>> Horticulturist at Monches

Farm in Colgate, Wisconsin.

And how many of you have been to

Monches Farm?

Very nice.

Thank you.

I appreciate that.

For those of you who haven't,

we're about an hour drive from

here, about 30 miles northwest

of downtown Milwaukee.

We've been growing perennials

for 33 years now.

We grow about 2,000 varieties of

hardy field-grown perennials as

well as unusual annuals and

tropicals.

We also have a gift shop with

antiques, and we do custom dried

floral design and that sort of

thing.

We're on a rustic designated

Wisconsin Rustic Road.

It's really a beautiful drive

out there.

So I'd love to have you come

visit us sometime.

We present our plants in kind of

a unique way in that we plant,

we pot up the plants, we sink

the pot in the ground, and they

stay in the ground there until

they go home with a gardener.

So our plants are all out there

in the sales yard now.

We do cover them with straw for

the winter months.

As soon as things thaw in the

spring, we'll be raking the

straw off, and you will know

that plant has already been

through a Wisconsin winter when

you take it home to your garden.

So what we're going to be

talking about today is common

mistakes beginning perennial

gardeners make and how to avoid

them.

And I hate to start with soil

because I know that for so many

people soil is just a snoozer,

and you kind of lose people

right from the get-go.

But it is absolutely the

foundation of developing a good

perennial garden.

And it's one of the few mistakes

that you can't easily go back

and correct after the fact.

So in planning you garden, it

really makes sense to get the

soil prepared correctly because

you're going to have such a more

satisfactory experience.

No matter how wonderful the

plants are that you put into

your garden, if you don't have

good soil, you're not going to

have success and it's not going

to be a good experience for you.

So, how do you go about figuring

out how to amend the soil?

First you want to know what your

existing soil is.

And the soil is determined by

the underlying bedrock.

And the fact that we have had

glaciation in southern Wisconsin

really makes that kind of a

complicated situation.

I live in West Bend, and on the

south side of town the soil is

very clay and loam and on the

north side of town it's very

sandy.

So don't assume that your soil

is the same as your friend or

your neighbor just because they

live in you proximity.

It really, soil types can vary

greatly within a very small

locality because of the

glaciation.

The basic types of soil that

you'll find in this area are

sandy soil, which these things

are sort of obvious, but the

soil particles are very large so

the roots can grow very readily

through them.

Plants actually love to grow in

sand and grow very well in sand.

The problem is that nutrients

and moisture passes very readily

through sandy soil.

So you need to constantly be

supplementing those if you're

growing in a real sandy soil.

On the opposite extreme, you

have the clay soil, which has

very small soil particles, tends

to hold water, and tends to

become very waterlogged.

It's also very difficult for

roots to penetrate, particularly

when it dries.

It can become almost like

concrete.

But it is a more nutrient rich

soil than the sandy soil.

And the way that you would take

either of these extremes and

make them into the ideal garden

soil, which is loam, would be by

adding organic matter.

Either to clay soil or to sandy

soil, the addition of organic

matter is going to give you your

desirable end soil, which is

loam.

Some people think if you take a

clay soil and you add sand that

makes it drain more readily.

In fact, it doesn't.

It actually worsens the

situation.

So if you are going to bring in

new soil, and this is what we

often do with our beds.

I don't know if I have a pointer

on here or not.

I don't think I do.

But we prepare the garden bed,

and then we actually bring in

and berm up with introduced

soil.

And if you're purchasing soil,

you want to make sure you don't

buy just what is often called

brown topsoil or black topsoil

because a lot of times you're

going to just be buying in what

you already have as your native

soil.

So you really want to buy in a

blended mix.

And if you are working with a

reputable dealer and you tell

them what you're after, they can

help you pick out what that mix

is.

It's going to vary depending

upon who the distributor is.

But, basically, you want soil

that's actually mixed with some

sort of organic matter, some

sort of compost.

We sometimes actually start with

a plant starter mix, which is

usually used for nurseries, to

establish our beds.

And if you are going to be

adding to your existing soil,

you want to bring in organic

matter.

And we have found that the

absolute best compost we can

purchase is what's called

mushroom compost.

And in the Milwaukee area, we

get it from a place called

Certified Products in New

Berlin, but I'm sure it's

available other places also.

It is just phenomenal stuff.

If you mix your organic matter

with your native soil about

one-third to two-thirds, you

till that in, you just get

amazing performance from your

plants.

If you want to know what you

have in terms of nutrient

content and that sort of thing

in your existing soil, the best

thing to do is to take a soil

sample.

And because the soil can really

vary even within your own piece

of property, you usually are

going to want to take a number

of soil samples from throughout

your property and submit them to

the UW Soil Testing Lab.

I didn't print out handouts for

today, but all this information,

you don't have to write down

these websites and stuff because

all this information is

available on our website,

MonchesFarm.com.

If you go to the latest news

page, there's a link to a three-

or four-page handout that has

all this information on it that

you can print out.

So if you send your soil into

the UW Soil Testing Lab, they're

going to tell you what the

nutrient content is, what the pH

is, and what they would

recommend in terms of additions.

And there are many, many soil

nutrients, but the three that

are considered the primary

nutrients because they are most

used by plants and they move

most readily through the soil

and therefore are the ones that

you most frequently have to

supplement are nitrogen,

phosphorus, and potassium.

And when you see a fertilizer

bag and it has the three

numbers, 10, 10, 10 or 10, 25,

or whatever, those are what the

three numbers are.

The first number is nitrogen,

the second number is phosphorus,

and the last number is

potassium.

The nitrogen tends to push a lot

of leafy growth.

So that's why lawn fertilizers

will have a high first number.

If you're emphasis is on growing

fruit or on trying to produce

blossoms, usually you're looking

for a higher middle number

because the phosphorus is what

affects that type of growth.

Although, our native soils in

Wisconsin do tend to naturally

be quite high in phosphorus.

And the potassium just sort of

is for overall plant health.

Soil pH is another

consideration.

This, just like the soil type,

is determined by the underlying

bedrock.

So again, in southern Wisconsin

where we have limestone, our

soils tend to be very alkaline.

You get a little bit more

acidity in the northern part of

the state.

And this affects the type of

plants you grow.

Plants that like to grow in a

more acidic soil, just a couple

examples here, rhododendron and

blueberries, are unable to pick

up the nutrients they need out

of a more alkaline soil.

So they do not tend to thrive.

And that's why these plants

you'll struggle to succeed with.

Another thing, and many people

have some awareness of this but

maybe a little bit of

misunderstanding of the plants

that are influenced, sometimes

the flower color can be

influenced by soil pH.

In very, very few plants the big

leaf hydrangeas or the Hydrangea

macrophylla, which are the ones

that can produce the blue flower

heads, those ones will change

color depending upon the soil

acidity.

They'll be blue in acid soil;

they'll be pink in alkaline

soil.

And that's why oftentimes if you

buy one of these at the nursery

and it's blue when you get it,

it may be pink in future years,

if it blooms at all, quite

frankly, because many of them

don't tend to be bud hardy here.

But that does not apply to the

other two species of hydrangea

that you frequently see.

The snowball type, Hydrangea

arborescens and the Hydrangea

paniculata, which is the fall

blooming one.

Those two, they're going to be

white, fading to green or rose

color regardless of the soil

acidity.

But a lot of people want to try

to grow blueberries or they want

to try to get that blue

hydrangea color, and you can

supplement the soils with

aluminum sulfate to make them

more acidic.

But I really think probably the

best approach is to grow plants

that are better adapted the

growing in the soil that you

actually have.

You're almost fighting a losing

battle to try to be constantly

changing the soil pH around that

plant.

It can be done, but it's sort of

a short-term fix.

So moving on from soils, putting

a garden or a plant in the wrong

place.

So the solution to this,

obviously, you want to evaluate

your site and you want to

research your plant selection.

Your site considerations would

be number one, which we already

talked about.

The soil type, the pH, and the

nutrient content.

The sun exposure, the moisture

levels, and then what I'm

calling special considerations.

So, sun exposure, a lot of

people say I don't have full sun

in that spot, thinking that full

sun means that there is not one

bit of shade, it's blasting sun

all day.

Full sun for a plant really

means five or more hours of sun

a day.

So you have a lot more

versatility than I think a lot

of people think and think

they're restricted to shade

plants if they don't have that

really truly full sun all day.

If you have five or more hours,

that is full sun as far as the

plant is concerned.

And three to five hours, partial

shade, two to three hours,

shade, and zero to two hours is

dense shade.

And you really also want to

consider the source of the

shade.

If you're underneath a tree,

depending upon the density of

the canopy cover, underneath a

locust tree, there may be

dappled light throughout the day

down there.

Underneath a maple tree, it's

quite dense, but the worst shade

to try to deal with is that

that's cast by structures or by

buildings.

So on the north side of the

house, there may literally be no

sun that ever hits that spot,

and that certainly becomes a

challenge in plant selection.

Moisture levels, drainage

issues, and access to water.

There may be an area, certainly

this has to do with your soil

type also, but if there's an

area that floods in the spring,

you're going to want to have

plants that can tolerate that,

being submerged for some period

of time.

If there's an area that's very

dry, a slope that drains really

quickly.

But lastly, and I think some

people don't think about this,

access to water.

How readily can you get your

hose to that spot?

It's a lot easier to water

plants that are right in your

foundation planting, but if

you're going to put your

perennial garden way at the back

of your property, you're going

to have to put three lengths of

hose on in order to get to it,

you're probably not going to

water it as frequently as you

really need to.

So think about access to water

also.

And special considerations could

be many, many things, but some

of the most prominent that I run

into, number one, high winds.

We do tend to get a lot of high

winds running across what used

to be the prairie here in

southern Wisconsin.

So plants that have sort of

tender stems that might not

withstand those winds, you want

to have sturdy stem perennials

for a windy site or possibly

some sort of screening.

Areas where kids or dogs are

running.

If there's going to be a lot of

foot traffic, you definitely are

going to want to pick plants

that can take a little bit of

abuse.

And salt runoff, if it's next to

a walkway or a driveway and

you're going to have salt

running off, you really want to

consider, number one, there are

products that you can use,

different alternatives for

deicing besides salt.

But if you are going to be using

salt, you may want to select

plants for those areas that have

higher salt tolerance.

And we do have a number of

special use lists on our

website, again MonchesFarm.com.

It's a this and that page, and I

did put a link to that page on

our latest news section also.

If you want to access some of

these lists, these are lists of

plants that are salt tolerant,

plants that are drought

tolerant, plants that will grow

in a wet site, perennials.

Another common mistake is

planting invasive plants.

How many of you know what the

plant is that's in that picture?

Well, this is what's called

Lysimachia clethroides or

gooseneck loosestrife.

Now, we all know of the pink

loosestrife as an invasive

plant, actually illegal to grow

in this state.

That's Lycknis salicaria.

It's actually a completely

unrelated plant, but they just

happen to have the same common

name, and we're going to talk

about botanical nomenclature

later also.

But this is a beautiful plant.

It has that kind of gooseneck

shaped flower.

It's really very pretty lovely

cut flower.

And when I was first introduced

to this plant, I was told, oh,

it's so great because it weaves

the garden together.

Well, indeed it does.

[LAUGHTER]

And I think a lot of times

people, when they start out

gardening, they're really drawn

to some of these plants that

tend to be invasive.

And I think there's a couple

reasons for that.

Number one, a lot of times

beginning gardeners start out by

obtaining their plants at plant

exchanges.

And there's a lot of nice plants

at plant exchanges, but you

really need to be knowledgeable

about what you're acquiring

there because a lot of times the

reason the plant is at the plant

exchange is because that person

had a whole bunch of it in their

yard.

And so a lot of times there's

some not really great plants at

those plant exchanges.

Plus, when you come into the

nursery and the plant that most

appeals to you is the one that

just looks so gorgeous and big

and full and healthy in the pot,

well, again, those oftentimes

are the plants that are very

aggressive.

And these are kind of the catch

words you'll want to look for in

signage or in catalogs are

vigorous, enthusiastic, or

eager.

You might want to steer away

from those plants.

[LAUGHTER]

And this plant that we're seeing

here in the pot, this is taken

at Monches Farm.

This is a plant that we sell.

It is actually a plant that I

really like.

It's called a mountain mint,

Pycnanthemum.

It's actually a native prairie

plant.

But you see what it's doing.

It's trying to leap out of the

pot, and you can see that's how

it's going to grow.

Many members of the mint family

do grow this way.

So it's a fine plant, but you

need to have an awareness going

in of what the behavior of that

plant is going to be and do you

want that in that site.

There are two kinds of plants

that can be invasive.

One are plants that run from the

roots like this, and the other

are plants that seed.

And I actually find the plants

that seed a little easier to

deal with because if you get in

there and you dead-head them,

you don't have so much of that

issue.

Plus, you can pull out the

seedlings.

These ones that run can really

be terrible because they get

into your other perennials and

they're coming up 20 feet away

and I have a little more of a

problem with those.

But just as with the plant

exchanges, be a little bit

cautious about generous

neighbors who are sharing things

with you because oftentimes it's

the plants that they have way

too much of.

And when you go to the nursery,

try to shop at nurseries that

have knowledgeable staff that

can help you with your plant

selection.

And there's lots of wonderful

nurseries represented here at

the Garden Expo so it's a great

starting point.

Another mistake: buying all of

your plants at once and not

remembering about the change of

seasons.

And I see this a lot.

People come in, they decide

they're going to put in a

perennial garden so they come in

in May, and they buy all the

really pretty plants in May.

Well, what are you going to

pick?

You're going to pick all the

plants that are blooming in May.

So you're going to have a really

nice garden in May, you might

have a nice garden going into

June, but there's absolutely

nothing going on in July,

August, September, October.

Most perennials, in exchange for

them living year to year, bloom

for two to three weeks.

Some of them will bloom as long

as six weeks.

Those are the really long

blooming ones.

So you really have to make sure

you're selecting plants that are

going to be blooming over the

course of the entire season.

And here's just looking at the

same garden in different seasons

to see how things change over

the course of the season.

You want something going on

throughout the season.

So, how do you get away from

that mistake?

Number one, give yourself a few

years to build your garden.

You don't have to plant it all

that first year.

That way you can experiment with

plants.

You can buy one or two of this.

And ideally they say, well, you

want to have sweeps of plants.

You want to have three or five.

That's fine and ultimately

that's true, but I think when

you're really starting out it's

not a bad idea to buy one of

these, one of these.

Put them in, see how they grow

in your area, see how you like

them, and see how they thrive

and if you want to add to them.

So do give yourself a number of

years.

Allow yourself to fill in the

empty spaces with annuals those

first years.

Sometimes people, and I'm going

to talk about this too, they're

very purist.

No, we only want perennials; we

don't want any annuals.

Well, some annuals really are

very flamboyant, and they

necessarily partner better with

some of the more subtle beauty

of perennials.

But there are a lot of really

nice more sort of understated

annuals that will combine nicely

with your perennial garden.

So think about filling in your

spaces those first few years

with those annuals.

Shop throughout the year.

So go to the nursery in May, but

go again in June.

Go again in July.

Go once a month, once every six

weeks, and buy a couple of

plants that are blooming during

each visit so that you know

you're going to have something

blooming every month of the year

in your garden.

This will only work if you go to

a nursery that's actually, like

Monches or any other higher

quality perennial nursery, where

they're actually kind of growing

the plants in situ and you're

being able to see how they

behave.

If you go to the Kmart, you

don't know.

They brought that stuff in.

You don't know if it's actually

blooming on its regular

schedule, etc.

And, excellent, go to garden

tours and botanic gardens.

Botanic gardens are great

because they have a lot of

signage with a lot of

information.

But garden tours are possibly

the best because you're, at a

botanic gardens they have paid

staff that are out there taking

care of the plants.

They're obviously going to look

their best.

When you go to another home

gardener on a garden tour,

you're seeing what's actually

growing in a home gardener's

backyard in your area, and

what's looking good.

You can talk to the person about

their experience.

Garden tours are really

fantastic.

And we do publish a list every

summer of garden tours in the

Milwaukee area on our website.

And include bulbs.

Bulbs are a great way to extend

the season to the extremes in

both directions.

Starting as early as March with

things like the snowdrops.

And this is called glory of the

snow.

This also oftentimes comes right

up through the snow in March and

April.

A couple of scenes we're going

to look at here where you think

what would you be looking at in

that garden if those bulbs

weren't there.

And the answer is nothing.

It would just be brown earth.

So here are the winter aconites

and the Puschkinia.

This is probably early April.

And this whole area that you see

there, that's all Corydalis

bulbosa.

It's a bulbous type of

Corydalis.

Many of you may be familiar with

the yellow blooming one.

This one has a lavender flower.

Most of these bulbs then go very

quickly dormant.

So they're completely gone by

the time your perennials come

up.

So they just give you a whole

other season of color.

Another advantage to these

really early season bulbs is

that this area, the leaves

aren't out on the trees yet.

So this area will be a shaded

area during the growing season,

but it's sun in the spring.

So you can get a lot of color

very, very early in the season

in what you might think of as

your shade garden where you're

not thinking you can get a lot

of color because it's sun at the

time of year when these plants

are actively growing.

And again, just think of that

scene if you didn't have that

bulb there.

It would just be brown earth.

Crocuses, of course, we're all

familiar with.

Now, going to the other end of

the season.

This is surprise lily.

It has a number of interesting

common names.

Surprise lily, resurrection

lily, naked ladies.

What it does is it comes up in

the spring with green strap-like

foliage, which many people don't

even notice.

They don't even know the plant

has leaves because it's at a

time there's a lot of other

things going on in the garden.

And then in the fall, late

summer, early fall, it has these

tall stems that come up with

these amaryllis type flowers.

And just as with the early

season bulbs, this will grow in

quite a bit of shade.

And it's just really a fun

plant.

And it's nice to have, sometimes

the gardens are starting to look

a little tired as you get later

in the season.

It's nice to have something

fresh and new coming up that

late in the season.

This would be August into

September.

And it partners, because it will

grow in the shade, it partners

real well with hostas, and if

you interplant it with hostas,

it will come up through the

hosta foliage, and we do have a

beautiful big hosta at the farm

with one of these planted

underneath it.

And people are always asking us

in the autumn what that variety

of hosta is.

[LAUGHTER]

And another one that's really,

really late, this is well into

October, is the Colchicum.

It's often called autumn crocus,

but it's not in fact a true

crocus.

Again, it comes up with the

green leaves in the spring, and

then those die down.

There's nothing there in the

summer so you might want to mark

this and make sure you're not

putting your spade through it.

But this plant just has these

beautiful, and they're large.

The flowers are about this big.

So they look like a crocus, but

they're quite large.

And they're really spectacular

at that time of year when

everything else is kind of

slowing down and getting ready

to quit and this is coming up

fresh and new.

A couple years ago I had a gal

come in and she said, you know,

I'm really disappointed in you

guys.

I can't believe that you have

artificial flowers out in the

garden.

[LAUGHTER]

And this is a double blooming

form called waterlily.

A mistake: not checking the

hardiness zones.

The USDA plant hardiness zone.

Each plant is given a rating in

what zones it's hardy in.

Basically, we in this area are,

in Madison you're probably four

and in Milwaukee we're five.

So you want to know is that

plant hardy to that zone.

We write all of our own signage

at the farm, and we do try to

indicate the hardiness, but some

plants, and we grow most of our

plants, but some plants we do

buy because we can't get these

great, big tropical plants.

We can't grow those to maturity

in a financially realistic way

in our climate.

So we buy in a lot of these

tropicals from the west coast.

And they come in with tags in

the pot.

They're oftentimes a picture

tag, so we'll leave that tag in

there.

And the customers will read it

and it will say perennial on it

because it is perennial in

California where it was grown.

But if you look closely, those

tags will also, they always will

have the zone on them.

And it will say perennial zone

eight.

Well, then you know it's not

going to be perennial here.

But that's a really common

mistake people make, especially

when you're shopping at the big

box stores.

You see the tag, it says

perennial, and so you think it's

a perennial.

Well, it is, but it's not

perennial in Wisconsin in zone

four or five.

Mistake: weeding out perennial

plants and nurturing weeds.

With perennials it can be

challenging because they're not

blooming all the time like an

annual.

You do have to kind of learn

what they look like and know

that's a desirable plant.

That's another advantage of

building your garden a little

bit slowly rather than putting

everything in all at once.

If you take your time, you put a

little bit of this and a little

bit of that, you kind of get to

know those plants as you grow

with them.

But there are other ways you can

deal with this.

A really good solution is

labeling plants.

Labeling your perennials as you

put them in.

If you're planting a number of

them, label at least one so that

you know that plant that looks

like that is supposed to be

there.

And there's a number of ways to

label plants.

You can just put the little

plastic tag that came with them

in their pot in the ground next

to them.

That will work, certainly for

the first season.

But we really like these zinc

garden labels.

And there's a number of ways to

use them.

What I like best are these

little handheld label makers.

They're basically like a

miniature laser printer.

And if you get the clear label

with black on them and then they

have an adhesive on the back,

you'll get a label that looks

like this here.

It's a really professional

looking label, and many of them,

these can last up to a decade.

They really last forever.

If you have a laser printer at

home, you can print these on

your computer.

But most of us have inkjet

printers.

If you have an inkjet printer,

as soon as it gets wet that will

run off.

You can also write on these zinc

tags with any type of permanent

marker, whether it be a Sharpie

or a paint pen.

They have permanent pencils.

But no matter what you use to

write on them, they always fade

on the front.

So what we do if we're going to

have to write on them, we write

on the back too so that once

that front fades, you've still

got it written on the back, you

know what it is, you can rewrite

it on the front again.

And then you may want to know

what the five or six most

problematic weeds in your area

are.

I could have a whole talk on

Wisconsin weeds, but the only

one I'm going to specifically

talk about is the garlic

mustard.

The garlic mustard is a biennial

plant, meaning that the first,

it lives for two years, the

first year it puts up its

foliage, does not bloom.

The second year it comes up,

then it blooms, sets seed, and

the cycle starts over again.

It's a very, very problematic

plant in Wisconsin and

throughout the Midwest.

It's completely wiping out some

of our native woodland

vegetation areas.

So if you have it on your

property, you do need to make an

effort to get rid of it.

When it's in the vegetative

state the first year, you can

apply herbicide to it.

Although it does require

frequent applications.

A single application won't kill

it.

Or you can pull it.

When it's in the blooming year,

when it's in the second year,

you need to pull it and you

can't, even if you pull it real

early before the flowers have

all set, it's very adaptable.

That's usually how weeds become

weeds.

They're very adaptable.

It can set seed, if you pull

that plant and through it aside

to dry, it looks like it's dead,

it still can set viable seed.

So you need to bag and remove

these plants.

Either burn them or bag them and

get them off the property.

The garbage men will take them.

You do need to label them

invasive plant material, and

they'll take your black bags of

these.

So don't pull it and throw it on

the ground the way you can with

most weeds.

It was introduced intentionally,

as many weeds and exotic animals

that become problematic are,

because it's an herb.

It has a garlic flavor to it.

You can eat it.

It's actually quite tasty.

So if you want to harvest it in

its first year stage when the

leaves are young, just as you

would want to harvest most

edible plants, in an area on

your property that you know has

not been sprayed with

herbicides, you can make a great

pesto out of it.

And we have a recipe on our

website, again on the

This and That page.

Then if you want to have an idea

what some of the other really

common weeds are, there's lots

of great websites out there.

I just did a quick search and

this is one that I found that I

thought was very well done for

identifying weeds.

It's the National Gardening

Association.

Again, all this information is

on the handout.

>> Which handout?

>> The handout that you can find

on our website.

And mistake: not considering

native wildlife.

We have, I imagine you have it

here, certainly in the Milwaukee

area, a tremendous problem with

deer.

And rabbits vary from year to

year.

Their population really is very

cyclic.

Down in the bottom is some

tulips.

We don't do tulips at all

anymore because they're such a

good plant.

They're really, really tasty.

And we've even had customers

that have had their dogs dig up

their tulip bulbs and eat them

because they really are good.

[LAUGHTER]

The solution is planting deer

and rabbit resistant plants.

And you'll find a list, again on

our website, on the this and

that page, but as a basic rule

of thumb, the plants that the

deer and rabbits don't like to

eat are plants with silver

foliage, plants that are very

highly scented, so most herbs or

members of the mint family they

will not like to eat.

As a general rule, they don't

eat Allium, the ornamental

onions, although we have had

years when they have done that,

and plants that are toxic.

And those are the ones you

probably wouldn't know off the

top of your head so it's handy

to have a list of those things

like the Digitalis or foxglove,

the Helleborus, the lenten rose,

the Aconitum are plants that are

actually toxic, and the animals

know that and they don't eat

them.

If there are certain plants you

love and you want to grow

despite the fact that you know

that deer like to eat them, then

you might want to consider

spraying repellents.

Most repellents that are on the

market are effective, but they

have to be reapplied frequently.

Most of them tend to be rather

on the expensive side, and the

active ingredient, if you will,

in most of them is egg.

So you can actually make a very

effective deer repellent

yourself for free.

And this recipe, again, is on

the handout.

But it's just eggs, milk, oil,

and used hot chili oil just as

that extra taste deterrent, and

dishwashing liquid which makes

it stick to the foliage.

You have to let that ferment.

What I do is I save the empty

milk carton with just that

little bit of milk in the

bottom, add the rest of the

ingredients, and just fill it up

with water, set it some place to

become fragrant for a week or

so, and then I screen it through

a little sieve and then I put a

nylon stocking or something on

the sieve and pour that into my

sprayer so you don't get any

lumps that are going to clog up

your sprayer.

It smells really terrible, but

that's the idea.

And it's very effective, and it

usually lasts a couple of weeks.

It does last through rain.

Deer are deterred mostly by

scent, rabbits more by taste.

So it's the hot pepper element

that is effective for the

rabbits.

So if it's rabbits you're trying

to get rid of or trying to

discourage, then you want to

make sure and include that hot

pepper element.

Mistake: being too much of a

purist.

I kind of touched on this before

with I only want to do

perennials, I don't want to have

any annuals.

A lot of times people will come

in starting out, they only want

pastel flowers.

That's very, very common with

beginner gardeners.

They don't want any yellow, any

orange.

And a lot of the longest

blooming plants, actually a lot

of the longest blooming

perennials do have yellow

flowers.

And when I start, I was a huge

daylily collector for many, many

years.

And at one point I had about

400 varieties of daylilies in my

garden, and I wanted all the

pastels.

That's what I wanted.

I wanted cream and pink and

lemon, and somebody gave me as a

gift an orange daylily.

And I thought, oh, but I put it

in my garden and I found I kept

looking at that place where that

orange daylily was.

That's where my eye was drawn.

And then I shifted, and now I

have a lot of those really

vibrant colors because they

really add a lot of zing to the

garden.

If you just have a garden that's

all pastels, it's not exciting.

It's not fun.

And also, all white.

So many have all white.

They can't have anything that's

not white.

So be creative.

Let yourself experiment and try

some other things.

Don't lock yourself in to what

your original idea may have

been.

Mistake: needing to have the