- Hi, thanks for joining
us for The Family Plot:
Gardening in the Mid-South.
I'm Chris Cooper.
Fall and winter
will be here soon.
Today, we will talk about what
to do to get your lawn ready.
Also, there are several ways
to propagate your plants.
We'll take a look at
using seeds and cuttings
to get new plants.
That's just ahead
on The Family Plot:
Gardening in the Mid-South.
- (female announcer)
Production funding for
The Family Plot:
Gardening in the Mid-South
is provided by
the WKNO Production Fund,
the WKNO Endowment Fund,
and by viewers like
you, thank you.
[upbeat country music]
- Welcome to The Family
Plot, I'm Chris Cooper.
Joining me today is
Mr. Booker T. Leigh.
Booker's a UT Extension
Agent here in Shelby County.
And Ms. Kim Rucker will
be joining us later.
- Okay.
- Thank you for
being here today.
- Man, always good
to do your show.
I mean, I just really enjoy it,
and this is great for
havin' me on here.
Thanks for havin'
me on the show.
- Oh, anytime you're
our lawn expert,
so we're gonna come to you
for these lawn questions,
right?
- I appreciate that then.
Thank you.
- So let's talk a
little bit about
getting your lawn ready for
the fall and the winter.
- May be that time
of year again,
and where we're already
gettin' a phone call
from people on their lawn.
And the most important
thing they're askin' now,
"How low should I cut my grass
durin' the fall of the year?"
And I will tell
them all the time,
you don't wanna cut it too low.
You wanna maintain
the same height
that you were cuttin' it
durin' the regular season.
'Cause if you cut it too low,
and we have another winter
like we did this year
and that ice and
snow get on there,
- Right.
- It can be damagin'.
- Oh wow.
- It can be damaged.
You can damage your
grass in there.
But you wanna
maintain same height.
And this is a good time
now to get your soil tested
- Mm-hmm.
- You know,
in the fall of the
year, get it tested
'cause if you need to
add any lime to it,
and anything you
need to add to it,
like, especially
phosphorous-potassium.
You know, people think that,
they still, them roots
are still active.
- Right, still growing.
- Durin' the fall of the year.
but the top part,
it's not growin'.
- Right.
- Because of the weather.
But you get that soil tested,
and you need to add
any lime to that, now,
you can do that now,
and by the time your
grass start back
in the spring next year,
the lime is already
there and ready to go.
You cut down a lot of problems,
but don't cut it too low.
- Yeah.
- Don't cut it too low.
Get your soil tested.
- Yeah, get your soil tested.
- Of course to go to your
local extension office.
- Call your local
extension office
if there a problem in there,
and do that, see.
- Right, right.
- And so they need to
do it to the end there.
Another thing we don't
realize though, you know,
and it never happen
probably a lot of times,
we go through a real
dry, dry, dry winter,
especially in the early part,
you need to add a little
water to your lawn,
might need to water it.
Not like doing it
in the summertime,
but you need to add some water
to keep those roots
with some moisture.
They're very, they're still
active under the ground,
and you just don't
see what's going on.
- Right.
- But they're still active.
- Still growing.
- They're still doing that.
But that's a good point, you
need to get that lawn ready,
if you wanna have it to
come back strong next year.
- Okay. So I have a
few questions for you
about getting that lawn ready
for the fall and winter.
- Okay.
- Is it necessary to fertilize
your lawn in the fall?
I know you talked a
little bit about it,
but is it necessary?
- It is necessary if
you're needin' it.
Like I said though,
You don't wanna give it
no nitrogen fertilizer
in the fall of the year,
especially warm-season grass.
You wanna give them, at
least, phosphorous-potassium.
That is good to do that
in the fall of the year,
because you do that.
- Right.
Now if you've got a cool-season
grass beginning to grow now,
then you might want to fertilize
it in the fall of the year
in there.
- All right.
- But your warm-season grass,
hold back on your
nitrogen fertilizer.
If you give it some
nitrogen fertilizer,
it could start to grow.
And when it starting
to grow in there,
then we have a real cold spell,
it can damage that grass.
- Right.
- So you don't wanna do
damage to that grass there.
But hold back on your nitrogen,
but give it some phosphorous
potassium, if needed.
And also check that soil pH
for to add that lime to that
because the lime
is very important.
If you don't have that lime
right, correct on there,
a lot of times, all the other
nutrients you add to the soil,
it's not gonna be
taken up by the plant.
- Right.
- So you wanna do that in there.
And like I said, fall is
best time to do that for it.
Then it's ready to go
in the springtime.
- Ready to go in the spring.
- When they come out of there,
that grass is ready to go.
It's healthy, says,
"Hey, I'm ready to go now.
[Chris laughs]
"Let me come out this dormancy
and get up. Let me grow."
- Good and green.
- Look good and green.
"I'm ready to go in there."
- All right, so
this next question
is the question I know we get
a lot at the extension office.
"When should I put down
a pre-emerge herbicide
on my lawn?"
- A pre-emerge, now,
pre- meaning before.
- Right.
- You know, in there.
For your warm-season grass,
you wanna put it down in, like,
in the fall of the year.
- Okay.
- And pre-, it's gonna keep
the seed from even germinatin'.
- Right.
- You know,
you wanna do that in there.
And puttin' a pre-emerge
herbicide down,
you need to get
a complete cover.
- Okay.
- You need to get
a complete cover, and you
need to go both directions.
- Right.
- If it says half
it say 50 pounds here,
put 25 pounds that way,
and 25 pounds that way.
- Right.
- For you get a
good cover in there.
Then come back again
probably in March.
- Okay, right.
- Put another pre-emerge down,
and that's to try and get
some of those summer weeds
out in your lawn.
- Right.
- And most pre-emerge
herbicides are gonna come,
like, in a granule.
- Okay.
- It's gonna need to be
activated in by rain water
or some type of irrigation.
- Okay so you do water it?
- Over a period of time.
Yeah.
- All right.
- It'll be, it should be on
the label, if you irrigate in,
some kind of, in
that way in there.
- Okay.
- But pre-emerge,
very important though.
- Yes it is.
- Get that pre-emerge dow,
you'll control a lot
of those summer weeds
from comin' and germinatin'
in there.
- Right.
- If many of them get through,
you use a post-emerge
herbicide at the end.
- Right, right.
- Mm-hm.
- Or if you can't
just pull it out.
[both laugh]
- Yeah, pull it out of there.
- If it's not much
of it, just pull it out.
- Just pull it out there.
Then when you pull it up,
try to get that whole,
that root system.
- Right. Right.
- Gotta get the root system.
- Try to get that root system.
Yeah, you don't wanna
break it off in there.
- Do read and follow
the label though,
for pre-emerge
herbicides, for sure,
and post-emerge herbicides.
- Read, mm-hmm.
- All right, so the
next question is this,
"How low should I cut my warm
season grasses for winter?"
- Well you need,
like I said, only
to maintain the same height
that you had 'em before.
Yeah, maintain the same height.
ou don't wanna cut
it too low in there,
about the same height.
Like for Bermuda grass
and zoysia grass,
about two and a half to
three inches tall in there.
You wanna do that.
- Okay.
Just cut it tight.
And a lot of people
mow their lawn,
they think that if
they cut it real low,
maybe think it's gonna look
better during the winter time,
and they want it to look
good, but you really can be
damaging your lawn.
- Sure.
- In there, 'cause
you don't want that.
Like I said, when we
had that ice and snow,
like we did this year,
it can get on there and then
damage that grass in there.
Like I said, a good thing
to do on your lawn is,
when you have a big rain,
walk around that lawn.
- Right.
- Walk around that lawn.
Just see how everything look.
See if you got any
water standing.
You might not
notice that 'cause,
by the time it finish
rainin', just just see 'cause,
you don't want it
standing too long.
- Right.
- You want that
go on and drain off there.
- Okay, no, that makes
sense. That makes sense.
So let me ask you about
the fescue grass.
- Okay.
- So how tall
should we, you know,
maintain our fescue grasses?
- Well normally it's growing
in the fall of the year.
- Right.
- You wanna keep it somewhere
about three inches tall.
- Okay.
- Three inches tall in there.
Then sometimes you
might cut that often,
like that, because, man,
they grow real fast.
- Oh yeah.
- That fescues,
your fescue grass.
You do have some
Kentucky bluegrass,
and it would be
looking good too,
you need to cut that, too, about
three inches tall in there.
- Okay.
- In there, so, in there.
So yeah, you need to keep
that grass the right height,
and then you can fight off
a lot of problems with that.
- Right, right.
All right, so this next
question is about soil testing.
- Okay.
- We talked a little bit
about soil testing, so again,
it's just important, right?
- This is just important though,
in there for the pH of the soil,
in there.
- Right.
- That's most important for it.
And also the uptake of
all the other nutrients
that we have in the soil.
You don't want it
to die in there.
And a lot of time people say,
"Man, my grass not doing good.
What's wrong with my
grass? It's not doing good,"
in there.
- Right.
- "It's not growin'.
"I passed fertilizer
to it and everything."
You need to have
that soil tested.
And a lot of times, nowhere.
And a lot of times you
can get the pH too high.
- Oh yeah.
- You know, you can.
And you get it
too high and still
that'd do the same
effect that having it
just bein' too low.
- Right.
- And what we
recommend doing then,
and you have some thinkin'
some kind of lawn service,
something like that.
Sometimes have them
test your soil, okay,
just to see what the
pH runnin' in there.
So you wanna know that.
That's the most important
thing in your grass there.
- Okay, and again, what's a
good pH for your lawn grass?
- For most lawn grasses
we have, it is between 6.0
and 6.5.
- Okay.
- Like I said, like that,
you cannot know that
by lookin' at it.
- Nah.
- Like, I thought,
man, I thought mine
was right, one time.
And I thought it was right
then I had it tested,
and it wasn't, like, it was low.
- All right. All right.
- It wasn't too
low, but it was low.
I need to add some lime to it.
And another thing,
you don't need to test
your soil every year.
- Right, yeah, of course.
- About every three years
is a good time to
have that tested.
Okay, it'll stay the same
for about three years.
Then you might wanna
come out and test again
in three years, in there.
- Right.
- And you know, you can
call your extension service
for a soil box and information
on how to get that tested,
in there.
- Right, right, right.
'Cause then we have a great
soil lab here in Tennessee.
- Great soil lab.
- With Dr. Robert Florence.
He does an excellent job there.
- And the price is not that bad.
I'd rather pay $15
and get it tested
than putting, throwing
money out there,
and it not doing any good.
- All right, good
point, good point.
All right, so our
next question is,
"Do we get diseases on our
grasses during the winter?"
What about that?
- Well, sometimes we,
we take them from
our warm seasons
and we take them
over into the winter,
if we don't have
any control though.
They we're still on your lawn,
when you don't
control the grass.
You just don't hardly see
'em in the winter time,
because the grass is dormant.
- Okay.
- It's in dormancy.
And sometimes, with
you fescue lawn,
you might get some brown
patches sometime in there,
and you might just look
through that and see it.
You might see some
brown patches in there,
and normally you'll see
that on your fescue grass.
And very few on
Kentucky bluegrass
you might see that.
- Okay.
- You wouldn't see that--
- But it is possible?
- It's possible, it's possible.
Because they're growin'
then, and you can see it.
It'll be visible
to the eye then.
But normally your warm-season
grass is kind of dormant,
and because it's brown,
so you can't hardly tell,
But you would know
you have some in there,
in the springtime, last year,
and sometimes if you ain't
do nothing with 'em,
so then they'll
carry over in there.
- And they carry over, okay.
- Mm-hm. Yep.
- Wow, so, good tips, right,
on getting your lawn prepared
for the fall and winter.
- Getting ready for fall,
but you're really tryin'
to get it ready for next spring.
- Right.
- Then you need to be thinking
of doing the things now to
get it ready for next spring,
in there, yeah.
- Okay.
- You take care
of that grass now.
- Take care of that grass, man.
Well we appreciate
that information.
Thank you much.
- Thank you for having me.
[Chris chuckling]
I enjoyed it.
[upbeat country music]
- Let's talk a little bit about
this summer annual grass weed.
This is goose grass.
Goose grass is
related to crab grass.
It loves compact soils
and also loves soils
that are poorly drained.
You definitely want
to remove this weed
before it actually
starts to go to seed.
And as you can see, now,
it is starting to go to seed,
because it is an
annual grass weed.
So here's a couple of
things that you could do.
One use a pre-emerge.
Dimension will be
a good pre-emerge
to control goose grass,
And you wanna put that down
of course in the spring,
then again in the summer.
And since this weed
is already here,
how about a post
emergent herbicide?
You can use something
like quinclorac.
That's the active ingredient.
So again, goose grass,
make sure you get it up,
because, if you don't
and you wait too late,
it will go to seed,
and guess what?
It will be back next year.
[upbeat country music]
- Alright Kim.
We're gonna talk
about propagation.
So here's the first question.
What is propagation, and
why do we need to propagate?
- Well propagation, if
you're like most gardeners,
once you get the
gardening fever,
you just want to acquire
more and more plants.
And, when you
learn to propagate,
it's a skill set that you learn.
Plus it's a way
to get new plants,
without--
- Okay.
- It's economical.
- Okay.
All right, so you want
to get us started,
on some of your practices?
- Sure.
There are several
ways to propagate.
The easiest, to me, one of
the easiest, is to seed.
It's very economical.
It's a quick fix. You get
plants fairly quickly.
A lot of people are interested
in vegetable gardening now.
- Sure.
- So it's very easy to
seed your vegetables.
There are basically
two types of seeding,
direct seeding, or in situ,
which means you take your
seeds, you go out in the yard,
and you plant them
in your prepared bed.
A lot of your vegetables,
you can do that way.
Especially if they have, the
plant is gonna have a taproot,
those don't usually
transplant real well,
so you want to
start those outside.
The other is indirect seeding,
and usually, what that involves
is seeding into a
container of some sort,
and then you, usually,
end up transplanting,
at least once or twice,
before you actually move it
into the spot where you
are going to grow it on.
We do a lot of indirect seeding
at the Dixon.
- Okay.
- And so basically, what I do
with the indirect seeding is,
this is our seeding tray,
and I've got little cells.
We put a special mix in there.
It's basically just a soil
mix. It's a little looser.
And we put one seed per cell.
- Okay.
- And that's just,
because it's easier
to transplant,
so you don't have to divide 'em.
- Okay, makes sense.
- And we do quite a few.
And usually, the
seeds we're using,
the germination
rate is really high,
so we know, if we
need 40 plants,
and I seed 42 seeds, I'm
gonna get at least 40 plants.
- Okay.
- A lot of that
depends on your
germination rate.
- Let me ask you this
before you keep going.
So can the homeowner
get the seed trays?
Where can they purchase them?
- Oh yes, you can.
A lot of times you'll see
'em in the big box stores,
and they come in a big flat.
This has actually
been cut in half.
And then it'll have
a dome on the top.
Sometimes they'll already
have the soil in 'em,
and it'll have a little tray
that holds water on the bottom.
That's what this tray is for.
We actually seed into dry mix,
and then pour warm
water onto the tray,
and let it soak up
from the bottom.
You don't want to
water on top of this,
because your seed's
gonna wash out.
- That's good to know.
- That's good, yeah.
- That's good to know, yes.
- That's real good to know.
- Once they get this,
these are some seedlings.
It's Aquilegia or
columbine that we seeded,
and these were actually seeded,
on January 23rd.
- Okay.
- But these are, we call
these plugs, and what we do,
once they get their
second set of true leaves.
- Okay.
- What we do is we just kind
of squeeze it like this,
and then I usually
take a bamboo stick,
and you just poke up the bottom,
and it just pops out.
- You got all the tricks.
- And there's your plug.
- I can handle that.
- Sorry, I'm makin' a mess.
- Oh, that's all right.
- And then you just move
that to the next size pot,
and you grow 'em on.
That's actually the
pink flowers down there.
Those actually, the seed is
about the size of
a grain of pepper.
It's very tiny.
- Wow, small.
- And then in 12 to 14 weeks,
that's what I have.
- Okay.
- So, and that's another
important thing with seeding.
You need to decide when
you want your plant,
and then count back
the number of weeks
that it tells you on the package
that it takes for the
plant to get that size.
- Okay.
- So with the,
the snapdragon there,
we actually seed those.
We want 'em about
the 1st of February,
so I count back 12 to 14 weeks,
and that's usually the end
of October, 1st of November.
That's when I seed it.
- Okay.
- Usually a month
later I can up-pot it
to the first small pot,
and then we move 'em
into the big gallons.
And then we, it's very
important for us for timing,
because I want the flowers
for the arrangements
in the museum,
so I have to have 'em
on a certain schedule.
- It's pretty neat. Now
can we get to the cuttings?
- Yes.
- Okay.
- On the cuttings,
there's several ways
to vegetatively
propagate something,
which basically, with
that, you're gonna get
the identical plant that
you're working with.
- Okay.
- And there are several
ways to do this.
You can do stem cuttings
with herbaceous plants,
and that's real good
for your annuals.
My mom always kept coleus
in the window sill.
She would save 'em
from the season before,
and you just take a
cutting, and, what I do is--
We call this the mother plant.
- Okay.
[all laughing]
- And we keep several of these,
and then we take
cuttings off of it.
But you just find a stem,
and you want it
not real flexible.
That means it's
the newer growth.
But you want to get it
back just a little bit
to where it's not real stiff.
- Okay.
- And what I usually do,
you can take it off here,
and you'll usually hear, as
much as feel, a little snap.
[plant snaps]
- Wow, okay.
- And you can do it that way.
It's really best to cut,
'cause you end up tearin'.
But the next, it's really
very easy to do this.
You can either root it
by dipping it in hormone,
and then sticking it
in soil or with these,
I like to start 'em in water.
It's just easier. It's quicker.
But you just take your leaves
and strip 'em off.
- Okay.
- And then you want
several leaf nodes,
one, two, three down into
the water or into the soil.
- Okay.
- So that's what...
And then this is
what you get in about
two weeks.
- Well how about that.
- Two weeks?
- And then you just stick--
Two weeks.
- Yeah.
- And that's just in water.
- That's just in water.
We usually set it
in a window sill,
where it gets indirect light,
good light, but indirect light.
And then we just pop those
into a soil mix.
- Okay.
- The other, that's a
kind of an herbaceous.
There's also semi-hardwood
and hardwood cuttings.
The boxwood, we don't
do a lot of those.
We do it more for
demonstration and, just,
what we call playin'.
[Chris laughs]
But you usually use
the past year's growth,
and what you do is, you
find a stem, that's,
the same thing, not real hard,
or it's somewhat
woody, but, you know,
it's not like this
major stem here.
But what you do is,
you just cut it off.
- Okay.
- Use good clean clippers.
[branch snipping]
I like to clean 'em in
between with alcohol.
- Okay, and we wanna make sure
we get a clean cut as well.
- A clean cut, right.
- Okay.
- And then you do
the same thing.
You want to take
your leaves off,
and you want several nodes.
And then, what I like
to do with hardwood
or semi-hardwood cuttings,
and a lot of these depend
on the time of the year.
Usually May, June, July,
you've had that first
flush of new growth,
and it starting to
get a little bit hard.
It's not quite so tender.
And then I just take
a rooting hormone.
There's also
liquids you can use.
You can buy 'em anywhere.
This is kind of
professional strength.
- So the homeowner
can readily get that?
- There's one called Root
Tone that you can find
at most any garden center.
- Okay, from any garden...
- So what you do, I don't
like to dip into that,
because, if this is diseased,
you're gonna contaminate
your whole container.
- Makes sense.
- So what I do is pour
it into a little cup,
and you can, it's not
necessary to wet this,
because it's gonna stick.
It's just a real fine powder.
[softly tapping]
And I put it in there
and knock the excess off.
And then what I've done, I've
got potting mix in there,
And then I generally put
a small layer of sand,
and then I put more potting mix,
and then you can just
poke it in there.
- Okay. Now what
is the sand for?
- The roots seem to grow off
that, into that fairly easily.
Plus it kind of holds
a little moisture.
- Okay, that makes sense.
- And then, this is kind
of short, but [laughs]
he's in there.
- It's peepin' out there.
- It's peekin, I can see it.
- He's peeking in there.
Generally what I will do is
water it once really
well after that,
and then we have a mist house
which keeps the humidity up,
but most homeowners don't
have their own mist house.
So you can put it in a
Ziploc bag and seal it,
and put it in good
indirect light,
and then that'll kind
of keep it moist.
And usually they root in, in
maybe two to three months.
[cheerful guitar music]
- Okay, we appreciate that
awesome demonstration.
I'm pretty sure the homeowners
are gonna love that as well.
So thank you much.
- You're welcome.
[gentle country music]
- Squash vine borers can be
devastating in the home garden
to pumpkins and
other squash plants.
The borer boroughs into the
stem, girdles the plant,
and the whole thing
just wilts and dies.
And there's not much
you can do about it,
once the borer
is in the plant.
To stop the squash vine borer,
you have to kill it before
it enters the plant.
So, if you choose to
go the chemical route,
I have here a bifenthrin
and zeta-cypermethrin.
So take your spray and direct
it to the base of the plants.
You don't need to spray
the leaves or the flowers,
just the bottom three
feet of the vine itself,
'cause that's where the squash
vine borer will lay its eggs.
You wanna spray in the evening,
because, in the morning,
the pollinators are active,
and the flowers are open.
Always make sure you read and
follow the label direction,
including protective clothing.
This particular chemical
says I need to wear gloves
and a long-sleeve
shirt and long pants.
And you wanna repeat
the spray every week
while the squash vine
borers are active,
and that should keep
the squash vine borers
out of your squash.
[gentle country music]
- All right, here's
our Q and A segment.
You ready?
- I'm ready?
- Some great questions here.
- Always a good question
here, always comin' in.
- Here's our first viewer email.
"I have vinca that is trying
"to take over my
whole garden bed.
"I have let it grow
for about 15 years.
"It is now layers
and layers of vines
"and rising higher and
higher around my plants.
"Will glyphosate
kill this weed?
"If so, when should
it be applied?
"If not, can you suggest
something that will curb
"or kill this growth?
Thanks in advance." Patsy
from Lexington, Kentucky.
So we're trying to see if
glyphosate will kill this weed.
What do you think?
- Glyphosate will kill it.
It will kill the weed in there,
and you gotta spray it at
the right time of the year
and make sure the
temperature is right.
To kill it, you need to get
a good coverage on that,
when you spray it on there.
And another thing, when
you're usin' glyphosate,
any kind of herbicide
or somethin',
always read and follow
the label directions.
If you're gonna spray
it in you flower bed,
you need to be very careful
when you're sprayin'
to make sure the wind is
not high or not blowin',
'cause it will drift.
Whatever glyphosate get on,
it's gonna kill it, you know,
so you need to be
very careful in there.
Then she obviously, like I say,
well she can get some black
bags to put over there,
and try to cover it
out and smother it out.
But if you're gonna
spray chemicals on that,
best thing to do is,
if you can, cut it,
and then let it start to get
some new growth on there.
A lot of time it'll kill better.
- Right.
- On that tender growth.
- Right, and it'd be best
to do that in the spring
when it's actively growing.
- Active growing, yeah, mm-hm.
- Right, right.
But yeah, spray when it is
young and actively growing.
Read and follow the
label, Ms. Patsy.
You'll be fine.
- Yeah.
- Thank you much.
We appreciate that.
Here's our next viewer email.
"How can I make my
Bermuda lawn thicker?"
This is from Ken, so he wants
to make the Bermuda thicker.
- Well, like I said,
[Chris chuckles]
You got that big turf in there,
well that big grass looks
really good in there.
One thing that you're
cuttin' at the right height.
You cut it at the right
height and you fertilize it,
get the right amount
of fertilizer,
and your waterin' it in there.
When you cut it a lot,
sometimes it'll thicken up more,
but a healthy turf is
gonna do that, you know.
To make it thicker, you
got to get it right,
gettin' the right
amount of water.
You cut it the right
height, and everything,
and all the nutrients
good in there.
Your pH is good,
your phosphate good,
and potassium is good,
that grass will get thicker
in there, when you do that.
And no, you don't wanna give
it too much, especially,
too much phosphate-potassium
fertilizer, probably.
That can build up in the soil.
But, normally, a nitrogen
fertilizer leaches it's way out.
It'll come in and do
what it, do it's job,
turn it green and make it
grow and leach its way out.
And that way will make your
grass thicker in there,
the good cultural practice,
and then do that.
And like I say, I cut
mine twice a week,
and that helped it.
[Chris chuckling]
That make it grow,
and that make it thicken
up some more in there.
A weak grass, a weak
grass, they're not gonna.
They're not gonna thicken up.
That's under stress. It's
not gonna thicken up, likely.
You'll see you'll have
thin spots in there.
- Right, so cultural
practices are important,
and we wanna make
sure that Bermuda has
full sunlight.
- Full sun, yeah.
- Right, full sunlight.
- Full sunlight, yeah.
- That's what it
likes, no shade.
Because, of course--
- I had that problem too,
in my grass.
- A real problem.
- I had a tree in there,
and the grass begin to thin
out under that tree because.
As the tree get older, it'd
lay more shade get in there,
the Bermuda grass
is gonna thin out.
- Right, so give
it full sunlight.
- Full sunlight.
- All right.
- So there you have it, Mr. Ken.
We appreciate that question.
Here's our next viewer email.
"My oak tree has been
looking bad this year.
"There have been rounded
brown spots on the leaves.
"Many inside branches
have no leaves,
"and, this morning, I found
these critters munching away.
"What's going on?
"Should I have it sprayed?
Thank you,"
Paula in Bartlett.
So you know, first of all,
had a lot of fungal diseases
on our trees this year,
because of the early spring
rains and the cool temperature.
Okay?
- Mm-hm.
- Secondly, the critters,
yellow-necked caterpillars.
- Caterpillar, okay.
- Of course they're gonna
be feeding on the foliage
of the tree.
- on the foliage.
- The Oak tree will be able
to maintain its growth,
even though
it's being eaten on.
- Yeah.
- So I wouldn't consider that
to be a major problem.
But if you will like to
have the tree sprayed,
I would contact a
certified arborist
to come out and spray that tree.
- Yeah.
- They have products.
Bt will probably be one of the
products that they will use
to control the
yellow-necked caterpillar.
So keep those trees as
healthy as possible,
because, if they're stressed,
then here comes what?
The fungal diseases
and the caterpillars.
- And those dead
limbs in there too.
All that'll cause
a problem in there.
You need to prune those out
of there and everything.
And if you think you've
got a fungal disease
on those dead limbs,
you might wanna sterilize
your prunin' shears
after each cut.
- Sure, sure.
But yeah, we were talkin'
about your large trees.
- Large trees, yeah.
- Large trees,
certified arborist.
- Certified arborist, yeah.
- Will assess the plant health.
So thank you for that
question, Ms. Paula.
Here's our next viewer email.
"Can the clippings I
collected from my lawn
"be used for a mulch
or in my compost pile?
What if I sprayed my lawn?"
And this is Mary.
- If you sprayed your lawn
with any kind of chemical.
- Okay.
- And then let those
clippin' in there,
you need to make sure you make
at least three cuttings on there
before you start
usin' those clippings,
especially in your
and your compost pile,
especially if you're gonna
use that compost pile
in your vegetable garden,
you need to make sure you
make at least three cuttin'
on there before you do that.
Then all the chemicals
and things should be gone.
Then make sure you had that
compost pile to heat up
to a certain
temperature in there,
and try to kill all the
stuff out of there in there.
But, if you're gonna
use those clippin'
in your vegetable garden,
do those three cuttin'.
- Right, do those
three cuttings.
- Be cuttin' on that
before you start doin' it.
And make sure you
heat it up good,
and how you make it heat
up, you have to turn that.
It'll cause you to
work to do that there,
to turn that compost
pile in there.
And I did a compost pile,
[Chris chuckles]
and you turn it and get
it to heat up in there,
and that that'll kill
a lot of those spores
and things in there, all
of that still in there.
But there bein' three cutting's
the most important thing,
though, mm-hm.
- Okay, three cuttings.
- But it can be used though.
It'll be good organic material.
- Okay, so it can
be used as a mulch,
and it can be used
in the compost pile.
- The compost pile, yeah.
Once you've had three
cuttings on there,
you should have all the
chemical out of there.
- Okay.
Yeah, just make sure
you keep it turned,
like you mentioned.
- Oh yeah.
- And it has to be
aerated and watered
as well.
- Watered, yeah. [laughs]
- Right, so it can heat up,
but we're talking 120 to
about 140, 50 degrees.
- Warm, yeah, it's gotta
get hot down in there.
It's gotta get hot, most of it.
- All right, so Mary,
hope that helps you out.
- Hope so, yeah, that in there.
- All right, we appreciate that.
It's fun as always.
- Always fun, always
good to be on here.
I thank you again.
- Thank you much.
Remember we love
to hear from you.
Send us an email or letter.
The email address is
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And the mailing
address is Family Plot,
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That's all we have
time for today.
Thanks for joining us.
If you want to learn more about
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head on over to
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Gardening in the Mid-South.
Be safe.
[upbeat country music]
[acoustic guitar chords]