and flowers just naturally gravitate towards
birds too. They add to the color and sound of spring. And we
appreciate you very much sharing your your interest in your knowledge of birds. Well,
you're always welcome. I always cheat a little bit. I've got three
books that I use all the time. Like you know, you use Google
and I use Don and William Stokes Nature Guides. Isn't this bird aavier?
I'll tell you everything you need to know is in those books. You've got
your books, We've got our Google and the parrots have face time and they're
having fun. Well, you know, I have started over the past couple
of months using the Merlin bird id app. And I don't know if you're
a big phone user, but that has just been an absolute game changer for
my birding and particularly the sound ide. Have you ever played around with that?
Um, I just haven't had time to fool of the story of the
truth, but I've seen I've had people that I've been with use it and
to help identifying the song and then the song with the color and the habitat.
It just it's a it's a quick learn to to what usually takes me
a long time. Yeah, it's been absolutely amazing and I love it.
At first, I was so dubious about it. I thought, Oh,
there's no way that it's going to be able to identify these birds. But
not only does it identify the birds, but it will also then highlight which
one that it has, you know, identified, that's singing at that particular
moment. And so you know, when you're talking about the goldfinches and the
juvenile goldfinches having a different sound, I'm very eager. Well, not that
I'm rushing summer or anything, but um, when you know that does happen
later the summer, I'm very eager to discover if I can pick out those
juvenile calls versus the adult calls and songs. Um, when those when those
babies are out and about, because I get a ton of goldfinches in my
garden. Well, the warblers are in and now is the time to use
that kind of an apparatus because warblers are terrible. Oh yeah, they're notoriously
wrong. And the colors and the things, and that'll be a gold mine
for you. Well, that is my plan for this weekend, is birding
with my new binoculars and my Merlin sound ID and along the lines, enjoy
bird vernacular. Is that app cheap? Oh Rick, It's free, and
I highly recommend it. Birdman, Thank you very much. Always fun to
talk to you. We'll talk to you again, all right, perfect,
thanks for the call, all right, thank you doing good bye well,
Stacy. That was a tweet. Always fun to talk to the birdman.
And hopefully Adrianna got her fill of killed deer talk. And if she didn't
get her fill of killed your talk, she'll get it when she's seeing the
killed ears in her neighborhood tennis court this season. I love it. Have
yourself a great week, Thanks Stacy, Thanks Adriana, and thanks to you
for watching and listening to The Gardening Simplified Show.