Getting Edgy: The Pain and Necessity of Your Garden’s Edges

Coming to you from Beautiful Studio. A here at proven winner's color choice shrubs
sprouted from the rooftop. It's episode fifty one of The Gardening Simplified Show with
Stacy Hervella, me, Rick Weiss, and our engineer and producer Adrianna Robinson.
Today we're gonna get a little edgy. We're gonna talk about garden edging,
landscape edging. You know, a border separates two areas. An edge
is a line at which a surface terminates. And how should you edge?
There are philosophical differences. Should you use physical edging like plastic or metal,
Should you just use plants or should you use manual labor and cut a great
line along the edge of your landscape with a shovel. These are all choices
that we can make. But you know, edging can be as frustrating as
hoses. And if you don't believe me, watch episode forty of The Gardening
Simplified Show. And you know, sometimes it can just get you really on
edge. Like if you put an edge in and it's wavy, it just
doesn't look right. Get you a little on edge. Stacy, you know
I am on edge because I have an edging crisis. In my own garden.
Yeah, and you know, you just listed all of the possible solutions
that I am aware of, and frankly, and this has nothing to do
with you suggesting it, none of them are good. Start your faults,
and actually I agree with you. I agree with you. You know,
they're either too much work or too expensive, or you know, like my
personal favorite, of course, is the metal edging. Some people call it
ryerson edging. I think that looks the nicest, it's the most permanent.
But you know, Lord help you if you go to kneel down in your
garden and get your knee on that edge or trip on it or something like
that. Now what I do is I get out a garden hose and I
will will lay out the bed perimeter with a garden hose. Step back,
look at it, get an idea of the shape I want. If I
don't like it, I can pick up the hose, move it again until
I've established that edge. But you're right, Stacy, Then we've got to
decide what are we going to do. And edging comes in plastic and wood
and metal and terrace board and aluminum and brick and concrete and recycled rubber and
rocks and stones, and I mean, the choices are just unreal. And
yet one of the first things we notice in a landscape is the edge or
the edging. Our eyes go right to it. It's what frames a landscape.
And so the worst thing you could do, in my opinion, is
put in cheap edging. Well, no, I will say yes, I
agree with I don't disagree with you, but I will say that black diamonds.
So probably all of our listeners are familiar with black diamond if, even
if they don't know if by name. That's the black plastic edging with a
little rolled top is probably the least expensive, and it is actually very effective.
It doesn't look great, but it does the job. It does the
job. But I destroy it with my whipper snipper with you do yeah,
with my I mean it just doesn't last long because I, okay, I
beat it up. But I guess the point here is if you do use
the black diamond, or you use aluminum or whatever physical type of edging you
may use, do it right, because it's like you know your landscape.
It's like giving someone a gift, a really nice gift that you're excited about
giving to that person. But not bothering to wrap it or put a nice
bowl on it or cheap paper, right, you want to wrap it up
nice. I'm feeling personally called out by this edging conversation. I mean,
my current bed edging in my garden is lugs. So yeah, so my
friend, you know, he lives out in the country and then had a
bunch of fallen trees and his son has a firewood business, so we just
asked him to cut like six foot length of logs and it works, you
know, sort of in a beachy, kind of informal way in my garden
mostly native and it works. But you know, the important thing about edging,
besides it looking really good, is it is one of the best ways
to keep the darn grass out of your beds. Yes, and that is
the bane of my existence is grass in the beds. That's true, it's
frustrating. And the other great use of edging, in my opinion, is
the fact that homes have harsh architectural lines. Hopefully they're straight angles or straight
lines, vertical or horizontal, and so if you put in a curved bed,
it really helps soften it, It brings it all together, it packages
it really nicely. So With that in mind, here's my limb a rick
for the week. In regards to edging, I tend to be a plant
hoarder, so I bought them a physical border. It will work. They
are alleging this cheap roll of plastic edging dropped on my doorstep via mail order
a bargain offer. When I logged on bought with a discount coupon, the
roll arrived permanently coiled. My edging plans are now foiled. I'll just let
the plants invade my law. Do you ever try to uncoil that stuff?
Yes? I used it during a COVID project and what we did is we
had to leave it out in the sun for like forty eight hours with a
rock on either end and try to uncoil it and then put it in and
it's already collapsing because it can't hold back the weight of the earth. It's
not It might be fine for some lightweight projects, but not not heavy duty
sand. I guess, well, and think about it. You know,
I also see people trying to cut an edge or edge around a large tree
that's in the yard. You try to work through those roots. It just
doesn't work. Plus you don't want mulch mounded up against the base of a
tree. It's damaging to the tree. It's not good for the tree.
So your best to mulch lightly or have a ground cover grow up to the
base of the tree. I like these beds that have no physical edging.
A shovel is used or one of those you know round half moon edging tools,
a square spade, and they cut a nice deep edge. And I
think about Queen Elizabeth Park in Vancouver, or Bouchart Gardens, or even here
at proven Winner's Color Choice Shrubs. A couple of weeks ago we did the
summer tour, and as I walk through those beds, they're just cut so
nicely and deeply, and they're not using any plastic edging. Now, you're
right, A hand cut edge is a thing of beauty. And if you
are into handcutting your edges, then you will enjoy it. And if you
are not, you most certainly we'll find it to be a project that you
don't particularly enjoy. I mean, it's it's dirty. You end up with
quite a lot of stuff to discard at the end, you know, grass
and stuff. Now I do have a beautiful vintage English half moon edger that
I really like was made in England, so high quality. It doesn't make
the job anybody. I mean is it is easier to use than a flat
shovel, but it doesn't make me like the job anymore. Well, then
let's just edge with plants and take our chances. There's many great shrubs,
of course, a low scape or ground hug Aronia, I love double play
candy corn, spy Rhea, you have low and behold micro chip bud Leah.
I have seen that use my Monee Wujila I found in hot spots.
The Petta or Seatam's works really great. Proven Winners has rock and round rock
and grow rock and low yellow brick road love all those plants, short ornamental
grasses like fistucca glauca, and then the herbs, Parsley, golden array or
Time or Sage all work. I've seen people use Parsley. That sounds like
a Simon and Garfunkel song from the nineteen sixties. Yes I'm dating myself,
but are you going to Scarborough Fair? Parsley, Sage, Rosemary and Time,
you know? And on that same album he had a song that said,
so I'll continue to pretend my life will never end and flowers never bend
with the rainfall. Paul Simon evidently never grew smooth ear bores hydranges. Right
now and in the annual World Lemon coral seedum is fabulous. Love that plant.
It looks tough and prickly, but it's actually quite soft and pettible.
Colias your mom's favorite we learned last week, like color Blaze colias, sweet
Caroline, potato vine vista, Supertunia's snow princess Labularia plectrantis. There are many
great plants that make a great edge. Yeah, it's just you know,
you still got to worry about the grass. That's that's my edging challenge.
But you know, maybe other people don't have that problem. Do you have
that problem? Oh I have the problem. Yeah, I have the problem.
But that's why I'm saying sometimes edging can be as as frustrating as hoses.
But you know, we talk often about having diversity in the landscape and
planting a diverse group of plants. Feel free to do that. That's fun.
We talked about neighborly gardens last week, or cottage gardens. But then
if you pick one certain plant for the edge and plant that all along the
edge. I like that look because it brings everything together. It's it's like
it's the final chapter of a book. It ties the whole thing together,
and now everything's neat and tidy, except for the grass that's popping up all
over. Yeah. I agree. It's a nice way to get some cohesion.
And once you have that edge established, whether you've done that with you
know, an actual physical edge or a plant or both, you can kind
of get away with a lot more interesting stuff going on in the middle when
you've established that sort of geometry. So I love it. Well, hopefully
we've inspired you somewhat. We're living on the edge here on the Gardening Simplified
Show. Plants on Trial is coming up next. Make sure to stay tuned
to the Gardening Simplified Ship. 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 in the distinctive white container at your local garden center. Who
Reading's gardening friends, and welcome back to the Gardening Simplified Show. I don't
know if we have lived up to our name and our edging conversation. Good
point, Stacy point, I you know a lot of things. I feel
like I give a lot of advice to gardeners, you know, through through
the course of my days here working at Proven Winners color Choice shrubs, and
a lot of times I say to people, you know, hey, sorry,
I know that's easier said than done, because a lot of times we
give advice that you know, it's like very easy for us to say,
but we know we're kind of giving the person who asked us quite a lot
of work. And I think that that is true with edging. So whatever
you decide, however frustrated you are, no, you're in good company.
And if you're not frustrated, consider yourself lucky, because the best thing that
you can do in the garden is enjoy the things that you have to do,
like watering or weeding at least one of those things I recommend. I
can tell you, Stacy, We're going to get all kinds of recommendations from
folks at our website, Gardening Simplified OnAir dot Com. It's an edge on
top of it. It is, so whether you have an edging recommendation to
make to us or you just want to commisserate, and you also find yourself
struggling with the edging issue gardening simplified OnAir dot com. So we're going to
put a plant on trial. Of course, it is a plant that is
suitable for edging, and that plant is gem box inc berry holly. You
know this one. I had an inkling. You were going to say that,
but you're working on that for a couple hours at least. So I
think a lot of people when they hear holly, you know, their mind
immediately goes to like the Christmas holly with a kind of pointy you know,
shining green leaves, pointy red berries. Gem box ink berry holly is not
that. It's an inkberry holly. This is our native holly's. It's native
to a large part of North America, and it grows. It's a semi
evergreen. So when you sometimes hear that term tossed around quite a bit without
people explaining what it is. But when something is semi evergreen, that basically
means that it keeps the leaves at the tips of its branches and loses its
inner leaves during winter. So it keeps some leaves but not all the leaves.
That is a semi evergreen, So gem box ink berry holly is a
semi evergreen native holly, and this particular variety grows naturally in a kind of
dense, rounded shape. And one of the reasons that we selected gembox,
and one of the reasons that we offer it and it has become a very
widespread favorite for gardeners and landscapers, is because you can use it very similar
to a boxwood. Okay, and there are some differences which I'll get into,
but overall, the look and feel in the garden is very similar to
boxwood, but a couple of advantages. It doesn't have the disease issues that
boxwood has, and it's native. And a lot of people are looking for
North American natives, you know, alternative. They want to accomplish the same
sort of aesthetic things that they do with non natives, but they just want
to switch it over to a native variety, and gembox inkberry holly is a
great choice for that. Well. I think that's important to point out,
Stacy, because with gembox, when I think about inkberry in general, the
native plant, I think of kind of a rangy plant with bare branches at
the bottom, and gembox is certainly not that way, right. We specifically
selected it to branch and leaf out from top to bottom. Now, if
they are planted too close together, you might notice a little bit of you
know, leaf drop where those things are closely spaced. So this is one
that you want to give it a little bit of space too. But it
is also very common for you know, you to see a plant in the
wild and then have it looked totally different at home. You know, when
you actually have it in your landscape. Just having that kind of care,
not having all of those struggles and competition that it might have out in nature,
it does actually change the way the plant kind of behaves and performs in
your landscape. So a couple of other things. Know, if if your
interest is peaked by using gembox as a boxwood substitute, it is not as
deer resistant as boxwood. It has some deer resistance, but you know,
of course boxwood is virtually dear proof. You know, they really it's one
of those plants that they truly don't eat unless things are really, really really
difficult. So in that regard, you know a lot of people fortunately don't
have a deer issue, but gem box it is one to consider some browsing
not super bad, but and it will generally recover. And it's also not
as shade tolerant as boxwood, and that might be a good thing for some
people. It doesn't necessarily need full sun, but in the deep shade,
like where you could grow a boxwood and it would still look really nice.
Gem box is going to get a little bit more sparse, a little bit
kind of spread out, and it does flower and get berries because I know,
and again when people think of holly, that's what they're thinking, is
what's the berry situation? And with a name like ink berry, what color
do you suppose those berries are? Well, I'm going to guess a very
dark purplish black color for ink berry. You know, I think about the
eighteenth century or the Civil War when they would use berries like ink berry being
native to it's native to the east coast of the US, isn't it.
Yes, So it's native basically from Maine over to Pennsylvania and then all the
way west to about Texas, but it kind of skips the whole Midwest,
so like Michigan, Ohio, Indiana, Wisconsin, Minnesota, we don't really
have it. So it kind of like makes a line, a diagonal line
from the east coast down to Texas, So it would make sense that Civil
War soldiers used it. And that just blows me away. Making an ink
berry concoction, and then you got to find a bird who's willing to share
a quill with you, and then you got to find paper or make paper,
and then you got to somehow you know, today we just quickly shoot
off a text. Unreal, right, and I was just carrying this pen
right here. Yeah, makes it a lot simpler. Where's my pen?
There's my pen. But if the ink part of ink berry is intriguing to
you, you can certainly learn how to make ink as they did in a
Civil War, and it truly was used as ink. Now. The trick
is, as many people also know about holly, is you need a male
and a female holly ink berry holly to be able to get berries, and
so both plants need to be the same species. So you can't have like
a male blue holly the kind that gets you know that the females would get
the red berries and use that to pollinate rank berry holly. It needs to
be another ink berry holly and gembox and a similar plant that we offer called
Strongbox are both females, okay, And up until we introduced a variety called
Squeezebox last year, there were actually no known male ink berry hollies on the
market. So it's kind of a problem because people would say, oh,
well, can I plant can I plant Strongbox? Can I plant you know,
Shamrock or one of these other ink berry hollies that have been on the
market for quite some time, and all of those were female, so we
didn't introduce Squeezebox. Also, if you live in an area, of course
where ink berry holly is native, and you're near enough two natural areas where
it's growing wild, you would probably have pollination from those natives colonies. But
if you want it in your yard, you are going to need to plant
a male, and right now the only available male is a variety called sque
Box. It's a little bit different, it's going to be taller, and
of course, like other hollies, only the females will actually bear those ink
berries. The males just there for the pollen. So to provide a head
education for our viewers and our listeners, in other words, Stacy, we
would say that ink berry is dioecious. In other words, female parts on
one plant, male parts on a different plant. That's correct, And in
this situation we need squeezebox to make that happen. That is correct, got
it. Squeezebox is a taller, more upright plant. But it doesn't have
to be right next to the gembox. You can put it in another area
as long as they're within about fifty feet of each other. That you don't
have to get out the measuring tape or anything like that. But that is
generally the distance that you can expect insects to fly in a foraging trip to
actually get that pollination happening. So you're recommending this plant as a good edging
plant. As a good edging plant, yes, so it can make kind
of like a low hedge. You can just kind of plant it along along
that front edge. And what I really like about out it as an edging
plant is it is just it's very pretty when it's in flower with the white
flowers. But even when it's not in flower, it's just a just a
nice looking little plant. It's green and tidy. And I like that because
especially a lot of people want to sort of play it more safe in their
landscaping. You know, they feel like oh, I don't really know how
to match the color of my home, or I don't want to clash,
or I just want something that's just going to be simple and low maintenance.
And this is a really great choice. And once you have that edging established
of this very kind of subdued looking plant, then you can get away with
it, like I was saying, a lot more wild stuff inside. You
can get get a little bit crazy with your specimen plants or your other things
that you want to do annuals, you know whatever. So it's a really
nice choice. It's versatile. I mean, it works great in containers.
You it's not only suited to edging, but I do think it is a
very very nice choice for edging. So I think I kind of covered just
about everything about it. And you know, you want to get crazy,
then yeah, plant a squeezebox and then at night after work, crush some
of the berries and get out of quill and Dearest Josephine writes, spend some
letters. It's awesome. It's great. You can send your questions to the
Gardening Simplified Show with your with your inc faery Holly ink. So this is
a plant that is going to want moisture soil. It is not drought tolerant.
It is native to wet woods and kind of boggy areas, and that's
going to tell you that it's just not going to do well. I can
tell you I have tried to grow it in my very sandy soil. It
did not go well. So definitely one that's better suited for those of you
with some you know, clay soil or irrigation. And in terms of hardiness,
hardy down to USDA Zone five, heat tolerant up to USDA Zone nine,
which makes sense with its being native to Texas and Louisiana and some of
those southern states. Excellent sold all right. I love it, so a
lot of you can grow it. If you want to learn more, just
visit Gardening Simplified on air dot com. You can read the show notes and
learn all about Gembox and Barry Holly. We've got to take a little break.
When we come back, we're answering your garden questions, so please see
timed 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 my favorite time of the show because I love helping people with their
gardening questions. Me too, so it works. It works great, although
sometimes you know I don't have all the answers. A lot of people think
that I do have all the answers. I do not. Plans continue to
surprise me. And our first question in today's mailbag is one that I do
not have the answer to, but I do know someone who does. And
the question comes to us from Sarah, and she says, I created a
gard and bad along my fence line that is also along a public sidewalk.
The gardens a few feet from the signe walk with landscaping rock separating the two.
I consistently have dog walkers allowing their dogs to pee in my garden and
kill my plants. I have just recently considered scat mats or putting out a
sign. I think a sign could be obnoxious and spark more of a problem.
Any thoughts now I know you have cats. I have no pets,
but we do have a resident dog expert in the studio, Adriana Robinson,
our producer. So I said, hey, Adriana, can you take a
stab as a dog owner and expert on answering Sarah's question? Thank you,
Stacy. That was a great leaden, and I wish I could say I
have an absolute answer. I don't, but I do have some options.
I've also had a couple of my plants, unfortunately die from other dogs peeing
on them, so I know how frustrating it is, but a couple of
things you can try. A lot of people will put a small barrier,
so like a small fence or something like that in front of the garden.
Now, Sarah, I know you said that you have a fence and back,
and the garden bed is actually in front of your fence, so it
might look a little weird having like dual fence there. I've heard people use
chili powder or other weird smells and stuff like that to kind of deter a
dog. I've never personally done that, and it seems kind of cumbersome to
have to season my garden consistently, so I wouldn't personally do that as waiting
for that. Yeah, so then signs are an option. I know there
are some like cheeky ones to kind of make it a little more lighthearted,
and people might not take it so offensively. I know some dog owners do.
You have mixed feelings about the signs. But the best solution, I
think, if you're able to do it, is I have a neighbor who
actually put a designated P zone sign or they put like a little fake fire
hydrant, you know, to kind of show the dog or the dog and
the dog owner that like, hey, it's okay to go to the bathroom
over here, but maybe you know, keep it farther away from the garden.
And I like that solution too, because dogs are more likely to keep
peeing and marking in areas that other dogs have pete and marked already. If
you can't beat them, join them type of approach. Sometimes, if a
dog's gotta go, a dog's gotta go, and yeah for sure, So
if you can compromise and kind of have that like a designated PA zone,
I think that would be the best solution. I think that's an excellent solution,
Adrianna. What you're advising Sarah to do is renegotiate the terms of their
leash, and it works for me. It's a very good way to put
it. Yeah, you don't want to have any bones to pick with your
neighbors. And you know, for the record, when I asked Adriana if
she would answer this question on air, she did write me back for fu
r sure. Oh, I love it the best. You're the best,
all right, thanks, Adriana. Leah writes to us. I'm in Zone
five B, Nebraska. Love your show. I have two summrrific evening rows
perennial hibiscus that I'd like to transplant to a new location in my garden because
the color will look better elsewhere. Two years old, still fairly small since
I started with court sized containers. My question is can I transplant them in
the fall or would it be better to wait until spring. So, Leah,
you are talking my language, because I am just crazy about the summerrific
perennial hibiscus I have. Oh my gosh, I don't even know if I
can count on any probably twelve or fifteen in my garden right now. They're
looking amazing. I have summrrific evening rows. It's one of the newer varieties,
it is absolutely gorgeous. I know you're not asking for my opinion,
but I can't help but give it because I love these plants so much.
But having loved these plants and had them in my garden even from when I
moved from one house to another, I can tell you that overall perennial Hibiscus
are a very durable plant. When it comes to moving them, they have
huge kind of almost they're not actually tubers, but they almost have like a
tuberst type feeling the root system does. I have moved them in the middle
of summer, not because that was the best thing to do it, because
that's when I was moving and they were fine. I've moved them in early
spring while they were still dormant, and I've moved them in fall, and
every single time, you know, they were fine. I would suggest,
though, that you do plan to do this this autumn. And the reason
I'm suggesting that is because when spring comes, it's very hard to tell what
the actual perimeter of your perennial hibiscus is because they stay dormant for so long,
so you really don't have that sense of how much you need to dig
around where the plant is, whereas if you're doing it in fall before it
goes dormant, you're really going to have you know that firsthand, look at
how big the plant is, where that growth is coming from, and then
be able to dig accordingly. So it should be easier. You won't have
to worry about setting back the plant, especially if they are so young.
I have certainly dug and moved more mature ones, but it should be a
pretty straightforward process. And as always, I think when we've talked about transplanting
before, I always recommend that as much as you can, you get the
new hole prepared before you dig the plant, and it's from its curnel,
so you're recommending cut it back. And she could pick either fall or spring.
Fault or spring is fine, but I think fall has an advantage here,
so you can really get the sense of how big that plant is in
where you should be digging, because the root systems are very large and it
is very easy to inadvertently slice through those big, fleshy roots, which generally
won't hurt the plant too much, but it will set it back a bit.
So it's just kind of one of those best practices things. Well,
Leah gave us a bonus with her question. She added a limerick that details
her dilemma. She says, in my mind, I've got a great vision.
I think I plant with precision, but perfection I'm seeking, so I'm
always tweaking. Please help me make a decision. Outstanding, Leah. So
here's my answer for you. Sum Horrific provides great coloring to your landscape.
Adds some zing. Hi there, Leah, I've gotten an idea. Let's
move that plant next spring. Oh that's good too, so falling, fall
or spring whatever you know. We gardened in the real world, so whatever
works for you. That's just my two cents as a fellow Summerrific fan.
So, Stacy a question here from Khaliza, who says, Hi, Stacey
and Rick love watching and listening to you both. I was wondering if there
is a climbing hydranger or a climbing vine that you would suggest. I'm in
Zone six B looking for a plant for full sun and one for partial sun
and shape. Yes. And then we had a second one from Kathy who
add a very similar question. She was listening to you when we talked about
sweet Summer Love last week, and she wants to grow vines on some dead
spruce trees. She wants to leave the dead spruce trees for the birds,
which is very, very a great thing that you can do for birds.
But she wants to cover them and vine so it doesn't just look like,
you know, a tree cemetery. Totally get it. I'm on your side.
I love that idea, Kathy. So I did a quick little list
here of some interesting woody vines that in Coaliza or Kaliza. Sorry, I
don't hope we're pronouncing your name. One of those two is probably right.
So one of my favorites. Now, we talked last week or a week
or two ago about trumpet vine and how it's beautiful and attracts hummingbirds, but
it's just a little bit too vigorous for a lot of residential situations, not
necessarily going to make good neighbors. So I have an alternative, and it's
big nonia. Do you know this is also called cross vine. No,
I'm not familiar. So it's a it's a it's a close relative of campsus
or trumpet vine, but it's now in warmer climates it is pretty much equally
as vigorous. But in cooler climates like ours. It is much more restrained
and it gets I actually like the flowers even better than trumpet vine big Nonia
b I g n o Nia. Some people call it cross vine. Okay,
it is an evergreen vine. So sometimes here in West Michigan the foliage
does not come out of winter looking its best, but it recovers very quickly.
That's, like I said, a really good one. It's not going
to be as aggressive as trumpet vine, but it's going to do a lot
of the same good things. Hardy Aristolochia Dutchman's pipe. You know, this
plant considered an old fashioned plant, but a very cool plant. Attracts a
ton of pollinators as it's a good larval host for a lot of different butterfly
species. Deck Hu Maria, which is a yes, Adriana just gave me
a look. Not a very popular planet is out there, but it is
actually sort of You could think of it as the American climbing hydrangea. Dec
Hu Maria sounds like a board game you break out on Saturday nights. Maybe
it is, I don't know. So it's not as showy as a climbing
hydrangea, but it is. It's a really beautiful choice for just adding some
kind of naturalistic look. And it has a common name. Now you know,
I generally prefer to use scientific names, but a common name for deck
U Maria. I love this name so much. Wood vamp all one word,
so you'll find that again specialty nurseries, but it is out there.
Vining honeysuckles. Yes, you know, people a lot of times we'll think
honeysuckle and think whoa, whoa, whoa, that's super invasive. It's really
only the shrub honeysuckles that are invasive. The vining honeysuckles generally are not an
issue, and we even actually have some native vining honeysuckles in the US.
They tend not to be as showy as the ones you're going to find in
garden centers like Major Wheeler and in that kind of thing. You have one
called sensation, right, you're correct, Yeah, that's an all the yellow
one. So another great choice. We have native passion flowers, so if
you're in like zone six or warmer, those also make an excellent choice.
Another great way to support pollinators. I have a couple more choices, but
we've got to take a little break, so be sure you visit the show
notes at Gardening Simplified on air dot com and you'll find all of our suggestions
there, and that's where you'll also go if you have a question that you'd
like us to answer on a future show. We're going to take a break.
When we come back, we got branching news, so please stay tuned.
The Gardening Simplified Show is brought to you by proven Winners Color Choice Shrubs.
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Choice Shrubs in the distinctive white container at your local garden center. Welcome back
to the Gardening Simplified Show. It's time for branching news. Not breaking news,
but we don't make this stuff up. Hey, Stacy. Right off
the bat, just want to mention you know, we've all watched the tragedy
in Hawaii and what has occurred over the past couple of weeks, and there
was a headline that caught my eye about a banyon tree in Maui, Lahinah
and it's a one hundred and fifty year old tree that they're trying to save,
and the arborists used a terminology that they're trying to save this tree adding
compost, soil aeration, daily watering program because they stated that the tree is
in a coma. I had not heard that turn before and that was the
headline. So they're trying to bring back this tree primarily because it just means
so much to the people in the area. It's one of those specimen trees
one hundred and fifty years old, huge Banyan tree, and we're hoping that
these arborists are successful in doing that. Okay, on a lighter note,
also in the news, visitors to sunflower fields are urged to stop posing naked
for photos. There's a farm in Great Britain that has gotten on Facebook social
media put up signs because they're having all kinds of problems with people who go
to their farm, their sunflower farm take off their clothes for pictures, and
of course there's there's kids around. Also, these are public sessions. They
grow wheat, peas, potatoes, pumpkins, squash, sweetcorn, hey and
sunflowers and people are taking off their clothes to take pictures and they're not artfully
placing the sunflowers. Oh my, Yeah, it's not Bouquet to do that.
Okay, it's not. I mean these people want to photosynthesize with their
selfies while go ahead, but not in a field where there's kids around,
so stop it. Maybe they just need like a special like you know hour
that's dedicated to these people the Stoke Fruit Farm on Haling Island. Yes after
dark. Well that's not gonna work either, so whatever. Anyhow, now
this has tremendous interest to me because I love monarch butterflies, I enjoy running,
and a Montreal runner is following a four thousand, five kilometer monarch butterfly
migration path to Mexico. Anthony Bata says he hopes to inspire others to take
action to protect the species. So he is running from Canada Montreal's in sectarium.
I believe I pronounced that right, and he has finished the Canadian stretch
of his run he's hoping to finish. He just crossed the Ambassador Bridge from
Windsor, Ontario into Detroit and is going to continue on into central Mexico to
follow the path that monarch butterflies take and to call attention to the fact that
we need to be thinking about our monarch butterflies. Pretty cool thing. That's
very cool. You should do the same thing. You've got a couple of
thousand miles at start on Anthony. It's true, he's still gonna beat me.
I can guarantee you that. But what a great way to call attention
to it. It's a it's not a running Joe. This is a true
story. Okay, Anthony is making their rounds, so we're gonna follow his
progress. Will post the story at Gardenings Simplified on air dot com. In
school, he was good at jaw got jag forget bad punt. You know
what I was trying to say. Okay, And then back to goats.
Last week we talked about goats. They goats continue to be in the news.
Roy's Goats as Mitzi Roy's Goats, a Massachusetts business using them for weed
control, got the idea to add yoga to her herd's business when she picked
up spent beer grains at a local brewery for the goats to eat. People
have asked her about using the animals to participate in yoga classes, and it's
become a very very popular activity. Yes, goat yoga is the thing to
do. I have not yet done. It's there are goat yoga places even
here in Michigan. If we have any interested listeners. Wow, I'd like
to try it. Sometime. I have tried. I'll admit I have tried
yoga. I tend to be a little disruptive in class, telling jokes and
that kind of thing, so I have to straighten my cell out. But
I'd like to do it. And yoga with goats. That sounds like fun.
That would be yes, that would be distracting, but in a delightful
way. Okay, So I'll share my joke with the listeners and the viewers
this week. You guys have already heard this one. But the goats,
when they get done with their weeding and then they get done with yoga class
go home to rest watch some TV, and generally they watch The Bachelor or
America's Goat Talent or Gray's Anatomy. There you go. I know I had
to squeeze those in there. I just wanted to. Okay, and then
let's take a look at this. Oh, this is interesting in a neighborhood.
So last week we talked about neighborhood gardening. In a neighborhood, there
are frustrated homeowners who are attempting to solve a community wide issue. I guess
there's a neighbor who has a very large pool that's not being maintained properly.
It's just sitting there, so it's become a mosquito breeding ground. So neighbors
are resorting to BT dunks. Now, basilustherne gensis or BT is a naturally
occurring soil borne bacteria. It's been used since the nineteen fifties for natural insect
control. And I was just looking at this thread and it's so funny because
neighbors are saying, don't ask for permission, don't ask for permission, don't
say anything. They're simply taking these mosquito dunks and they lob them over the
fence like grenades. Well, who could blame them, I mean, mosquitoes
are very serious business. Oh they're serious. You can't invite them in with
a massive pool. Nobody likes mosquitos, not even bats. If I was
in that neighborhood, I'd be all over it, you know, putting the
face pain on the camouflage at night and lobbying those mosquito dunks into the pool.
That would be fun. Well, you know, I have seen them
before, and they are fortunately quite easy to love. I'm sure if you
know, if you got a good arm. Yeah, I guess some little
leaguers in there to practice their pitching. More neighborly gardening for that neighborhood.
It's time to bring in the swat team and I'd be all over the walkie
talkies the whole bit. Okay, you're wearing black today? Is that for
a reason? Yeah, tonight, I'm on mosquito patrol. Okay. And
then a final story and branching news today. Stinky the Owl. He's a
great horned owl that was rescued from a manure pit and is now recovering at
the raven Ridge Wildlife Center in Lancaster County. Now I bring this up because
you and I and Adrianna, we love birds. We enjoy birds, so
I always look for a bird story. Many of our listeners and viewers love
birds too, and I love Stinky the Owl. He fell into a manure
pit that would smell foul. I can tell you that a state game warden
brought the bird in on July eighteen, after it had been stuck in the
manure pit for two days. I know it broke my heart. Especially if
you see the picture, and we're gonna put the link there at the website
because someone had also shot it in the eye with a BB. Oh gosh,
no, that's terrible, and it's stuck in a manure pit. So
I'm this state game warden, way to go, way to go, brought
the burden, and Stinky is recovering, has a red injured eye and was
in that manure pit. They've removed the BB and they say that the great
horned owl is going to be okay, and whoever shot it, of course,
it's it's a federal offense. I call it a feederal offense, but
it's a federal offense. And so this everybody's route for Stinky. He's expected
to be released by the fall. Well, I hope that that state trooper
got the hot shower he deserves. That's directly for Stinky the owl and Stinky,
thank you for doing that. That's right. And Stinky didn't want to
be owl by himself. All right, that's it for branching News this week.
Fun show. I'm going to go home and do some edging. Okay,
that's good because you know, otherwise I was afraid you're going to go
sneak around and throw something in your neighbor's yard. I might do that too.
Thanks for watching the Gardening Simplified Show. Stacy, thanks so much,
and Adrianna Robinson, thank you for all you do. Thanks most of all
to you, our listeners and our viewers. Make sure to go to Gardening
Simplified on air dot com. Have yourself a great week