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

I'm Chris Cooper.

Squirrels can eat up all your hard work in the garden.

Today we're going to talk about how to get rid of them.

Also, flower beds need flowers.

Today we're talking about some perennial options for season-long color.

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 Mike Dennison.

Mr. D is a retired UT Extension agent, and Carol Reese will be joining me later.

All right, Mr. D. - Glad to be here.

- Always good to have you here.

Let's talk about something that I know that you love to discuss.

How about squirrels?

- Let's talk about squirrels.

- Let's talk about it.

- Let's talk about it.

- How do we control those squirrels?

- You know, I need to give you a little background information, I think on me.

- Okay.

- I used to love squirrels.

I used to love 'em.

They were an important part of the protein diet of my family when I grew up.

There were six of us kids.

- Okay.

- On the family farm in northwest Tennessee.

Fast forward to 2010.

- Okay.

- I moved to the community of Halls, Tennessee and squirrels started doing about $600 worth of damage a year to my vehicles.

And I planted a few apple trees and they had a couple of good crops of apples.

Then they got 'em all.

I mean, they didn't leave any for me.

- None, Mr. D?

- They started picking them before the apples were ripe even.

- Oh my gosh.

- And they got 'em all.

So I do have a little experience with squirrel control, but now, some of the methods I'm gonna mention I don't have access to.

For example, 1 of the best is a 12-year-old with a 20-gauge shotgun.

And you, I guess I need to say, you need to do that where it's legal.

- Yes, yes.

- And you check during squirrel season even, is, to be legal.

Now, things that I have found to also be successful is loud music.

- Oh, okay.

- My apple trees now enjoy loud country music.

For some reason that seemed to bother the squirrels.

They must, you know, they don't like country music, I guess.

Twenty-four hours a day, seven days a week- - Really?

- Loud country music and the different songs and the different, the announcer and all that, that all helped.

I mean, I got a, I had a crop of, a good crop of apples last year.

I also used the so, there are solar powered little contraptions that you can stick in the ground.

Battery operated, solar powered that are motion activated.

And they will, lights will flash, the siren will go off whenever anything triggers that.

- Okay.

- And I have one of those.

That probably helped a little bit too.

Maybe more for deer than squirrels.

- Okay.

- But, but because I'm not sure how, if a squirrel would trigger it, he could probably get in the tree without triggering it.

- Gotcha.

- Deer, maybe not so much.

So those are a couple of things that I found to be successful.

Things that you can use that I haven't tried, which I know would work is a physical netting, wire mesh, you know, a physical barrier.

But that's not very practical for me around a, my fruit trees.

- Gotcha.

- If you have a smaller plant, tomato plant or something like that, they'll get your tomatoes, I mean- - Oh yes, they will.

- They got, they get everything at my house.

But the physical barrier like that will work.

Trapping them, very effective.

I use an ear of corn.

And so that bait will stay there usually until I catch a squirrel or the birds get in there and eat it.

And birds don't tend to trigger the trap.

If they do, I let 'em out.

The squirrels we dispatch of in other ways.

And a dog, if you have a dog that you're in an area that your dog can run free or if it's a fenced in area, Jack Russell terriers are great squirrel dogs.

But any dog, any barking dog that doesn't like squirrels will help.

With squirrels, they're smart.

Generally, you have to mix these up, use more than one method to try to control them.

They will, if you just use one method they will probably get used to it and start, you know, being a problem again.

If you're planting fruit trees, if you get them, you know, locate them where, in an area that they, trees aren't, they can't access your fruit trees from other trees.

That might help.

There are barriers that you can get to put around trees, plastic and metal barriers where they little claws can't navigate through that.

Those help.

If there are a problem with bird feeders, there are baffles that you can get that go both above and below the feeders that are shaped so if they jump over, they'll flip off.

- Yeah, I've seen some of those.

- All that, so you can, you know, there's some, they call 'em baffles that will do a pretty good job for you around the bird feeders and things like that.

And there are some bird feeders out there that are squirrel proof, squirrel resistant that you might wanna check out.

A squirrel can jump five feet straight up.

Keep that in mind.

- Yeah.

- They can jump 10 feet horizontally and if they're up on a roof and going down toward a bird feeder, they can go 16 feet.

So that's just a little something you need to know about squirrels.

- Squirrels are tough.

- Yep.

- They are tough.

So what about these repellents?

How do you feel about those?

- They may give you some temporary relief, but I think they get used to it.

The peppers and all that might give you some temporary relief.

And I understand that there's some plants out there that supposedly squirrels don't like, but I've not had much success with that.

I'd try it, you know.

- You'd try it?

- I recommend that you try it.

But you know, one thing you could do, I understand UT has a wildlife damage control manual.

- They do.

- There is a good section in there on squirrels.

That'll give you some more ideas.

And also for any other critters you're trying to get rid of.

I encourage you to check that out, that manual.

I used it a lot when I was working at that time in University of Nebraska and a consortium of other universities put that thing together.

And I understand UT has taken it and- - Yeah, we have one now.

Yeah, it talks about the biology, you know, of the squirrels, how to trap 'em.

- Oh, it's more than just how to control 'em.

But you learn more than you wanna know about 'em.

And they've got armadillos and possums and skunks and mice and I mean, every kind of wild critter out there that can create a problem for you.

And I understand that I am probably encroaching in the squirrels' habitat.

I live in the woods now.

- Oh yeah.

- So I'm probably encroaching in the squirrels' habitat, but I bought it, it's mine and I'm gonna, I gotta defend what's mine.

- Yeah, you want some apples, don't you?

- I want some apples.

- Oh, that's good.

All right, Mr. D. We appreciate that.

And yeah, we will have that link, you know, to that publication on our website.

So yeah.

- All I can say is good luck.

- Good luck, good luck.

Thank you Mr. D. [upbeat country music] - If you grow peaches, plums, or nectarines and you do it for any length of time, you're gonna encounter a problem such as this.

The main problem here is peachtree borer.

When you have boring insects that get in the base, lower part of the tree, the tree will actually try to flush the borer out.

And so that's why you'll see sap being exuded from the tree.

And you can see another example right over here.

But it's peachtree borer that started the problem.

It weakened the tree and then wind came along and split it.

The way to prevent peachtree borer application, once I've gone back to our Home Orchard Spray Guide, May 31st, June 30th, July 15th, spray the trunk and lower limbs and the soil around the base of the tree with either esfenvalerate or gamma-cyhalothrin.

That's the sixth cover spray in the Home Orchard Spray Guide.

Very important.

[upbeat country music] - So let's talk about best plants for Tennessee.

- So what did I plant for sure?

It's common, but an adorable plant.

I'm just gonna start with spring, as that seems logical, is our little moss phlox.

I love the little Phlox subulatas.

They just do great groundcovers.

They also serve as a winter interest because they're evergreen.

They're highly durable.

You can get a range of colors, of different kinds of pinks and blues and purples, even whites if you decide that some of the pinks might clash with your coral azaleas.

So I've gotta have that.

I've gotten a little crazy over columbines, which to me were not a huge favorite to begin with.

They look delicate, but they're really not.

They're tough and durable and they re-seed generously.

And I love that fact.

I really fell in love with one at work called Woodside Variegated.

And it came to us as a gold and green variegation with cobalt blue flowers.

- Wow.

- And as it recedes into our mulch, it comes back both gold, green, and variegated, but it's become now where it's mostly gold, but still has the cobalt blue flowers.

So I took some of the seeds home and shook 'em around in my little woodland area.

And this was the first year they really bloomed prolifically.

And I'm spreading around to other parts of the garden and our native columbine, which I adore because the hummingbirds love it as well.

And they are very, very tough plants.

Some, that spring ephemeral kind of disappears as it gets hot, so you're gonna have to start, well then, I like to go into successional gardening.

Later phlox would be woodland phlox, which can be used in sun or shade.

And will give you a good bloom season to take you on into the hotter days of summer.

Of course there's tons of selections for summer.

I'm a big fan of the coneflowers and I love some of the newer ones that have come out.

The PowWow Wildberries have been very good.

I know PowWow.

- PowWow.

- Kind of stretch your mouth when you say it.

That's a hard one to forget.

And they've been really good because some of the new colors, even though they're exciting, have not been very durable perennials for us.

That's a very friendly one for wildlife.

Those of us who care about the pollinators, of course are gonna add those.

And everybody knows about the Rudbeckia fulgida, or the black-eyed-Susan, but there's a bunch of other good Rudbeckias.

The hirtas are often just annuals.

They'll re-seed generously, but why wouldn't one go get a pack of seeds of Rudbeckia hirta, also called gloriosa daisy.

The trilobas, there's a bunch of other Rudbeckias that I think are valuable additions.

I have a big place, not necessarily my house, a modest little home, but a big landscape and a lot of acreage.

So, whereas a lot of people like little plants, I like big, bold plants.

I want big impact, a lot of bang for the buck.

So having been a fan of the tropical look all my life, I'm going for the Cannas and the elephant ears that have proven to be more perennial for me.

So I have to have Bengal Tiger, that's my favorite Canna, with that gorgeous golden stripe and foliage.

'Cause even when it's not in bloom, it's so beautiful.

And Tropicanna as well has a beautiful foliage.

Both have orange blooms.

Tropicanna tends to get a little faded looking later in the summer.

And I like to mingle those with the elephant ears.

An elephant ear that I have found to be very durable, almost aggressive, is one called Illustris.

And Illustris has the black leaf, and most of the black leaf forms are not perennial, but Illustris has a black leaf with a strong green vein.

It's not gonna get quite as big and lush as some of them, but it spreads nicely for me.

And so I can move it around and put it in different parts of the garden.

And just one more, it's not a perennial, but I always grow it every year from seed would be the castor bean plant.

A lot of people are worried about that 'cause it does have a poisonous bean.

So be aware that if you've got kids or critters that might eat the poisonous beans.

But the big red form Carmen or-- - Is it stay red all summer?

- Yes.

- I mean the fruits kind of interesting with the- - It's beautiful.

- With the kind of spiky and you probably wouldn't have moles around it I guess with the- - That was the old theory.

My granddaddy grew 'em and called 'em mole killer bushes.

- Oh, how about that?

- Do you think that plays out, or... - I don't think so.

In fact, I don't even think the beans are quite as poisonous as rumored to be.

From recent research, you really have to eat a good number of them to be killed dead.

It used to be, you know, you thought you ate one, you were a goner.

- Yeah, the ricinoleic acid, I think is the toxin.

- Right, right.

But anyway, I just wanna throw that out there for people to be cautious.

But gosh, again, so much bang for the buck from a few seeds.

Getting into fall, I'm really getting into the asters.

Asters and the goldenrods that aren't terribly invasive.

Again, that extends the plants for the pollinators.

A lot of those butterflies that are migrating north through that time, I mean, excuse me, they're migrating south in the fall and people think of monarchs.

But the sulfurs also migrate.

A lot of the Salvias that are late blooming, and goodness, how did I leave out Salvia for summer?

- Love Salvias.

- I'm a huge Salvia-phile.

Love them.

And a lot of them show off well in the fall with like Mexican bush sage.

And I love the combination of the old Mexican bush sage with the old Autumn Joy Sedum.

I know that's kind of an old plant and there's newer colors and exciting foliage.

But the Autumn Joy, I love that color and they're very sturdy.

And I leave them up through the winter, which we're getting into the winter.

But for winter interest with a little cap of snow on them, they look really good.

Some evergreen perennials for winter interest would include the sweet flag.

It's kind of a grassy.

I love any of the sedges.

Evergold, Everillo is particularly spectacular, a solid gold sedge.

And the hellebores, which have become commonplace and easy to find now are both evergreen and winter bloomers.

So that wraps us back around towards spring.

And who doesn't love a few daffodils?

- Yeah, that's right.

- I don't like to overdo them because you gotta look at that foliage for so long.

So I do mingle them with the other plants as well, so that I can hide the ugly foliage.

- No, you can put 'em the back of the bed or the back of the yard.

- That's right.

And they do well in the woodland setting, which finally I do have a shade garden established, which leads me back to one that's not as common.

And that is, I forgot to mention, the Japanese anemone, which is a really easy to grow shade lover that looks very delicate.

It looks like a beautiful pink or white poppy in the woodland landscape.

I'm going back again to some I meant to mention and I know you love the natives, the Spigelia.

The Spigelia marilandica.

Sometimes called Indian pink.

I don't like that name because there's a lot of other plants called Indian pink and Indian, and Spigelia is fun and pretty to say.

It used to be hard to find.

You can find Spigelia pretty readily now in the landscape.

[upbeat guitar music] - If you need to transplant some of your annuals because they're not in the right space, you just take a trowel and you get next to the side of where it is and dig down and pry up and go around the plant to make sure you get all the existing root system you can.

And then you gently lift it out of the ground, root system and all.

Once you're to the place where you want to plant it, if there's mulch there, you need to scrape the mulch away and dig a hole the size of the plant root ball that you have in your hand.

Keep the soil level even with the soil level on the plant and gently plant it in place.

When you're done, put the mulch back over and around it and then it's finished.

[upbeat guitar music] - All right.

Mr. D, here's our Q and A segment.

You ready?

- I am ready.

- These are some great questions.

Here's our first viewer email.

"How do you kill grasshoppers in the garden?"

And this is Marian from Roy, Utah.

So let me say this, they want to kill the grasshoppers.

- And I can tell you according to the Utah State Extension Service, Carbaryl dust will work.

Liquid malathion, liquid carbaryl, liquid permethrin, bifenthrin sprays will do the trick.

They're relatively easy to kill.

Smaller they are, the easier they are to kill.

- Yeah.

- And that's what's recommended for use in home gardens.

- And that's how you're gonna kill 'em or control 'em.

- That's it, that's it.

- Read and follow the label.

- They can wipe you out.

They can demolish you pretty quick.

- Right, yeah, they can definitely, you know, do some damage to your foliage.

- That's correct.

- You know, that is for sure.

They are mobile, you know, once they get, you know, of course a lot older, so you wanna control 'em when they're young.

But I mean those are the means to- - And stay with 'em.

You know, you may completely kill the ones that are out there today and have more come in tomorrow.

So you may have to almost keep that protective insecticide coat on there if you have real heavy infestations.

- Right, right.

- But then you, be sure, follow the label directions with these products.

- That's for sure.

- And especially pay attention to the harvest restrictions of the different vegetables.

- Yeah, that's a good point.

You know what I'm sitting here thinking too, I mean you can actually plant a trap crop, you know, of Zinnias, you know, for example, you know, just around the border.

Let them congregate, you know, in those areas and- - Maybe they'll stay there and not come in.

- Maybe, that'd be easy control 'cause they'd be in that area.

So that's something else.

- That might help.

Yeah, that's something else I just thought about.

So that may help Marian.

So yeah, we appreciate that.

But yeah, do read and follow the label, you know, on those products, all right?

Thank you for that question.

Here's our next viewer email.

"Can I grow a peach tree in an area that floods about once a year?"

And this is Nancy from Central, West Virginia.

She says, "A river covers her garden "a couple of times per year, but apple and pear trees are doing fine there."

- Hmm.

- So what are you thinking?

- Maybe.

- Maybe, okay.

- I wouldn't recommend it.

I wouldn't have recommended planting apple and pear trees there.

- Hmm.

- But they're working so far.

- Yeah.

- But peach trees do not like wet feet.

They recommend planting them in well-drained soils.

I think you'd be taking a big chance if you did that.

I could say no and you might prove me wrong.

Plant it and have really good luck.

But peaches have so many things that you have to do right to produce a crop.

I wouldn't recommend it.

- Yeah.

So here are my thoughts.

I actually have a pear tree at home, right?

So, pear trees are tolerant of wet soils and that area of my yard stays wet for a little bit.

So with that being said, right, when I think about flooding, you know, I think about water of course, you know, being around the root zones of the plant, I think about the depletion of nutrients.

But I also think about the lack of oxygen.

That will stress out your tree.

When you have stressed trees, then you're gonna have those issues that you talked about.

- Correct.

- Right.

So, I mean, it's gonna be pretty tough.

Now, I would recommend going to your local Extension Office, you know, having a conversation with them.

It's a free service, right, free advice.

Just see what they have to offer.

Take that information, use it to your judgment.

- Yep.

- But I, it's, you know, I appreciate that question.

- Yeah, good question.

Good question.

- All right, so thank you Ms. Nancy, appreciate that.

Here's our next viewer email.

"My muscadine grapes usually produce great, "but nothing last year.

What did I do wrong?"

This is Homer from Maryville, Tennessee.

He says, "Last year he did not prune them, but also does not use any fertilizer."

All right, Mr. D, think about that.

Muscadines, right?

You like muscadines.

- I do like muscadines.

I do like muscadines very much.

And you know, think about how muscadines fruit, they fruit on current season's growth.

that comes out of one-year-old wood.

And the way we prune muscadines is we cut all of the one-year-old wood back to a couple of buds, leave a couple of buds, and then the new growth, the current season growth that comes outta that is what produces the muscadines.

- Okay.

- So he didn't prune last year, so he should have had a lot of one-year-old wood.

Too much, way too much of one-year-old wood.

- Oh, okay, I see where you're going, okay.

Gotcha.

- But you still should have had some current season's growth come out of that.

And you should have had some muscadines, unless that happens to be a female muscadine and you may have lost another self-fertile or perfect-flowered muscadine around that had pollinated that muscadine in the past.

That would be a question I would ask.

It might, if it's a female, it requires cross pollination.

If it's a perfect flowered muscadine, it does not require pollination and it can pollinate the females.

- Hm, interesting.

- So it, you know, brings on more questions.

They need a high pH, relatively high pH and they need a little bit of fertilizer, but not a lot.

So I don't think either one of those would keep them from, the only thing I could think that would keep them from producing at all is if a late frost or late freeze killed all of the new growth.

If you had all your new growth and it burned it back to two-year-old wood.

If all you had was two-year-old wood, you're not gonna have any muscadines.

- Mm.

- So.

- That's good, yeah, I didn't think about that.

- Yeah, uh... - Could've been a late frost.

- I can't think of anything.

- Yeah, 'cause outside of that, I'm with you on the pollination.

You know, I always think about, yeah, if you don't get fruit, then yeah, something happened with the pollination.

- Yeah, if they sprayed 'em with insecticide during bloom, that could keep 'em from producing either, you know, they wouldn't get pollinated.

But that's one thing I would check and see if somebody lost a muscadine, a neighbor lost one or if they had another one that, and then I would think that's probably a female.

- Okay, all right.

Homer, hope that answers your question.

- But I would recommend you prune it, though.

- Yeah, recommend pruning it- - And make sure you got a pollinator.

- Right, okay, yeah.

And then go to your local Extension Office up there.

- There you are.

- They'll help you out.

- Go visit those guys.

- Up there in Maryville.

They can do that for you.

All right, thank you for that question, Homer.

We appreciate that.

Here's our next viewer email.

"Can mason bees be used to pollinate fruit trees and vegetables?"

And this is Susan.

How about that?

That's an interesting question.

All right?

- I'd say yes.

- I say yes.

- They're good pollinators.

- Yeah, yeah.

- I don't see why not.

- I think they're good.

I, you know, a little something about mason bees I've learned over the years, you know, from some of our beekeepers, David Glover, of course, you know the Bartlett Bee Whisperer, right?

They actually transfer more pollen and they will visit more types of plants.

- Very aggressive, very good pollinators, they are.

- So I think the orchard mason bee is what you call it, yeah, the orchard mason bee.

- Mm-hm.

- Right?

So, yeah.

- So yes, without a doubt.

- Without a doubt, Susan.

Yeah, so encourage those pollinators that you have out there, all right?

All right, Mr. D., it's fun as always.

- We did it, didn't we?

- We learn a lot, don't we?

- I learn something new everyday.

- All right, thank you much.

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 to read the Wildlife Control manuals Mr. D. used for squirrels or any other pest animals, go on over to our website, familyplotgarden.com.

We will have links to the whole Wildlife Control manual series.

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

Be safe.

[upbeat country music] [acoustic guitar chords]