Annual Garden Review | How Plants Performed

<v Speaker 1>Broadcasting from Ground Zero Studio a here at proven winners
<v Speaker 1>Color Choice shrugs. It's time for the Gardening Simplified Show
<v Speaker 1>with Stacy Hirvella me Rick weisst and our engineer and
<v Speaker 1>producer Adrianna Robinson.
<v Speaker 2>Well today, an annual.
<v Speaker 1>Review of the plants in your landscape. In many ways,
<v Speaker 1>it's like the annual review of workers at a place
<v Speaker 1>of employment, at least in this case, you're the boss
<v Speaker 1>Apple Sauce and it's time for an annual review. You know,
<v Speaker 1>most companies conduct annual performance reviews, usually at year end,
<v Speaker 1>sometimes at the start of the year January February. But
<v Speaker 1>it basically gets us to retrack and puts us in
<v Speaker 1>our place as we evaluate performance. Evaluating plants involves assessing
<v Speaker 1>their health, structural integrity, and suitability for the environment based
<v Speaker 1>on the foliage, the roots overall vigor give it the
<v Speaker 1>eye test, and key indicators include vibrant, unblemished leaves, sturdy stems,
<v Speaker 1>well developed root system.
<v Speaker 2>So let's do a.
<v Speaker 1>Spring evaluation and Stacy, I'm out in my landscape evaluating
<v Speaker 1>and I'm so I'm just so excited. The Inca Holland
<v Speaker 1>Peruvian lilies, the Ulsterroame area. They're popping out of the ground.
<v Speaker 1>We had surmised because of the polar vortex they weren't
<v Speaker 1>gonna make it. They're hearty to zone six A. They
<v Speaker 1>are busting out of the ground.
<v Speaker 3>That's amazing. I also didn't know that they emerged so early.
<v Speaker 3>I would have thought that they would have emerged much later.
<v Speaker 3>So that is amazing news.
<v Speaker 2>It's it's a miracle.
<v Speaker 3>Yeah. I don't have any real updates on that kind
<v Speaker 3>of thing yet because even in a good winter, my
<v Speaker 3>fig comes back pretty late. So so far everything seems
<v Speaker 3>to be, you know, coming back and doing okay for
<v Speaker 3>the most part, awesome.
<v Speaker 1>Well, you know, when they come back, like I've always said,
<v Speaker 1>it's like finding an onion ring in your order of
<v Speaker 1>French fries. It's so enjoyable. And you know what talking
<v Speaker 1>about annual reviews. Sometimes you got to fire a plant
<v Speaker 1>from your yard. Maybe you made an impulse buy, walked
<v Speaker 1>around the yard with a shovel in one hand plant
<v Speaker 1>and the other trying to find a place to put it,
<v Speaker 1>and now you're having regret. And if you're gonna bail
<v Speaker 1>on a plant. I've always talked about the fact that
<v Speaker 1>I still feel that fall, of course, is a great
<v Speaker 1>time to do it, but springs a great time to
<v Speaker 1>do it too, because Stacy, if you're gonna bail, well,
<v Speaker 1>I guess do it now so that you don't miss a.
<v Speaker 2>Whole year of growth for your new plant.
<v Speaker 3>You know, that's my approach. Get it out as soon
<v Speaker 3>as you can, especially if you doren't planning to move
<v Speaker 3>it anywhere you have no real reason to try to,
<v Speaker 3>you know, save it or keep it healthy to move.
<v Speaker 3>You know, life is just too short for plants that
<v Speaker 3>aren't pulling their weight or that you don't like. I mean,
<v Speaker 3>a plant can be performing perfectly well, but if you
<v Speaker 3>don't like it, or what I often find for myself
<v Speaker 3>is that a plant isn't worth the amount of space
<v Speaker 3>it takes up. Now, a plan can have like kind
<v Speaker 3>of a you know, power performance, but if it doesn't
<v Speaker 3>take up that much space, or it grows someplace where
<v Speaker 3>I'm having trouble growing something else, it can stay. But
<v Speaker 3>you know, if it's getting prime real estate and I'm
<v Speaker 3>not loving it and it's big or even big ish,
<v Speaker 3>I'm like, you're out. I got other things, other things
<v Speaker 3>I can put here.
<v Speaker 2>I'm with you there, I hear you.
<v Speaker 1>So, just like with an annual review at work, have
<v Speaker 1>next steps for positive and practical solutions. In other words,
<v Speaker 1>if there's no follow up action plan put in place
<v Speaker 1>at the end of the performance appraisal in this case,
<v Speaker 1>an appraisal of how your landscape's doing, then it's really.
<v Speaker 2>Not worth it.
<v Speaker 1>So you have to evaluate what it is you want.
<v Speaker 1>I'm a big fan of taking pictures and video and
<v Speaker 1>your landscape throughout the season so that you can go
<v Speaker 1>back and evaluate. You have to evaluate on some plants,
<v Speaker 1>do you really want it there or does it need
<v Speaker 1>to transfer to another department.
<v Speaker 2>So to speak. Right, Yeah, falls a great time to
<v Speaker 2>do that.
<v Speaker 1>But you know what, you can do that in spring two.
<v Speaker 1>Do your perennials need to be divided? Sometimes perennials are
<v Speaker 1>dying out in the center and.
<v Speaker 2>Need to be divided.
<v Speaker 1>You see it everywhere you go, with a variety of perennials.
<v Speaker 1>It's up to you to evaluate that and take action
<v Speaker 1>at this time.
<v Speaker 2>Of the year.
<v Speaker 3>Well, and you know, I think that's a really important
<v Speaker 3>point too, because if you don't take that action that
<v Speaker 3>sometimes needs to be taken on those types of perennials,
<v Speaker 3>then you're going to give a an incorrect performance review.
<v Speaker 3>Because let's just take something a notorious plant for this
<v Speaker 3>Siberian iris, okay, right, very common to grow into a
<v Speaker 3>circle and have the center empty, and you know, at
<v Speaker 3>first you're like, hey, this plant looks so amazing. I
<v Speaker 3>love it, and then five years later you're like, this plant,
<v Speaker 3>what happened? Well that's on you, because you then need
<v Speaker 3>to dig that up and divide it and give that
<v Speaker 3>a fresh start. And yeah, that's a little bit of work,
<v Speaker 3>but it's pretty fun. You have plants to give to friends,
<v Speaker 3>most likely who are going to be happy, and then
<v Speaker 3>you can tell them, hey, five years down the road,
<v Speaker 3>this thing's going to die out in the middle. But
<v Speaker 3>all you have to do is divide it and find
<v Speaker 3>five friends to give the rest of the plants to.
<v Speaker 3>So you do have to take that responsibility. It's not
<v Speaker 3>just the plants. And I'm talking a lot about this
<v Speaker 3>in Plants on Trial.
<v Speaker 1>Oh good, Well, like I said, you're the boss Apple Sauce,
<v Speaker 1>so do it. Review for pruning, review for pruning. Let's
<v Speaker 1>get it done. And the problem I see is that
<v Speaker 1>people don't have a good feel. Some people don't have
<v Speaker 1>a good feel for pruning. So they just take a
<v Speaker 1>little off the top, big problem. Okay, so review for
<v Speaker 1>pruning and develop your pruning skills. Evaluating your garden now
<v Speaker 1>will save you time, money, and frustration. And of course
<v Speaker 1>there's all kinds of cliche that we could throw out here.
<v Speaker 1>For example, when you get a performance review at work,
<v Speaker 1>the review speak. Maybe you'll see they said you enjoy
<v Speaker 1>your job.
<v Speaker 2>What they mean is you need more work to do.
<v Speaker 1>They may say you're a hard worker, usually someone who
<v Speaker 1>does it the hard way and complains about it.
<v Speaker 2>Or you're timely. That means you panic at exactly.
<v Speaker 1>The right time on a project, or you're calm under fire,
<v Speaker 1>you're two dazed and confused to act. So you know,
<v Speaker 1>all performance review things, but it brings up the point
<v Speaker 1>Stacy that in people we evaluate behaviors and results, but
<v Speaker 1>with plants you want to evaluate the traits. In this case,
<v Speaker 1>you have plant breeders like proven winners Color Choice Shrubs who.
<v Speaker 2>Do it for you.
<v Speaker 1>They invest and they develop plants that they know are
<v Speaker 1>going to perform warm in your landscape. And so those traits,
<v Speaker 1>the genetics, very very important and they're outlined on the
<v Speaker 1>plant tax.
<v Speaker 3>Yes. Yeah, so you can make an intelligent decision, and
<v Speaker 3>you know, a lot of times, of course, especially at
<v Speaker 3>this time, we have to say, people are so often
<v Speaker 3>swayed by what the plants look like in the garden center.
<v Speaker 3>And you know, typically that is going to be a
<v Speaker 3>pretty good representation of what to expect, but sometimes it's not.
<v Speaker 3>You know, sometimes the plants are going to be better
<v Speaker 3>because a lot of times those plants are coming out
<v Speaker 3>of a pollyhouse, and so especially things with colorful foliage
<v Speaker 3>maybe hasn't developed as much and doesn't look as great.
<v Speaker 3>But yeah, I mean, we try to give you the
<v Speaker 3>full resume, so to speak, if we're using the work
<v Speaker 3>metaphors of the plant before you hire.
<v Speaker 1>It, right exactly. So let's do that landscape assessment. I
<v Speaker 1>think in spring one of the most important things to
<v Speaker 1>go out there and evaluate is your irrigation assets like heads.
<v Speaker 1>For some reason, in winter, gremlins get into sprinkler heads
<v Speaker 1>and mess them up or any type of sprinkler system.
<v Speaker 1>Prepare as though we're going to have a drought this year.
<v Speaker 1>I'm not saying we are. But it's about, just like
<v Speaker 1>an annual review at work, be positioned to adequately.
<v Speaker 2>Review the employee.
<v Speaker 1>In other words, the individual doing the review has to
<v Speaker 1>have a relationship with that person. If they don't know
<v Speaker 1>that person or haven't worked with them, how can they
<v Speaker 1>review them. And so you've got to have that day
<v Speaker 1>to day contact the same way.
<v Speaker 2>It's a no brainer.
<v Speaker 1>You have to have that day to day contact with
<v Speaker 1>the plants in your landscape, develop a relationship.
<v Speaker 3>Yeah, definitely. And I will say for myself, you know,
<v Speaker 3>obviously it's spring right now. I think the important review
<v Speaker 3>time for me comes later in the season, and then
<v Speaker 3>trusting myself to believe it in spring, and this is
<v Speaker 3>the first year I'm doing that. That's great, you know,
<v Speaker 3>because like in the past, you'll be like, oh my gosh,
<v Speaker 3>I have got to take out some of the sylphium.
<v Speaker 3>It's taking over the whole garden. I don't want this much.
<v Speaker 3>I love this plant, but this is way too much.
<v Speaker 3>And then what happens. You know, you're like, oh, it's
<v Speaker 3>not so bad. It's you know, it's little, and I
<v Speaker 3>don't want to dig up the bulbs that are around it,
<v Speaker 3>and I don't want to disturb all of this. And
<v Speaker 3>then next thing you know, August rolls around and you're
<v Speaker 3>drowning again. So you have to make those notes through
<v Speaker 3>the air. But spring is a good time to think
<v Speaker 3>about those things. Review pictures and videos and so forth,
<v Speaker 3>if you've taken them. And yeah, i'd say most action
<v Speaker 3>on a performance review is now is a great time
<v Speaker 3>for that to take place.
<v Speaker 1>Well, on segment four, I'll talk to you about a
<v Speaker 1>specific plant. And I did a plant review on and
<v Speaker 1>I decided to fire that plant. You're out of here,
<v Speaker 1>and I fired it last fall. I'm glad I did.
<v Speaker 1>So here's today's limb a rick. This plant is a malcontent.
<v Speaker 1>It's purchase I greatly resent. Okay, well, wow, I feel
<v Speaker 1>better now. I guess I just had de vent. I
<v Speaker 1>bought the plant four years ago. It cost me lots
<v Speaker 1>of dough. The store received I lack. Yet I still
<v Speaker 1>tried to bring it back. They smiled and just said no,
<v Speaker 1>its use in my yard is now banned. It failed
<v Speaker 1>even with helping hand. So get a grip. Here's your
<v Speaker 1>pink slip. You, my friend, have just been canned.
<v Speaker 2>Oh, I'll talk about that plant. And segment four list
<v Speaker 2>I'd like to hear what it is.
<v Speaker 1>Let's see how Stacey ties this in and plants on trial.
<v Speaker 1>That's coming up next. Here on the Gardening Simplified Show.
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<v Speaker 3>Winner's Color Choice dot com. Greeting's Gardening friends, and welcome
<v Speaker 3>back to the Gardening Simplified Joke, where the topic for
<v Speaker 3>today is giving your plants, your landscape, your gardens a
<v Speaker 3>performance review. And you know, you can do that individually
<v Speaker 3>on a per plant basis like we were talking about, you
<v Speaker 3>can also do it on a whole garden landscape bed
<v Speaker 3>basis as well and say, you know, hey, like take
<v Speaker 3>some time to think critically about what's happening in your
<v Speaker 3>beds and do things need to change? And you know,
<v Speaker 3>can you spice things up or calm things down whatever
<v Speaker 3>you want to do. So there's lots of different ways
<v Speaker 3>to do this, and I think a big part of
<v Speaker 3>this whole idea of the performance review is to kind
<v Speaker 3>of generally weed out the underperformers correct, right, like the
<v Speaker 3>high performers. You know, no one like walks by one
<v Speaker 3>of their favorite plants and is like, Okay, you're doing
<v Speaker 3>a great job. You can stay like it's kind of
<v Speaker 3>assumed that if you have a plant that's performing really
<v Speaker 3>well and you really enjoy it, it's saying so now
<v Speaker 3>you're thinking critically about the underperformers in your landscape and
<v Speaker 3>what you are going to do about them, because again,
<v Speaker 3>now is the perfect time to take action. Now. I
<v Speaker 3>have again been dealing with home gardeners and home gardener
<v Speaker 3>questions for many years now, well over two decades, and
<v Speaker 3>I can't tell you how many times I have heard
<v Speaker 3>from a home gardener who you know, has bought one
<v Speaker 3>of our plants or whatever and it's not flowering. So
<v Speaker 3>they've had it for a couple of years, it's not flowering,
<v Speaker 3>it's not doing what they expected it to do. And
<v Speaker 3>they asked me the dreaded question, did I get a dud?
<v Speaker 2>Oh, it's the plants fall?
<v Speaker 3>Did I get a dud? And you know, plants are
<v Speaker 3>not like cars. There are no lemons. Plants are actually,
<v Speaker 3>you know, genetically identical to that. So if you get
<v Speaker 3>a limelight hydrange, if you had a Limelight hydrange twenty
<v Speaker 3>years ago, and you want to add another one. Now
<v Speaker 3>you're still getting the same limelight hydrange. It's consistent, it's expected.
<v Speaker 3>So with that in mind, it is in very impossible
<v Speaker 3>to get a plant that is a dud and just
<v Speaker 3>refuses to bloom. If that is happening, there is something wrong. Now,
<v Speaker 3>something that can happen in here is that a plant
<v Speaker 3>is not inherently a dud, but is having some trouble
<v Speaker 3>because of how it was treated prior to you purchasing it.
<v Speaker 3>And you know that I don't need to tell you
<v Speaker 3>that's a big part of that.
<v Speaker 2>Absolutely.
<v Speaker 3>Of course, every grower in every garden center tries to
<v Speaker 3>do their best, but things happen. Plants get tipped over
<v Speaker 3>in the garden center all the time, and then they
<v Speaker 3>might miss out on watering, or they might get some
<v Speaker 3>broken branches that are going to, you know, make their
<v Speaker 3>habit a little bit funky. There's just so many things
<v Speaker 3>that can happen.
<v Speaker 1>Yeah, and then you question why is it not working?
<v Speaker 1>You know, it's the old adage of Larry in the office.
<v Speaker 1>You know, boss comes up to Larry and says, I've
<v Speaker 1>noticed you're just not working.
<v Speaker 2>Like you used to.
<v Speaker 1>I go buy your office and you're not working. And
<v Speaker 1>Larry says, well, they installed carpet a couple months ago
<v Speaker 1>so he could hear his boss coming down. May install
<v Speaker 1>carpet now he's not working when the boss comes.
<v Speaker 3>Got the same kind of thing, gotcha. Yeah, So you know,
<v Speaker 3>there's a lot of things that can impact plant performance.
<v Speaker 3>But I wanted to, in this spirit of the performance
<v Speaker 3>review for plants, talk about some of the things that
<v Speaker 3>can go wrong with plants, so that instead of just
<v Speaker 3>giving the plant a bad performance review, which you may
<v Speaker 3>be tempted to do, you can take some time to
<v Speaker 3>think about, are there other factors that are influencing this
<v Speaker 3>plant's performance that I can control to improve it. Now, again,
<v Speaker 3>what you want and what you think is worth your
<v Speaker 3>time is always takes precedent over any of this stuff,
<v Speaker 3>because you know, again, life is too short to have
<v Speaker 3>things in your garden that you don't care for or
<v Speaker 3>that you're waiting around forever for to do well. But
<v Speaker 3>some of us have a sunk cost fallacy, right like
<v Speaker 3>I bought this plant and I'm going to get the
<v Speaker 3>best out of it, come, you know, no matter what,
<v Speaker 3>or something maybe very near and dear to our hearts.
<v Speaker 3>It was given as gift, or you know, we associate
<v Speaker 3>it with something, or you know, we just want the
<v Speaker 3>experience of seeing what we can do to change this
<v Speaker 3>plant from a poor performer to a high performer.
<v Speaker 2>So you agree with me, be the boss.
<v Speaker 3>You got to be the boss. I mean, I think
<v Speaker 3>that's the best part about gardening, right right, you know,
<v Speaker 3>like you can just manage all of your plants and
<v Speaker 3>create your own little world and no one can really
<v Speaker 3>say boo about it. It's kind of great.
<v Speaker 2>Give your plants a bonus.
<v Speaker 3>I've been thinking about it all. My plants get lots
<v Speaker 3>of appreciation. I don't know if they can if they
<v Speaker 3>can handle pay their rent with that. But so anyway,
<v Speaker 3>what I wanted to talk about for plants on trial
<v Speaker 3>today was what are the sign what are the things
<v Speaker 3>that can go wrong? What are the signs that those
<v Speaker 3>things are going wrong, and how you can resolve them?
<v Speaker 3>So kind of a little diagnostic kit as you're thinking
<v Speaker 3>about your performance review. And you know, I think one
<v Speaker 3>thing that just does not get said enough about gardening
<v Speaker 3>is that things change. And a plant that you planted
<v Speaker 3>even five years ago is now growing in much different
<v Speaker 3>conditions than it was when you planted it. So you know,
<v Speaker 3>we do have to continue to monitor all of these
<v Speaker 3>factors that go into plant care and think about if
<v Speaker 3>they're having a negative effect on the planet. It's usually
<v Speaker 3>not the plant's fault. It's one of these things has changed.
<v Speaker 3>So Number one is age. I think a lot of
<v Speaker 3>people don't think about plants getting too old to perform
<v Speaker 3>well anymore. And it's not necessarily like a super common thing.
<v Speaker 3>We think about trees, right, and trees can live for
<v Speaker 3>a very very long time, and we don't, you know,
<v Speaker 3>think about that. And shrubs are very long lived. I
<v Speaker 3>mean a shrub can easily live twenty five fifty years
<v Speaker 3>depending on the variety or more. But plants do get old,
<v Speaker 3>and especially shrubs, when they get old, they tend to
<v Speaker 3>perform less, not as well. They have thicker wood. That
<v Speaker 3>thicker older wood is less capable of putting out you know,
<v Speaker 3>fine vigorous growth, So the plant doesn't look as lush
<v Speaker 3>and full anymore. If it's not putting out a lot
<v Speaker 3>of new growth, it's not usually getting a lot of
<v Speaker 3>flowers on it. And so you know, sometimes if a
<v Speaker 3>plant is old, it's either time to replace it or
<v Speaker 3>time to give it a little rejuvenation. Pruning. Only you
<v Speaker 3>are going to know if the plant's age is the
<v Speaker 3>issue because you're going to roughly know, you know, how
<v Speaker 3>long it's been there. You'd say, hey, I bought my
<v Speaker 3>house ten years ago, this thing was already growing, so hey,
<v Speaker 3>it's at least thirty years old. You know.
<v Speaker 2>I agree with you. Applies to people too. I think
<v Speaker 2>of this every time I look in the mirror.
<v Speaker 3>Well, so, if you have an old plant, you can
<v Speaker 3>remove it and replace it with something new. Obviously there
<v Speaker 3>are so many choices now, but if you want give
<v Speaker 3>it a rejuvenation pruning, and we've talked about rejuvenation pruning
<v Speaker 3>lots on the show, you can simply cut it back
<v Speaker 3>to you know, to stumps and it will regrow from
<v Speaker 3>the roots if it's not too old. Now, I have
<v Speaker 3>seen this fail. My in laws had a really really
<v Speaker 3>old white gela. I mean the thing must have been
<v Speaker 3>fifty some years old, you know, and it stopped flowering
<v Speaker 3>as much, and I advised them to rejuvenation prune it,
<v Speaker 3>and it killed it because the plant was just done,
<v Speaker 3>you know, it didn't have the vigor in the roots anymore.
<v Speaker 3>So you do need to be aware that that is
<v Speaker 3>a risk of rejuvenating a very old plant, but it's
<v Speaker 3>still worth a try unless you want to just take
<v Speaker 3>it out.
<v Speaker 2>So agreed.
<v Speaker 3>That's age now, sun I think is the biggest one.
<v Speaker 3>And so few people realize that most sits tend to
<v Speaker 3>get shadier over time. And that's kind of a surprise,
<v Speaker 3>right because we don't we don't really perceive the trees
<v Speaker 3>as growing. But you know, pretty much every yard, at
<v Speaker 3>least here in the Midwest, in any you know climate
<v Speaker 3>that has a lot of trees, as those trees grow
<v Speaker 3>and spread, they're going to cast a broader, wider shadow
<v Speaker 3>and reach areas that they didn't before.
<v Speaker 2>This is a great evaluation point. Yeah, it really is so.
<v Speaker 3>And I hear this so often with people and lilacs.
<v Speaker 3>Yes that people you know have a lilac, they've had
<v Speaker 3>it for years. They love it, and they say, you know, gee,
<v Speaker 3>four years ago, this thing was beautiful, it was covered
<v Speaker 3>in flowers. In the last four years, it just keeps
<v Speaker 3>flowering less and less and I'm barely seeing any blooms
<v Speaker 3>on it. What did I do wrong? Well, if you're
<v Speaker 3>ruling out pruning, which of course is always the first
<v Speaker 3>thing that we do, then yeat lilacs. Are full sun
<v Speaker 3>plants that need full sun not just when they bloom,
<v Speaker 3>but later on in the summer when they are setting
<v Speaker 3>their flower buds. And that's another thing. We don't necessarily
<v Speaker 3>realize how shady our lilacs are in summer when they're
<v Speaker 3>working really hard to produce those flowers, because we're not
<v Speaker 3>thinking about our lilocks anymore. They're just a big green
<v Speaker 3>blob on the side of the yard. So you'll know
<v Speaker 3>a plant is not getting enough sun. Again, reduced flowering
<v Speaker 3>is probably going to be the biggest tell, I think,
<v Speaker 3>but you'll also see that it's sparse, that the internodes
<v Speaker 3>or spaces between the leaves tend to be longer because
<v Speaker 3>the plant is stretching for light. If it's a plant
<v Speaker 3>with colorful foliage, or even just colorful fall foliage, that
<v Speaker 3>color will be kind of muddy, not looking that great.
<v Speaker 3>That's a sign that plant needs more sun. And that
<v Speaker 3>would be a great time too. Instead of just evicting
<v Speaker 3>it from the yard, although while you're digging it you
<v Speaker 3>can certainly do that. Try it in a sunnier spot
<v Speaker 3>in your yard and see the difference. Now the opposite,
<v Speaker 3>too much light is not so much Typically an issue
<v Speaker 3>for us in cool climates like this, but certainly it
<v Speaker 3>can be a big issue for people in hot climates
<v Speaker 3>and in you know, areas of high elevation, like in
<v Speaker 3>the rocky mountains. So a plant you'll know is getting
<v Speaker 3>too much sun if it tends to look kind of bleached,
<v Speaker 3>it's frequently hard to keep watered. You haven't changed anything
<v Speaker 3>about your watering, but all of the sudden, you know,
<v Speaker 3>it's always wilting. You can't seem to keep it watered. Also,
<v Speaker 3>you might see like browning on the tips or on
<v Speaker 3>the edges. That's another sign. Basically the plant is just
<v Speaker 3>going to look stressed. And this is often an issue
<v Speaker 3>for people in hot climates where there was a hurricane
<v Speaker 3>or another type of storm that rips off the canopy
<v Speaker 3>and all the understory plants down below, or all of
<v Speaker 3>a sudden in full sun. So again you can't you know,
<v Speaker 3>just say, hey, these plants are no good anymore. You
<v Speaker 3>have to think about all of these factors that have
<v Speaker 3>influenced it. You know, I had a bunch more factors,
<v Speaker 3>but we're already out of time because I just can't
<v Speaker 3>stop gabbing about plants.
<v Speaker 1>Well, we got segment four, all right. We'll go right
<v Speaker 1>back at this after we get through the mail bank.
<v Speaker 3>Okay, but first you have to tell me when we
<v Speaker 3>get to segment four what the plant is, because that's
<v Speaker 3>I can't leave everybody on the edges of their seats.
<v Speaker 2>I'll do.
<v Speaker 3>So we're gonna take a little break and when we
<v Speaker 3>come back, we'll be opening up the mail legs. So
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<v Speaker 3>know that a better landscape starts with a better shrub.
<v Speaker 3>Our team of experts tests and evaluates all of our
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<v Speaker 3>ensure they outperform what's already on the market. For easy care, reliable,
<v Speaker 3>beautiful shrubs to accentuate your home and express your personal style,
<v Speaker 3>look for Proven Winners Shrubs in the distinctive white container
<v Speaker 3>at your local garden center or learn more at Proven
<v Speaker 3>Winner's Color Choice dot com. Creating's gardening friends and welcome
<v Speaker 3>back to the Gardening Simplified Show, where it is our
<v Speaker 3>pleasure to help you with your garden questions, quandaries and conundrums.
<v Speaker 3>And I know they are abundant out there as things
<v Speaker 3>come back from the winter or not or come back
<v Speaker 3>looking a little bit different than you might have thought.
<v Speaker 3>So I know there's lots of stuff going on, and
<v Speaker 3>just a seasonal reminder when it comes to pruning. When
<v Speaker 3>in doubt, don't don't you say I'll just get to
<v Speaker 3>prune it since I'm out here right now, Just wait,
<v Speaker 3>you know, until you figure out what the right thing
<v Speaker 3>to do is, and then make your decision.
<v Speaker 2>Because when you make the decision, don't be afraid to
<v Speaker 2>do it.
<v Speaker 3>Oh no, don't be afraid, you know, I think. But
<v Speaker 3>the reason people are afraid to prune is because they
<v Speaker 3>don't know why they're pruning. Correct, So this is an
<v Speaker 3>off topic conversation sort of. But you know, if you
<v Speaker 3>know why you are pruning, you no longer have to
<v Speaker 3>be afraid of pruning because you know exactly what you
<v Speaker 3>were going to do. People are afraid of pruning when
<v Speaker 3>they don't know what they're trying to accomplish. So they're like,
<v Speaker 3>where do I start? Because I don't know what I'm
<v Speaker 3>trying to do. I just have the sense that I
<v Speaker 3>should prune this because people say that or whatever. So anyway,
<v Speaker 3>we have lots of information about pruning on our website.
<v Speaker 3>Performer's Color choice dot Com. There's lots of resources on
<v Speaker 3>there to help you out and yeah, when in doubt,
<v Speaker 3>don't it's also of course on our plant tag. Now
<v Speaker 3>to kick off the mail bag today, I have a
<v Speaker 3>question of my own for our listeners. Oh. So, you know,
<v Speaker 3>the weather has been improving here in Michigan, and so
<v Speaker 3>my husband and I are sitting outside getting ready to
<v Speaker 3>finally finish up our new patio that we've been you know,
<v Speaker 3>thinking about for a couple of seasons now, and we
<v Speaker 3>are torn between covering it with a pergola or not.
<v Speaker 3>Now we both really like the idea, and we would
<v Speaker 3>plant grape vines on it because that's just like so romantic.
<v Speaker 3>You know, you have like the dining terrace under the
<v Speaker 3>grape vines, and you know, then you don't have to
<v Speaker 3>build a st because a grapevine, you know, actual grapevine
<v Speaker 3>trellis takes up a lot of space and it's heavy duty.
<v Speaker 1>I caution you on that though, because if you do that,
<v Speaker 1>you're going to see possums in summer.
<v Speaker 3>Ooh, I would love that. That's an incentive for.
<v Speaker 1>Me because I had and I had the grape vines
<v Speaker 1>and wild grapes growing on it. You know, and then
<v Speaker 1>later in summer when those grapes start to ferment, they
<v Speaker 1>go up there and they get drunk and they lose
<v Speaker 1>their car keys and oh my gosh.
<v Speaker 3>Well we're going to grow table grapes, so we're planning
<v Speaker 3>to harvest that.
<v Speaker 2>Okay, good, so, but get to them first.
<v Speaker 3>Then there is always that possibility. But my question for
<v Speaker 3>our listeners that is keeping us from you know, fully
<v Speaker 3>going in on this idea. If you have covered a pergola,
<v Speaker 3>or if you've covered a patio or deck in a
<v Speaker 3>pergola and planted anything on it, did it turn into
<v Speaker 3>a bird infested nightmare where you could not eat under
<v Speaker 3>it because the birds were doing their business up there.
<v Speaker 3>So this is our concern is you know, if we're
<v Speaker 3>going to do this, we do plan to use this
<v Speaker 3>space extensively. So I wanted to hear from people who
<v Speaker 3>have done this. Was it an issue if you didn't
<v Speaker 3>plant on it, was it not an issue? Or it
<v Speaker 3>wasn't an issue until you planted on it and the
<v Speaker 3>birds had some coverage. So I am looking for some
<v Speaker 3>first hand experience on this. You can leave it on
<v Speaker 3>our YouTube comments if you have something to say about this.
<v Speaker 3>If you've been. It doesn't have to be your garden.
<v Speaker 3>It could be maybe you went to visit a friend
<v Speaker 3>and they invited you for a romantic patio dinner and
<v Speaker 3>it was ruined by birds. I don't know, but I
<v Speaker 3>would love to hear from you, good or bad, your
<v Speaker 3>experience with us. You can also reach us at Gardening
<v Speaker 3>Simplified on air dot com. I would love to hear
<v Speaker 3>what you have to say in your own experience.
<v Speaker 2>That's a great question.
<v Speaker 1>Nothing worse than bird evacuation on the patio table.
<v Speaker 3>Especially if they ate the grapes. But yeah, that's it.
<v Speaker 3>That would be a nightmare. Yeah, I'm sure anyone who
<v Speaker 3>has a mulberry can attest that issue. Anyway, what do
<v Speaker 3>we got them out?
<v Speaker 1>Big? Cynthia's writing, How can fleas and ants in the
<v Speaker 1>garden be removed safely for wildlife, pollinators and beneficial insects?
<v Speaker 1>I do not use chemicals. We have gotten flea bites already,
<v Speaker 1>have to wear garden boots.
<v Speaker 2>Please help.
<v Speaker 3>If not a problem that anyone wants to have no fun?
<v Speaker 3>And you know so, I don't know a lot about fleas.
<v Speaker 3>I don't have pets, so I've was reading some interesting
<v Speaker 3>stuff about them. The best way to discourage them from
<v Speaker 3>your yard probably easier said than done, but we'll start
<v Speaker 3>here sun, warmth, and dryness. So they like high humidity,
<v Speaker 3>they like coverage, they like moisture, and they like shade.
<v Speaker 3>So if you can first of all kind of limit
<v Speaker 3>those areas or even you know, limit one of those
<v Speaker 3>factors in areas that are like that. I mean, if
<v Speaker 3>you have a shaded area that's under tree, obviously you
<v Speaker 3>can't change that, but can you say, adjust you sprinkler
<v Speaker 3>system so it's not is moist over there? Or can
<v Speaker 3>you cut the lawn short over there so they don't
<v Speaker 3>have as much coverage. There's lots of different ways you
<v Speaker 3>can look at kind of modifying the environment so that
<v Speaker 3>they don't thrive, and certainly as it gets warmer here
<v Speaker 3>in Michigan, that will be sort of a natural deterrent.
<v Speaker 3>Diotamacious earth probably the go to for fleas in bugs
<v Speaker 3>of all types if you are trying to kill them
<v Speaker 3>without chemicals, So diatamacious earth. You're not looking for the
<v Speaker 3>pool grade diatamacious earth that you use in swimming pools.
<v Speaker 3>This needs to be a pest grade diatamacious earth. You
<v Speaker 3>can get it all sorts of garden centers and that
<v Speaker 3>kind of thing. Just if you have the pool stuff,
<v Speaker 3>it won't work because it is not as sharp. Now,
<v Speaker 3>diatamacious earth just feels like powder to you if you
<v Speaker 3>touch it. You can't really tell the difference between cornstarch
<v Speaker 3>or you know whatever. But it is actually diatoms, ancient
<v Speaker 3>diatoms that have these kind of edges. So when little
<v Speaker 3>insects crawl over them, they will get lacerated. Now, of
<v Speaker 3>course that means it is a non discriminatory pest side
<v Speaker 3>it will it will lacerate anything that does crawl over it.
<v Speaker 3>But if you can put it in an area where
<v Speaker 3>you know the fleas are, this is an effective way.
<v Speaker 3>Once it lacerates their exoskeleton, they dry out and die.
<v Speaker 3>So this is a really common way to manage fleas
<v Speaker 3>on pets as well as indoors. Now, finally, it does
<v Speaker 3>seem as though cedar oil is very effective against fleas.
<v Speaker 1>Yeah, I was going to suggest some sort of essential oil.
<v Speaker 3>Yeah, so cedar oil is known to be an effective detern.
<v Speaker 3>It's actually used in some flea pesticides as well, even
<v Speaker 3>though it is just a natural product. So you could
<v Speaker 3>at least try putting that on yourself. If it's not
<v Speaker 3>practical to put around your yard, you can, you know,
<v Speaker 3>rub it on your ankles, on your boots, your pants
<v Speaker 3>and see if that works. So all about that IPM
<v Speaker 3>Integrated pest management, learning about the behavior and seeing what
<v Speaker 3>you can modify to to eliminate the issue.
<v Speaker 1>Kim writes to US I recently a canthus or bears
<v Speaker 1>breeches and.
<v Speaker 2>It was beautiful.
<v Speaker 1>I've read however, it can be invasive in some areas.
<v Speaker 1>I am in seven B. Should I avoid this plant?
<v Speaker 1>I won't avoid it.
<v Speaker 3>It's such a cool plant.
<v Speaker 2>I think it's so cool.
<v Speaker 3>It is such a very very cool plant, and I
<v Speaker 3>would definitely like to have one in my garden, and
<v Speaker 3>I could. There are two main types of a canthus
<v Speaker 3>that are available to gardens here in the US and
<v Speaker 3>probably Canada. A Canthus spinosis, which is hardy to USDA
<v Speaker 3>Zone five, and a Canthus molus, which is the more
<v Speaker 3>famous of them, that's hardy down to usdas one seven.
<v Speaker 3>So you can grow both of those, but they can
<v Speaker 3>be very aggressive. Now where they are actually invasive tends
<v Speaker 3>to be more on the West coast in those milder climates.
<v Speaker 3>Where they're not really getting set back by winter or
<v Speaker 3>anything like that. They love hot, sunny, dry spots, so
<v Speaker 3>you can try to also kind of minimize them if
<v Speaker 3>you have just regular natural soil moisture. If you have
<v Speaker 3>clay soil, they'll certainly be more limited than if you
<v Speaker 3>have a really really well drained soil. But all of
<v Speaker 3>this said, they are aggressive, They can regrow from even
<v Speaker 3>the smallest part of the root in the soil, and
<v Speaker 3>they are spiny is all get out. So if you
<v Speaker 3>do find yourself needing to manage this plant, it's not
<v Speaker 3>exactly going to be a fun task.
<v Speaker 1>Don't put in an area where you're going to frequent
<v Speaker 1>as far as walking or sitting around or whatever.
<v Speaker 2>But if you do that, the things a showstopper in
<v Speaker 2>the wad.
<v Speaker 3>They're beautiful. I really like them. I'd consider adding it
<v Speaker 3>to my yard. But yeah, you do need to be
<v Speaker 3>aware that sighting, as with everything, is going to be
<v Speaker 3>very important, so you don't want to encourage it too much.
<v Speaker 3>All right, we have one this question that I thought
<v Speaker 3>was perfect for you. Deb says that her daughter in
<v Speaker 3>law needs a type of tall grass. She wants seed,
<v Speaker 3>not plants, But I don't know if this is possible
<v Speaker 3>for a large area. The hell she wants it to
<v Speaker 3>be three to five feet tall, large seed heads that
<v Speaker 3>look beautiful when the wind is blowing. Perennial so it's
<v Speaker 3>coming up every year. Erosion control, which pretty much all
<v Speaker 3>grasses are going to have because they have that nice
<v Speaker 3>fibrous root system, and of course full sun, which also
<v Speaker 3>all grasses are going to have. So I don't know
<v Speaker 3>if this is possible to get from seed.
<v Speaker 1>Well, there's a few different things you can do. Let's
<v Speaker 1>start with the non seed first, and that would be
<v Speaker 1>ornamental grasses. I would recommend switch grass or panicums, and
<v Speaker 1>proven Winters has wonderful shy and sky, Niagara.
<v Speaker 2>Falls, Totem Pole.
<v Speaker 1>All of those are just fantastic and do great in
<v Speaker 1>my landscape, and I think you will greatly enjoy them.
<v Speaker 1>Lemon squeeze, pennacetum, and we'll give you that really cool
<v Speaker 1>fuzzy head. So I would not throw that out as
<v Speaker 1>an option. As a matter of fact, I'd go for
<v Speaker 1>it from seed. Why don't you take the search engine
<v Speaker 1>of your choice and type in tttf so T tall
<v Speaker 1>turf type fescue okay, and you can buy those from seed.
<v Speaker 1>There are many great varieties of tall turf type fescue
<v Speaker 1>that you can just let grow as opposed to cut
<v Speaker 1>it like most people would do with the lawnmower.
<v Speaker 2>You can cut it too.
<v Speaker 1>Great for high traffic, great for drought. Grows from seed
<v Speaker 1>TTTF tall turf type fescue.
<v Speaker 3>All right, And I would just add to that, if
<v Speaker 3>you are determined to grow from seed here, I would
<v Speaker 3>recommend looking at one of the prairie seed companies that
<v Speaker 3>sell seed mixture for exactly this. Now, you do want
<v Speaker 3>to make sure you're going with a prairie specialist to
<v Speaker 3>make sure that everything is native, because there's going to
<v Speaker 3>be a lot of mixes out there that have all
<v Speaker 3>sorts of crazy stuff in them. But there are definitely
<v Speaker 3>some excellent ones that specifically create mixes of tall grasses
<v Speaker 3>for exactly this. So just a little bit of search
<v Speaker 3>engine work will get you to some really interesting options
<v Speaker 3>there as well. So thank you so much for your questions.
<v Speaker 3>We're going to take a little break and when we
<v Speaker 3>come back, we're going to finally find out what plant
<v Speaker 3>Rick fired from his landscape. So stay tuned. Thanks for
<v Speaker 3>listening to the Gardening Simplified podcast, brought to you by
<v Speaker 3>Proven Winners Color Choice Shrubs. Our award winning flowering shrubs
<v Speaker 3>and evergreens are trialed and tested by experts with your
<v Speaker 3>success in mind. Learn more at Proven Winners color Choice
<v Speaker 3>dot com.
<v Speaker 1>Welcome back to the Gardening Simplified Show as we do
<v Speaker 1>a performance annual review and Stacey, Okay, let's get to
<v Speaker 1>the plant that I fired.
<v Speaker 2>You're out of here.
<v Speaker 1>The botanical genus name is People pronounce it differently Ruse
<v Speaker 1>or Russ. It's r h Us sumac, right, and there
<v Speaker 1>is a There is a sumac or a Rus aromatica,
<v Speaker 1>which is known as low grow sum Now, when I
<v Speaker 1>moved into this house, I knew that I had sandy
<v Speaker 1>conditions occasional drought there. It's a sloped area that needed
<v Speaker 1>some help, and I had to do something quick to
<v Speaker 1>fill the area before I could start planting what I wanted.
<v Speaker 1>So I planted this big mistake. It's a deciduous native shrub.
<v Speaker 1>It occurs in open woods, glades and thickets.
<v Speaker 2>It's dense and growing.
<v Speaker 1>You will often see this plant in the landscapes of
<v Speaker 1>large stores that have a huge parking lot and have
<v Speaker 1>these curved areas where they throw it in there it's.
<v Speaker 3>An extremely popular parking lot plant.
<v Speaker 1>Yes, and when I fired this plant last fall, had
<v Speaker 1>it in two locations. Sometimes, you know, when you fire somebody,
<v Speaker 1>it goes pretty well.
<v Speaker 2>You agree to disagree.
<v Speaker 1>And they pick up their stuff and walk out quietly,
<v Speaker 1>and we're set.
<v Speaker 2>Sometimes it gets ugly.
<v Speaker 1>This one got ugly, oh, I mean ripping this thing
<v Speaker 1>out and the way it would root in and fighting
<v Speaker 1>that thing and then falling as I'm pulling on these
<v Speaker 1>rooted stems and quickly dusting myself off to see if
<v Speaker 1>some of the neighbors saw me fall. You know, I
<v Speaker 1>felt really silly. So that's the one that I fired.
<v Speaker 2>Low grows soon.
<v Speaker 3>At So did you completely obliterate it completely?
<v Speaker 2>Now?
<v Speaker 3>Okay, good.
<v Speaker 1>I'm still expecting it to show up at some point,
<v Speaker 1>so I'll be you watching for it. But that plant
<v Speaker 1>and my landscape.
<v Speaker 3>Is fighting well, you know, And that's a great example
<v Speaker 3>of how plant trace is so important. Yeah, I mean,
<v Speaker 3>you know that that plant does all of that and
<v Speaker 3>has the erosion control and has really grateful color. It's
<v Speaker 3>a native, you know plant, and it's kind of a
<v Speaker 3>go to among landscapers all over. But it was not
<v Speaker 3>the right plant for you in that spot and it
<v Speaker 3>wasn't earning its keep, and you know, and so a
<v Speaker 3>lot of times these performance reviews do you have to
<v Speaker 3>come back to our own decisions, bad decisions so we've
<v Speaker 3>made in the first place, and we've all made them.
<v Speaker 3>We've all made them. I've certainly made plenty of bad
<v Speaker 3>planting decisions in my life. So, okay, that was not
<v Speaker 3>what I expected. But that was a very.
<v Speaker 2>Interesting It was aggressive point.
<v Speaker 3>People do love that plant.
<v Speaker 1>And gets loaded with gall and I just yeah, I
<v Speaker 1>was the boss apple sauce.
<v Speaker 2>I got rid of it. I knew I could do
<v Speaker 2>much better.
<v Speaker 1>So in segment two, Plants on Trial, I was thinking
<v Speaker 1>about the fact that not only do you want to
<v Speaker 1>evaluate the gardener a person who's doing that, I mean,
<v Speaker 1>how much maintenance do you want?
<v Speaker 2>Right?
<v Speaker 3>Yeah, absolutely we have.
<v Speaker 2>To evaluate that.
<v Speaker 1>There are people who say to me, yeah, Rick, you
<v Speaker 1>go ahead and plant your dahlia as your cannas and
<v Speaker 1>enjoy your ornamental grasses. But for me, summer flowering bulbs,
<v Speaker 1>for example, too much work digging them up, storing them
<v Speaker 1>that time. I understand, so evaluate the gardener right off
<v Speaker 1>the bat, but I also think that you have to
<v Speaker 1>evaluate the ground area some people just instinctively in spring
<v Speaker 1>will order ten yards of mulch, a pile of mulch
<v Speaker 1>in the dry right, and yeah over top of what's there.
<v Speaker 2>Don't do that.
<v Speaker 1>You know, the mulch can become hydrophobic, stirret.
<v Speaker 2>Don't just do it.
<v Speaker 1>Know why you're doing it, I guess is exactly what we're.
<v Speaker 2>Trying to say.
<v Speaker 1>But it does bring up the point, Stacy, that when
<v Speaker 1>you evaluate your landscape and your plantings, one big issue
<v Speaker 1>always comes to the forefront.
<v Speaker 2>And that is water.
<v Speaker 3>Oof. You can say that again, and you know this
<v Speaker 3>is another place where you have to decide for yourself.
<v Speaker 3>Am I going to provide supplemental water and shell out
<v Speaker 3>on my water bill and make sure my plants are
<v Speaker 3>well watered? Or am I going to take a less
<v Speaker 3>intensive approach? But you know, to go back to what
<v Speaker 3>I was saying about evaluating a plant for water. You know,
<v Speaker 3>water is definitely probably the is definitely the biggest reason
<v Speaker 3>that plants don't thrive. And a lot of times people
<v Speaker 3>don't really understand how to read what a plant is
<v Speaker 3>doing in response to too much or too little water.
<v Speaker 3>So I will tell you, as a low water gardener,
<v Speaker 3>the number one thing that you can recognize if a
<v Speaker 3>plant isn't performing well, it's shrinking. And I have seen this.
<v Speaker 3>I had a great, beautiful planting of hellebores on the
<v Speaker 3>side of my house, just beautiful. And they are in
<v Speaker 3>an area where they get a lot of competition for
<v Speaker 3>water from a pine tree, so and that's a very
<v Speaker 3>well established pine so they're competing really heavily for the water.
<v Speaker 3>We've had a lot of dry summers over the past
<v Speaker 3>couple of years, and this is the first year that
<v Speaker 3>that patch of hellebores just didn't come up. Because every
<v Speaker 3>year it was a little bit smaller, a little bit smaller,
<v Speaker 3>until finally it's just like hebe, I can't do this anymore.
<v Speaker 3>I'm done. And it didn't come back.
<v Speaker 2>So oh, you know, men have to fire them. They
<v Speaker 2>just left, They just.
<v Speaker 3>Left the building. But and that happens too, But you know,
<v Speaker 3>it's it's important for me to say, well, geez, I'm
<v Speaker 3>never growing that hellebor again. It's a terrible plant, because
<v Speaker 3>it's a it was a beautiful plant, and it was
<v Speaker 3>all totally my fault. But if you don't know those
<v Speaker 3>signs to look for and to and to read and
<v Speaker 3>understand how they're impacting that, then you're likely to blame
<v Speaker 3>the plant or yourself, and it's kind of neither of
<v Speaker 3>those things. So that's probably the number one thing you'll
<v Speaker 3>also see, you know, going back to what he said
<v Speaker 3>about too much sun, because a lot of times these
<v Speaker 3>two things go hand in hand. A lot of sun
<v Speaker 3>and low water will make it much more difficult for
<v Speaker 3>a plant than a lot of sign with ample water
<v Speaker 3>for many plants, but browning on the edge of the
<v Speaker 3>leaves or the leaf tips are also going to be
<v Speaker 3>a good sign that the plant is not getting enough
<v Speaker 3>water or has dried out. Wilting, of course, is the
<v Speaker 3>number one thing that people see, but the tricky thing
<v Speaker 3>is wilting is also a sign of overwatering, especially on
<v Speaker 3>plants that are extra susceptible to overwatering, so they will
<v Speaker 3>wilt just because you know, they just have too much moisture.
<v Speaker 3>And you know, I find I was thinking about this
<v Speaker 3>as I was kind of putting these notes together. When
<v Speaker 3>it comes to giving a performance review of a plant
<v Speaker 3>that's had too much water, usually not an issue because
<v Speaker 3>it will die. You know, a lot of these other
<v Speaker 3>issues for talking about the plants can hang on for
<v Speaker 3>some time to the point where you might say, hey,
<v Speaker 3>you know this isn't working out, We're going to break up.
<v Speaker 3>But if a plant gets too much water, it's probably dead. Yeah,
<v Speaker 3>that's one of the surest, quickest ways to kill a plant.
<v Speaker 1>And they look at you and they say, this job
<v Speaker 1>just isn't for me.
<v Speaker 3>So I'm yeah this, you know, the conditions here are
<v Speaker 3>not appropriate for me to be working. And you know,
<v Speaker 3>it just comes back to the simple fact that in
<v Speaker 3>very wet conditions, especially for prolonged periods, there's no oxygen
<v Speaker 3>getting to the roots, and the plants just cannot live
<v Speaker 3>in that environment. Now, there certainly are plenty of plants
<v Speaker 3>that thrive in wet soil. So again, it always comes
<v Speaker 3>back to this plant choice. So the performance review really
<v Speaker 3>is is, you know, do I like this plant? Is
<v Speaker 3>it in the right spot for it to you know,
<v Speaker 3>sort of accomplish its maximum beauty or whatever reason that
<v Speaker 3>you bought it for? And if not, then how do
<v Speaker 3>I change the environment? Do I move it? Do I
<v Speaker 3>change something about how I'm where, I'm what I'm doing
<v Speaker 3>so that it can get a positive performance review? So
<v Speaker 3>sometimes we got to buy the work in agree.
<v Speaker 1>Now I've I've got to admit something here in this evaluation,
<v Speaker 1>and I would admit to you, Stacey, that I think
<v Speaker 1>you take a far more common sense approach than I do.
<v Speaker 1>I have a tendency to give my plants too many raises,
<v Speaker 1>oh and too much in other words, you know again,
<v Speaker 1>I come from the garden center industry and we're selling
<v Speaker 1>all kinds of potions and fertilizers anything that I have
<v Speaker 1>a tendency to overfertilize.
<v Speaker 2>I can't help it.
<v Speaker 1>I'm I kind of lean towards being.
<v Speaker 2>Liberal in that.
<v Speaker 3>Oh interesting, how many raises I can? I can give
<v Speaker 3>you a tip, just be lazier. I mean that's basically.
<v Speaker 1>Kind of like, you know, I find a cool new fertilizer.
<v Speaker 3>Oh okay, you're a fertilizer tinkerer. I did not know
<v Speaker 3>this about you.
<v Speaker 2>Hey, hi Ranger, here's a bonus.
<v Speaker 3>Oh. I mean, I do fertilize. I give the whole landscape,
<v Speaker 3>you know, a good dose of fertilizer in spring, which
<v Speaker 3>you know, I have very sandy lean soil. And of
<v Speaker 3>course I fertilize my containers and my vegetables like crazy
<v Speaker 3>because I'm trying to get something out of them. But
<v Speaker 3>as far as stuff in the garden goes. Yet it
<v Speaker 3>doesn't get it doesn't get a lot of love and
<v Speaker 3>TLC from me.
<v Speaker 2>But I just think you're more practical.
<v Speaker 1>But again that comes from my background because every year
<v Speaker 1>in spring it's oh, this new fertilizer's on the market,
<v Speaker 1>let's try it and see what happens.
<v Speaker 2>So I tinker with it.
<v Speaker 1>It does bring up the fact that in the evaluation process,
<v Speaker 1>possibly a soil test.
<v Speaker 2>May be a good idea for you.
<v Speaker 1>And in addition to that, Stacy, you mentioned such a
<v Speaker 1>super important point, and that is the water evaluation. Maybe
<v Speaker 1>in a few spots in your landscape, dig a hole,
<v Speaker 1>fill a hole with water, step back and just see
<v Speaker 1>what happens. It's going to tell you a lot about
<v Speaker 1>what's going on around the root system of those plants
<v Speaker 1>as you evaluate their performance.
<v Speaker 3>Definitely, and you know where water flows, where water drains
<v Speaker 3>can vary a lot around a yard for so many factors,
<v Speaker 3>factors outside of your yard, neighbor's yards. You know houses
<v Speaker 3>where they're different gutters and downspouts or positions. So there
<v Speaker 3>are always when it comes to water and sun, there
<v Speaker 3>are typically multiple opportunities to try something out in a
<v Speaker 3>different spot in your yard exactly.
<v Speaker 1>Well, Stacy, this was fun. Do I need to pack
<v Speaker 1>my things and leave?
<v Speaker 3>No, no, you're staying.
<v Speaker 1>Thank you, thank you so much, and thanks to you
<v Speaker 1>for tuning in the Gardening Simplified Show, watching us on YouTube,
<v Speaker 1>listening to the radio version, and of course download that
<v Speaker 1>podcast of the Gardening Simplified Show. Thank you Stacey, thank
<v Speaker 1>you Rick, thank you Adrianna, and have a great week.