FM Talk 1065 Podcasts
Plain Living w/Bill FInch 10.13.2024 "Time To Plant"
It's time for "Plane Living" for Alabama and the Gulf Coast. With nationally recognized nature writer and award-winning horticulture and nature expert, Bill Finch. Bill shares his knowledge of conservation, natural history, and gardening. Let's talk about living and growing in the deep south, with your personal garden and nature consultant. Here's Bill Finch on FMTalk1065. Good and cool temperatures are filtering down. It's one of those times of the year when there's not much difference in temperature between what's happening in the Tennessee Valley and North Alabama and the Gulf Coast. It's kind of amazing. It's going to be like in the upper 30s, low 40s from one end of the state to the other by mid-week. Some of you are going to have to worry about frost. There's a little bit about that this morning. But that's also a good signal that falls coming on. And this is the big planting time of year. This is the time of year when, actually, you ought to be doing more planting than any other time of year. Don't be fooled into that spring planting myth. We do spring planting all year long in the south. And that's important to understand. You've got seasons of planting that go on every month. Don't just do everything in March. In fact, March is usually the worst time to do most planting. That's the truth. It's the worst time. April, maybe even worse. You've got shrubs and trees. This is the time of year to do it. It's very important. This is in Minnesota. We don't have harsh winters here. And so these plants can kind of get settled in. They don't need a lot of water. It makes it very easy. Grasses. You've got your lawn obsessed. I'm not saying you should be tearing up your lawn and replacing it. But if you do, this is the time of year to do it. This is the time of year to do it. Coming up, we'll talk about why. But a couple of things, since it is planting time that you need to know, the Mobile Botanical Gardens Plant Sales coming up the end of this week. That's a very important thing. You're going to be hearing a lot more about it, actually, on the 23rd. Excuse me. So let's, we're going to be getting ready for that. Thursday through Saturday that week, the 23rd. Not, not this week, not next weekend, but the 23rd. So we'll be getting ready for that. But you also need to give you a refresher course. And I've noticed this lately. Sometimes I forget to refresh your memory. And I know we have some new listeners who may not have heard me go on about this before. But let's go on about something very important right now. And that important thing is, how do you plant? How do you plant in the south? And I think the first thing I want to tell you is, get the season right. Shrubs and trees. Shrubs and trees. This is the time of year to do it. Most perennials. This is the time of year to do it. Unless it's tropical like citrus or subtropical like citrus or some tropical plants. Don't do those this time of year. That would be a mistake. You've got questions about what's tropical, what's not, you can call me. Don't do those. But everything else is going to be planted this time of year. First thing, get the season right. The second thing is, when you plant something, this ain't a funeral. You're not burying a corpse. You're putting a plant in the ground. That's right. And plants don't need to be buried deeply. They want to be right on the surface. And this is incredibly important, incredibly important in our climate. Here's why. And just so you can dramatize how big a deal this is. Plant roots need to breathe. They need water, yes, but they need to breathe. There's lots of processes in the soil and processes associated with what the roots do that need oxygen. Think about that. So oxygen has to diffuse from the air into the soil. And down about 12 inches, it gets very hard for oxygen to penetrate, particularly in some of the really ugly soils that we have around our houses. You also need space for the air to move out of the soil as well. So when you plant too deep, when you plant too deep, you basically drown the plant. The plant will not have enough oxygen to survive. And that can happen even if it's dry, which is the odd part. It's basically, it's had its oxygen supply cut off. It's had its gas exchange supply cut off. It can't function if it's planted too deep. So the most important thing you need to remember after getting the season right is that you want to plant almost everything you do here along the Gulf Coast. You want it to be sitting and throughout Alabama, you want it to be sitting high. You may even, particularly plants that come in buckets, containers, pots, whatever you want to call them. They're going to have most of their roots concentrated in the bottom of the pot. And there's some crazy reasons for that. And that means if you want those roots to be in contact with oxygen when they get to the soil, you've got to raise the pot up so that the roots, where there's the greatest concentration in the soil, you've got to raise the pot up. So that the roots, where there's the greatest concentration of roots, you see what I'm saying, is near the surface. So one of the things we say in the South is even leave a little bit of, if you imagine you've taken that plant out of the container, it's got some soil there. Think of that soil that the plant is in as like a cork and you're trying to stuff it back into a wine bottle. And you can't get it all the way in. You never do. You always got a little bit of cork left above the top of the wine bottle. That's what you want with that plant when you put it in the soil. Make sure that plant sits a little bit above the native soil level. Whatever that native soil level was, make sure that the container soil sits a little bit above that. And that way you can be sure that you're not planting too deep. And a lot of problems we're seeing lately that I've been talking about on the show have to do with plants that were planted too deep. Don't plant too deep. This isn't a funeral folks. You're planting a plant. You're not burying a corpse. That plant is alive. It needs oxygen and it needs to be close. The roots need to be close to the surface. That's the message, really important message for planting. Are there any exceptions to that? Yeah, they're minor. We'll talk about them later, but basically it's true for every plant you plant. Do that. Keep it. Keep that soil. Keep that plant so that its roots are very close to the surface. Or even the top part of the root in the container is slightly above the soil surface. If I go on about this enough, I can't say it enough because it's one of the big problems we have. It's making sure. Now what else do you do? Well, there's some other things when you plant. We'll talk about them. I want you to get that image of that cork sitting above the top of the bottle. That's what you want the soil in your container to look like. So do you need to add stuff to the soil? No. This is really important. You add stuff on top of the soil. So if that cork is sticking a little bit above the bottle, you can bring organic matter or mulch up to the level because that organic matter is going to be great. It's going to have lots of oxygen in it and that's fine. You can even bring it a little bit above. But make sure it's stuff like pine bark or other things, not peat, but pine bark. And don't mix it into the soil. You'll create lots of problems. So do you add things? This is the third point. Right season. Right depth. Do you add things only on the top? You can call me about what you think you want to add, but put it only on the top. Don't try to mix it into the soil. And fourth, how big should your hole be? Never dig a hole that's significantly deeper than the pot the plant came in. Well, you know, a shovelful's depth. Never more than a good shovelful. But you want it very wide and we're going to come back and talk about that. Four things we're thinking about when we're planting. We'll be back. You get plain talk on plain living. Let's talk about living and growing in that deep self. With Bill Finch, call 251-34306 on FMTalk1065. Oh, dear. It's the important time for planting. The most important time for planting. I hope you realize that. I hope you recognize that. It solves a lot of problems along the Gulf Coast. It solves a lot of problems throughout Alabama. And here's why. Let's just talk about it. We're talking about four things you need to think about why you're planting. Four things. And the first one is timing. We're going to go over it. Each one in detail this morning. But you can stop me at any point and ask me questions. Feel free so you can text them in. 251-34306 or you can call, which is always great in case we need to have some follow-up questions. What do you need to think about when you're planting? The time of year. And this is why this is such a good time of year for planting. Let's take lawn. Classic situation. Everybody wants to plant their lawn in spring because they still hadn't figured out that they don't live in Minnesota. That's maybe the first reminder on this show. You don't live in Minnesota. You live in Alabama. It's a different world. You've got to think different. That people in Minnesota do. You've got to think different than people in Massachusetts do. They know a lot more about how to grow things in their climate than you know about how to grow things in your climate. That's the sad fact. It's the truth. So we need to adjust. We need to adjust. So we understand what are we doing here in Alabama? What are we doing here along the Gulf Coast in Florida and Mississippi? Think about that. Using your seasons wisely here, we do not have cold winters when the ground is frozen. And when the ground is frozen for any length of time, on rare occasions we'll get frozen ground down to maybe an inch or two. But that's pretty rare. Mostly our ground never freezes. But when you do get frozen ground, what happens? Plants desiccate. They don't have enough moisture. They don't. Because it's no water in the soil. It's all frozen. Remember that? It's a terrible time to plant when you're up north if you're coming up on frozen soils. Those plants can barely get established. They're going to be so vulnerable to cold. But we don't have those cold winters. And in fact, our soil stays incredibly warm all winter long. It's going to stay well above freezing. And the soil is so warm that it actually may be in the 40s and 50s, even on the coldest days. So those roots keep growing. They don't stop growing in our soils and in our climate. So think about that. It really helps you. And here's the other cool thing. There is no moisture stress in winter once the rains start. And they're going to start here probably in November. So when you plant something, right now, planted at the right height, when you plant something, you're going to water it in. You might come back if you remember in a couple of weeks in water again or a week in water again. That's fine. But the cool temperatures and the fact that there's plenty of moisture in the soil because trees aren't using it as much because other plants aren't using it as much because it's cooling down. It means that you may not have to water again until April. Wow. Water two or three times. Think about doing that for a lawn. Now, if you planted your lawn in April, what's going to happen? I'd rather talk about trees, but let's talk about lawns here. If you plant your lawn in April, what's going to happen? You're going to have to water it every day in Alabama and on the Gulf Coast because temperatures are climbing. Trees are starting to grow. Those roots are taking in moisture. They're pulling it out of the soil dramatically really fast. You're going to have to water every day. And you're going to have to water every day probably into June. And maybe even beyond. And you know what happens when you have to water every day like that? Because those roots haven't developed and because they're having to compete with everything, you're going to encourage diseases. So even in the best case that you remember to water a lot when you put in your new lawn, which you won't do, even in the best case that frequent watering is going to encourage disease. And basically you want to get your lawn well established so that you don't have to water it frequently. And I mean, you want to get that lawn to where you only water once every two or three months at most. That's right. That's how you stop diseases. That's how you stop a lot of the weeds that we have in our lawns. You will have to water it every day. You're going to get all kinds of problems. Plant now makes it simple. No diseases out there of any significance. They're not going to thrive in these temperatures. No pests. They're not going to thrive in these temperatures. No moisture stress because there's going to be plenty of moisture after starting around the first of November in the soil. Water at once or twice, water at a few times. Even if you have to water two or three times a week when you put it in late October and November, it's going to be fine. So late October and November, great time for lawns. It's even better time for shrubs and trees. Because shrubs and trees are more important to your life than lawns. They really are. So this is the time. I can talk about the exceptions, but really, there's so few. I don't want to talk about them right now. I'm just going to say the word citrus. That's not something you plan and fall. That's probably the only major exception you're ever going to run up against. Everything else. Everything else that is hardy. Not tomatoes this time of year, of course, because they're not hardy. But all of the other shrubs and trees, Camilla, Cise, how it ranges, whatever else it oaks, hickies, persimmons, flowering trees of all kinds. You're going to want to plant them in fall because they're going to make incredible root growth without putting on a lot of twig growth. And that means they're going to really be ready once spring gets here and you're not going to have to worry as much about watering. Unless we get severe moisture stress in summer next year and you might have to water a little bit. But it's ideally suited to the fact that you know and I know that you are going to neglect your plants. Fall planting is very important from any perspective, but particularly from those of us who don't remember to water enough. You know, when we put things in, it's a problem. And watering too much is also a problem in terms of encouraging diseases. What a simple thing to do, plant in fall. Did I explain that? Did I explain that? There it is. So someone said to me, "I got a cutting of my tomato plant and it is blooming. Do I need to give it extra light?" So tell me what you're going to do with that tomato. What's your ambition on that tomato? Are you going to keep it inside for the whole winter? So let's talk about that. Tell me what you want to do with that tomato plant and I can tell you better. Tell me what your expectation is for that tomato plant that you've taken a cutting off of. Tell me when you took the cutting too and how big the tomato plant is. And I can better help sort out the light needs. Clearly, any tomato is going to need really full sunlight most of the time, all the time. And if it has, once it's got the roots on there, you've got to give it full sunlight. So if it's got roots, flowers or not, you've got to give it a lot of sunlight, a lot of sunlight. So let me know what you want to do with it and we'll think about that a little bit more. It's the time to plant. It's the time to be thinking about planting. It's the time to understand the four important things to consider when you're planting stuff this time of year. That first one was understand the season. Understand that fall is the best time for planting. Understand that's why the Mobile Botanical Gardens plant sale in fall is so important to you because it's going to have lots of stuff there for you to plant, right? Home Depot and Lowe's, they haven't figured this out. They're going to try to sell to your Minnesota instincts. And they're going to have you buying plants in March or April because you think spring plant. Don't do that. You live in Alabama. You live on the Gulf Coast. You got to get your season right. You need to plant now. We're going to talk a little bit more when we come back about the other three important things and why they are the way they are. Planting depth. Very important. Do not plant too deep. Do not plant too deep. Hold depth. What is and with holes should be wide, not deep. Don't make it hard on yourself. Don't make it hard on your plant. Do not dig a deep hole. That hole should be a shovel full deep. Basically, that's it. We'll come back. We're going to talk about why. Welcome back to Plain Living for Alabama and the Gulf Coast. Questions on conservation, natural history and gardening? Talk with Bill Finch. Call 251-3430106 on FMTalk1065. Okay. Here we are. Welcome back Gulf Coast anyway. Alabama Sunday morning. We're talking about where we are. We're talking about why we plant at this time. I had some questions. We're going to go back to these questions about why now. Barry wants me to talk about the citrus exception. Listen, folks, do not get too distracted by this. We're asking a very specific question. Why don't you plant citrus in fall? Here's the simple answer. Everything else we're going to plant in fall. I'm just to have a hard time thinking. Don't plant tomatoes this time of year. Be dark. We'll be back to talk about your tomato. Everything else, everything else that's not tropical, that doesn't suffer, that doesn't just collapse entirely when we have a frost. You can ask me what that is. You can ask me about certain plants. Happy to do that. But almost everything else needs to be planted in fall except for citrus. Citrus is a woody plant. It will survive frost quite easily. What it doesn't survive is temperatures below a certain degree, like 25 degrees for some citrus. And the longer that citrus is established in the ground, the colder the temperature it can survive. And that's almost a rule. I can explain to you why I think that rule is, why I think that's the case. But I'm not sure I understand. John Olive probably can explain perfectly why. What we know from observation is that citrus plants that are planted later in the year do not survive the winter well. You want to get your citrus in because they're vulnerable to our cold temperatures down below about 26 degrees. You want to get those citrus in as early in the year as possible. Get them established. So a satsuma, let's say a satsuma. You could put that satsuma in during the fall and it could be damaged by 28 degrees. You put that same citrus in in spring, let it get well established, let those roots get well established, and it might survive temperatures down to the low 20s. And then by the third year, it may survive temperatures into the teens. Let that citrus get established. It's different. This is the exception berry. That's all I'm going to say. It's the exception because we really want to emphasize the things you can plant this time of year. Don't buy citrus this time of year unless you're going to keep it in a pot inside. Don't do that. But everything else, everything else. There you go. Everything else. Somebody's asking me about the lawns. Let me try to do this real quickly. What kind of lawns do you plant? We talked about that last week. I don't want to get into a long discussion of lawns this week because boy, there's nothing less important to your life than your lawn. I just say that. Tribes of trees imported to your life, tomatoes imported to your life, basil, citrus, all that's important to you. Don't make the lawn the center of your life. First rule, if you're going to plant, you've got two choices in fall, two choices. You're moving from a moderately spread out yard over six acres, seven acres to a suburban lot. You have some choices because it sounds like you're going to have to plant some stuff because maybe it's a bear. I don't know. Maybe it's bear dirt or something in the lawn. You can decide that you want to emphasize a winter yard only. And this is a problem if you don't have anything else planted there. But you could just plant rye grass from seed. And it's going to be beautiful. And there is nothing wrong with doing that except in June or May on the Gulf Coast. It's going to all brown out. It's going to turn brown. And you're going to have a brown yard through summer unless you've got another grass there. So, seed is not an option if you want green grass during the summer. Let me say that. I will say it again. There are people who do, oh, I don't want to call it goofy things, but because they didn't mean for it to be goofy, but I'll tell you, planting a seed of a warm season grass is going to lead to a mess. Don't try to do a grass that stays green during the summer. Don't try to do it from seed. You're going to do it from sod. And there is no perfect grass. I think centipede is the least perfect of all the grasses. As it uses, but it has got a lot of problems. I think Bermuda is a devil. It is a curse for anybody who wants to garden. I do not recommend Bermuda unless it just, I don't recommend it. So, that basically leaves you St. Augustine and broad-bladed zoysias and do it from sod. Do it from sod. It's kind of boring. I know it is. And it's kind of sad that that's all we've got. It is sad, but that's the truth. Now, once you planted that and you've got it moderately established, then you can come back and sow seed in winter for things like winter rye, which could be an annual or a perennial or a rye mix. Either way, it's fine and you can oversee that St. Augustine or even the zoysia, the broad-bladed zoysia with this winter mix. And that's fine too. Fine. Worse, great. But don't try to do, yeah, there it is. And this is the time to do either one of those, whatever you want to do. So your winter seeds now are put in your summer sod. Alright, let's see. We got a collar. Boy, that's nice. Ed, I'm listening. What's up? Listen, I am listening. I've got, we were out looking yesterday. We have some containers with some nice stands with five gallon buckets. I've got several blueberry bushes, young plants. They actually came out with a few berries last year, last season. And then I'm wondering how they're going to fare over the winter and, you know, do I really need to worry with them or protect them? I didn't really think so, but you let me know. Alright, so you're going to keep them in containers. You want to keep them in containers, right? Yes, yes. Do right now, unless we transfer them to the ground, do you think? I think you'll be easier to control and better. I think that in the ground, they're going to do better. Now, you want your soul to be right. And now is a fine time to put them in the ground. I think they will survive in containers for a little while. They're not going to be very productive. At a certain point, you're going to have to increase the size of that container pretty dramatically in order for them to be productive. So I would go ahead and get them in the ground before they get too root bound in those pots. Now, let's talk about your soil. Yeah, that's a crack good question. Yeah, so get rid of the weeds where you want to plant them. There's a lot of ways of doing that. You can do it by hand, which is probably honestly the most effective way of doing it. And give yourself, think of each plant as basically occupying a space that's at least four feet in diameter, at least four feet in diameter, where there's no grass in that base. And really each plant, each plant. Got it. Got it. And so it's even better if it's about six feet in diameter. So have those circles and if it's six feet in diameter, that's an okay distance. That's a little close, but six feet in diameter for each plant. And you want the plants to be far enough apart because they're going to grow really well in the ground. And really, they need to be about each plant needs to be somewhere between four to six feet apart. Okay. Okay. Center to center. You want to close under shade or any shade at all. Sun, sun. You want full sun. Now, now you got you got rid of all those weeds. You're going to crack that. Yeah. And I want you to crack that soil where you're going to plant them. You don't have to dig this deep at all because they don't have deep roots. Very shallow roots and they need lots of oxygen. So I want you to crack the soil. Just if you've got just a regular shovel, that's fine. If you've got a fork, that's even better. Just wiggle it in. Lean back. Crack the soil. Don't turn it upside down. Don't put a tiller on it. Don't do anything like that. Just crack the soil. And then when you plant that plant, when you plant that blueberry, plant it so that the top of the soil in the container sits at least two inches above the soil level. Above the soil level. Okay. I want you to repeat that to me. Say it one more time. Bring it out of the bucket, put it in the ground, and then two inches of soil above what it is in the bucket. You got it. You got it. There it is. Now, if you want to come back, if you want to come back with some pine bark mulch, just regular old pine bark mulch. You can build it up around that and cover that whole area that you've got rid of weeds with pine bark mulch to two to three inches deep. And that blueberry is going to do really well. And that's going to keep the grass from coming back around it. Oh, I wish it would. Life would be so wonderful if it did. It will slow it down. If you've got Bermuda grass, it won't slow it down much. It'll slow down St. Augustine. So you're going to have to go back and kind of keep that, but yes, that mulch can help. Now, the bigger you make that circle around the blueberry, the easier it is to keep the grass from getting to the blueberry, if you see what I'm saying. So one of the things you can do if you want to keep the grass away from the blueberry is every year, take a bag of leaves, or one or two bags of leaves, and spread it around the outer edge of where you planted. And you will expand your hole and you will create a really nice moisture environment. So think of it as a doughnut. And you got a hole in the middle where your plant in your mulch is, and then you're going to put those leaves around it where the grass to serve as sort of a barrier to the grass. But it also creates great soil. And don't worry if the leaves are, you know, if the leaves are two feet high, when you put them down, don't worry about it because they're going to mold or down to be about six inches high. Probably by spring. I got it, got it. Okay, that makes, okay, Bill, that makes too much sense. You're pretty great. Okay, okay. Well, you call me back. You call me back. Water, one of those plants, pretty good for the first couple of weeks after. Listen, one other thing. Because you've had them in containers for a while, they may be a little bit root bound. And this is going to be hard. But when you pull them out of the pot, take an old kitchen knife or something and slice off the bottom two inches of each pot of each plug of soil. Hold on just a second, Ed. We're going to come back because it's kind of, it's an important detail. Let's come back and look at it. Okay, maybe just a second. Yeah. Welcome back to Plain Living for Alabama and the Gulf Coast with Bill Finch. Ask Bill about gardening and nature in your backyard. Call 251-3430106 on FMTalk1065. Is this a good time for planting? Yes. Is this a good time for transplanting? Absolutely. It may be the only time for transplanting for most plants. This is the time of year, particularly any shrubs or trees. If you're going to transplant, do it now, starting in late October, November, early December, kind of the classic time, and the best time. And I can go into all the reasons why. Ed, I wanted to get back to Ed because Ed wants to put his, take his blueberries and take them from containers and put them in the ground. It's a great time of year to do it. I would not recommend trying to tend to him in containers anymore because they're going to outgrow those containers. It's really hard to manage them in containers. So, Ed had to listen to me tell him about how to put these things in the ground so that they're really good. He's got all that. Ed, let me tell you, coming out of those containers, you're going to see that those roots are probably really matted around the edges. And that means it's a root bound and you want to get them out of that rut. That rut is the forming roots just on the edges of the container and they don't have a lot of juvenile growth going outward and you want to encourage the juvenile growth to go outward, not inward around the pot. So, one thing to do is, and this is take a knife and cut off, let's say you've got a container that was, let's say it was about 12 to 14 inches high. You're going to cut off the bottom two inches of that container of the soil that was in that container, just cut it off roots and all. Does that sound hard? It's painful. It's really, if I get them out and then kind of stretch them out and give them a little haircut there and cut the bottom. And you don't even have to do that. Just take, you don't have to stretch them out, just go whack. Just whack that soil and those roots off. You want to do it and you want to be kind of brutal about it. Don't you worry because that will encourage some roots to sprout up at the top. The other thing you can do is, and then if you want to, you can tease those roots out just a little bit around there so that they, so that more the roots are growing outward and not in a circle. But cutting off the bottom of those containers is the best thing. Now, if your container is only eight inches high, you might want to cut off quite two inches, but if it's, you know, if you've got a 12 inch container, if it's about 12 inches high, cut off that lower two inches. Yeah, these are, these are five gallon buckets. Yeah, that's right. You really need to cut off though. You really got to cut off the bottom. So really cut off. You just feel free. You can cut off in a five gallon bucket as tall as it is. Boy, that's what. That's almost two feet tall. Could I take them out and put them in a hole and what do you put in the hole with them? So there it is. So let's go back because we didn't put anything in the hole with them. Okay, so let's go back. Let's go back. This is very important. Cut off with a big 18 inches tall. Let's cut off the bottom. You could cut off the bottom six inches of fruit in that container. Just cut it off. Just cut it off because you don't want to plant. You don't want to plant at that deep. Blueberries do not have deep roots. Anything you put down that's below about, oh, about 10 inches deep in the soil. It isn't going to survive on a blueberry because blueberries have no deep roots at all. They need high oxygen. They cannot survive. You see what I'm saying? I do. So cut it off. And that way you won't be tempted to dig a deep hole and plant it. You really only want your hole to be about a shovel full deep. Okay. And as wide as possible, I told you to do that. Just break it up. Crack it. Don't have to stir it up. Don't have to do anything. And then you want this plant to get used to the native soil. So you don't want to mix something in the hole. If you mixed, let's say you mix some kind of special, weird stuff in there, like cotton or some kind of weird mixture, what it's going to do is it's going to change the drainage and that hole is going to stay wet longer than the area around it. If you want it to be native soil, you don't want to create a bathtub, which is what will happen if you change the soil texture. You want it to be the same soil texture as the surrounding ground. You want that plant to grow in there. But what you're going to do is you're going to add stuff only on the top. So you're going to add the pine bark only on the top. No, actually, what it's going to do is no, it's not going to protect it at all. It doesn't need protection. It's going to provide a soil medium that those roots will like to grow in. Now, when I say pine bark, I mean, each piece no bigger than your fingernail, not these big chunks and not some kind of weird thing that looks like you ordered chicken wings and a barbecue restaurant. It doesn't need to be colored. Just plain mulch that's each piece about the size of your fingernail. And so that's it will grow right into that. And that will serve as a soil. It will actually, after a while, that will sort of flatten out. But you can put two or three inches of that and build it up around there and that'll sort of flatten down around it. Put three inches deep, at least, of that mulch and that blueberry will grow right into that. And that's going to be a high oxygen environment. It will drain well. It won't create a bathtub effect because it's sitting on the top of the ground. So it won't change the texture of the soil beneath. I know this is all getting too technical. I'm trying to keep it as simple as possible. I mean, when I had them in those buckets, they even came out and had some growth. They even had some berries on them. Yeah, no, that's good. That's all good. And they're going to do even better in the ground because they're going to start getting too big for the container. So here's the funny thing. If you had an ideal blueberry container, it would actually be about a foot high and about two feet wide. Because just so you can envision two or three feet wide, because, and I don't know of a container that looks like that, by the way, but that way those roots can spread out because it really likes to have a wide spreading root system close to the surface. All those roots in the bottom of the container, they are useless now once you take them out of the container and the longer they build roots in the bottom of the container, the more poorly that blueberry is going to do. Because they like roots near the surface. Does this help in? Did I lose it? Oh, that would be too bad. So, I'm sorry if it went on too long. So another question here. Should I, what about transplanting a Meyer lemon into a larger pot? Should I wait until all the lemons have ripened and been picked? Thanks. So, Abby, there's a lot of variables there, but in general, if you can hold on to that Meyer lemon until spring. And I, I will go on to that. You know, these are the exceptions to everything we're talking about this morning. The exceptions, but hold on to that Meyer lemon and change the container, change that soil in March. Late March. Great time to do it. Change it out then. And it, I suppose you could do it this time of year if you're going to keep it in a very warm place with lots of sunlight. But it's tricky to do it in winter. Hold on to it until spring. And, and, you know, again, it's, it's in a pot. You don't want to leave it too exposed to coal because it could be very vulnerable. Vanna! You call late in this hour, but I'm going to be back in the next hour. Everybody else talk more about when to plant, which is now. [Music] [Music] It's time for "Plane Living for Alabama and the Gulf Coast." With nationally recognized nature writer and award winning horticulture and nature expert, Bill Finch. Bill shares his knowledge of conservation, natural history, and gardening. Let's talk about living and growing in the deep south with your personal garden and nature consultant. Here's Bill Finch on FM Talk 1065. Yeah, all right. You're kind of waking up. I can tell. You're waking up to this conversation, which is about when is the best time to plant. Now, I said the word, now is the best time to plant almost anything you want to plant. There are a few exceptions. I don't want to spend too much time talking about them because I want to talk about the things that you should be doing this time of year. Citrus is really the only major exception in terms of woody plants. And now is the time to be planting. Now is the time to be doing it. And that means lawns, shrubs, trees, most perennials. Now is the time. We're talking a little bit about how to do it. Well, we're talking a lot about how to do as well, trying to get into those details. Four things we wanted to remember. One, now is the time to plant. Gave you all the reasons why. Two, when you plant, do not bury your plant. It is not a corpse. We are not going to a funeral. We are planting a plant so that it lives and it needs oxygen. And that means the roots need to be very close to the surface, even above the surface in some cases. And so we talked about that. Keep it high. Plant it high. If you have a plant in a pot in a container and it's got that plug of soil that kind of looks like a cork. Right? You want that cork to be sitting an inch or two above the soil surface where you planted. Above, I said, you got to say it to yourself. Above the soil surface. So that cork is like doesn't get stuffed all the way back in the bottle. You see what I'm saying? That's perfect. I can go into the details again on why, but I'm just telling you, that's the case. We know from research. That's the case. We know from, if we reason it out, we know that's the case. Plant high, plant high, particularly in Alabama, particularly on the Gulf Coast. You got to plant as high as you can without doing something crazy. But leaving that two inches of cork exposed, above the soil, that was a great thing. When you dig your hole, this is the third thing. Do not dig it deep. Dig it wide. Do you hear me? Do not dig it deep. Dig it wide. Dig it as wide as you can. It needs to be about a shovel fold in depth. Don't take a tiller. You got to make a huge mistake. Get rid of the weeds if you don't want a lot of trouble as you're doing this. But you want your hole to be very wide, but not very deep. No deeper, really, than the container the plant came in. A little deeper is okay, but not much deeper. Because you don't want that pot to sink into the soil too deeply, which it'll do as the soil settles. So there you go. That was the third thing. What was the fourth thing? Do not mix junk into the hole. Everything you add in terms of soil or on top of the hole, on top of the hole. On the top, after you've planted your plant, then you can add stuff. And your plant's sitting out like a cork and a wine bottle. They got stuffed back in, not perfectly, about two inches above the soil surface. Then you can add your mulch. We can talk about how much to add depending on the plant in the circumstance. Vanna, let's talk about this side thing. I'm listing. Well, I had my sprinklers completely worked over and everything is ready to go. But I've got about three areas in my lawn front, one in the front and two in the back, that need probably to have sawed. So the timing of putting in the sawed is important because I don't want to spend a lot of funds and have it not grow correctly. So timing is simple. Now. Now is the time. This is the great time by the time. Absolutely. That's what the whole show has been about. Now is the time. Do not wait until spring. Do absolutely under absolutely, man. You've been around long enough to know. I know because I've been talking to you a long time. We do not live in Minnesota. We do not live in Michigan. We do not live in Massachusetts. We live in a state that starts with an A. Some of us live in a state that starts with an F and some of us live in a state that starts with an M. But we do not live in Michigan or Massachusetts or Minnesota and they have to do those things in spring. And for so many reasons, but we don't live there. We live in a place where this is the best time for planning. So yes, absolutely. If you plan in April and we talked about this in the last hour, man, if you plan it in April, you're going to have to water every day and it's already going to be hot in April. And you'll be out there watering every day and you know what's going to happen because it's warm. And because the trees are already out there transpiring all the moisture in the ground and because you're out there having to water every day, you know what's going to happen next? You're going to have disease problems because it's the perfect conditions for disease. And you're having to water every day, which is encouraging the diseases. Boom. What you want to do is plant now. Disease pressure has just about disappeared. It is every you can water, even if you have to water every day, which you might want to do. And if you plan in mid October, you might have to water. You probably won't cause any disease issues. So if you wait until a good time to water, this time of year, it doesn't matter. Doesn't matter. Okay. And how long should they be left on at one time? Yes. So when you're just getting started with new sod, this is a problem because you've got a sprinkler system and you're not going to be able to adjust it. But that's probably another reason why it falls a better time. When you're starting, when you side, you have to water frequently. So, and that means, and not for a long duration, but frequently with new sod, older sod, you want to water almost never. But when you water, you want to water for a long period of time. So it's just the opposite. I can change that on my sprinkler system. I can change the number of minutes it runs and the time of day it runs. That's right. So what you're going to have to do is you're going to over water your established sod in order to get your new sod in there. But that's even more reason to plant this time of year. Vanna do this, wait about, and it's going to take you this long to get ready. So get ready to plant in October and then about the first or second week in November, put your new sod in. And that way, you're already going to be into the winter rains are going to be starting. You may not have to water much at all. And you'll have to water when you put it in. And I would just say water the area where you just take a hose out there and water this new sod in really well. Maybe do that a few times. And then when by the time December gets here, you won't have to water at all. There it is. Okay. Now, when they remove the old grass and maybe some weed material that was there and should they put down some kind of pre kind of soil mix underneath before they could. Yes. So, yes. So let me ask you this question, Vanna. You already have some grass growing there, right? Yes, sir. But it's not as pretty as you would like. Is that the problem? Well, parts of it are fine, but parts of it have been affected by, I don't know, tree roots, possibly, or weed material. Okay. So, Vanna, you're going to have to hold on for just a second. We're going to have to come back and think about why you want to replace sod in the first place. Oh, dear. Let's, let's come back and talk about that. FM Talk 1065 with Plain Living for Alabama and the Gulf Coast. Call 251-3430106. Here again is your personal nature expert, Bill Finch. Welcome back, Gulf Coast, any morning Alabama Sunday morning. We're talking about why now is the time to plant. And it's fortunate that when it's the perfect time for planting, almost everything. The Mobile Botanical Gardens is having its plant sale towards the end of this month. So I want you to get ready for that and prepared for that. You can get a lot of shrubs and trees and perennials. By the way, they don't pay me. I don't work for them. I work with them. This is a great thing for you. I'm telling you, the Mobile Botanical Gardens is good for you. It's good for you. And that is a completely unselfish recommendation. They're good for you. You need to be more involved in that Botanical Gardens because that's going to be the future of your yard. Honestly, I will tell you, if you want to have a great yard on the Gulf Coast, if you want to have plants that grow well here, if you don't get involved with the Botanical Gardens, you're not going to have them because it's increasingly hard for any retailer to provide the plants, all the plants that can grow well here. And particularly the places you're shopping, you need to be shopping at local retail. But particularly the places you're shopping, like Home Depot and Lowe's and tractor supply, they're not going to have plants adapted to the Gulf Coast. Site one. Oh, oh, gosh, it hurts to even say it out loud. There it is. Hey, listen, Vanna, let's come back and talk about your lawn. This is the time to re-sodd if you're going to do it, but you need to make sure before you put a large investment in re-sodding that you know why you're unhappy with what's there now. So if you, for example, if the grass has thinned out as a result of trees because the tree roots are there, the new sod you put in is going to thin out as well. Do you know what kind of grass you have? I wish I could tell you. I think it's those zoysia, but someone looked at it a couple days ago and said St. Augustine. I remember St. Augustine being a very wide-bladed grass in Texas, but here I'm not sure. Anyway, and the weed control company that comes and sprays about once a month or so wanted to aerate the entire area, and I'm not sure I want that done. I'm not digging up little pockets of soil, and should that be done or not? Well, yes, on lawns, there's never an end to it, is there? So here's the thing. I don't think their aeration of the soil is going to make a lot of difference. It probably won't hurt, it probably won't help, because aeration is kind of a weird concept. Aeration is about having small little tiny particles in the soil that air moves through. It's not about taking little holes out of the soil. It's about having space between the soil particles. And just taking plugs out doesn't really achieve much. It doesn't improve drainage a lot, which also could be a problem there. If you've got a tree root problem, it's not going to help at all. So if you're in an area where the tree roots are strongly competing with the grass, it's going to be difficult. If you've got an area where there's too much shade, aeration is not going to help at all either. And I will also tell you, Vanna, that if your grass is growing well, you shouldn't need monthly herbicides. I really don't know why you would do monthly herbicides. It's probably a wrong thing to do. Well, that's what I'm thinking too, and I'm thinking it was supposedly to kill weeds, but the weeds are still there. Trust me, I go at them and I pull them myself. Well, so everybody needs to make a living, and I'm glad these guys are not employed doing something nefarious. But let me tell you that I don't think the herbicide... I can't think of a herbicide treatment that I would want to apply monthly. I just can't. And I really can't, in a normal yard, you shouldn't need herbicide treatments. Now, there may be areas, Vanna, where grass is just not going to grow. So, Vanna, we got a couple of weeks here. I want you to go out and photograph your yard and send me pictures of it next week. So, I have at least a little better sense of what we're talking about. I may not be able to do this perfectly unless I'm there, and even then I probably couldn't do things perfectly, because lawns always are imperfect, and they always have problems. But let me look at your lawn before you undertake this. So, look at your problem areas, get a picture of the grass, but also the surroundings. So, I can see where the trees are, and how much, and tell me if they're south of the trees or north of the trees. And let's kind of give a little perspective before I set you off on the road of replacing that sod. And which do I send the photos to, which address? Yeah, so all you know how you got the same number you call me on. You just text it from your phone to that same number. Oh, okay. Isn't that simple? Okay. Yeah, no, you just take a picture, take a picture, you know, if you like, you've got to send it to the, you know, whoever, your friends, your grandkids, whatever. And just, you send it to the same number, 2513430106. That's us. Okay. Now, listen, Vanna, if you're, if you don't send it today, send it when you send it next week, which is probably when you want to send it. Send it next week, but send it right at the start of the show. Otherwise, it might get lost in our text system. Okay. Okay. All right. Thank you so, so much. Okay. Bye. Thank you, Vanna. Thank you. All right. Yeah. You know, it is really important. And I talk about this a lot. When I talk about replacing sod, I always think, gosh, I really should ask, why are you thinking that this is going to help to replace your sod? Because oftentimes the very problems that people have are still there when they replace the sod. So it's not like, you see what I'm saying? Why is, why are things going to be different if you just simply go out and buy new sod? It's not like the sod wore out. It's not like the sod had the, it was the soil. It was the trees. It was the lack of sunlight. It was some fungal disease that was being caused by, it was over watering or maybe the climate. But it's not, you know, let's figure it out first. Let's figure it out first before we, because re-sodding is hard. And, and Vanna said she didn't want to put a lot of effort into re-sodding if it's all going to have to be done again. I don't blame her. So let's figure out why we're going to re-sodd and see if we're going to do lots of cool stuff here. David Hubble's going to talk about melatonin. They're blooming now. And let's see what he said. Lee's got, Lee's got some damage, but I should get a small crop in a month, hopefully. I'm not sure what the damage was, but we'll talk to David about that. Tony in Fau River asked me, "Can you tell me when and how to plant these acorns?" If they're ripe and they look a little green, they look a little green. But if they've fallen already, you just plant acorns right away. You don't fiddle around. And what do you do with them? I, you can plant them in the ground where you want them to grow. I, I can't quite tell. I think the ones on the left are probably over cup oak, but I'm not absolutely sure. I'd have to see the leaves before I made that decision. And the ones on the right are probably live oaks. Oaks are big trees. Make sure you want them. You put them in pots, you can put them in containers. They'll germinate, but they don't sit around. If they're ripe, and I'm not sure those are ripe yet, but if they're ripe, they're going to germinate pretty quickly, and they don't like drying out, so you want to plant them as soon as possible. Snake beans are cool, Rusty. I want to do snake beans more often. I'm doing well. Unique flavor, he says. These snake beans are so cool. Do unique flavor. Almost three feet long. The, that's the seed. That's the pods. Not the plant. The plant is big. I, I really, Rusty, I'm, I'm proud of you for doing that. And I, I'll be asking you for advice next year when I, I'm going to try some of those. Was it this late in the year that they started producing? When did you plant them? Give me some details. I want to steal ideas from you Rusty. Moss point. Really beautiful things of, of the snake beans. Tell me how you cooked them. Describe the flavor to me. Okay. Could you tell me what this is called? It's a, it's a fizzle-ous. It's Wayne. It's a, it's, what do you, what do you call a fizzle-ous? It's, Chinese lantern is another name for it. So you can look up Chinese lantern. I'm not sure which of the fizzle-ous it is. It's probably one of the weedier ones that kind of goes around. They're kind of cool. Um, and you need to make sure some of them, some of them in that family are kind of edible. I'm not sure, are actually very edible. This one is, I'm not sure about. So we'll have to figure it out exactly. But that's a, that is a, let's call it Chinese lantern. Does that work? Uh, caterpillar damage after a tough summer on a plant. That's interesting. Uh, and, and black-eyed Susan's clint? No. We'll be back. We'll talk about it. Tea and China. Put it in a big brown. Bad for me. FM Talk 1065. Home for plain living for Alabama and the Gulf Coast. Let's talk about living and growing in that deep south with Bill Finch. Call 251-3430-106. Uh, all right. Uh, Clint, uh, so I'm thinking, and Clint, you'll have to tell me because I can't tell. All I've got is the picture of the flowers. That is not a black-eyed Susan. That, my friend, is a sunflower. Aren't they beautiful? They're absolutely gorgeous. It's, um, you see the sunflower part of it? It's, you know, Alabama is probably, I, I make this claim, I think I'm correct. No one's challenged me yet. I say it repeatedly, and I think I don't get chows because I think I'm right. There are 52 species of sunflowers in the world. Maybe 54, maybe 55. By the time we're all through, somewhere in there, between 50 and 55, there are 25 to 27 of those are native to Alabama. Is that not amazing? More than half. And, and it's a huge number of sunflowers. I think we may be in many ways to have the greatest concentration of sunflower species of any place in the world. A ton of species. A lot of them, a lot of them concentrated in central and north Alabama. Huge diversity there. Really important, but a lot of them in south Alabama as well. And just a different groups. It's a different, it's, it's really amazing. Everywhere you go, it's different types of sunflowers. I think, Clint, that the ones you're looking at, I'm not sure, if they don't have much, if they don't have many leaves on the stalk, and each one of those flowers was just on a, there was a single flower on a stalk. And most of the leaves were at the bottom of the plant, right at the very bottom. And the leaves had little bumps on them. Then we're going to call that the classic bog sunflower that we see a lot. Helianthus heterophilis. And what's the common name of that? Savannah sunflower, they call it. So I think that's what you're looking at. And look for those little bumps and little hairs coming out of the bumps. Looks like the plants got goosebumps on the leaves. Then you'll know, and it's Helianthus. It's a great sunflower. Just absolutely beautiful. Is it not? That's it. So B-Dark is asking me, let's see. Let me go back for you. It gets mad at me. Let me see. Let's see, I mentioned here. Oh, goodness gracious. Where did that go? Well, so can't find the, here it is. Here we go. So the question is, it's in a pot. It's about two feet tall. I do have an apartment. I want to make this. I send you a picture. So here's the problem. You're going to have a really hard time getting many tomatoes over the winter. And I wouldn't, so basically what you're going to do is you're going to have to carry that tomato plant over until next spring. And that's going to be increasingly hard to do, but you're, you seem set on it. So I'm not going to get in your way. I'm just saying I don't expect to see a lot of, a lot of tomatoes this winter. And that's because the days are getting shorter. If we were in South Florida where they grow tomatoes during the winter, it's not just the temperature, but it's the day length down there that makes it much easier to grow. Tomatoes during the middle part of winter down there. Here it's even around mobile. It's a little harder. You might get some flowers. It's going to be hard to ripen them. So it's going to need full sun. And it's going to need warm, warm temperatures. It really shouldn't get below 50 degrees at night. And really ideally, not even below 55 at night, if you really want good tomato production. So lots of sun, warm temperatures at night. And I still think it's going to be tricky. And you're going to have to increase the size of the pot pretty quickly if it grows at all. So it's a little late, a little late for tomatoes. I think it's a big potato leaf. That's a big tomato. It's going to be tough. But lots of sunlight. Bigger pot before long, before very long at all, you're going to need a bigger pot. And warm temperatures. So you're going to need to, you know, you're going to need to figure out how to, maybe bring it in every night, maybe the thing to do. And don't let it stay outside when the daytime temperature is below 55. All right. Does that help? Pretty pretty bird dog in the background though. Pretty bird dog. That bird dog going to be a lot happier than a tomato. Can I put it under a light at night in the house? I don't think it'll help a lot, honestly. You would really need a really intense light. But you can try and see if it helps. Let's see. Jim Bob from Jackson. Bill, what's the name of the tree Katalpa Worms live on? Oh boy, this is so good. This is so good. What is the name of the tree that the Katalpa Worms live on? Katalpa. Isn't that amazing? So yeah. Isn't that a coincidence? Katalpa Worms live on Katalpa trees. C-A-T-A-L-P-A. You got it right. You know, one of the cool things is that you spelled it exactly right. Most people misspell it because it sounds like Katalpa or something else. But it's Katalpa. C-A-T-A-L-P-A is how it's generally spelled. Indian word, Native American word, tribal, one of the tribal languages. One of the first nation languages. Katalpa. And it's Katalpa tree. And Katalpa trees are really great. They're really fun to have. There are two types of Katalpa trees that are native to North America. One tends to grow along the Mississippi Basin in the central part of the Mississippi Basin. The other one grows on the Tennessee to some degree. The other one grows in mostly along coastal streams in Alabama. So it grows along the Alabama River, grows along all those coastal streams. It may get into North Alabama. And that southern Katalpa is the best one for us. I just some amazing specimens of southern Katalpa. They're so beautiful. I love that tree. It was such a cherished tree for a long time in the south. And then, you know, low down depot didn't carry it, and people forgot about it. It's too bad. Katalpa trees. That's the tree. I'd love to talk more about it. Katalpa worms, a different worm probably lives in mulberry trees. That's usually a silk worm, which is a different tree. So there are various worms that live in mulberry trees. Somebody asked me about a red mulberry tree that was growing next to their house. Will it cause problems? The house was built off the ground. No, the roots won't cause problems. The big question I have is, is that really a red mulberry tree? So, look it up carefully. It's probably, it's more likely, and I'm not swerving. But it's more likely to be one of the invasive mulberries that may or may not have as good a fruit as the red mulberry. So, but you can check, but no, I don't think the roots will cause any problems. In fact, one of the things people used to grow figs next to the house, so the roots could grow under the house. And it's got, I think mulberries and more I see. Yeah, but their root system's similar, but allowing those roots to grow under the house, the fig meant that the fig actually did better. And it didn't cause any problems to the house at all. Won't be any problem to the house. You're insecticide guy. Your exterminator may say, oh, you know, I don't know if you ought to have a tree that close to the house. And he's going to tell you, you know, from my perspective, I'd rather say you put plant trees 20 feet away from the house. And there's some merit to that. There's some merit to that as a root style, as a plant style. You might get a little bit more in the way of termites, but the fact is the fact that the house is raised means that if you look carefully around your house, you shouldn't, you should be able to spot those termites. You should be able to spot those termite infestations pretty quickly. All right. What do we got? Helianthus on gustifolia. It's happy now from two small pots from plant sale a couple of years ago. Yeah, it gets big. It's beautiful. I love on gustifolia. Really great. Was I supposed to answer a question about vaseegrass, which I didn't do. Vaseegrass blooms all the stinking time. It blooms all the time. It starts in June and it just keeps on a blooming. So it's not at all surprised to see vaseegrass now. I should talk more about -- I should talk a little bit more about some of those native plants, Amy. I think we're going to run out of time today, but you make sure I talk more about native grasses next week. Okay. Well, the plant sale at the Botanical Gardens -- at the Garden of Botanical Gardens have pawpaw trees this year. I do not know. I do not yet have a list of plants. I have asked for that list. And I may get that list if I'm lucky. I'll have to see where we get it, but I don't have a list right now in front of me about what plants. And they may still be sort of trying to figure out who's going to supply what, because sometimes nurseries take some awhile to sort of get all that straightened out. I know my husband's dogs and birds love my mulberry tree. So they're eating it. It's really great. Let's see the mulberries. Can you eat beauty berry or do anything with them? Oh, I love this question. I love answering this question. My dad, as many people have said, but I love remembering my dad this way. My dad used to say -- he'd say, "Oh, that's berry berry." Say it with a south -- it said like folks say it in southness city. Berry berry -- oh, you know. And I would thought it was bear berry. B-E-A-R, like a bear. Big bear. Ah, how'd a bear sound? Steve, how'd a bear sound? You know, big growly bear. But as it turns out, he was actually saying, "Beer berry." Mmm. What does that tell you? So clearly, as it turns out, our native calicarpa, our native beauty berry, which is so pretty growing in the way, it has so many uses. It's incredible. It used to make a great beer. It can make a great jelly. I like eating them fresh off the vine. They're kind of -- they have an interesting flavor. It's a distinctive flavor. It has a mineral quality to it, a mineral-like flavor on the backside. But it's pretty sweet, moderately sweet on the frontside. It makes a great jelly. It's fun. The leaves are actually make a -- looks like they make a pretty good insect -- insect repellent. And a lot of people, I have actually -- when it got really bad, I've kind of stuck leaves around my ears and under my hat and in my shirt just to keep the mosquitoes off. It seems to work pretty well. I know in a concentrate form, it actually works pretty well, really well, maybe even. So many things to do with beauty berry Calvin. They're really cool. And they have a great smell, great odor. Great odor. So, yeah, we've got to take a break. We got about 15 minutes, a little less than 15 minutes ago. I'm going to try to scoop up these questions and answer as many of them as I can. You're going to call me. You better call me quick. You get plain talk on plain living. Let's talk about living and growing in that deep self. With Bill Finch, call 251-3430106 on FM Talk 1065. Beautiful picture of Calicarpa. Beauty berry Jim in Georgetown. Jim just sent me. And it's not Jim and Georgetown. That's one of our other gyms. But beautiful, beautiful Calicarpa. Yes, it is quite edible. Quite edible. What else have we got? I wanted to say to be dark. Listen, I love your tomato experiment. Keep it up. You're going to need a bigger pot. You're going to need as much sunlight as you can give it. You're going to need to rotate it in and out of the house during the winter. And it might produce next spring quite early. And we'll talk about it as winter goes on and we'll try to figure out what to do. If you're going to take cuttings next year, take those cuttings in June, be a good time to take those cuttings from your tomatoes so you'll have fall tomatoes. Maybe late July. Maybe late July. You could still succeed, but it's going to be sometime from mid-June to mid-July. It's the best time to take cuttings on your tomatoes so you can have fall tomatoes. It's hard to keep them going during the winter here. It just is. But I'm interested here. Be dark, you're going to have to keep me updated. Jarhead, I'm listening. Tell me what's going on. Is Jarhead going to not go talk to me? There it goes, the beef. I was down below down the boat the other day. And I had some grasses on sale. And I said, well, you know, it's a good cheap price. And I have no idea what it looks kind of like mondo grass, but it's called L-I-R-I-O-P-E. Super blue. Any idea? Larapy. Larapy. Larapy is the term, the most common name we give to Larapy is monkey grass. So what you've got is a version of monkey grass that was picked for its flowering stalks. And so it's going to have a little bit bigger flowering stalks than the typical monkey grass. So, you know, if you notice monkey grass, sometimes get those blue flowering stalks, particularly if it's grown in some sun. And the little blue flowers, this is going to have bigger and more prominent flower stalks. I do see some stalks. And what would be a good thing to do with it? Put it in a pot and put it out on the front deck. Yeah, you could do that. Larapy grows everywhere, anywhere. You don't have to be nice to it. I shouldn't say that out loud. You don't. I mean, Larapy just survives. It's going to look prettier if you are nice to it, but it'll survive in almost any situation. You can grow it in a pot for sure. You can put it in the ground for sure. It'll perfectly survive. It's perfectly hardy. And you, because it is a flowering version of Larapy, you want a little bit of a compromise. If you put it in too much sun, the foliage doesn't look as pretty. If it's like really just beating down hard sun and it's in a container and it dries out, the foliage is not going to look quite as good. It'll survive, but it won't look as pretty. But you do want to have enough sun so that it flowers well. So give it at least a few hours of good sunlight per day. Where does it spread? It spreads. It does not spread super aggressively. It does not, I mean, I think all, all monkey grass is going to spread. Some of it spreads enough that it can be a minor annoyance, but that's really great if you want to make it. It's really great if you want to make a lawn out of it and you can. Monkey grass makes a great lawn, actually. This version is going to be a little less good at making a great lawn because it was really developed for those flowers. And it's going to look a little more ragged if you try to make a lawn out of it. But it makes really nice, is a little border. And every now and then you're probably going to have to weed out some plants that get a little out of bounds. Okay. Well, that's good to know. But one thing before I let you go. Now, if you was to come up to me and want to Kataba tree, I wouldn't have one idea what you were talking about. Now, if you said a Kataba tree, that's right. That's right. Well, it says funny. So, Kataba is the name for it. And it's funny. I guess it means we're all from North Carolina because the Kataba is the name of a tribe that lives. In North Carolina. But it has nothing to do with Kataba trees. But for some reason, people have sort of conflated the two in that interesting. And Kataba is the name. And I would say when I was growing up, people would kind of say it Kataba. That you wouldn't hear the L. It's hard to pronounce the L. So, Kataba. And now it's become Kataba, which sounds like the Indian tribe in North Carolina. They make great catfish bait. I can tell you that. They do. They do. And the story, Jarhead, I wonder if you've heard this story. You know, when I was growing up, they said, if you're going to use Kataba worms, what you need to do is you need to turn them in. You need to turn them inside out and then put them on the hook. Okay, I don't think I've ever heard that one, but. This is what you tell me. This is what you tell 11 year olds, Jarhead, because they say, really? But no, you don't turn them inside out to put them on the hook. You just put them on the hook. When you're an old guy talking to 11 year olds, you really want to make them look like goobers. So, you said stuff like that. But yes, they're great. And they're great fish bait. Well, I'll come up with something to do with this grass and have a great day. And we'll talk at you next week. All right, Jarhead. Good to hear from you. All right, let's see what else. How should I prune these gardenias? Ooh, what a tough spot for gardenias. What a tough spot for gardenias. Call me back next week. Let's talk about pruning gardenias. I'm not going to try to say anything about where they're growing because gravel around gardenias is probably not a great idea. Probably not a great idea. But probably not the best spot in the world for gardenias. But we can talk about how to prune. So, call me next week, Chris. And we can talk about whether that's a good choice for that spot too. I'm going to try to -- Ooh, I just want to answer the question plain and simple. But I need to give you a little bit of a warning there before you get too long. I'm visiting my family in Columbus. I just saw a peelated woodpecker a few minutes ago. I thought you'd be interested to have a great day, Rob, from Tillman's Corner. Yeah, I love peelateds. They're really beautiful and really nice. You know, the more you get around an older forest, the more you see the peelateds, and the more I see peelateds, the more I think, oh, my gosh, why did we do that to the ivory bill? Why did we do that to our forest? Because we lost the even bigger woodpecker, that beautiful woodpecker, that woodpecker that sounds like a saxophone playing. It's just an amazing thing. I hope that the guys are right, that the ivory bill is still out there. Peelateds are still out there. They're pretty common. In older forest. You don't see them as much around cities as you used to. All right, that was it. We're going to be back next week. Give us a call next week. ♪ ♪ Walk along the river ♪ ♪ Sweet love back ♪ ♪ They just keep on flowing ♪ ♪ They don't worry about where is the wind ♪ (upbeat music)