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

I'm Chris Cooper.

Mulch has lots of benefits in the garden.

Today we're spreading several organic mulches.

Also, lots of plants slow down in the heat of summer, but there are some that put on a show.

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 Walter Battle.

Walter is a UT Extension Specialist and Celeste Scott will be joining me later.

Walter, always good to have you back with us.

- Always glad to be here.

- All right, organic mulches.

- Yes, you know, great benefits that they bring.

Gives us an opportunity to put organic matter back into the soil, you know, improving our soil tilth and all.

And they also do a really good job of, when you put it down right, of keeping weeds suppressed.

You know, they really do a wonderful, wonderful job.

And so you can't go wrong using organic materials to keep, you know, to help you control your weeds, you know, in your garden.

You just can't go wrong with it.

- All right.

- It's all, it's just a great natural way to do it.

- Yep, and most people like natural, right?

Most of your gardeners.

- That's right, that's what everybody's liking.

- Yes.

- That's right.

All right, so what are we're gonna use first?

- Well here we have some pine straw.

And it's not, I mean, you can get this pretty much anywhere, you know, I mean, pine trees grow everywhere in our region and so it's, this is not hard to find.

And it does, like I said, it does a wonderful, wonderful job when you put it down nice, and, you know, I'm gonna say about four inches thick.

You know, kind of go on the heavy side with it as far as putting it down.

And it's just do a good job of suppressing weeds.

You'll still get some that shoot through there, but hey, you know, you get out there and just pull those out.

- Yeah, and they might be easy to come out.

- Absolutely.

And also, mulch also helps the plant to hold moisture.

It's gonna help that garden hold moisture.

And, you know, with the hot summers that we get, you know, any kinda aid that we can, you know, keep water from evaporating up and stuff, this really helps to keep it down.

So I'm gonna just start.

It's pretty easy to put down.

All you really much, pretty much with pine straw is just, you just basically need you a good rake and you can just kind of throw it out there and we'll rake it all in.

- Okay.

- Matter of fact, I just grab this and just go to town here.

Uh-oh.

And this is pretty easy way to do it.

- All right, so we just wanna make sure we get the ground covered.

- That's right, get the ground covered.

It's no, hey if, you know, if you have some kids or grandkids, this would be a great, excellent way to keep 'em busy for a while.

Let me see here.

- So Walter, there's always a lot of talk about using, of course, pine needles and acidifying the soil.

- Yes.

- If you look at your research, right?

- Yes?

- It's a myth.

- It's a myth, oh, okay.

You know, because you do, you get people ask that all the time.

They'll say, hey, if I add, you know, the pine needles, will that acidify my soil?

I'm glad you told me that.

If you wanna make it pretty and all too, you can kinda, you know, use a rake to kind of...

Through here is a little soft, right through here, see that little area here, but I think that's pretty good shape.

And like I said, you just come in, plant your plants, boom.

You know, go with it and you're good to go.

- All right.

- Yes.

- So we'll move to the next plot.

- Okay.

- Okay.

- Now over here we have what we call just our regular, I guess some folks would call it regular mulch.

What you see pretty much everywhere.

And as you can see this wood chips, shredded wood, excellent material.

Again, this stuff will decompose.

It'll, you know, it'll get in there and just plant into it, it's gonna help suppress weeds.

Gonna hold the moisture.

And the only thing I can say is maybe be a little careful where you mulch is sourced from, so to speak.

- Yeah, that's a good point.

- 'Cause sometimes you might get a-hold of something you don't need.

- That's right, that's a good point.

- But more than likely, most than likely, you won't have any problem.

- Right.

- And here, what I would basically do is probably, well, you know... - Just grab a handful.

- Just grab a handful.

Eventually I'm gonna dump some of it in there.

I'm just trying to get it where we can- - So how thick does it need to be, you think?

- About three to three to four inches.

And I'm gonna, I just wanted to get that down.

And then what we're going to do, an easier way to, another way to do this, I'm gonna take this now.

I can kind of manage it.

I'm just gonna... - Got it?

- Go out here, I'm gonna dump some.

- Okay.

- And then we'll take rakes and just kind of... - Ah, that looks good.

- You know, work it in.

You know, we just wanna make sure we get it covered.

Let gravity use it, I guess.

Let it flow down a little bit.

This looks, looks pretty good, Chris.

Maybe, okay.

- That looks good and fresh, doesn't it?

- Yeah, looks good and fresh.

- Yeah, it does.

- And again, this here, will obviously, you know, keep weeds suppressed.

It'll break down.

Now I will tell you this, due to the high, you know, the wood, it will use some of your nitrogen to help break down, help break down some of this wood.

So kind of just know that, but otherwise this, you know, you can just plant right on in here and you're good to go.

- All right.

So here's our last plot.

- Oh, here's the last plot.

- Cardboard.

- Okay.

- Use cardboard.

And I know a lot of the master gardeners, you know, told me they not using cardboard, you know, to put down, to help suppress those weeds.

So we're gonna put 'em to the test.

- Yeah, put 'em to the test because I would tell you it, it's really a natural product.

Paper, cardboard, is a natural product.

And since a lot of things now also they use soy ink, you know, for the printing of it.

- Right, right, right.

- So again, you got, you know, soy going back in.

So, and it's real easy.

It's just a tremendous way.

I really like it with ornamental beds.

- Hm, okay.

- I really love it with ornamental beds to put it down, up under there.

And I'm gonna tell you it's, over the summer, it'll get wet and stuff, but break down.

But I usually put it down and then put mulch on top of it and you know, so that's how I kind of do it at the house, so to speak.

So, basically we have this piece of cardboard here and you can find, if you're lucky enough to be near like maybe a construction site or something like that, a lot of times if you're real nice and walk up to the people, they'll say, yeah, you can have all the cardboard you want over there, you know... - Construction site, big box stores, anything that throws.

- Yeah, a lot of times they just wanna get rid of, they just gonna get rid of it.

So we just gonna take it here and let me see.

Yeah, let's see how this one's unfolded.

I think it's two.

We might have to... - We got two?

- Yeah, it's two pieces and I'll go here on the inside and you take the outside.

Okay?

And bring it down.

We'll get it all squared away here.

Nice and pretty.

- Let me see, I can get that.

- Yeah, set that one up.

Okay.

And like I said, if I had my box cutter, I would cut that part off, but, and so you might ask a question, hey, you know, but won't it blow away?

Well now I don't know if the construction site would give you any of these, but if you got something hanging around your house and around your grandpapa's house or something and you can just set 'em down.

They're not going anywhere.

I would probably lay it flat like this, you know.

And it's gonna take a lot of wind to blow, you know, to blow that up.

Or you can do this.

And I'm gonna get over here where we have some dirt.

- Some dirt, yeah, yeah.

- You can just simply put, you can cover it with dirt.

- There you go.

- You know, again, you know, around the edges, what have you.

Let me get this.

So, either way you wanna do it.

Like I said, this here works, putting some soil on it, you know, now, you know, we always call it soil.

- Yeah, soil, right, right.

Instead of dirt.

- We don't call it dirt, but you just lay that on there and you know, and like I say, you would come all the way up with the soil and just, you know, leave it there and it'll do fine.

Come back, plant your tomato plants, pepper plants, whatever you're gonna put in there with it.

And you know, again, once it gets rained on two or three times over the course of the summer, it'll loosen up.

- Oh, it's gonna loosen up.

That's for sure.

- You know, more water can get down there naturally to it.

So, you know, that's just something to consider.

But it's really a great way to do it.

And a great way to use up something that wouldn't be going into the landfill.

- That's right, right.

- You know, and also you're doing the construction people a favor too, by taking it off their hands.

- That is good.

So you did mention in your ornamental bed though, you use this.

- Yes.

- The cardboard, but you actually put mulch- - I put mulch on it in my ornamental beds because I wanna make sure they look pretty, you know, when people walk up to the house.

So I, but I actually have cardboard down.

- Okay, and it does a pretty good job for you?

- Oh, it does a great job.

It does a tremendous job.

- All right, Walter, we appreciate the demonstration.

We'll see what happens, as they say, right?

- All right.

- We'll see if it works.

- All right.

- Thank you much.

- All righty.

[upbeat country music] Why do we need to mulch?

Oh, let me count the ways for you.

There's a couple of different reasons why you need to mulch, right?

Here's the number one reason; it helps to suppress weeds.

Weeds need sunlight to grow, to germinate.

So by mulching, you actually restrict the sunlight.

It can't get down to the soil surface, therefore you don't have to worry so much about weeds.

Second reason, conserve moisture.

You wanna retain the moisture in the soil.

Retaining moisture means you don't have to water as frequently.

Third reason why, how about this, we wanna protect the roots from extreme weather conditions.

Fourth reason why you wanna mulch, look, if it's organic, mulches can be tilled into the soil, used by those soil microbes.

It'll make your garden soil that much better, that much richer, as you prepare your ornamental beds or your vegetable garden.

Here's what I don't want you to do; don't volcano mulch though.

All right, we don't want you to pile the mulch up against your trees, against your large shrubs or against your annual or perennial plants.

So, if you do all of those practices, mulch will really help you out.

[upbeat country music] Hi Celeste.

- Hey.

- We're gonna talk about woody perennials with summer interest.

- Yes sir.

We've got plenty to talk about.

- Yes, so let's talk about those, 'cause I'm very interested in this.

- Good, well, so just starting off, I feel like spring flowering shrubs always steal the show, right?

- Yes, they do.

- That's what so many people focus on.

That's the beginning of our growing seasons, right?

Things are starting to pop, colors are coming out.

And then I feel like once we get into summertime, sometimes we kind of, you know, we get a little tired, a little lax in our planting.

And I just wanna make sure that folks know that there are plenty of perennial woody-type plants that will come back year after year that will provide some color to our summer landscapes.

- No, that'll be good, 'cause again, when we think of summer, we thinking about the heat, right?

- Yes.

- Thinking about how hot it is.

- And having to water, so you know- - Having to water, right.

- So often we associate annuals, you know, annual color with providing that pop of color, in the summertime, but they require so much water.

And once you get a perennial or you know, woody type plant established, they do not require quite as much attention.

- Oh, that sounds good to me.

- Yeah.

- All right, so let's get with the first one.

- Okay, so the first one that I'm gonna talk about today is Abelia, and we're kind of starting on the small scale, right?

And then we're gonna work our way up to larger plants.

So Abelia can be so versatile.

You know, there are some older cultivars.

Canyon Creek is one that many people are probably familiar with, that really has a beautiful, we'll call it a semi-evergreen foliage.

So it's not gonna hold that foliage, potentially, depending on where you are, you know, in the United States all season long.

But also has a really beautiful bloom.

Right in the summertime.

We're talking kind of late summertime.

So it's starting to set blooms about midsummer and then we're talking full bloom by late summer.

And Abelia's are also nice because they can be grown in a wider range of zones.

So we're looking at five to nine.

- Good, good.

- And then if you are, you need even more variation, they've got newer cultivars out that are more compact.

So we're looking at things like Rose Creek would be an example.

Edward Goucher is a really nice compact cultivar that you might wanna use in a landscape type situation.

And then one of my favorites is what we call glossy Abelia.

And it has a darker shiny leaf.

It is actually considered more evergreen than our, the other semi-evergreen cultivars.

And it has huge blooms on it that are fragrant.

And so that is one of my favorites.

It's not a compact version, but lots of options with Abelia.

The next one I kind of wanted to highlight is the butterfly bush.

So Buddleia, yeah.

Many of you might be familiar with that.

And I really love butterfly bush, but sometimes, again, depending on what zone we're in, it can be a struggle.

And so this is where cultivar selection is gonna be really important.

So overall Buddleias can be grown successfully in zones five through nine, but some require specifically like zone seven or above.

So we just have to be really careful when we're picking those cultivars that we're researching the zones that they're appropriate for and making sure that we're picking ones that are gonna do well in our areas.

And why some of those require, at least to zone seven, is because if we get a hard winter, sometimes even in zone seven, we can have some dieback of that above ground portion of the plant, but the roots aren't killed.

- Gotcha.

- So, you know, you may see some twigginess from year to year.

We have lots of great cultivars.

You know, of course some of our older tried and trues, you know, we would call 'em would be Black Knight that has the really big dark purple panicle type blooms, Purple Prince and Royal Red have both been around quite a while, gives you some variation in color bloom options.

But they've been coming out with newer hybrids again that are more compact.

That's the key word we're gonna see.

Everyone wants a compact plant in the landscape.

So we've got lots more to choose out there.

Blue Chip, Miss Ruby.

- Those are real cool names.

- Yeah, aren't those, those are cute.

And so, and there's a whole bunch more, but those are just two that come to mind.

And then this is kind of a neat thing that I wanted to throw in there.

There is another hybrid, it's called Orange Scepter, but it is not compact.

They have bred this one particularly for its unique color.

It has orange blooms.

- How 'bout that?

- And they are over a foot long, the panicle blooms.

So, that's kind of a unique thing to look for there.

So some really cool things going on with butterfly bushes.

- Good deal, good deal.

- Now we're moving up kind of a step in size, as far as stature of the plants.

And of course we have to highlight Hydrangea paniculata.

We can't have a discussion on woody plants without talking about a hydrangea of some sort.

They are many of our first loves when it comes to blooming shrubs.

And I'm gonna say that this one has the most versatile growth range.

So we're looking at zones three to nine, USDA zones three to nine.

- Wow, three, okay.

- So this covers practically the entire United States except for some of those subtropic and tropic areas.

They are, you know, beautiful.

Again, they're starting their blooms in summer.

Many of those, we're talking like around, you know, July or so, are starting their blooms.

One of my personal favorites is called Phantom, and the bloom on this can be, I mean, bigger than my head.

Like as large as a basketball in some situations.

And they can get so large that occasionally they might need a little extra support.

But, if we don't do a lot of pruning and we leave some of that woody structure to kind of strengthen from year to year, that can help hold up those heavier bloom heads.

But you know, there are many others to choose from.

Limelight's been around forever.

- Yes, I know about Limelight.

- Gotta have Limelight.

- Gotta have that.

- Vanilla Strawberry is something kind of new on the market and I've added it to my garden and it's doing well.

And, but I will mention if you see any of these panicle-type hydrangeas that are marketed for color change, in the pink and red zones, you're gonna have better color change in our northern USDA zones than you do in the more humid areas.

- Gotcha, okay.

- So here in zone seven where I live, I don't get a lot of pink coloration on those blooms.

So just keep that in mind.

And then again, compact options, Little Lime, which still, in itself, doesn't really get that little, it's still like a five-foot, you know, shrub.

But if we wanna get even on further down from there, we're looking at like Bobo or Baby Lace.

Those are excellent options for compact paniculatas.

So now we'll kind of move on, we'll talk about Rose of Sharon or Hibiscus Syriacus.

- Yes, reminds me of my grandmother.

- Oh yes.

- She had a yard full of those.

- I know- - Rose of Sharons.

- They're a wonderful pass along plant.

I mean they're hardy.

I feel like you can't kill 'em.

And they want to live.

And they wanna procreate.

[both laughing] So if you have one, you might end up having some babies popping up around 'em, either from reseeding or suckering from the roots.

- Suckering would be mine at home, yes, yes.

- But the good thing is through some of these newer cultivars, they have bred for sterility.

So you may occasionally see some suckers pop up, but you're not gonna have as much reseeding, you know, popping up all around the area.

That's really nice.

And it has a really graceful kind of vase form.

You know, a lot of folks are like, well I just dunno what to do with it 'cause it's got such a strange form.

- I like it.

- I like it too.

- I like it.

- I mean there are all types of situations where you need something that's narrow down at the base but to fill a larger space up top.

- Yup, kind of just up and over.

- Yes.

- I like it.

- And covered in blooms.

So many different color options.

Anything from lavender to dark pink, hot pink.

There's even like some whites that have dark pink or red centers.

One of my personal favorites is called Blue Chiffon.

- Blue Chiffon.

- Yes, and it, in certain light, literally looks blue and it's very rare to find a plant that has a blue bloom on it, so...

So lots of, lots of options.

- God, that was a good list, Celeste.

- Oh, thanks.

- Good stuff.

We could tell you really liked those flowers, those woody perennials.

- And we could talk about it for more, but I think maybe we need to stop there.

- I think that's really good.

So thank you, Celeste.

Real good information.

Appreciate that.

- You're welcome.

[upbeat country music] - We have some sucker growth here on our swamp magnolia that we need to cut off because we don't want more branches coming out from the ground.

It'll crowd the, we don't wanna shrub, we want trees, so we're gonna have to cut these off.

Other plants that do this all throughout the summer are crape myrtles and river birch.

So if you have those, watch for sucker growth and cut those off also.

We're just gonna simply cut 'em at the base.

[tool snipping] [plants rustling] And they never knew they were there.

[upbeat country music] - All right, Walter, this our Q and A segment.

You ready?

- Yes.

- All right.

These are some great questions.

All right, here's our first viewer email.

"Are there any shade tolerant vegetables?"

And this is Steve from Georgia.

All right, Mr. Steve, we got Walter here.

He knows all about those vegetables.

- Yes, and I love the word that he used, shade tolerant.

- Shade tolerant, right?

- Yes, because let me say this first, most vegetables wanna be out in full sun.

- Okay, good.

- But if you want a few that I know of offhand that I kind of raise in some, you know, partially shaded areas, I've had success with, obviously, with kale.

Mustard greens, also squash and cucumbers.

- Oh, okay.

- Now something that can definitely grow in a darker area is one of my favorite vegetables, which is pole beans.

Pole beans can take the shade.

They can really take it.

And also, lettuce will also grow in a darker area.

So yeah, you do have some options out there.

And, but the key word is shade tolerant.

- Shade tolerant.

- But they, but they all prefer to be out in full sun, but they can handle a little shade.

You know, some of 'em can.

- That's good, yeah, so this is what I learned from some of the old time gardeners, right?

So if you grow it, if you're growing it, right, and you're growing it for the leaves, the stem or the roots, it has some shade tolerance.

- There you go.

There you go.

- Right, so anything else, you're growing for the fruit, it needs full sun.

- Yes, yes.

- Yeah.

- You know, those old timers knew a lot.

- Oh, I listened to 'em.

- Yeah, I learned a lot from 'em too.

- I listened to 'em, Mr. Steve.

So thank you for that question.

Yeah, we like the way you phrased that, shade tolerant.

- Yes.

- Good deal.

All right, here's our next viewer email.

"Will last year's seed packets still grow?"

And this is Helen from Memphis, Tennessee.

So, will those seeds still grow from last year?

- Oh yes.

- Okay.

- Yes, without a doubt.

I've kept seeds for two or three years.

Now, like I say, you do, you know, have a little issue sometimes with germination rates.

But if you store them properly, you know, they're viable.

- So how would you store them?

- I've always kept mine in the refrigerator.

I just put 'em in a envelope and I put it in a plastic bag, and just kind of store it that way in my refrigerator, basically.

- Okay, so cool spot, dry, dark.

- Cool spot, yeah, dry.

- Okay, and they should be good.

And then you can always do the germination test, right?

- Yes, you always do the germination test.

- You buy 10 seeds, you know, damp paper cloth.

You know, you can put 'em in a Ziploc bag.

- Set 'em in a windowsill and see what happens.

- See what happens, yeah.

You get 7 out of the 10, 70%.

- Yes, yes.

- Your germination rate, so... - Yes.

- Yeah.

- But yeah, you should be fine.

If you took care of those seeds, fine.

- I should be fine, okay, thank you Helen.

That's a good question.

We appreciate that.

Here's our next viewer email.

This one's interesting.

"What is this plant?

"It came up in mid-March where I had okra growing last year.

I think it is still too cold for okra to sprout."

And this is Jan from Maryland.

And Jan, we appreciate the pictures.

Good picture.

Yeah, Walter and I kind of went back and forth.

- Yes.

- You know, on this one a little bit.

And to me, you know, it looked like what we call cutleaf coneflower.

Right, because they had those deep-lobed leaves.

The plants were pretty tall, you know, if you saw, right?

So the cutleaf coneflowers can get 3 to 10 feet tall.

- Okay.

- They produce a yellow flower pretty much late, you know, late summer into the fall, right?

Plant pollinator, right?

Butterflies love it for its nectar, right?

Full sun, part shade, grows in moist conditions, but can tolerate extreme heat.

- Okay, okay.

- Right, so I mean that's what I thought that was.

Right, because of, you know, the leaf structure, the deep-lobed leaves and then, you know, it's pretty tall.

- Yeah.

- Right.

- And me being a crop guy, you know, it's funny, you look at things in terms of- - Right, right, right.

- Ornamental beauty, I look at things as and, but there is a reed that looks similar to this.

- Right, right, there sure is.

- And I do wanna tell you what that is.

That is Mugwort.

- Right, right, definitely similar.

- Mugwort.

It looks very similar to it and that's what I thought it was.

But, but you showed me where, where it was the other plant, so yeah, that was great.

- Yeah, it definitely looks similar.

Yeah, that's what happens when you hang around some of the- - Yes, yes.

- Some of the horticulture specialists in flowers.

Cut flowers, you kind of pick up, you know, that knowledge.

But again, cutleaf coneflower.

- Cutleaf Coneflower.

- Was what that is and it grows a lot in Maryland, in the Maryland area.

So admire it.

It attracts the butterflies, you know, they like the nectar beautiful flower, yellow flower.

- That's always good.

- I think that's a good thing.

- Attracts pollinators.

- Yeah, attract pollinators for your vegetable garden.

- Yes, yes.

- So your okra and such.

So yeah, I think that'll be good.

All right.

So thank you for the picture Ms. Jan. Walter, that was fun.

Thank you much.

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 more information about mulches or summer flowering shrubs, head on over to FamilyPlotGarden.com.

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

Be safe.

[upbeat country music] [acoustic guitar chords]