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♪
Well, hello and welcome to
Making it Grow.
We're so glad you could join us
on this Tuesday night.
Things are different but
we are really working
hard all the crew here
in Sumter to bring you
shows and we so
appreciate our agents out
in the field. Everyone's
you know we're nobody's
back in the office but
everybody's being so
kind in helping us and we
really appreciate that.
I'm Amanda McNulty and
I've worked with
Clemson Extension and get to
learn from all these
super bright agents who
come and share their
expertise with us.
And I'm gonna
to start with Zack Snipes who's
down there at the Coastal Rec
down in Charleston doing fruit
and vegetable work, particularly
to try to help our
growers down there.
I'm wondering if that's
somebody who
is a specialist who's been
trained to sniff out
certain diseases in tomatoes,
that your holding Zack.
Yeah. Disease sniffing dog,
I think is going to be the new
vegetable specialist. But
yeah, I'm out in the field two
to three days a week with
growers and doing research.
The other day, I
got my new, with this whole
COVID thing, I got my new co-
worker here. So she keeps
me entertained.
And what is her name?
Lexi. Lexi. Well, Hey
Lexi. She looks mighty
sweet. And she looks like
she's got - She is a good
choice for now because
she doesn't look
like she's the
kind of dog that
needs a hair cut very
frequently. Oh no.
Well, thanks Zack. Now
we're gonna go over the
Beaufort where my friend
Laura Lee Rose is and
Laura Lee has affinity for
flowers. She loves.
And is an expert
on all sorts of native flowers.
And then sometimes she just
gives them the things that
are pure tea beautiful. So what
I got for us Laura Lee?
Well, I've got my
blush rose here, which
is not very fragrant but it
does have beautiful open
centers and lots of pollen
for my bee friends.
And then I've got a
variety of salvia here
called purple majesty.
Which is very florific and
also they're tubular flowers
that are good for your
pollinator friends.
So that's a variety of
salvia that's
relatively new and you would
recommend that we try to
find one? Yeah I think it
four years of indigo spires for
a long time and indigo spires
while it's a beautiful plant
it doesn't have the spring
purple color. (laughs)
That is pretty.
And I've got some red
honeysuckle. I don't know
if you can see that or not.
And that's our native
honeysuckle, Laura Lee?
...honeysuckle. Probably
Alabama Crimson. Although,
it was grown by one of our
master gardeners who been a
great propagator of honeysuckle.
Well, that's wonderful and
if you've got - (laughs)
And I'm gonna
next time we finally get
to see each other, I'll
get you to share that
cultivar of honeysuckle
because some of them tend
to get powdered mildew and I
have that problem with mine.
I bet yours is being selective,
not to have so much trouble
with that. I never have seen
that on here. That's wonderful.
Okay. Well, Terasa Lott is
stationed in Darlington now.
And she still has an
affinity for all things
related to caring for
the water quality of our
state as we all should. But,
now she's taken on the
responsibility for being
the master gardener
coordinator. And she also
is kind enough to help us out at
Making It Grow. Terasa I hope
things are
going well over there and
Darlington is just
puttering along as usual.
Things are going well.
Although, slow in terms of
hoping to re-open our
doors to the public one day.
But, still remind everyone
that all the services
extension really are
still available just through the
use of different methods or
using technology, so our
phones will still ring.
We can receive emails.
Sometimes we can use
technology like Skype or
ZOOM to do a virtual visit to
someone's yard. So we are
still here and still
working for you.
Terasa are there ways to get
soil test results, still?
There are definitely.
So, people can mail the
samples directly to the
agricultural service lab.
There are instructions on
the #*X
service lab website.
I'll be sure to
post those on our
Facebook page. So, really
just everything that you could
normally do is still available
now. Well good and one
thing that we love that you
normally do for us is to
share some photographs
that our viewers send in.
I think you said you
have kinda a special treat for
today. We do. This is a little
bit different spin on our
gardens of the week
because it's just one
singular garden. And that is
of Dennis Gordon, Dennis
is the step dad to
Sean Flynn, our Producer/
Director for Making It
Grow. So, let's take a look
at his Sean described it
as his patio garden.
So we have a few photos
submitted by his wife Cindy.
We have to give her
credit for being the
photographer. And you'll
see we have a few garden
beds he shares and
some close up photographs
as well. So it appears
that Dennis is quite the
gardener. I'm going to
interrupt you for just a
minute and say
that Sean's mother has about
the sweetest disposition of
anybody I know. And
that's probably why
he can put up with me. So
hats off to you
Cindy for raising such a
fine young man who
occasionally rolls his
eyes, but it is
very patient and tolerant
with me. I didn't mean to
interrupt you, I just
think she
should have a special shout out.
Definitely.
It's always good to give
her a shout out. So it was
really fun to see Dennis'
photographs. And I think
it might have inspired me.
We've been talking
about adding some extra
vegetable beds to our
backyard area. So this
might just give me that
push I need to get going.
Or perhaps I should
say that my husband needs,
because I'm lucky he does
most of the physical
labor for the ideas that
I want to put into place.
I think you're very
fortunate to be.
Alright well thank you
so much for sharing this
with us Terasa
and thank you Dennis for
submitting in to us and
doing all that wonderful
work around y'all's house.
Teresa, people can post
questions on Facebook and
and often you ask
questions even during the
Tuesday nights, when the
show is streaming live on
Facebook. And you have
some is the one that
Laura Lee could start out
with helping us with tonight.
There sure is. So,
composting is a way that
we can turn our trash
into treasure is what I
like to say. Things that we
might normally send to the
landfill, we can
use them to our benefit and
our gardens and
landscapes. So one of
our viewers asked about
vermi compost. So a special
type of composting where we put
worms into action. So Laura Lee
can you give our viewer some
tips on what is it? How do we
get started. Tips and things to
avoid. We have a co-worker
in the Florence office who's
been vermi composting right
in the office beside hers. Worm
composting is a very interesting
hobby. And I know some people
might want to even
take it further but you can
order the worm. You can order
lots of supplies online.
There are many avenues
for doing that. You
do know there are
worms are red wigglers.
They are tropical worms.
So they don't want to be too
hot. They don't
want to be too cold. So, indoors
is really a good place
to have em. I've got em,
at my house, I've got em out on
the front porch.
But, they're very well shaded by
a big tree. The main thing to
avoid, you don't want use
meat or dairy or as some
people would even say
not too much citrus for
the worms and then
one of the tips that I
heard a few weeks ago,
was that you should
just feed them once a week.
Lift up the leg
and the herd that's
there hasn't been eaten up but
you don't want to be
overfeeding em. Then
you can have trouble with our
whole supply larva and
other things that you don't
really want.
But the bedding is just as
simple as maybe the
shredded paper from your office,
the newspaper as you can
clear out newspaper
and that's about it.
weird, worms and things.
Sometimes I have a bin.
And Laura Lee, what do you
do with
what you get?
That's right. So the compost
that you - the
worms are top feeders.
They are going to the top.
So you can actually take some
of your bottom trays
or you can separate worms
out by hand, and take the
compost, you can make compost
tea of it
by just putting it in a
bucket and watering your
plants with that compost tea.
And you can use the compost
as you would any compost
around your plants, house
plants, vegetables what have
you. Right. Well, Laura Lee,
Thank you and that sounds like
something if your
children would be a fun
thing to start doing this
summer because - Right. It's
a great classroom activity
for young children or
really anybody.
Thank you so much. Thanks
for telling us all about
worms that was fun. Okay.
Alrighty.
Terasa,
I think we've got a
vegetable expert here.
You've got something Zack
might be able to shed
some light on please?
Indeed, I do. You know this
person sounded very
desperate. He said the
deer are eating my plants
in the gardens faster
than the poor plants can
grow. Help!, with an
exclamation point.
Deer can be a tremendous
problem, very healthy appetite.
Zack, what can be done?
Well, so what I would
recommend is put up
some sort of fence.
Then you go to Laura
Lee's house
and get you some worms. And then
you go
fishing and not worry about it.
What we've done at
Clemson and what a lot of
small farms are doing
that I work on, is
that they have a small
garden or area that's
blocked off
for a garden area. You can
put up some fencing and
like the hog kennel
type fencing that's
eight or ten feet high.
You could put that
up but it's very expensive
to put it up. So an
alternate what we've done, and
it's worked really
is poly-tape.
And you can buy it at
your big box stores or
you know any farm and
garden stores. And typically
it's an inch to an inch and a
half plastic. Fence tape
is typically used on horse
pastures but it's impregnated
with metal. And so if you put
two of those fences up and
put one on the outside
and you want to put a
strand up about
18 inches or two foot. And
then you offset the second fence
and you want to put a strand
up about three foot
and then another one up at
about ten or
twelve feet tall. And then
you're going to hook that
up to an electric solar charger.
You're gonna put
electricity on the fence.
And what it does is it
really messes with the deer's
depth perception. They could
easily step over the fence
and then go under
the second one. But they
don't have really
good depth perception because
they're herbivores and they
aren't sure how tall and wide
the fence is and it flickers
in the wind. So typically, they
won't go up to the fence
to try to jump over it.
If they do up to the fence
then they're given a
little shock, which
doesn't hurt them. It just
scares them and keeps them out.
Anyone using this, I highly
recommended that you put the
fence up before you start
working the ground to plant your
garden. Once deer have
established a feeding behavior,
once they know you have some
you know succulent
strawberries or
blueberries or whatever
in there. They're going to
continue on that feeding pattern
no matter what you do.
So, put it up before the deer
starts feeding.
Well, that's fascinating. I
have a kind of old
fashioned electric fence where
we've got these
poles that we stepped and put
in the ground and had two
wires on. It's been a
little bit of trouble
to tell you the truth.
But it has been very
effective, But this sounds
a lot easier to me to use.
And the solar panel
just sounds wonderful.
I had to have somebody come
and run a long line out.
So, this is really,
really fascinating. Thank
you so much Zack for telling us
about that. Yes ma'am.
There's a fact sheet on the HGIC
website on how to
establish the fence and
the cost and all
that sort of thing. So,
that's a really good
resource for anybody that
has a dedicated garden area.
and wants to put
up a deer fence.
So what's the name again
that we would
search for to look for Clemson
HGIC. Yes, ma'am. You can
just type in, once you get
to the website type in
deer management or if you
wanted to get
specific, you can type in two
tiered fencing system for deer
management. Okay. Thank you
so much. The last
time we can be
we have a very
interesting conversation with
our entomologist and
specialist Dr JC
Chong and he was talking
about the very complex
topic of neonicotinoids and
the words in information
he found out in his research.
And he's gonna continue
sharing some information with us
now. So let's go over to the
to the Florence Pee Dee Rec
and talk to Dr. JC Chong.
I'm speaking today with David JC
Chong.
JC is a professor and
extension specialist.
His field is entomology
and his home base is the
Pee Dee Rec over in Florence.
JC thank you for
talking with me today.
Well, great talking to you
again Amanda.
And we spoke earlier
about
a really hot topic. I know
master gardeners and
people are just the
public in general
got really excited about
the pesticides that come
under the label of
neonicotinoids because of
an improper use of them
that killed a lot of bees
that are one time
and so everybody got all
excited about it.
Again, our job is to use
science to make decisions.
And so that's what we're
coming to you.
Earlier we talked about
the fascinating research
you and other
research facilities did
and how much the
plants that we go to the
store in the Spring when we
get excited about you
know the ornamental the
ornamentals and herbaceous
perennials that we put
out, how many of those
were attracted to
pollinators and had
neonicotinoids. And
people can find that
if they go to the earlier
podcast. But that's a
smaller use compared to
other uses of neonicotinoids.
So let's talk about
how it's used
in other parts of the
agricultural industry.
Maybe beginning with
just our field crops
perhaps. Sure. Neonicotinoids
what is one of the major
product every year when
you inspect site that
we use in agriculture.
And just about any kind
of product that you're
seeing out there doesn't
matter it's soybean
or cotton or corn.
Some of them has been
treated with
neonicotinoids. So the
treatment for neonicotinoids
in a field crop
would take the form of
either spraying directly
on the plant itself to kill
the insects that are feeding
on them or they can be
seep coated on the
seep is in the
ground so that when the
seedlings are germinating
there's already insecticide
around it to protect it from
insects that are in the soil.
It might be feeding on them.
And does it also
gives the little seedling
itself some protection
from insects that
are in the air?
Sure and some of them
because neonicotinoids
are a standing insecticide.
So if you have a
little bit of
seed coating on the outside,
the active ingredient can
also be absorbed by the
root of the seedling
and bring it up to the
leaves or protect them
from some of the
early seedling pests.
JC depending upon what part of
the country you're in,
your soil types
can even be a factor.
There may or may not be
a threat to your
seeds from soil wire
worms and things like that.
But I believe that
most of the product, most
of the seats are just
created because - is
it just easier I mean
it's so hard to stop
you're assembly line and
clean them. So even if you
don't need it in a particular
area, are you
likely to receive
seed that has been
coated?
Yes. It's pretty likely
that your seed will be
either coated with
a insecticide or fungicide.
So like you said a lot of
time it's the assembly line.
It's a lot easier
for them to go and do it
for everybody doesn't matter
where they settle in the seed
to actually stop that assembly
line and say okay, 'We are
producing seed now let's stop.'
We don't need the
coating. Let's not do the
coating. That usually doesn't
happen.
So and you said
that's just I mean the tonnages
is large,
the amount.
Absolutely, so the seed
coating itself,
about ten years ago.
We were using about two
million kilos of neonicotinoids.
just on coating seed.
And that's a
huge amount of insecticide.
Now since it's water
soluble, do they worry
about it being in the
water supply.
There's always the risk
of them being in the
water supply but the
amount of insecticide on the
seed coating side is pretty
minute but that's not a
whole lot of chemical in
there directly. And
also a lot of time they will
also stay in the soil a lot
better than just
penetrating fluidly.
Oh good. So they're not
horribly soluble I mean
they're going to tend
to stay there. They
are pretty
soluble but you can
stay in the soil. Okay
but it is a
improvement
in some ways over some of
the previous products
that were available, even
though it has its own set
of problems, it has less
toxicity in certain ways
than former products that
were used. Is that correct?
Absolutely and in fact
neonicotinoids was developed
to really get
around the high
toxicity issues of the
nicotine or the high organic
phosphate insecticide.
So if you just compare the
amount of the insecticide being
used to 50 years ago. What we
are now using is much
less than what were using
50 years ago.
So, that's definitely a benefit
of using something new.
So those are causes to be
glad that we have these
new products coming on
but people
seem to be so worried. The
the pollinator situation
seems to be so much in
people's minds and
because of that one
terrible incident,
people worried that it's
gonna work add onto the
problem. I always sort
of joke when I get
to follow an essay. The
neonicotinoids isn't an
insecticide and pollinators
are an insecticide.
When you put
one and one together
of course, that's something bad
is going to happen.
So, neonicotinoids have
inherent danger or risks to the
pollinator. There's no doubt
about that. So, you
actually avoid that kind of
danger when you can be thinking
another way that people can
use that product more
safely and more
effectively so we can
actually avoid that kind of
risk. So we can control the pest
while not hurting our
pollinators, I can say.
And that has to do with
sometimes timing.
It has a lot to do with
timing and where you use
it and how you use it.
For example, when the
when the flowers are
blooming and your pollinators
are actually visiting flowers,
that is not a good time to be
using neonicotinoids or in fact
any insecticide at all because
when you apply an
insecticide to a flower and
the pollinators, you'll be
getting in contact with the
pollinator, you will
kill the pollinator. Yes. And
even if the pollinators are
there if the rest
stay on the flower
itself and the pollinators
walk by getting
contact with it, it can
still be impacted.
Americans certainly do
love their lawns and
we know that if we really
wanted to help
pollinators, we ought to
reduce the size of our
lawn and put in a pollinator
garden. And then some
people are doing that. Terasa
Lott, who works
with us he's been he's
been doing that and
enjoying the results
because she sees such
wonderful things. But I
think the turf industry
itself also has found
that the neonicotinoids
have been affected in one
of their pests in treating
one of their pests. Right.
So the neonicotinoids has
been used in the turf industry
for treatment of
white rut quite a bit.
And but there's basically
one of the number one
product is that
neonicotinoids. And some of
the study has been shown
over the years that application
of neonicotinoids
can profoundly
change the ecosystem in
the enterprise. Wow! And
so well but
using neonicotinoids when
you have a pest that's
difficult to control
neonicotinoids is your only
options then there's
not a whole of other
things that you can do about it.
Luckily, there are
more new products that
are coming out that
are just as safe for pollinators
and other animals as well.
And are just as effective as
them. Oh good.
Yeah definitely safer and
just as effective.
And so that's one reason
we want our professional
applicators to take
advantage of trainings so
that they're aware of
their options and
can shift. Absolutely.
I'll definitely recommend that
and you know folks like
me do a lot of research
in that arena.
So we could definitely share
that information with you.
What is good, what is the
effective and what's safe.
You said that and although
sometimes it's not
possible for a
professional company
that's coming in to make
a treatment to have a lot
of laxity in timing. But
you said it for instance
if you had some clover
that was blooming and
you were going to make
this application which I
guess is a liquid
application to turf,
they could even - there's
some cultural practices
that could minimize the
risk. Is that correct?
Right. Some of the studies
conducted in
Kentucky basically
show that if you have
clover flowering, and you apply
a new neonicotinoids insecticide
to the clover much of the
insecticide
will end up in the nectar.
And you might have impact
on the population. But if you
mow the clover before you make
the applications then you can
actually reduce
a lot of that risk
just by reducing the
amount of active
ingredient actually ending
up in the nectar.
So there are things that
just being aware of
look how things work and
how they move in the
plant and trying to put
that whole picture
together can help us all
to do a better job when
we do find that we need
to make an application.
Sometimes. And that
that's probably the major
point you have there,
which is well, knowledge
is really the key to the
success. We are
concerned with pollinators
and we know a lot of
things that we can do to
make it kind of
help and detriment to their
pollinator population.
We need to know what those are
how we can actually use them.
The EPA does go back and
make reviews and
sometimes they make
changes in labeling or
what's allowed. Is that
correct? That's correct.
And EPA does conduct
registration review of
different chemicals. It doesn't
matter if it's insecticide
or fungicide or herbicide
every few years. And what
they would do is
basically during the
review process they're
putting all the new
information. and then
they're gonna look at the
early information and that
the new information and
then make a decision as
far as, is these
products even safe, based
on our current state of
knowledge and whether
we'll allow it to renew again.
You said that recently
there have been some
reductions in the amount
you could use in certain
situations and so that's
why once again, you
should always read the
label because if
I've been putting out
something for five
or ten years, I might just have
a way that I mix it but
that may no longer be
legal and I could still
get control and using
less product. But I
need to read a label
because the label is the
law and it protects the
environment and also
the applicators. And
people who live in the homes.
Absolutely. And one thing I
would add to that
is you want to read the
label of the product that
you're using right now.
Because the labels do
change, the amount that
you apply change, the
name can change, the active
ingredient can also change.
And for example, I'll
give an example
Grub X, is a homeowner product
for white grub control, years
the active
ingredient is actually
one of the neonicotinoids.
And recently the active
ingredient was actually
changing another product
that's not even a neonicotinoid.
That product is just as
effective as neonicotinoids
that's due to pollinators.
So, because of that change
in the product, you're
basically reducing risk
on the pollinator. But it also
entailed quite a bit of
changes in the label language.
How much you apply, and things
like that. So, even
if the product is the
same name, you need to
read the label very
carefully, just to make sure
that the active
ingredients and
all the other information
necessary. So if you have a bag
of 20 year old products in your
shed
and get it out that's a
different story, but we don't
want to use that.
It's not worth the wait.
And fortunately our
State Department of
Agriculture does
circulate the state
having times when you can
bring pesticides
for safe disposal. And that's
something people should
keep in mind as well. You
don't just put it in the
trash and send them to
the landfill. No if it goes in
the landfill it probably
goes into the water somewhere.
It's a
complicated subject and I
wanna to thank you for
taking the time to shed
some light on this today.
And doing what you
people do research and
then and then getting
that information to the
people. Because we do want
to make our decisions
based on science and not
on hysteria. Thank you
very much JC. Thank you, Amanda.
I do wanna thank Dr. John for
sharing information with us.
He often is
traveling the country.
He is considered such an
expert on these issues and
although I'm sorry for
the reason that he is not
traveling, I really
appreciate his
knowledge and his sharing the
time to share that with
all of us. Teresa, have
we got some more questions
from some of our viewers?
We do. The next question is
about a pest
that always seems to find
my feet and ankles, one
day I will learn to wear
more appropriate shoes
outside. At least that's
what my husband tells me
so our viewer says,
they are experiencing
red imported fire ants
in the vegetable garden
and compost pile and they'll
like to know how to
safely manage them. Laura Lee
it was so
discouraging. You
and I can remember when
we can play outside
freely in South Carolina
and not have to worry
about that. It was
a great shock to me. But there
are some things that we
can do that are safe for
the environment I believe
and safe for us and
fortunately not safe for
the fire ants. So, give us
help here please.
Ants are going to be in
places that are undisturbed.
So if there's nothing in
your garden for
a little while, the ants
usually will come. There
fortunately is a very good
fact sheet on
control of fire ants in
gardens.
The same order would apply
your compost pile because
we're not, you don't want to
put in harmful chemicals in
your compost pile but we
can bait around the
garden and use baits around
our
the compost pile and
if we're using baits in the
lawn too that also help
with the your farm with the
control of the fire ants.
There are some
biological controls that
are available, spinoside
and some of those products,
but what I want to
we caution people about
is not to use acetate or Sevin
or Ortho
unless it's
specified
on the label. The label is
the law. You've got to follow
the label. Be sure that
you're controlling things
in an environmental friendly
manner and we're not harming
the beneficial insects.
Basically, read the fact sheet,
read the label, I always
tell put your glasses on when
you go
to the store. And before
you even start to apply
any kind of chemical, read the
label first, so that you know
what it can and can't do.
Laura Lee people
sometimes they're sad
because they put out of
bait and that's a
wonderful product because
it controls all the in
the fire ants even the ones
you don't know about. But,
it doesn't have a very
long lasting time or so
they need to know that
this is something
that will have to be repeated if
I'm not mistaken. Repeated and
then also you want to
that's where the label
directions come in handy too.
In fact, we don't want
to put it down until
24 hours and then the
bait can be ineffective.
Thank you very much.
Well, let's hope that we'll have
a fire ant as close to
fire ant free. We can't
eliminate fire ants
but we can try to manage them.
And let me caution all of you
that if you have a reaction
that is it anyway more
than localized, you need
to
if you have the
slightest bit of trouble
or start having welts,
you have to go to the
emergency room immediately. And
if it's more than localized
but not that severe,
you need to speak with an
allergist and be safe
because sadly there have
been challenges from
people who are super
sensitive to these
insects. And the next time
you're exposed, it could
be worse than the first.
So, even though
their tiny do
give them credit for
being something that you have to
pay attention to
and perhaps make some
adjustments in your life.
Down in Lake City, they've
made a lot of adjustments to
turn that community
into one of the most
beautiful places
in the world and just such an
incredible variety of
plant material that they use and
it was an old movie theatre
there and
they left the marquee
kind of everything up and
left the open space and it's
called the Theatre Park.
And Bradley
Roberts gave us a
wonderful tour. I felt
like I was sitting there
and watching a movie
on beautiful plants.
We're in downtown Lake
City, South Carolina and
I'm talking with Bradley
Roberts, a horticulturist
with Moore Farmers
Botanical Garden. And y'all
don't just take care
of the garden, y'all bring
your expertise
downtown. That's right,
Amanda we manage about
18 acres of
cultivated garden space
downtown. And I'm gonna
say that although many
cities have beautiful
downtown plantings y'all's
have a completely
distinct look. Well, it
does have a distinct look
we have the you know
fortune of being
supported by a local
botanical garden. Yes.
So, we have access to a
lot of different types
of plant material. And here we
are in a situation that's
replicated in many older
cities in the south where
we had a building that I
think had
been abandoned, That's
right! But
y'all have made
something so special.
Well thank you. This used
to be that
theatre in downtown Lake City
that was abandoned.
And we created this lovely
green space here.
And what are some of the
things you've done
to let people know that this
isn't just an
abandoned space but now a
welcoming venue and intimate
place for us a little break
from the busy downtown
restaurant city? That's
right. Well, we have a
few different features out
near the front
of the facade of the space. We
have seasonal planting
containers that we have
out on the sidewalk
and invite people in. And we
so have some vines some
evergreen vines that kind
of poke through out onto
the street. You know to
kind of let people
know that there are is a green
space here. I think it's so much
fun to see them growing through
the windows. Yeah. They're
kinda peeking out at you. You
said it kind of
gives you a little sense of
abandonment. But when you
come in what a remarkably
inviting and orderly but
still full place you've
created. Yeah I think so
too. There's a you know a
kind of a hodge podge
a mix of different plant
material from woodys to
perennials. And then all
the vines on the walls
here that really kind of
soften the space and
it does kind of
give it that sense
of abandonment you're talking
about. And you got several vines
and one in particular,
I was not familiar with.
It's just beautiful. It's
millettia. Millettia purple
flowering evergreen vine.
So it stays green all
Winter long. And not
invasive. Not invasive at
all. It doesn't over seed.
It has a nice full lush,
green color all year. And
that's important because
this is the sunny side
and to think that here
we are on a hot day and
it's still vividly green.
Yeah it doesn't show any
signs at burn it all.
Then going down a little
bit, our wonderful
campsis. That's right.
Campsis radicans. This
one's a yellow flowering
variety. You normally see
the red flowering, but this
one's yellow. It's beautiful.
It's gorgeous. And then you
got a mix of things. You've got
some begonias and even
some roses out there. We've got
some climbing roses here to
continue to give that
vining effect and soften
some of the hardscape.
Then we've got some drift
roses in the landscape here too.
Because in the Summer
they'll still give
you great color? That's right
and they just keep blooming.
So let's talk a
little bit when we come
in you've got a beautiful
fountain, but in this old
building gives a
wonderful contrast.
It's very modern. It is very
modern. It's a modern look
but it kind of matches
the modern look
of the pavers that are in this
space. So it's kind of a nice
mix between old and new. And a
lovely little native
wildflower right in front of it.
That White top sedge. Yes.
Yeah, it's gorgeous we
love it and flanked by
that fabulous upright.
Those papyrus yeah.
They really match a water
feature. You know they're just
meant to be next to the water.
So it's a good match,
too, to have it
anchoring or flanking
that fountain. You've got a
cultivar of magnolia that's
very beautiful. Yeah it's more
of an upright growing
variety. It's called Alta. Of
our regular magnolia.
The southern
evergreen magnolia.
It's called Alta. And it
grows more
fastigate or upright. So it's
good for this smaller space.
Yeah so it can still
represent the southern
magnolia but not have to
take up space. Yeah which it
could easily. And
really take over the
whole space.
One thing that just
surprises me so much is
the use of conifers. This
is a hot harsh environment.
Yeah. Tell me what
you've chosen. Full sun
most of the day, but we
have selected a few
varieties to do well in
the southeast.
Chamaecyparis obtusa
Confucius we have in full
sun. It's got great gold color,
doesn't burn in the sun.
And we've also got a
variety of our native
eastern red cedar it's
called Brodie. Juniperus
Virginiana Brodie.
Takes the full sun, full
heat of the Summer. The color
seems to be more vivid and it
seems to be more compact.
It's more compact and more
upright. And a great place for
wildlife in the Winter for
birds. Yeah. Absolutely!
They create little homes in
nests in the interior of those
trees. And then we've got some
grasses in the front of
that building and then at
the back you've
got a wonderful planting of the
grass. Yeah. It's one of our
native panicums, switch grass.
It's called cloud nine.
And right now it's just
exploding. It creates a great
screen from the parking lot in
the back. And then on the other
side we got a little more
shade and you've got some
wonderful things that
perform well there. Yeah
we've got some variegated
varieties of cast iron
plant. We've got some
Dasylirion. We have some
bamboos. There's a nice
mix of shade material.
Instead of just sitting
under an umbrella, we've
got a wonderful canopy
over us. Yeah I know.
It really it matches
the kind of modern feel
of the pavers and the
fountain.
And it's something
different aside from just
planting a larger shade
tree. Well, and I think it's
fun in a city where
you've got beautiful old
structures to incorporate
and kind of give it a little
Ying and Yang of
contemporary with old. I agree
it gives it a kind of a fresh
look. Something that's
kind of inviting or intriguing.
Y'all have a lot of
great places to eat in
Lake City and we've got a
sculpture of it that
seems to made to
represent spoons and
forks. Yeah, but like
flowers. You know, but
you're right. There are a
lot of great places to
eat but is an interesting
interpretation and it's
quite colorful. It's beautiful.
Another fun thing that
you got is since this was
a theatre, you've
got a theatre marquee out
front. I know we do. It kind
of makes you feel like
you're in a big city or
something like that. Well
and you know what for
small town, Lake City,
South Carolina is kind of
like the big city because
of the diversity and the
wonderful variety of stores and
places to stay, places to eat,
museum's, all kind of cultural
features. If people want to know
more about what's
happening in Lake City
or at Moore Farms Botanical
Garden, how do they do that?
You can visit our website
It's moorefarmsbg.org.
And there's
information there about
events and happenings at
the garden
and special events
in downtown Lake City.
Thank you for spending
the time with us today.
Thank you for having me.
I want to thank all of our
friends
down in Lake
City. Everyone has been
always cooperative with
particularly, our need
in their Bradley Roberts. We
hope that if y'all have a Sunday
afternoon and want to take a
drive there, drive down to
Lake City and look at the
beautiful street plantings and
the plantings around the
building. Terasa,
it's still that vegetable
to grow time of year I
bet somebody
wants to get some
information that Zack might
be able to lead them in the
right direction.
You are correct, Amanda
that we have a first time
vegetable gardener, who
would like some advice.
He and his friends have
started gardening. They said it
feels like it rather expensive
because the seeds seem to be pre
packaged. So looking for
advice on kind of the
start up materials needed
for a garden so that he and his
friends each plant two or
three things and then
share the harvest.
Okay. So, they I guess
they're trying to maybe
grow some transplants and
don't need 50 of them,
but would like to share them.
How do you
get started and what you need
to do that, Zack?
Yeah so what I tell
people
is really is form a group or
network of friends. I
think master gardener is
a great place to start
if you have some extra time on
your hands just a network of
people who are
really into the same
thing and kind of
have the same gardening
fun I guess. But when you
start swapping plants
with people, you know you
can really get into some
of the weirder, you know.
odd and end varieties because as
Terasa said, you know
when you start looking
at these seed catalogs
and ordering online, you might
pay four or five dollars
for 25 seeds of
a tomato. And you know
you might just want one
or two of those tomatoes,
if you're starting your
own plants. So having
friends in the community
where you can grow some
of these are types tomatoes.
I can grow these peppers,
and then you can kind of
swap transplants as a
really good way to go.
I know all my friends
at extension, we every
time we see each other we
trade plants.
This year has been particularly
hard with the virus.
I haven't added as many plants
swaps as normal.
But that's a good procedure,
if you're wanting to
start your own plants, I know
a lot of times big box
stores and local hardware
stores, you're kind of
stuck with the varieties
they have there.
Some of those are pretty
good varieties actually
If you kind of want
to get off the beaten
path and grow more
heirloom type plants and
whatnot. You know ordering
online seed catalogs is a good
idea but you can
start a lot of plants in
your home well just a
fluorescent light,
shop once almost a lot of
people buying those many
greenhouses are just hate
those things. You were talking
about fire ants earlier.
That is a wonderful place for
fire ants. and a lot of times
they're not temperature
regulated. I'm not a big fan
of those.
What you can do
is you can build a little
stand and then you can go
to our store get a light
house, just regular
fluorescent bulbs and get
some seed starting mix
and some trays. And what
you're gonna do is you're
gonna do, the lights are
typically they'll have a
chain with them, if not
you can buy a little chain.
You're gonna take a
fluorescent light and you're
gonna put it right on top
of the plant, over the
soil with your seed
starter in it. As the plants
grow, you're just gonna
keep it above them, maybe an
inch or so.
What this does, is it keeps
the plant stocky and
keeps them growing
towards the light versus put
them in a window sill
where they
tend to stretching and get
leggy. You may never really
good strong healthy plant. Let
me stop you could just a
minute. I have two questions.
Is a seed starting mix
different from potting
soil? Absolutely.
Absolutely so potting
soils typically are
heavier. And they're gonna
have slowly produced
fertilizers in them and they
stay wetter. So you'll
get a lot of damping
off or a lot of
seedling diseases do if you use
potting soil because it
stays that wet. All right.
The seed starting mixes
typically there a lot
lighter. There's a lot
more and then they don't
have the starter
fertilizer. You're not gonna get
as many of those users
because the pathogens are not
gonna stick around
because he's not as wet.
So that is that is a huge
factor in growing strong
open transplant. And then,
the fluorescent light
isn't going to get hot to
the touch who's not
gonna burn is that why we're
using the fluorescent
lights? Correct! Correct! And
you know they're cheap.
You can pick them up anywhere.
But the key is keeping
it right above the plant,
not touching the plant.
But right above the plant.
Yeah right above the plant.
If the plant grows, move the
light. When the plants reach/\
two or three true
leaf stage, what I like
to do is put a best
fan or house fan on em and
it kind of gets
wiggle on them. What that'll do
is it really toughens
them up and gets them ready to
go outside to plant.
Okay so that that's a key
and then the last two
is the start taking them
outside when you get
closer to planting them.
Take them outside for a few
hours and then bring it
back in.
You increase that time spending
outside and
this is called hardening off. So
once you harden off those
plants, set them in a
garden, they're gonna grow
like crazy. So that's kind
of like in the old days
before you realized that
you should not be
any kind of sun tan at all,
people would start off
slowly getting the tan and then
staying a bit longer.
Is that right correct?
Correct. Same thought process
Okay. But the fan you
just want to
have it moving very slightly.
You don't want to dry them out
or anything, just very
gentle fan. Correct.
Correct. You
just to kind of move like
this way a little bit.
What it's
gonna do is put a lot of
carbohydrates and sugars
and things they're making in
the stem or trunk of a plant.
And the stem is a little woody
be almost like a little
twig. That's when you
know the plants ready
to go out in the field.
All righty. Thank you so
much. Greenwood, South Carolina
has beautiful gardens all
over town. One that's
a favorite was a
pollinator garden. And
they also use that as a
research station. Rusty
Wilson is a citizen
scientist. And he's going
to explain how he
documents and takes lots
are numerical factors about,
gets a lot of
numerical data about the
monarchs that they
attract at that garden.
I'm in downtown Greenwood,
South Carolina speaking
with Rusty Wilson who is a
Clemson Master Gardener
and also a citizen
scientist. And we're in a
beautiful and kind of
unusual garden for a
downtown city. Yes ma'am.
This is the Greenwood
County Veterans Center
Pollinator Garden. It's a
pollinator garden because
flowers have been planted
to attract pollinators
such as bees, butterflies
and things of that nature.
It is also been
designated a monarch
waystation because the
monarchs that migrate
between Canada and the
northern part of the
United States will come
through here on their way
to Mexico and back again.
And this is a waystation
for them to stock to
nectar and lay eggs.
And so you plant specific
plants for the eggs
to be laid on, the
larvae to eat, I believe.
Yes, that would
be the milk weed. The
milkweed is planted for
the monarch butterflies
for that reason. And I'm
involved in a citizen
science project
for the monarch larva
monitoring project which
is a citizen science
project sponsored by the
University of Minnesota.
And what I do is I count
all of the milkweed in the
garden.
Yes. And as I'm counting
the milkweed, I'm also
counting all of the
butterflies that I see.
And when I'm counting the
butterflies I'm
talking about all of the stages
of the monarch butterfly
life cycle, after which I
will report that to the
monarch larva monitoring
project lab website. And what
are the stages?
Well, there's the egg.
Yes. The egg
hatches into a larva
also known as a
caterpillar. And that
larva will shed its skin
several times. And each
time it shed its skin,
it's in a different stage.
It's called an instar. It has
five instars in
that larval
stage, after which it will
go. It will pupate,
which means it will
spend a chrysalis,
which will encompass the
the insect. And while it's
pupating, it will
transform into an adult.
When it transforms into
an adult, it will after
about one to two weeks, it
will emerge as an
adult and it will
fly south presumably. And
you say they come through
sporadically, but
basically two times of
the year. The Fall and the
Spring. And so perhaps in
the Spring they're going
from their Winter home
towards the north? Yes. And
then in the Fall,
coming back down. And you
said that there's not a -
we're trying to
figure out where
they're concentrated so that we
can be more mindful of
protecting them. Is that
one of the reasons
to collect this data? And
find out where they are
actually in the country?
Yeah this status is to
help us to
get more knowledge about
the butterfly
distribution and
abundance. And hopefully
with that knowledge, we
can inform and inspire
people to take butterfly
conservation more seriously.
I've asked you if you
had to change your
eyeglass prescription
because you took me
around to show me how
you look for things. And these
are very small. And you
have to look under every
leaf in a long cases.
I'm looking at each leaf. When
a monarch lays its eggs
more often than not, it's
going to lay its
eggs underneath the leaf.
So I'm having to look
underneath the leaves to
find the eggs. Also many
of the larval stages are
going to be
underneath the leaves. The thing
is that's not exclusive,
because I have found some
eggs laid on top and some
larval on top. Well, I
wanna to thank you for a
very time consuming but
important part of the
research that's going to try
to help us understand how
better to keep this
beautiful insect as part
of our natural
surroundings. Thank you.
♪
Rusty Wilson has amazing
knowledge and ability to
spot things.
We were really impressed and
he has been invaluable to
the city chamber in
providing information to
the monarch alliance. Terasa,
we have about two and a half
minutes left is there
something Laura Lee maybe
can help us with in that
amount of time?
I think so. A viewer is having
trouble with her palm
trees saying they just
don't look as healthy as
they used to. She's seen
fertilizer that says
it specially made for
palms. And she wants to know
should she use that.
Laura Lee people package
things up in
lots of different ways.
Is this a good
way to do it or should
we kind of be like those
Clemson Extension people and say
go do a soil test.
There are some nutritional
deficiencies
that affect palm trees. So the
soil test does take the guess
work out but the
symptomatic problems,
you'll see certain called
from frizzle or you'll
see yellowing leaves on the
old or you may see problems
with the new growth.
But the soil test will really
take that guess work out.
- and magnesium and
potassium are all
really important for the growth
of healthy palm trees.
So palm fertilizer is better
than no fertilizer. Okay! So if
that's all you can manage.
But just do
follow the directions and
don't over-fertilize.
Correct!. And I think the same
thing goes with
watering too. People
really should have a rain
gauge. And what do they
think about an inch a
week is about
normal, Laura Lee? - plants with
new transplants you give
a little more but
and using native plants
that are drought tolerant.
And I'm although we know
fall is the best time to
plant, a lot of
people just can't resist
bringing things home now.
And they will have to
supply supplemental
irrigation. And if you
don't have tree bags
Laura Lee, sometimes I've
just gotten a five gallon
buckets and drew a little
hole or two in
the bottom. And then
it may
not be attractive but
it's better than a dead plant.
What do you think?
Yes. Small holes seep out
over time. And then you
know how much water you
actually delivered to the plant.
Well I think I'm gonna
have to stop you there
and say thanks to each
and every one of you for
answering questions and
give information to our
viewers tonight. Thank you
and thank you all for watching.
We'll be with you again
next week. We'll have more
beautiful gardens, more
answers to questions. And
I hope you enjoy the evening.
Night. Night. everybody.
♪
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