- Hi, thanks for joining us for The Family Plot: Gardening in the Mid-South.

I'm Chris Cooper.

When changing out your lawn and grass, it can be hard to make sure the old grass won't come back.

Today, we'll talk about how to do it.

And we are going to set a live animal trap.

That's just ahead on The Family Plot: Gardening in the Mid-South.

- (female announcer) Production funding for The Family Plot: Gardening in the Mid-South is provided by the WKNO Production Fund, the WKNO Endowment Fund and by viewers like you, thank you.

[upbeat country music] - Welcome to The Family Plot.

I'm Chris Cooper.

Joining me today is Joseph Seago.

Joseph is a commercial horticulture agent right here in Shelby County.

And Mr. D will be joining me later.

All right, Joseph, good to have you here today.

- Thank you for having me.

- All right, we're here at the Agricenter, right in front of the demonstration turf plot.

So why would we need to kill the grass here at the demonstration plot?

- Well, anytime you want to relay the sod for new varieties, if you're redoing your lawn, what have you, it's the best way to get rid of it.

- Okay.

- That way it does not come back.

- Okay, 'cause that's the whole thing, right?

We don't want it to come back.

- No, you don't, 'cause you don't want it to mix in with the Bermuda or the zoysia that you're putting down.

- Okay, what did you use to actually kill the grass?

- So we used a glyphosate, - Okay.

- Mixed with a little bit of surfactant.

- All right.

- Surfactant helps it stick a little bit better and get on the leaves.

- Okay, how many applications did you have to use to actually kill out the grass?

- So we did two applications, - Okay.

- About two weeks apart.

And that way, 'cause we get everything.

- Okay.

- You know, 'cause you're not gonna quite get everything the first time.

- Sure.

- So you come back about two weeks later and spray it again.

- Right, especially for the Bermuda, right?

Because this turf plot, it does have Bermuda in it and zoysia as well.

So it's gonna take multiple applications - That's right.

- To control those grasses, or kill those grasses if you will, right?

'Cause I don't think there's a such thing as a total eradication, you know what I'm saying?

- No, there's not.

It is very hard to get that clean.

- Yeah.

- So you do the best you can, and then you come back and you hit it again.

- Sure.

- And that usually takes care of it.

- Okay.

So now that the grass is dead, what is the next process?

- So the next process is to remove it.

- Okay.

- Digging it out, getting as much of the roots as you can out.

- Okay.

- Again, 'cause the roots are kind of the tough part to kill even with glyphosate.

- Okay.

- So you get a couple inches below grade and you get all that stuff out as much as you can.

- Okay, what kind of machine do you use to get that out?

- So, professionally they'll come in with a skid steer - Yeah.

- With a bucket on it and just kinda peel it off.

Homeowners, best thing to do is a shovel.

- A lot of grunt work.

- A lot of grunt work.

You can also till it up, and then kinda rake all that stuff out and keep tilling it a few times - Yeah.

- And get as much of it out.

It's better to dig it out and get more of it out.

- Right, you definitely gonna have to get those rhizomes.

'cause we are talking about warm-season grasses, right?

- Right, yeah.

- Yeah, so you definitely wanna do that.

So, what is the next step after that?

- Once we get that all out, we're gonna wait about a week or so.

And then as some of that grass starts popping back up, 'cause you're not gonna get all the roots out, - Right, right.

- We're gonna spray it again and we'll probably do that two, maybe three more times.

- So it's gonna be multiple applications or spraying, right?

- Multiple applications, yeah.

- 'Cause we are dealing with a warm-season grass that has rhizomes and stolons, right.

- That's right.

- So those are probably wanna come back up, so that's why we have to do those multiple applications.

- Right, to make sure, 'cause you're not gonna get it all when you when you pull it out, which is almost impossible.

And so once we feel comfortable that nothing else is coming back up, - Okay.

- We'll come back in with our top soil- - So what kind of mix are we talking about with the top soil?

- So the best mix, when you're doing turf grass is a top soil mix, which is generally a sand and organic mix.

- Yeah, okay.

So it allows for good drainage.

- Allows for very good drainage.

- With sand and organic mix.

- And that's an important part 'cause a warm-season turf grass, they don't like to be wet.

They don't like that standing water.

So you wanna get that good drainage in there.

So, we'll put that top soil down and then kinda level it - Oh yeah.

- The best you can, take out those low spots, and smooth it out.

And then, we'll come in and lay our new turf grass.

- Right, okay.

So look, this pertains to a homeowner.

They wanna, what?

If they wanna put a shop there, house there, whatever the case - Anything.

- They wanna be, playground, whatever the case may be.

- If you wanna kill grass - Yeah.

- And you wanna get it out, - Yeah.

- That's the procedure.

That's how you do it.

- That's the procedure.

- For anything.

- Okay, do we have to talk about pH?

Are we getting the soil tested?

- Yeah, that's a good thing to do.

- Okay.

- This particular plot was tested last year.

- Right.

- Everything was good.

And it's been limed and fertilized on a regular basis - Okay.

- Through a local company.

So, it's good.

And then once we get the new turf in this fall, next spring we'll do another soil test just to see how things are.

'Cause we're removing a lot of the top two, three inches of the soil, and that's where most of the roots in turf grass live.

- Yeah, how about watering?

It's real important, right?

- Yeah, definitely.

It's critical to water, especially when you first lay it down.

It takes most of your turf grass about 7 to 14 days for the roots to take hold.

And you've gotta keep that turf and that soil wet.

- Okay, yeah.

- Moist.

Not real wet wet, but moist.

So, you know, if it dries out, you need to irrigate.

And you can check it.

If it's dry, water it, if it's a little moist, you can hold off.

Check it in the evening time, later on in the day.

- Okay.

- If it's a little dried out, you can get irrigation on it.

- That's good.

So how long before the grasses actually get established though?

Completely established, you think?

- So, you can start cutting and walking on it as soon as it's rooted in.

- Yeah, okay.

- Yeah.

- So it didn't take long for it to root in?

- It doesn't take long.

Now, ideally, you get a little more time to kinda grow up, 'cause it's gonna take a little time to grow up, right?

But you can get on it and start walking on it and using it, you know, as soon as it's rooted in.

- So, let's talk a little bit about some of the turf grasses, right?

These are gonna be some of the same turf grasses that the homeowners can actually use in their landscape as well, right?

- That's right.

So, this particular turf plot is about 10-years-old.

So there's a lot of varieties that are new, and we're gonna be replacing them with the new ones.

- Okay, can we talk about some of those new ones?

- Yeah!

So, as far as the zoysias, we're gonna be putting in Zeon, Palisades, which is a very popular zoysia grass, Innovation, and we're also gonna leave a spot open for Stadium.

- Okay.

- It'll be coming a little bit later.

And then for our Bermudas, we're gonna put down Latitude 36, another popular Bermuda, NorthBridge, Tahoma 31, and TifTuf.

- Good, TifTuf.

- Yeah.

- So these are warm season grasses, right?

- Warm season grasses.

- That grow well in this area, right?

- Yes.

- Okay, so if anybody wanted to learn more about these grasses, do you have any suggestions for them?

- Yeah, so you can contact your local Extension Office and see if they have a turf plot like we do.

Or if they don't, they'll have more information about these particular turf grass.

- Okay, so why the turf plot demonstration?

Why are we doing this?

- So we have ours for, we use it for education - Okay.

- And programming.

So we'll have workshops out here for our professional and homeowners as well, - Right.

- Where we can do live demonstrations and talk about the different turf grasses that we have.

- Right, yeah, so the homeowner can actually come right out here and just see the turf in action.

- That's right.

So they can come out and take a look at the grasses, and they can, you know, check out the different textures and colors - Yeah.

- And how they grow.

And it's a good way for them to find out which ones they would like - Right.

- When they're redoing their yard.

- Okay, all right.

Well Joseph, that's some good information.

We definitely do appreciate that.

Thank you much.

- You're very welcome.

- All right.

[upbeat country music] - Today we're gonna be talking about selecting the right tool for the job.

The job we're talking about today is gonna be pruning.

With pruning, you have either a saw or pruner options.

The pruners are going to offer a cutting action, whereas the saw is going to be sawing motion.

We have larger versions of these in the loppers and the pole saw.

And if the job is big enough, you may need to resort to a chainsaw.

If you're gonna be using a chainsaw, make sure that you have the proper safety equipment.

On this tree we've identified two issues that we're going to deal with.

A smaller branch down here is really for aesthetics.

We're gonna take our small pruners.

The diameter of this branch is small enough to where our hand pruners can get them.

You just wanna make a cut close to the base of the branch.

Our second branch is a little bit higher.

Before we make our cut, we're gonna put on our safety glasses.

And I've selected the pole saw for this task.

I'm gonna get close to the base of the branch and begin your cuts.

I don't wanna get on a ladder and use a hand saw.

I'd rather stay firmly on the ground and cut from the ground.

Now that you've made your cut, you can take your branch and safely dispose of it.

And we've seen now in two different situations how, with a small branch, you can use the hand pruners, with a larger branch up higher, you may use the pole saw.

Selecting the right tool for the job is important in pruning.

[upbeat country music] - All right, Mr. D, so you're gonna demonstrate to us how to use one of these live animal traps, right?

- How to catch a raccoon [Chris laughs] or a possum or any critter that's causing you some trouble.

What I have here is, I guess it's a Havahart live animal trap.

- Okay.

- Very simple construction.

This one's big enough.

This one has actually caught several raccoons in its life.

[Chris laughs] To open it up, you release the screen right here and just open the door, and then you hold it.

And you see the little flap?

- Uh-huh.

Oh, okay.

[flap clanking] - That will release the door when something steps on that flap.

So the hook, we have a lever that comes up here.

Let me turn it around where you can see that.

That flap is attached to this hook, which is attached to the door.

So if I set the hook like that and release it, the trap is set.

- Okay, I got you.

- So if you run in there, and, you know, you're gonna be caught.

So I'm gonna put some bait, [Chris laughs] and one of the preferred baits for raccoons is tuna.

- Huh.

- So I have a can of tuna fish over here.

So I'm gonna grab this, I'm not gonna trust the hook right now.

Make sure I hold the door open with one hand.

This is my trusty can of tuna fish.

- All right.

- Pretty good.

- Yeah.

[laughs] - Smells good.

I'm gonna set that - That smells good, huh?

- Back behind the little trigger.

And, now I'm gonna reset my hook, release the pressure, the trap is loaded ready to go.

You grab the handle here.

See how that trigger is set?

- Yeah, I see it.

- So it's loaded, it's ready to go.

Now, I'm gonna set it in an area here that...

I'm gonna kind of back it up because I don't want critters coming to the outside and trying to reach in.

- Okay.

- To get it, because they can accidentally trip the trigger.

I'm gonna push it back into a kind of a protected area here, where hopefully the critters will just come through the front door.

They'll see that's the only door that's open.

I'm sliding it back here.

- Yeah, watch that poison ivy down there now.

- Yeah, there's a little bit of poison ivy there.

Now, before I put the bait in there, I pull some out and I stored it on this little ash leaf.

- Yeah, ash leaf.

- And to try to entice the critters, I'm gonna scatter a little tuna around here [Chris chuckles] outside.

Just a little bit out here.

Get their interest up, and getting closer to the door, right at the front door there.

Now, I'm gonna come around and come in over the top, drop some in through the top.

- Oh, okay.

- A couple of little teaspoons of that there.

A little bit more getting closer.

To catch a raccoon you gotta be sneakier than a raccoon.

[Chris laughs] A little bit closer.

- I have a hunch you've done this before, right?

- I have.

- Uh-huh.

Were you successful?

- Several times.

- Several times, he says.

[laughs] - I even put a little bit on the trigger there.

And let me lay my little leaf right there.

We'll save our spoon for next go round.

- Okay.

- But you need to come back and check your trap at least every 36 hours.

And when you catch the critter, again, contact or check TWRA's website and they will tell you what you can and can't do with a trapped animal.

Or, - Or?

[laughs] - Contact your local game warden.

[Chris laughs] I know that you can't transport these animals because there's a possibility that you could spread diseases.

So if you think about catching a raccoon and driving it out to Shelby Farms and turning it loose, unless you have a permit to do that and are licensed to do that, you'll be breaking the law.

- So you can't do that.

- You can't do that.

Not legally.

- Not legally, right.

- And I've got a feeling that, if these critters are causing you problems, the game officer's gonna tell you to destroy the critter, you know?

- Wow.

- Dispatch it, - Wow.

- Which is what I would do.

- Is dispatch 'em.

[laughs] I'm sure you would do that, right?

- Exactly right.

[Chris laughs] All right, we do appreciate that demonstration there, Mr. D. And hopefully, 36 hours or so we have something caught.

- Maybe quicker than that.

- Maybe quicker than that.

- All right.

- You never know.

You never know, trapping is, you know, some folks are better trappers than others.

And, you know, there's things to consider.

You probably don't need to... if you handle that trap with your bare hands, - Yeah.

- Probably need to use gloves - Okay.

- Or rubber gloves, or something that'll prevent the human scent.

Probably don't need to walk around here a lot - Yeah.

- Because they're pretty crafty.

- Wow.

- But we'll see.

- All right, we'll see what we get.

Thanks, Mr. D. - Oh, most welcome.

- All right.

[upbeat country music] - All right, so one of our most common maintenance practices in the garden is gonna be some preventative fungicides.

And you have a lot of options.

There are biological options, there are also conventional fungicides.

You just wanna make sure that you know what disease you're addressing and that you're following the labels on the bottle.

This is actually, chlorothalonil's the active ingredient.

So it's a conventional fungicide that's been on the market for quite some time, wide range of crops that it's appropriate for, early blight is one of them.

And so, we have it mixed up according to the label instructions and we're gonna be applying, I would prefer in the morning or in the late part of the day when we're not in the heat of the day.

And the most important thing when we think about fungicides for the home garden is good coverage.

We wanna spray the undersides and the top sides, get good coverage from our protective or our control materials.

And so, chlorothalonil, a lot of the biologicals, really most of the fungicides that we would use in our garden are gonna be protective, which means that we're not gonna be wiping out existing infections.

What we really wanna be doing is getting coverage over our leaves so that we prevent that fungal inoculum from infecting more.

And so, what I wanna do is get good coverage over the plant, get as much of those interior leaves as possible.

Most of the time what the directions will tell us is spray to the point of runoff, right?

So we don't want the material completely dripping off the plant, but we want to get good coverage on those leaves.

Depending upon how often we get rain, lots of times we'll apply 7 to 10 days.

So keeping up that preventative fungicide is one of the best practices for maintaining disease-free plants through the season.

[upbeat country music] - All right, here's our Q&A segment.

Y'all ready?

- Yep.

- These are great questions.

All right, here's our first viewer email.

"How do I get rid of quackgrass in my perennials?"

And this is Nancy.

She says she dug up the whole bed and removed all the roots.

Quackgrass is tough, what do you think?

- Yeah, it is very tough, and quackgrass is a cool-season grass.

So, you're not gonna get everything out when you dig it up.

You're gonna miss.

So the best thing to do is come in with a non-selective herbicide.

- Yeah.

- And to finish that off.

- Yeah, protect your desirable plants when you're using that non-selective herbicide.

- Yeah, so you gotta be careful since it is in a perennial bed.

Be very careful and just get as much of it out as you can, as much of those roots out.

- Yeah, you think you wanna add to that, Rosa?

- Yeah, just like Joseph was saying, get the roots out.

Make sure that is out because you don't want it to come back later.

- That's right.

- So, you know, that's very important.

- All right, yeah.

Pull it out, hand pull it.

- Hand pull it.

- And it produces by seeds, root fragment, right?

- Yep.

- So it's gonna be real tough, those rhizomes, real tough.

- It is, rhizomes.

Yeah, it's gonna be tough.

- All right, Ms. Nancy, y'all got some work to do.

Thank you for that question.

All right, here's our second email.

"When is the best time to change my lawn to zoysia?"

And this is Ronald from Memphis, Tennessee.

So guess what, Ronald?

We have our turf specialist right here, right?

So when is the best time to change the lawn?

- Best time is late spring, early summer.

- Yeah.

- When it gets hot 'cause we have, you know, zoysia is a warm-season grass.

So it grows best when it's hot.

So that's the best time to lay it down.

- All right, and he's also interested in wanting to plant El Toro.

What do you think about that, El Toro and zoysia?

- El Toro's a good zoysia, it's pretty tough.

The texture is coarse.

It establishes very quickly and it produces a low thatch.

So you don't get a lot of thatch with El Toro.

- Okay, El Toro's a good zoysia.

- It's good one.

- So that'll be a good time, right?

So late spring, going into the summer.

I would say this.

I would caution folks to plant too late in the fall though, right?

Because you want those grasses to get completely established before winter.

- That's true.

- Yeah, before winter.

- Definitely.

- That's right.

- There you have it, Mr. Ronald.

We appreciate that question.

Here's our next viewer email.

"What is the white powdery substance on my crape myrtles?"

And this is Matthew from Chesapeake, Virginia.

So, the old, white powdery... - White powdery.

- Yeah, what is that on the crape myrtles?

- Powdery mildew - Powdery mildew.

- Is what it is, yeah.

And it develops when we get a lot of cool weather, - Yeah.

- Cool temperatures, and a lot of rain, a lot of moisture.

And it will develop, and there's a couple different ways you can handle it.

Coming in and pruning out the inside of it, letting that air come through, flow through there, help dry things out, and watching your irrigation.

- Yeah.

- You know, control on that.

- Yeah, so that'd be good.

Right, when I think about powdery mildew, I think about warm days, cool nights, high humidity, right?

So, there's a couple of different things here.

Resistant varieties would be good, number one.

Number two, if you wanted to control powdery mildew, which is a white mold, it distorts the new growth, it can cause the buds to actually drop or abort.

There's a couple of different low-impact means to controlling it, right?

Neem oil will be one, sulfur will be another that you can use, or any copper-based fungicide.

Read and follow the label, out of those and get it for you.

Low-impact means to controlling powdery mildew.

But yeah, resistant varieties will help, - Yeah.

- And then making sure you proper pruning to allow those leaves to dry off, right?

Because, yeah, the spores, which are of course, splashed around wind, rain, - Yeah.

- They need moisture to start the lifecycle, right?

- That's right.

- So there you have it, Matthew.

All right, good picture, we appreciate that.

Here's our next viewer email.

"Why did my Romanesco cauliflower plants grow lots of leaves but never head?"

And this is Lori from Scenery Hill, Pennsylvania.

So what do you think about that one, Joseph?

- Sounds like a nutrition deficiency.

Could also be irrigation.

- Yeah.

- Not getting enough water.

- That's right.

- So it's growing more leaves than the head areas.

- Yeah, and so this is Lori in south Pittsburgh, this is zone six.

And it grew next to a cabbage.

They did pretty well, right?

- Yeah.

- Yeah, but still, it could be a fertility issue.

Rosa, anything that comes to mind for you?

- Yeah, sometimes when the plant is not getting watered enough, you know, the growth is stunted.

So, I think that will be a factor, yeah.

- Yeah, so I definitely agree with that.

So, watering right, 'cause it's gonna need a lot of water to form the head.

- Exactly.

- So if it's not getting enough water, it's not gonna be able to form the head.

- Yeah.

- Temperature fluctuations can, you know, have something to do with that.

And then too, I wonder how late in the season did she plant?

Because, yeah, did it get warm all of a sudden?

So there's your temperature fluctuations.

- Right.

- Exactly.

- Right, so there you have it, Ms. Lori.

Thank you for your question.

All right, here's our next viewer email.

"I have a trumpet vine that is taking over.

How do I control it?"

And this is Linda from Baltimore, Maryland.

She said it is literally eating her house.

[Rosa chuckles] - Yeah.

- Can we get her house back?

- Yeah, we can get it back.

- All right, how can we do that?

- It's gonna take a lot of work.

But the best thing to do is to dig it out and try and remove as many roots as you possibly can.

- Yeah.

- And then if it kinda comes back up, again, you can hit it with a glyphosate product.

- Yeah.

- Especially when it starts to come on up, those leaves are real tender - Yeah.

- And it does a lot better job.

- Yeah, so it does good on the new growth.

- On the new growth, yeah, 'cause it's tender.

- All right, that's good.

Anything you wanna add to that, Rosa?

- Yeah, I think definitely.

Right, definitely.

You know, trying to pull them out first, I would say, before we try to use any type of chemical to get rid of it.

I think pulling, it takes a lot of work like Joseph said.

- It'll be grunt work.

- It'll be a tough job.

- Exactly, but yeah, that would be my first option.

- Yeah.

- Yeah.

- Yeah, trumpet vine, beautiful flower.

- It's beautiful, yeah.

- But invasive.

- They can just get invasive.

- It's aggressive!

It's an aggressive woody vine.

- Right.

- So yeah, of course they spirals up from suckers and things like that, so you're gonna have to pull, pull, pull, pull, Ms. Linda, - Yep.

- To get your house back.

All right, thank you for that question.

Here's our next viewer email.

"My cannas come up looking beautiful, but as summer goes by they get brown and dry, why?"

- Aww.

- And this is Doris from Memphis, Tennessee.

So, what do you think about that one, Rosa?

- I think the amount of sunlight that your cannas are getting, you know?

So if it's getting not enough sun, I believe that will be something that affects your cannas.

Also, if they're near the heat also, if it's getting too much sun.

If it's near like a stony place- - Right, which this one is.

It's right next to, yeah, - Exactly.

- A brick wall.

- So I think that's what it... you should take it away from it.

Exactly.

- Okay.

- I think that's what it would be.

- I think that will help.

What do you think, Joseph?

- Irrigation.

Get it watered.

- Yeah.

- As our temperatures heat up, we lose a lot more of our moisture and a lot of our water.

So keeping it watered is key.

- Yeah.

- Plenty of water.

Plenty of water.

- Plenty of water, cannas do very well- - Yeah, it's a tropical plant.

- Yeah, right.

- And so it likes that moisture, - That's right.

- That humidity.

So it wants that water.

- Grows best, you know, zones 8 through 10.

- Yeah.

- She's in Memphis, so we're there.

- Right at the eight.

You know, native to South and Central America.

And so of course, it enjoys the heat.

- Yeah.

- It does.

- But it needs to be watered.

And I would consider mulching too, to help conserve some of that moisture, you know what I mean?

- Yeah, control that moisture.

- Exactly.

- So I think that'll work.

All right, so Linda, we appreciate that question.

Thank you much.

So Rosa, Joseph, it's been fun.

Thank y'all for being here today.

- Thank you all for having us.

- Remember, we love to hear from you.

Send us an email or letter.

The email address is questions@familyplotgarden.com and the mailing address is Family Plot, 7151 Cherry Farms Road Cordova, Tennessee 38016, or you can go online to familyplotgarden.com.

That's all we have time for today.

Thanks for watching.

If you want to learn more about turf grass or animal traps, visit familyplotgarden.com.

We have this information along with more information about everything we talked about today.

Be sure to join us next week for The Family Plot: Gardening in the Mid-South.

Be safe.

[upbeat country music] [acoustic guitar chords]