- Hi. Thanks for joining
us for The Family Plot,

Gardening in the Mid-South.

Seed catalogs have a
dizzying array of choices.

We'll talk about how to pick
the right seeds for your garden

Also, planting bulbs
now will give you

beautiful, early spring flowers.

Today, we're going to show
you how to plant tulips.

And we'll talk about
what gardening tasks

need to be done over the winter.

That's just ahead
on The Family Plot,

Gardening in the Mid-South.

- [Voiceover]
Production funding for

The Family Plot,
Gardening in the Mid-South

is provided by:

Good Winds Landscape
and Garden Center.

In German Town since 1943,

and continuing to offer its
plants for successful gardening

with seven greenhouses
and three acres of plants,

plus comprehensive
landscape services.

International Paper Foundation.

The WKNO Production Fund.

The WKNO Endowment Fund.

And by viewers like
you. Thank you.

(bright country music)

- Welcome to The Family
Plot, I'm Chris Cooper.

Joining me today is Tom Mashour.

Mr. Tom is a master
gardener in Tipton County.

Joellen Diamond is here.

Joellen is a TSU extension
agent in Tipton County.

And Mr. D is with us today.

Thanks for joining us.
- [Mr. D] Glad to be here.

- All right, Mr. Tom.
Let's talk about selecting

and buying seeds.
Because over the winter

folks are going to get
their seed catalogs,

and they're going to want
to buy a lot of seeds.

So, let's help them out.

- Well, first of all the
catalogs usually start

showing up in November.

- [Chris] Okay.

So, be patient, they'll be here

in a week or two if not
a little bit longer.

- [Chris] Okay.

Let's talk about the
advantages of growing

from seeds, let's
start with that.

- Well the advantage of
growing plants from seeds

is your selection is humongous.

If you're like, for example,
looking for the tomato plants

that your grandmother
used to grow,

more than likely you'll
find it in a catalog.

So you've got a tremendous
selection of seeds.

And seeds catalogs also
have a lot of information

about the plants.

General information about, say
for example, tomato plants.

Then detailed information on
each variety of tomato plants.

It's fun.

- [Chris] (laughs)

- It's fun.

And also, you can save money.

A substantial amount of money

if you're doing a lot of seeds.

- But if you're only going
to do a couple tomato plants,

then rather than going
through the trouble

of doing it, is to just go ahead

and buy the couple
plants that you want.

If you can find the
plants that you want.

- [Chris] Okay.

- And your retail stores,

(coughs) Excuse me.

In the retail stores,
you're lucky if they'll have

maybe 15 varieties of tomatoes.

One seed catalog, a
tomato seed catalog,

has 450 varieties of tomatoes.

They also have like 106,

no, I think it was 185

varieties of different
pepper plants.

Everything from ornamental
peppers to the ghost pepper.

And 60, 67, I'll say 60-70

choices on eggplants.

And this is all in one catalog.

And that is not all-inclusive.

So that's the biggest advantage.

And like I said, you
can grow them ...

Another big advantage
of them is that,

especially like from a catalog,

is that you can
order your seeds now.

Retail stores, they usually
don't get the seed packets in

until after the
Christmas season because

the garden sections are
usually where the seeds are.

- [Chris] Yeah.

- And that's where they
put the Christmas stuff.

So you have to kind of
wait to get your seeds.

And like I said, the
selections are just

too numerous to count, really.

- [Chris] Okay. So those
are the advantages,

what about, of course,
the disadvantages?

- Well, the big disadvantage
is (clears throat)

you're changing,
swapping your equity,

sweat equity, for the sweat
equity of the growers.

So it's not cheap.

If you're going to just
do a couple plants.

If you're doing a lot of
plants, then yes, it's cheap.

A lot cheaper to do it that way.

The catalog seeds are more
expensive than the local seeds.

Also, catalog seeds
are usually sold by

the number of seeds in the pack.

Whereas at the retail stores
they're sold by the weight.

30 miligrams, whatever.

You have to have someplace
to put the seeds.

So you might have
to make one of those

homemade grow stands
to start them up.

Because you've got to have
the right environment for it.

And you can't start tomato
seeds outside in the wintertime.

Or pepper seeds, or whatever.

Very few plants you can start.

But the biggest disadvantage
is the fact that it's time.

But the kick is, it's fun
to see that life growing.

You know?
- [Chris] Sure.

- You get out there
in the garden,

I don't know about other
gardeners, like me,

but many times I'm down
there on my hands and knees

waiting for the
seeds to germinate.

Just checking them out.

And when they do it's
just a big kick, you know?

It really is.

Knowing that, "Hey, I started
these plants from seed."

- [Chris] What's another
source for getting these seeds?

- Well, basically there
are three main sources.

- Okay.

- First of all, the catalogs.

- Right.

- And you can go on the internet
and look at them online.

Or you can order them and they
can send them to you for free

There's a few companies
that charge $5, very few,

but with your first order,
you get credit for the $5,

so it ends up not
costing you anything.

In a lot of the catalogs,
our general catalogs

like these are, where it has
vegetables in one section,

and then flowering types
in the other section,

and they're full,
good-sized pictures,

and a detailed write-up
about each of the plants.

Another source, of course,
is the retail store,

where they got the
different packets,

but again, they're limited
as to how much they can have

on the shelves at any one
time, and type of seeds.

So they may have like three
or four types of cucumbers,

but in reality there's
probably 100-150

- [Chris] Or more.
- Types of cucumbers.

Another source is your
feed and seed stores.

- [Chris] Yeah.

- Okay now, they sell the
seeds, common seeds, by a scoop.

Now this is vegetables,

they don't usually mess
around with flower seeds.

They do have the packets,
just like the retail stores,

but on their vegetable seeds
they usually have scoops.

Which makes it
really, really cheap

to buy the seeds.

And I also encourage people,

that when you order
seeds from the retail,

again the retailer or you
order them from the catalog,

or you get them from
the feed and seed store,

write down the year
that those seed are.

Because if you
don't use them all,

you can put them in the
refrigerator or freezer

and they'll keep.

- [Chris] So how do you
go about picking a seed

that's best for you, though?

- Well, (clears throat)
again, excuse me.

Again, cool season, warm season.

On one of the previous
episodes we talked about

planting cool weather crops.

- [Chris] I remember.

- So if you're going to
start your, like, beets,

onions, lettuce,
things of that nature,

you want to start
planting them just before

the season starts
getting cooling off.

And as everybody knows
in the mid-south,

our springs are like that,
and our falls are like that.

It seems like we go from
hot weather to cold weather.

So we have a short
growing season

for the cool weather stuff.

So sooner you can start them,

the better it is, and

what you pick for
growing is what you like.

- [Chris] Right.

- Okay, for example,
I love beets.

- [Chris] Oh really?
Okay. (laughs)

- But how many people see beets

in a produce section
of a supermarket?

And I was over at
one of the places

and I look at their green onions

and there was like
12 green onions,

the bundle was about this big.

My green onions, one
onion is that big.

- [Chris] (laughs)

- And I like onions.

My wife doesn't like to eat
onions, but I like onions.

But the main things is
growing what you like.

There's no need to
grow something that,

number one, that the
family doesn't like.

Number two, if you've
got limited space,

grow the things that you
like that's expensive.

Bell peppers are expensive.

Individually, 50 cents a piece.

Yellow squash, if you
like yellow squash,

if you grow them,
they're easy to grow,

then grow those.

But don't waste your time
on things you don't like

because, well it's
just a nature thing,

you're supposed to
grow these things,

if you don't like tomatoes,
don't bother with them.

- [Chris] Okay. All right.

Well we definitely appreciate
that information Mr. Tom.

- Thank you my friend.

- All right. Thank you.

- [Voiceover] There are
great gardening events

already planned for next year.

Here are just a few of them.

(bright country music)

- All right, Joellen. So
you're going to tell us

a little bit about
planting bulbs, right?

- Yes.
- [Chris] Tulips specifically.

- Tulips.

- So what do we need
to know to get started?

- Well, this is a typical area

like you're going to see
around anybody's house.

It's got some shrubs next to it.

It's next to the entrance
of your door or the porch.

And you say, "Oh, I'd like
to put some flowers there,"

so we're going to
start from scratch,

just like the homeowners
would start from scratch.

- [Chris] Okay.

- First thing we're going to do

is we're going to
scrape off the mulch,

because we want to save that

because we don't
incorporate that.

So first we'll
scrape off the mulch,

and then we're going to
dig down about eight inches

and turn the soil over
and add some amendments.

- [Chris] Okay.

All right, so let's go
ahead and get that started.

- And you notice there
are a few weeds in here,

but we'll take those out.

- [Chris] I could pull those
out while you're doing that.

- [Joellen] And that looks good.

- [Chris] Okay, it does.

- You want to dig
down eight inches.

And you'll see there's
not as good soil there,

but look, we've got worms.

- [Chris] Right.

- [Joellen] Yay! So that means
we've got good soil here.

- [Chris] Good deal.

- [Joellen] And you just
simply turn that over.

It's nice and moist.

Because we want
to add amendments

but we're going to
incorporate those next.

- [Chris] Okay.

- [Joellen] All right.

- [Chris] All right.

- Now we're ready
for our amendment.

- Okay.

So what do we have here?

That we're going to use?

- This is some organic
compost with cow manure in it.

Which has been
decomposed, of course,

but you can use your
own compost, like

you know, if you've
made your own compost,

that would be something to add.

- [Chris] Okay.

- And it will loosen the soil,
break up these large clods,

and it will make the bulbs
much happier in the ground.

- [Chris] Yeah, we want
the bulbs to be happy.

We do.

Do you want me to grab
that and set it up for you?

- [Joellen] (laughs) I
always use my gloves.

- [Chris] Now we're just
spreading this, right?

- [Joellen] Spreading this.

We've got three bags
to cover this area,

so we'll kind of
evenly divide them.

- [Chris] I'll
start on this end.

All right, Joellen, so
we have down our manure.

What do we do next?

- I would like to add a
little bit of bone meal.

- Okay.

- It can be any kind,
any type of bone meal.

This happens to
be an organic one.

- [Chris] Okay.

- And we will
sprinkle that down on,

we'll sprinkle that
down on the bed

because we want to
incorporate it now

because we want
to amend it inside

because we need to get it
down, deep in the ground

like about, like six inches,

so that the bulbs
will benefit from it.

- [Chris] Okay. Now
what does bone meal do?

What's the purpose of it?

- It's mostly phosphorus,

and that will help the
roots to establish,

and the stems and
the shoots to grow.

For the bulbs.

- [Chris] All right.

- [Joellen] And it
doesn't take a whole lot.

- Yeah, I was going
to ask you how much

you actually put down, but okay.

- [Joellen] I kind of
just sprinkle lightly,

because we don't
want to overdo it.

But we do want an even coat

on the ground.

And very good.

That's all we will need.
- [Chris] That's pretty even.

How about that?

- And now we will incorporate it

with the compost in the ground.

- [Chris] Okay.

- [Joellen] And can I have the

yeah, that one.

- [Chris] Okay.

- This is too heavy
to do that with.

- [Chris] All right.

- [Joellen] And
it will look like

this is a little bit raised,
but that's the whole point,

to get good drainage.

- [Chris] Okay.

Drainage is so important.

We don't want those
bulbs to rot, of course.

- [Joellen] I would
say we're ready

to set out our bulbs and plant.

- [Chris] All right.

Now what kind of bulbs
do we have today?

- We have two different
types of bulbs.

We have the yellow daffodils,

and we've got red
impression tulips.

- [Chris] Okay.

- We're going to set a
few daffodils at the back,

because they will
stay in the bed

and we won't want
to disturb them.

- [Chris] Okay.

Now this is going to be a
real good lesson because

most folks don't know which
end to put in the ground

so we're going to find out
from Joellen which one it is.

- (laughing) Yeah.

Well, the pointy end goes up.

If you can see this right here,

those are actually roots

that have dried up.

And it'll form new
roots at the base here.

- [Chris] Okay.

- So this end goes down
and the pointy end goes up

because that's where
the stalk will come out

with the daffodils.

I like to set things out
first, and then plant.

- [Chris] Now how far
apart should they be?

Does it matter?

- [Joellen] I like to put
daffodils about 12 inches apart

because they multiply.

- [Chris] Okay.

- [Joellen] And I'll
put our tulips in front,

and tulips are the same way.

The fat part of the
tulip is the bottom,

the pointy end is the top.

Roots will come out
down at the bottom,

stalk will come up at the top.

- [Chris] Okay. Good deal.

- And depending on how
thick you want these,

I want these to be an accent,

because we've also decided

to put pansies on top of
this for winter color.

And these will come
up in the spring.

Through the pansies.

- [Chris] Through
the pansies, okay.

- So we don't want to plant
them too close together.

Now we're ready to plant,
but if you'll notice,

these are planted every other,

kind of in a triangular pattern.

- [Chris] Yeah, I noticed that.

- If you put them that
way it'll look fuller,

and take up less plants.

And they'll be evenly spaced.

- [Chris] Okay.

- And you can plant with either
a bulb digger or a trowel.

And if you'll notice,
both of these are marked

at four inch intervals so
it tells you your depth

to four inches.

- [Chris] Okay.

- [Joellen] And
most of these bulbs

six inches is all
you really need.

Our soils in this
area are really heavy,

and for drainage purposes

we would like to have them
no more than six inches deep.

Now that we've got
the bulbs all planted,

we have decided to put
pansies on top of that

for the winter color.

- So what we're going to do
is put down a little bit of

slow-release fertilizer.
- [Chris] All right.

- [Joellen] And that's to feed
the pansies all winter long.

- [Chris] Okay.

- [Joellen] Then we're
going to rake the mulch

back over the dirt area.

And then we're going
to set out our pansies

and plant them.

Now these you want to make sure

we don't get into the
crown of the plant.

- [Chris] Mm-kay.

- Crown of the plant
is at the soil surface.

So we really don't
want to plant these any

deeper than the soil is here.

So don't try to cover up

the top of the plant because
you'll bury the crown.

Yet you do want enough soil,

what I usually do is I
scrape the mulch away,

and just put a little
bit of mulch near

the plant but not
up against the stem.

- [Chris] How about that?

- That looks good.

- [Chris] Ta-da.

- Now these will
grow and fill in,

and then the bulbs will
come up in the spring

and give us a completely
different look.

- [Chris] That's
going to be nice.

All right. Joellen,
we definitely

appreciate this demonstration.

- You're welcome.
- [Chris] We can't wait to see

the beautiful colors in the
spring too for the bulbs.

- I can't wait.

- All right, thank you much.

- You're welcome.

(bright country music)

- All right Mr. D, this is our
final episode for the season,

so you know, we want
to let folks know

what they can do
over the wintertime

to prepare for next year.

So with that being said,

what do we need to do to
prepare for the winter?

- If you're putting
your garden to bed

and you're not going
to do any gardening,

like you are, Mr. Tom.

I would kind of break it down
into taking care of my tools.

You know, my hand tools.

Taking care of my
gasoline-powered equipment,

and my spray equipment.

You kind of break it
down into those three.

Those are the
three things that I

try to take care of, getting
your equipment ready.

- [Chris] Yeah.

- And we'll talk a
little bit about that

and then we'll mention
briefly some of the sprays,

applications that you may
want to put out on fruit trees

if you have fruits
over the winter.

But on your hand tools,

I would make sure they're clean,

that's the number one thing,

your shovels, and hoes, and
rakes, and things like that.

Make sure they're clean.

Coat the metal parts
with a light coat of oil,

you can use WD-40
or you could use

your burnt cylinder oil
that you have leftover

when you change the oil in
your lawnmower or your tiller.

And have an oily rag

that's saturated with that

and make sure that
all the metal parts

are coated with a
light coat of oil,

one way or the other.

If you have wooden handles,

lightly sand those
wooden handles.

I know the shovel that you use,

one of the shovels you used
was really interesting.

It's one that I'd love to get
some boiled linseed oil on.

But oil that shovel
up and then take a

again, a shop cloth
or a piece of a towel,

or an old t-shirt,

and saturate it with
boiled linseed oil

and just rub it all up
and down that handle.

And it'll be ready for
another year of work.

Sharpen your shovels and
your hoes and all that.

Go ahead and knock
the burrs off of them

if you hit rocks with
them and things like that,

and do that before
you coat it with oil.

And that should have
your hand tools,

you know, ready to go.

As far as your tiller
and your lawnmower,

and your things like
that, change the oil,

put clean air filters in.

Probably best to run
the fuel out of them,

let them run completely out,

that's probably the
best thing to do.

If you're going
to be using your,

like I'm going to use my mower
all winter, mulching leaves,

- [Chris] Yeah, I will too.

- I make sure that I have
stabilizer in the gasoline.

Make sure you do have
stabilizer in your gasoline

and you'll be okay to
leave that fuel in your

machines if you're going to
be using them over the winter.

And I do that anyway.

Your sprayers, by all
means wash them out,

take the tips out

and, you know, put
them in detergent.

Your strainers and all of those,

and rinse your, triple
rinse your sprayers

and hang them upside down where
they can completely dry out.

And, you know, you'll
be good to go there.

- [Chris] Okay.

- And as far as fruit trees,

I look at home
orchard spray guides.

There are some dormant sprays
that you might want to put out

after all the leaves
have come off.

We're probably a little bit
early on that right now,

but as you get on over
into the wintertime

you can spray with dormant oils

and on apples and pears,
liquid lime sulfurs

and things like that to take
care of some of the insects

that might over winter,

in the bark crevasses
and things like that.

But that'll kind of get you
going in the right direction.

Get ready for winter.

- [Chris] Okay. Now
I know you did have

information about deer.

Because I know a lot
of folks are having

problems with deer this
fall into the winter,

so yeah, let's help
them out with that.

- Deer season will soon be open.

- [Chris] (laughs)

- It opens around Thanksgiving.

Actually, muzzle-loader season
opens quicker than that,

I think it's already open,

both seasons already open,

and you know if you
get a 12-year-old

with a 243 or a 223 you
know, take them out.

They are a real
problem, and you know,

I got hit by a deer last year.

Fortunately the score still,

I've taken more deer
than deer have taken me.

- [Chris] (laughs)

- But it did several thousand
dollars worth of damage

to my pick up truck.

And that's not an
uncommon occurance.

Rut is about to start,

and deer are even
crazier during rut

than they are any
other time of the year.

That means the
females come in heat

and so the bucks
are chasing them

and they're more active
right around dusk

early morning or late after ...

you know in the evening,

they're kind of crepuscular.

They like the low light times.

And have your headlights
on bright when you can,

you know, don't blind
the oncoming traffic,

but get them on bright
as soon as you can.

And blow, use your
horn, and slow down.

If you see one that
crosses the road

that definitely doesn't
mean that's all of them.

There may be another,
bigger one right behind it.

As far as in your landscape,

I know they're creating
some damage eating,

you know, there's not
as much green foliage

out there now so they're
coming into yards

and you know,
fences, exclusions,

you can

tie a dog out in the yard.

Tether a dog out there.

This is really, you
know, a tethered,

a tethered dog, barking dog

will do a lot to keep
deer out of your landscape

but if you go with a fence,

you've got to have it at
least eight feet tall.

And that's not a ...

You're talking about
two four foot fences

on top of each other.

- [Chris] My goodness.

- If you're choosing
landscape plants

and you're in a deer,

in a highly populated deer area,

go to the UT extension,
or TSU extension,

they can give you a
list of plants that

deer don't like quite as
much as others, and you know,

plant the ones that are
least attractive to deer.

That will help you there.

There are some repellents
out there that might

give you some temporary relief.

But, you know, human hair,

and things like that,

might give you some
temporary relief,

but don't count on it to be

permanent.

- [Chris] Wow.

- And it's just a
sign of the times.

Can't beat that 12-year-old
with a 20-gauge.

- [Chris] (laughs)

- I've got my young
apple trees, I have,

I think I have a half a dozen
apple trees, and two of them

the deer are using to
sharpen their antlers on.

You know they're deer rubs.

I will take care of that.

I do not live in
the city limits.

I will take care of that.

- [Chris] (laughing) You
will take care of it.

You will.

Okay, then Mr. Tom,
Joellen, Mr. D,

we're out of time.
Thanks for being here.

- [Joellen] You're welcome.

- Well, that's all we
have time for today.

This is our final
episode for this season.

I want to thank you
all for watching

and sending in your
gardening questions.

And thank you to
all of our guests

for sharing their
expertise with us.

We're going dormant
for the winter

but we'll be back next year

to help get your
garden going again.

In the meantime, don't forget,

county extension
agents are there

to answer questions year round.

So don't hesitate
to give us a call.

I'm Chris Cooper and
I'll see you next year on

The Family Plot, Gardening
in the Mid-South.

Thank you.

Be safe.

(bright country music)

- [Voiceover]
Production funding for

The Family Plot,
Gardening in the Mid-South

is provided by:

Good Winds Landscape
and Garden Center.

In German Town since 1943

and continuing to offer it's
plants for successful gardening

with seven greenhouses
and three acres of plants.

Plus comprehensive
landscape services.

International Paper Foundation.

The WKNO Production Fund.

The WKNO Endowment Fund.

And by viewers like you.

Thank you.