Stacey and Rick’s New Year’s (Gardening) Resolutions

Sprout it from the rooftops, coming to you from Studio A. Here at
proven winner's color choice shrubs. It's time for the Gardening Simplified Show with Stacy
Hervella me, Rick weisst and our engineer and producer Adrianna Robinson. All Right,
we're going to talk resolutions today. It's the New Year. As a
matter of fact, just check the countdown clock. Only eighty days, eleven
hours, fifty seven minutes and nineteen seconds to spring. Yay. Oh,
I mean, come on, you know I am. I am not a
big fan of winter, but I have to say there's something about being in
the moment where you can't rush it to like a countdown level, because you
know that's actually kind of depressing. Well, there are some people who think
New Year's Day resolutions are depressing too, that you could say, they're not
bubbly about it, and resolutions go in one year and out the other years.
Right, Yeah, that's the intention that counts. You set a resolution
with a good intention to improve on something, to accomplish something, and whether
or not you do it. I mean, it's not like you have an
annual review at the end of the year where your boss comes by and you
know what are you gonna do? Get in trouble. Well, Historically,
the first recorded people to set New Year's pledges later to be known as resolutions
were the ancient Babylonians some four thousand years ago. Now I sound like like
Cliff Claven there on the sitcom Cheers. However, part of the reason they
did it, Stacey, is because their calendar, the start of the calendar
year was in March when everyone would be thinking about gardening. And then of
course Julius Caesar comes along and the calendar now it's January first, and we're
in the dead of winter when we have to make our resolutions. But we're
going to try it because I see London, I see France, I see
problems with your plants. We can always get better, and it's worth having
some resolutions. Now. I know people who's New Year's resolution is to avoid
people who make New Year's resolutions, however, or ask you what yours are.
But we're going to do that today. So I have a variety of
them. Personally, I know one right off the top that I'm going to
do more of next year, and that is plant more annual grasses, not
perennial grasses. But I love annual grasses, and why don't I plant more
of them in spring? Well because I'm so focused on the flowers and everything
else. But I want to plant some more annual grasses, like graceful grasses.
And I also want to make watering easier. Now we've talked about this
this past year on the show and how much I dislike hoses and anything irrigation
or plumbing. But somehow, some way, I've got to make irrigation easier.
And then I'm going to try my hand at pilarting, another topic that
we talked about this past year. Right, Well, you know, I
think every gardener who dislikes watering or whatever garden shore they strongly dislike, owes
it to themselves and their love of the practice to find a way to make
it easier. Yeah, I mean, it really does make a huge difference.
And I know when we were talking about hoses on a previous show this
year, I had said that I have a hose KRT and that has been
a life changing thing. It's a lot easier to manage the hose. I
don't dread watering as much. Unfortunately, my husband still does it because he
actually enjoys it. So, oh, that's the best thing you can do.
But yeah, I mean whatever your gardening dislike is, whether it's weeding
or you know whatever, Yeah, find a way to make it easier.
That's a solid resolution. Well, it brings up a point. Our show
next week is going to be your resolutions for the new year. In other
words, we want you to email us. You can go to our web
page, Gardening Simplified on air dot com or Stacey, folks can reach out
to us on Instagram, or for folks who watch us on YouTube, boy
post your resolutions there. For yeah, just leave it as a comment.
Adrian alyx at them all. If you got a question and she can't answer
it, she reaches out to us and gets you an answer. So we
do read all of those. So any of those is a perfectly legitimate way
to share your resolutions. We won't follow up with you next December to see
whether you did actually follow through on your resolution, So don't hesitate to reach
out and let us know what you've got planned for twenty twenty four. But
we will share your resolutions on that first show in January twenty twenty four.
Stacey, I've got to admit to you. I want to hear what your
primary resolution is. But before we hear that, I want to share with
you a biggie one for me, A biggie one, A biggie see that
shows you how big it is. Yeah, my shed, my garden shed.
My garden shed is like mcgilli Cuddy's closet. It is. It's always
a messcus. I want to be out there in the sunshine. I want
to be working with the plant. I don't want to have to clean the
garden shed. So I feel a resolution limb a rick coming on about my
garden shed. Here you go. I open the doors with a sense of
dread, lost tools, and I'm seeing red. I hereby am resolved to
finally have evolved and have a clean garden shed. I trip on a leaning
rake, step on a pot that I break, I knock over the weed
killer, bang my shins on the rototiller. I've got attention headache. I'm
tangled in a lawn chair, can't find my pruners anywhere. The charcoal briquette
bag broke my pitchfork, gives me a poke. A horticultural funhouse nightmare.
And yet you'll be happy to hear I'm out the door and of good cheer.
While in there, looked around and look at what I found. The
trowel I lost last year. And here's the sad thing about that, Limba
rick. It is true it was very vivid, So I believe that it's
vivid, and it's true I experience it. So I have to get the
garden shed organized. Well, you know what, organization makes a huge difference
because my tools are in the garage and also not super organized. And there
is nothing worse than trying to deal with a bunch of garden tools all piled
up, sharp, heavy stuff and you're trying to pull one thing out and
you're using one hand to hold it back to keep yourself from being injured.
That's not fun. So yeah, it's absolutely worth investing in some organizational tools
to make them easier to find so you don't get into that situation, and
then you know, next year you can come up with a new resolution.
Although I do have to admit that it is fun when you feel you've lost
something and then you find it. Yeah, that just happened to us.
My husband could have sworn we lost a pair of pruners. I thought,
well, must have put them in a weed bucket and thrown them out.
That's really too bad. I'm going to try not to sweat this. And
then he found him in the basement. Right. We were very thrilled.
It's fun. It's like Christmas. So, uh, do you have a
heavy hitter resolution for next year? Well? I do, so I have
a plan and I have a resolution. So the plan is to get our
yard graded. When we moved in, our yard was a mess. It's
only gotten worse. It's like, well, because you know the earth moves,
yeah, yeah, the grade And it's not even just like the grade
is wrong, it's just the grade is all over the place. There's high
spots, there's low spots. It's like, you know, mowing our lawn
is like going for a hike up and downhill and rugged terrain. It's a
problem. And so we want to get it graded and make some changes to
the overall layout. So I'm going to resolve to do that. But the
other thing that I need to do is I need to stop pretending that the
reality of spring is the reality of the entire gardening season, because what happens
is in spring, I'm looking, oh, there's plenty of space here,
and then by the time, you know, like July or August rolls around
those big old native perennials, like are all, you know, elbowing each
other out? There's not enough room? And I sit there and go,
why did I knew this was going to happen? Why didn't I move this
in spring? Why didn't I divide it in spring? Why didn't I do
something? Because I'm delusional in spring or just like everything's going to be great,
I don't want to make any changes. So it's a well intentioned resolution
that may or may not get kept, but it's at least I'm making it.
You know. What'd be a great topic for our show sometime down the
road is garden layering. I saw that there's a book out there also about
layering. So the concept is to be able to add more plants to your
landscape without adding to the breath or the width of your landscape the space that
you're planting in. So layering might be a good thing also to look at
as a as a resolution. Now, this past year I accomplished adding some
really nice garden paths. That was one of my resolutions. I accomplished it.
The other one was going to be I decide the condition of my garden,
not the deer. And I built a deer compound, complete with signs,
and it's worked and now I can grow more roses like I want to,
and more high dranges and that sort of thing. I'm going to take
leaf mulching to the next level. I need more power. We'll be talking
about that in the coming year. I got the comfortable pants for gardening,
but now I want some shoes, some slip ons that keep you clean so
easy and easy out, but also do a good job of keeping you clean,
keeping the dirt out. So I'm looking for those also as one of
my resolutions. So it's fun to resolve to maybe not necessarily be a better
gardener, but to enjoy it more. And there are some things that you
can do, and we want to hear from you. What are your resolutions?
Please let us know, send it, send your note email us,
just go to our website Gardening Simplified on air dot com and Stacy. We'd
love to hear from people on YouTube and Instagram. Absolutely, and if you
have a resolution but you don't know how you're going to get there, then
definitely reach out. Yeah, maybe we can make some suggestions like the shadow
organization, or we'll wear the garden shoes. We'll work it out. Plants
on Trial coming up next here on the Gardening Simplified Show. Proven Winner's Colored
Choice Shrubs cares about your success in the garden. That's why we trial and
test all of our shrubs for eight to ten years, making sure they outperform
everything else on the market. Look for them and the distinctive white container at
your local garden center. Greeting's Gardening friends, and welcome back to the Gardening
Simplified Show. At this point in the show, we put a plant on
trial, which is to say, we're going to tell you about one of
the three hundred and twenty plus proven Winner's Colored Choice shrubs, and you get
to decide if it's going to earn a spot in your garden. Although today's
plant on Trial might not earn a spot in people's gardens us by virtue of
the fact that it's not entirely hardy, but I'll get to that in a
minute. It is appropriate for today's show because it is called just chill,
Red Tip Camellia, and I think that a lot of people could resolve to
just chill a little bit more perfect, perfect, great resolution, so that's
where that comes from comes from. Also, I like this one because it
kind of at the end of the year here brought together a bunch of our
recent shows in that it is a broadly fevergreen, which we talked about a
couple weeks ago, and it is a relative of Camellia sinensis, which when
we had Debora Konnapki on Yep and she was talking about tea, that is
the tea plant Camellia sinanis. Now this is not Camellia sinensis. This is
a different it's a hybrid camellia. It is hardier. So one of the
questions that I had asked Deborah when she was on was you know, is
it true that the tea plant is not as hardy as a lot of the
other camellias. And that is true. So proper tea Kamelia sinensis is hardy
probably to like zone eight, maybe even verging on zone nine, whereas just
chill red tip Camelia is hardy from USDA zone seven through nine. And this
is one of those situations where again going back to a previous show, six
B Zone six B is in parentheses because it can grow in USDA Zone six
B with protection or if you put it in a protected spot. This is
exciting. I'm in parentheses because yes, I moved from six A to six
B. I'm going to give just chill red tip camellia a try. Yeah.
Now, I have to confess I am not generally the kind of gardener
who just goes off the deep end for a single genus of plants like where
I'm just like, oh, I would join a plant society where we just
devote ourselves to lilacs or roses or whatever. I have to say. If
I lived in a milder climate, I would make a huge exception because I
would go bananas for camelias. I am simply would crazy about them. I
would too, I'm crazy about now. From my reading, Stacey, they're
not native to North America. That's right, Am I correct? They're all
native to Asia. As a matter of fact, I have a theory theory
that with them native to Asia, I would think that along with tea,
they kind of probably made their way to England or Europe and then eventually to
the US. So we establish that they're not native. They are not native,
but they are beautiful, and so there's there's two main types of camellias
that we grow in North American gardens. Okay, so there's the fall blooming
camellias, which are known very commonly in the South as sissanqua sasa naqua,
so long word there, sussanqua camellias. Now just chill red tip camellia is
not technically a susanqua. It's a hybrid, but it is a fall blooming
camellia like a susanqua. And these tend to be hardier than the other common
type in North American gardeners, which are the Camellia japonicas. Now, those
are the kind that start to bloom in the South in like February and go
through late March, and those are just spectacular. You really don't want to
get me started, because that's where my zone envy really kicksists. Same here.
I've seen them in Arkansas, Alabama gorgeous and that they so they have,
I mean, the flowers really are the main attraction. And the flowers
on just childred tip are very beautiful. They're pink, they are a little
bit smaller, and they're going to appear in so roughly mid fall and continue
through early winter, whereas the Japonicas are bigger, they're very ornate. They
almost have the same thing that people love in Dahlia's that really strong kind of
geometric quality where the petals are arranged so tidy they are, And the cool
thing, at least I've noticed with them is that the petals don't fall off
usually when they're done. The whole thing self cleaning and self regard. Yeah,
and the colors of especially the Japanese camellias are so stunning, I mean,
just rich and deep, and there's many multicolored ones. There's polka dotted
ones. I love the ones that are kind of like swirly and tied.
I very polarizing. Most people don't like those, but they're my absolute favorite.
But why am I talking about a plant that's not our plant on trial?
Just chill red tip, Because I do love camelias and I have grown
them successfully here in West Michigan. But you know what we talk about when
we talk about these hardy fall blooming. So again, the Japanese type definitely
not hardy for us. There are a couple that kind of verge on hardiness.
But the issue is that even if the plant survives you're probably not going
to get good flowering because it's still so cold here when they start to flower
in late winter, so they don't really flower well. The buds they get
brown, they get frosted, and that happens like even in the South,
if they get a sudden frost when their camelias are in bloom in February or
March, they turn brown, but it doesn't usually you know, damage the
plant. So just chill red tip is much hardier. And this is the
type that I have grown successful here. And the flowers again, they start
in fall, so not when you expect it, and in a color you
don't expect in fall, because they really are this like beautiful kind of baby
pink. And most people think of fall is like burgundy and red and orange
and these hot colors. And here comes just chill red tip blooming with this
bright pink flower in October and you're like, what the what is going on?
And what happens sometimes in cooler climates like ours. So if you're trying
to grow this in a six B you may find that if we get too
early of a cold, you're not going to get good flowering. But the
good news to that is that the foliage on this plant is so beautiful that
it actually might be worth it to grow it, and just consider the flowers
a bonus, because not only do camellias have fabulous flowers, they have gorgeous
foliage. It's thick, it's leathery, it's super glossy, and it's evergreen.
So it's a broad leaf evergreen, like I said, bringing in another
previous show recently, and they just look fantastic in the landscape. They're beautiful
as a hedge because you get that year round coverage, really unexpected, and
just Chill Red Tip has an extra bonus, which is that when the new
growth emerges, it's this beautiful deep burgundy color. So it really is just
bringing so much interest and excitement into the garden that I'm willing to grow it
even if it doesn't flower, because we have had excellent survival on the Just
Chill camellias here in our trial gardens in West Michigan. Stacey, I think
you just sold this plant. I know you've sold me. And if you're
listening to our podcast, maybe you're in your car, you're listening to our
show on radio. Remember you can get our show also on YouTube. Look
for US Gardening Simplified show, and Adriana does a great job of dropping in
pictures and information on the plants that we're talking about or what we're talking about.
And of course our website too, Gardeningsimplified on air dot com, and
you can get more information on this fabulous plant Stacey's talking about, just chill
red tip Camellia. I have to say, Stacey, I'm sold. And
you know camilias are also shade tolerant. They're also deer resistant, so I
mean to me, the list just goes on and on. Now, one
thing you do need to know about them. They do want acidic soil,
and this is very common for broad leaf evergreens that they want acidic soil.
It's just due to the areas where they are native, so not a great
choice if you don't have acidic soil. They also really want the mythical moist
but well drained soil, the elusive, the mythical if it does indeed even
exists. It does exist. But they are a plant that you know,
it absolutely cannot tolerate wet soil. But if it gets too dry, the
plant's really going to get stressed and not look its best. Now, they
typically do very well in the South because of the humidity. So even if
the summer is on the dry side, the high humidity means the plant is
using less water and typically keeps it pretty healthy. But wherever you are,
this is a plant that really really wants mulch. And just like we had
last week a question from someone who's asking about pine mulch, is there anything
more classic than seeing a camellia surrounded by pine mulch. That's like the symbol
of like seeing a garden in the South. Yeah, yeah, iconic.
And you know what I love about camellias is the plant has a great history.
It has a great history, and as you mentioned earlier, the flowers
are similar to dahlia's or let's say pie andes, where you can get these
knock your socks off blooms that you just wait for with great anticipation. Yeah,
and they bloom in February. If you're growing a Japanese camellia and you're
in the show, so I mean, I'm just crazy about them. If
you aren't familiar with them, definitely do take a look at our website or
just google them. And if you can't grow them, well, I guess
you can always console yourself with a trip to a great garden, a great
public garden south where you can enjoy them. But just Chill Red Tipcamelia will
be in garden centers starting this spring, so if you'd like to give it
a try, or if they don't sell it nearby, you can order it
mail order. And you know, I always encourage if you're pushing that hardiness
zone like you might be with just Chill Red Tip Camellia, start it as
early as possible in the spring so it has the longest possible time to get
established before the really cold weather sets in. And mulch, maultmultch. You're
definitely going to want to have a good layer of mulch on that and if
you can cite it in a protected spot where it's going to be, you
know, protected from the worst of the weather, whether that means you're covering
it or you have a sort of microclimate in your yard, but you can
do it where there's a will, there's a way, And as our listeners
hopefully know, we always encourage educated experimentation when it comes to gardening, love
it, endorse it, So check us out at Gardeningsimplified on air dot com
to see all of the information about Just Chill, Red Tip, Camelia and
just Chill a moment while we take a little break, and when we come
back, we've got the gardener mail bag. 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,
gardening friends, and welcome back to the Gardening Simplified Show. It's the time
where we help you with your gardening questions, conundrums, quandaries, whatever is
on your mind. And I know at this time of year, people aren't
so much thinking about gardening. They're like, jeez, the holidays aren't even
over. I haven't started thinking about gardening. But once that, you know,
calendar flips over to January second, it seems like everyone's mind turns to
spring. Yeah, what did I say? Eighty hours, eighty days,
eleven hours seven Yeah, but who's counting? Yeah? Rick is Rick is
definitely counting, but you know, people start to wonder what they something happened
last year, So we're always welcome your questions. You can reach us at
help HLP at Gardeningsimplified on air dot com, or just visit that website,
Gardening Simplified on Air dot Com. Leave us a question in the contact formats,
also where you can share your resolutions, yes with us, so we
can share them with everyone next week. So please don't hesitate to do that.
And while you're there, if you have a question, go ahead and
ask it and like these people did, Yeah, Jeannette. Thanks Jeanette.
Jeanette writes to us saying, being a backyard birder avid gardener, I would
love to learn more about the shrubs and plants that support bird populations. Thank
you for lobbing us as softball. That's fantastic. I love it, not
only in the areas of nesting and food sourcing, but especially what plants support
insects that native birds like chickadese need to feed their young. Great question,
Jeannette, this is something I'd never considered. We'd love to learn more about.
Please consider also doing a show on the topic, which is yeah,
fabulous. Yeah, I think we could, because there's so much to say,
and you know, we don't have a lot of time to get fully
into with these questions, so so I always try to leave links and other
helpful information on the show notes. But Jeanette, to answer your question,
you know, when you plant anything in your yard, you are planting habitat.
You are planting a place where insects and fungus and all of these different
things can grow and proliferate, and that you know, fundamentally changes what's in
your yard. But you are correct, get there are plants that are certainly
better than others for encouraging wildlife and encouraging the conditions for native birds to thrive.
Now, I will say, if anybody has ever read any of Doug
Talumy's books or seen him speak, the number one thing that he will tell
you that you should do to plant to support birds and especially chickadees is plant
oaks. Oaks host more insects than any other tree in North America, and
those insects are so crucial for birds and everything else. Now that said,
planting an oak is easier said than done, because not all of us have
space for an oak. I would, for example, I love to plant
a white oak and leave my legacy that way. But a white oak is
an extremely large tree, so that's not really feasible. But there are some
smaller oaks, and you know, you can also just you know, hopefully
have street trees that are oaks nearby and just make sure that those aren't being
sprayed. But I think when it comes to shrubs, shrubs are so great
for birds because they provide so much shelter and a close proximity. What I
have found in my yard really close proximity to the feeder, so they can
feed and then they can go and rest in a shrub where they feel more
protected and then come out and bathe and eat or whatever, and they really
sort of seem to appreciate that close distance. So I would also say a
mix of evergreens and deciduous plants is really crucial to supporting bird life because you
know that they like both. I've seen birds, you know, really take
advantage of the decidious plants where they feel like they can have a good lookout
all around and feel safe, as well as nestling deep into my junipers,
which are basically impenetrable and if you don't see the bird, go in there.
You wouldn't even know it was in there until you scare it out and
scares you back in return. So, Janette, I'm not trying to dodge
the question here and not give you specifics, because really the answer is that
if you are planting any kind of shrub tree or perennial, you are improving
the habitat and the options for native birds. But I think also to really
do this question justice, everybody needs to kind of have a sea change in
their mind of what it means to see insects on your plants, because people
freak out, oh my gosh, something's eating this, And the truth is
that, you know, those insects are what are going to attract the birds.
The birds are going to manage them, and the plants can almost always
withstand some insect damage. It might not look the best to your eye,
but that is you know, there's a meme that sometimes goes around like if
your garden isn't being eaten, that means it's not part of the ecosystem.
And I think that that's a really good way to think about it. So
I think, Jeannette, I will put some suggestions. Of course, I'll
link to some suggestions that you can look for specifically, but you know,
I would just encourage you to really plant by the conditions in your yard.
Look for native species where you can, but you know, again consider your
soil, the light exposure. That's what's really important is getting plants that will
thrive. And if you have shrubs and perennials and trees that are thriving,
that will always make sure that the birds in turn thrive. Yeah, diversity,
of course, fruiting plants my go to always as flowering crabs, dogwoods,
viburnums, that sort of thing. But you mentioned the insects. Trees
that have furrowed bark. I find birds love them because the insects like to
hide in that furrowed bark. And someday on a show I want to talk
about this. I know a gal who's a designer and is really very much
into this, and that is stumperyas Oh yeah, stumperys so old dead trees
and as opposed to taking them out leaving them in place. Yeah, that's
some moss grows, et cetera, et cetera. So at some point we
should probably talk about stumper ease. Also, I bet you have some puns
related. Yes, that gets my stump of approval. All right, I
do want to just say quickly, I'm glad that you mentioned the flowering crab
apple. Such a great plant, beautiful for people, beautiful for birds.
And you know a lot of people in spring their crab apples will get webworm
tent caterpillers, and people freak out. But you don't need to freak out
because the birds will happily take care of them for you if you just rip
that nest apart so they can't get to it when they're all enclosed in their
little tent. But if you take a stick and you just rip that web
apart, the birds are going to come descending on that and easily take care
of that, and you won't have to worry about it. And then yeah,
the flower support a ton of pollinators when they're in bloom. And then
of course the fruit in turn, if it's not eaten by early winter,
it will be eaten later in the winter when it starts to ferment. And
then you get, if you're lucky, the amazing show of some cedar wax
wings having a little bender on your crab apple tree. You know, it's
a jail break on those tent caterpillars, and if you can't reach it with
a stick, I will use a garden hose with a good blast nozzle and
bust it open that way too, all right, John writes to us,
I'm considering fertilizing this fall several of the perennials that I've had in my yard
for at least five years or much longer. I'm considering using a product readily
available called holly Tone. I usually only only fertilize with holly tone in the
spring. Would it be beneficial to fertilize in fall? Also? Yeah,
I'm very familiar with hollytne or all the tone products, and I do endorse
them generally. I'll use Garden Tone on my perennials, but great product.
Yeah, I love the tones as well. It's what we used when I
was in horticulture school at the New York Botanical Garden, and if it's good
enough for the New York Botanical Garden, it's definitely good for us as well.
Now, I will say a lot of people naturally gravitate towards holly tone
for all sorts of plants, but I generally discourage the use of holly tone,
specifically unless you know your soil needs a sidification because it does contain sulfur
and it will acidify your soil. And if you don't know that your soil
needs acidifying, you could just be pushing you know, the pH level even
further and it doesn't really need to be there. It's just kind of like
applying something that may not have a benefit. So unless you know you need
that, I would encourage garden tone. I love rose tone, which is
formulated for roses. As a general purpose you know, flowering shrub and perennial
fertilizer, there's flower tone. But I did want to answer John's question in
that I generally recommend waiting until late winter or early spring to put down that
fertilizer because what's going to happen is for the nutrients and a fertilizer to become
available to a plant, they need to weather or they need to have you
know, rain and soil and wind and all of that stuff acting on those
fertilizer granules for those nutrients to come apart from those bonds and go into the
soil for the plant to take up. Now, if you apply and fall,
that weathering is going to start sooner, and then that stuff's just going
to be sitting around and the plant can't really take it up or do much
with it while it's dormant. Now that weathering process does not take three months.
Some of it, you know, will weather at a more slow rate.
But I don't like to just risk having those nutrients weathering and going into
the soil when they can't be used. That increases the potential for runoff.
So I like to apply it, you know, ideally sort of around the
end of uh like middle to end of March for us here in Michigan,
when the ground is just starting to thaw. It's still really wet, but
you're not really getting like, you know, you have heavy snowload or anything
like that. And at that point that what soil is going to help it
to weather and become available to the plant and you won't have to worry abou
it's sitting around and getting wasted. So there you go, John, Try
garden tone, rose tone, flower tone. Just avoid dial tone because your
plant will hang up on you. That's right now, John, If it's
too late and you already put this stuff down for fall, don't sweat it.
But in the future I would recommend switching to one of the other tones
unless you know you need an acid soil and putting it down in that late
winter time frame instead. So thank you all for your questions. We hope
to hear from you at Gardening Simplified on air. If you have a question
Right now, We're going to take a little break and when we come back,
Rick has branching news, so stay tuned. The Gardening Simplified Show is
brought to you by proven Winner's Color Choice Shrubs. Our award winning flowering shrubs
and evergreens have been trialed and tested for your success so you enjoy more beauty
and less work. Look for Proven Winners Color Choice Shrubs and the distinctive white
container at your local garden center. Welcome back to the Garden Being Simplified Show.
It's time for branching news and Stacey Course. This time of the year,
New Year's people resolve to get fit, and I wondered if it applied
to gardening, also because I was reading this study that said eighty five percent
of people reported that having cool looking gym clothes gave them more confidence, while
seventy nine percent said that feeling like their gym clothes looked cool actually helped them
physically perform better as well. Well, I don't care about being cool,
and that's what makes me cool. I'm just kidding. I would say,
if you've been to a gym lately that that definitely fun. Definitely yes,
because it does the gym gear. It's more of like a scene. See
and that's the point. So same thing in the garden. If you got
really cool gardening clothes, will it make you a better gardener or make you
more confident? And you're right. I was at the gym. I saw
this lady with a shirt. Her shirt printed on the front it says I
was sad. Then I ordered some new gym clothes online. I'm okay,
now, wow, exercise I thought I heard extra fries. So anyhow,
people really feel, as it relates to getting in shape and the gym,
that the clothes are very important. So let's translate that to the garden.
Maybe if you got a cool garden hat, comfortable pants, great shoes make
you a better gardener. Well, the problem is that no one sees you
when your garden unless you're gardening in the front yard, and then no one
can appreciate your cool gardening clothes. I mean with the gym, you get
to show off. Everyone sees how cool you are, how much money you
spent orreas in the garden. Like, you know, they might not see
that. So for a lot of people that just just wouldn't be worth it.
I don't know. Vegetables exercise. Do you ever hear of a muscle
spruw? I hear the potatoes have eyes? See? There we go?
So we nailed it, Okay. Resolutions for the New Year. Word of
the day a plum a plum so apl omb a plum means complete and confident,
composure or self assurance. Yes. I used this word once and a
bunch of people ask me what it meant. But it's from a ballet move,
is it really? Yes, it means like when you're on your point.
Yeah, okay, I like that word. So it's kind of like
fake it until you make it, that kind of thing. Yeah yeah,
sure. Well no, it means you do it well. You don't fake
it, like you can't fake standing on point. You have to do it
perfectly. Got it all right? NASA gives us an update on a long
loss on long lost space tomatoes. Oh, let's catch up on the news
here. NASA offered an update on the two tomatoes that were lost for eight
months. I didn't know there were tomatoes lost. This is on the International
Space Station, and offered the first look at the dehydrated fruits. So essentially
what happened here is they brought some tomatoes onto the International Space Station and they
went missing. And actually some claimed or were blaming astronaut Frank Rubio, but
he said no, I didn't eat him. I don't know where. And
then all of a sudden they showed up and they're squished and dehydrated, but
they showed no visible signs of microbial or fungal growth despite the high humidity aboard
the station. So wait, why did they blame Frank? What it?
Franked? They thought they ate him. The blame for the tababo they thought
he ate he got hungry in space. I don't know. To fix it,
they will need tomato paste. So there you go. Did you hear
about the astronaut who smuggled the gorilla suit on board? And I know this
sounds like a joke, it's not. You can watch a video of it.
An astronaut smuggled a gorilla suit on board without any of his shipmates knowing
about it, and then he put it on, and then he chased the
crew around so you can watch a video of it. I'm not up.
It's not breaking news, not branching news. It's old news. But skiing
in the space shuttle, So you know, yeah, and I feel bad
for Frank Ruby. You know, sorry, apologies to I think Frank is
out an apology. I mean, if he ate the tomatoes or stole them,
yes, he could be just like a tomato and get canned. But
he's in the clear now and they found the dehydrated tomatoes. Tucson, Arizona,
and Arizona woman got a huge shock when surveillance footage showed the thief who
stole her backyard cameras was a four legged and fluffy tailed animal. It was
a fox. So this is interesting. She has videos that document the entire
heist carried out by a gray fox. That's so cool. Yeah, grabbed
the cameras, ran with them, probably stuck them in the ground somewhere or
in a tree. And I don't know why this fox had interest in these
these cameras, So I don't know. They could make a movie about it.
But it bombed at the Fox office. What happens to the Rockefeller Center
Christmas tree. After the holidays, Rockefeller Center usually selects a Norway spruce as
it's holiday showstopper. Once the trees come down, the trunks are milled into
two by four and two by six beams that they donate to habitat for humanity.
I like that. It's a great story. So these are used for
They don't use them for load bearing, but they use them for blocking,
filling, spacing, joining, reinforcing frames, flooring, furniture, and cabinet
tree. So the lumber from the Rockefeller Center Christmas tree is used to help
build habitat homes. That's just a great, a great story. Lexington,
Kentucky, Kentucky family got a little something extra when they picked out their Christmas
tree this year. A baby owl. But here's the interesting thing. I'll
just paraphrase the story here. This family's got three dogs, and the dog
are in the living room around the tree, the families around and that type
of thing, and they never saw the owl, never realized this owl was
in the tree until they called for service. There was a serviceman who came
to the oh magic carpet clean carpet cleaning yet and this guy recognized that there
was a baby owl in the tree. Well, so it wasn't a baby
owl. The article said it was a baby owl, but it was just
a screech owl, and screech owls are very tiny, so you know,
I think the newspapers need a little fact checking here. It was not a
baby. But I will say this about the story. I am so jealous.
I am so jealous like that. I wish this could happen. They
are adorable, They're so cute, they are screech owls are very cool.
Now, obviously, the poor thing was scared out of its wits, so
it wasn't doing its trademark screech right. He wanted to be owl by himself.
But yeah, the article is very funny when you read about the carpet
cleaning guy, you know, seeing the movement and then he looks in and
the pore owl starts trying to flee. But yeah, I'm sure the dog
scared it, so it was pretty paralyzed. But it's very common for owls
to roost in evergreens, and so whether it happened at the farm before the
tree was harvested or while it was waiting to be sold, it's a classic
owl behavior. So just I'm just glad it had a happy ending. It
did. It did excellent. Yeah, and I'd like to have something like
that happen to me too, It would be cool. And here's a final
story. Fastest time to assemble a Mister potato Head. You remember mister potato
he I do. Yes, This guy, Andre Ortolf, a Cereal world
record breaker with more than one hundred titles to his name, puts on a
blindfold and starts with a fully disassembled mister Potato Head toy and he gets the
thing put together in twelve point eleven seconds behind folded. Well, there's a
resolution for one if they were still looking for one. Just practice, Yeah,
practice makes perfect. Yes, Wow, that's interesting. That's a rare
talent. Twelve point eleven seconds. Who would even think to do that?
It's just amazing to me, So very cool. All right, anyhow,
we want your resolutions, and we'll share your submitted resolutions on our next show
and send them to us. Email us go to Gardeningsimplified on air dot com,
our Instagram page or also YouTube, and you know you can make comments
on our show watch it on YouTube and we'd love to hear your resolutions.
Yeah, definitely I'm very curious about what gardening resolutions everyone has you too.
I also want to hear if anybody else is like me and has a messy
garden shed. Well, I'll tell you what. Remember to enjoy your New
Year's Eve, be safe whatever you do. And and remember if you think
the best New Year's Eve is only in New York, you're wrong. They
drop the ball every year, right, that's true. Yeah, have a
happy New Year, station and to you, and to Adrian and Andre,
to all of you.