Episode 2502

- [Voiceover] Mushrooms that look this interesting have a bacon-y flavor and can grow well in a straw bale. We're in. Come along. Yields of 10 pounds, or more, possible on first flush.

- We talk a lot about home grown vegetables on Volunteer Gardener. But have you ever thought about home grown mushrooms? I am here with Angel Miller of Two Angels Mushrooms. This beautiful mushroom that I'm holding is something that people can grow at home.

- [Angel] Absolutely. And growing mushrooms at home is easier than you might think. And we're gonna make it simple for you today.

- [Troy] Walk us through the process of growing these mushrooms.

- Well this is a great project for a home grower. At home, you're going to need one of these bales. Now this is a bale of wheat straw. Hay won't work. It's a little too much nitrogen. But wheat straw is perfect because the actual stalk of the wheat is hollow and it looks just like a straw. And so we're going to position the bale where the cut ends are face up. Not on the side. So we're going to begin by watering the bale very thoroughly with a hose. And this will take longer than you might expect. This is very much like a sponge that's absorbing water. So you can expect it's gonna take about 20 minutes to completely get this bale saturated. This is gonna be so heavy once it is saturated with water that you want to make sure that it is in a shady spot, deep shade.

- Uh huh.

- And that it's in a place where it can stay there for awhile, because you're not gonna wanna move it once you've already watered it.

- Right. So, we water the bale.

- Yes.

- tHen what happens?

- [Angel] We're gonna use a bag of live mushroom culture. This is mycelium. And this is the actual body of the mushroom. Now when we think of mushrooms like in the grocery store, that's actually the fruit. That's when the mushroom's in its reproductive stage. When it's in its growing stage you're going to get a bag of spawn. This is an actual tissue culture, so we're not using spores today. Actual tissue culture of the mushroom. This mushroom is growing on sawdust. And it will break apart into sawdust. It was held together by the mycelium so we have to break it up a little bit to get it to where we can use it. And you really want to get down deep in your bale, and use this to kind of pry open a little hole in the bale. And then we're going to take a handful of that sawdust and we're just gonna cram it down in there. Get it down in there deep and good. Put that mycelium deep into this bale. And we want to continue doing that just go over a few more inches and then find another spot. Go in, and do the same thing all over the top and then along the sides. And try to space out the use of your mycelium so that you have enough to do the whole entire bale. This is a five pound bag. And that's plenty to do the entire bale. And then once you have done that all you're going to do from there on out is you're going to cover it with a tarp for approximately two to three weeks. And you want to check it every day to make sure that it's still got moisture and that it's still continuing to grow. And I recommend that as you cover it with the tarp that you position the sides of the tarp up so the air can flow through. That's important. Because as it's colonizing the bale, the mycelial growth will produce heat as a byproduct. And we don't want it to overheat during the growth time, that's important.

- [Troy] Right.

- [Angel] So we want to keep it moist, keep it in the shade, and make sure that it has plenty of airflow underneath the tarp during that time. In approximately three weeks you'll begin to see little pink dots, this color right here, on the side of your bale. That means your mushroom is beginning to fruit and it's time to get excited because dinner's getting close. That's fine.

- So that's when you want to pull off the tarp, and just keep an eye on it and keep it moist. At this time when it starts to fruit you're gonna wanna have your water hose just on a mist, a light mist, to keep it wet throughout the day. And maybe mist it two or three times during the day, during the time when it's fruiting. From the time that you see the little bitty pinheads, the baby mushrooms until the time they're this size it's probably only three to four days.

- So it's pretty quick once it starts.

- It is. Mushrooms are amazing because they can double in size in 24 hours.

- Right.

- You have a rainfall and you walk outside and your yard is just covered in mushrooms and it seems like they came up overnight.

- Yeah.

- They grow really fast. So you have to keep an eye on it during that period.

- Right.

- And just keep them ready. And then once they're about this size you can pick 'em, but honestly you can pick 'em at any point. They're ready to eat. You may see other mushrooms that pop up in your bale at that time, don't be too concerned about those, but definitely don't eat them. These bright pink ones are easy to identify because of their beautiful color and their beautiful gills. And so you want to pick those off, saute them in butter, and enjoy. And we have lots of recipes on our website, as well.

- [Troy] What kind of harvest can you expect to have?

- Well, it is a living thing, so that can vary. But on a bale this size we're talking about a pretty large bale size.

- Yeah.

- So you could expect maybe 10 pounds, or more, off of your first flush. This is more than one time. We're probably gonna get anywhere from three to five flushes.

- [Troy] Uh huh.

- [Angel] Of mushrooms off of this bale.

- [Troy] Okay.

- [Angel] So once you have picked all of the mushrooms off of it, cover it back up as you did before, make sure that it's wet.

- [Troy] Uh huh.

- As you did, you want to keep it moist but not soaking.

- [Troy] Right.

- And cover it back up and it's going to rest for a little period of time as it's recharging its batteries and then it's gonna fruit for you again.

- Okay.

- And once your bale is completely finished, or if you're completely finished. Yeah.

- This would be a great thing to add either to your compost pile or directly onto your garden as a mulch.

- Sure.

- Because many plants benefit by having a fungal partner.

- Right.

- That will boost the production of the plant. So, you can get a lot of use out of this as a gardener. After your bale has been growing for approximately a week, if you pull back your tarp and you look, you will see the mycelium growing all over it.

- This little white spiderwebs almost.

- Yes.

- Yeah.

- That's a good sign. That means it's doing well and it's happy where you've got it. So that's what you want to see at that point.

- So in addition to these beautiful pink mushrooms.

- Mm-hmm.

- What other kinds of mushrooms can people grow?

- Well, this particular mushroom is really the best one for the straw bale method.

- Uh huh.

- But there are other methods that people could also use, as well. For example, growing mushrooms on logs are very easy for homeowners. Once the log is completely set up then it's a matter of just watering it.

- [Troy] Right.

- Until the mushrooms come in. So, different mushrooms for that would be for example, Shitake, which is very popular.

- [Troy] Very popular grocery store mushroom.

- Absolutely.

- [Troy] Is the Shitake mushroom.

- And they taste so much better when they've been grown on a log. The flavor is so much more rich.

- Just like vegetables out of your garden.

- Yes.

- They're always so much better than, you know. A home grown tomato, there's no comparison, sweet corn.

- Somehow it tastes better when you grow it yourself.

- Yeah.

- Right.

- And you know you put your own effort into it.

- Absolutely. But you could also grow Blue Oyster mushrooms, Lions Mane mushrooms, Golden Oyster. There's several different varieties that do well on the log.

- On the logs.

- There's also mushroom beds that are great for homeowners. For example, if you have a Homeowners Association that won't allow you to have a vegetable garden on your property, one way that you could add edibles into your yard if you have hardwood mulch up under your shrubs and landscape area, you could add some mushrooms, for example, the Stropharia rugosoannulata, the Wine Cap mushroom, which is a native species in the south east.

- Yeah.

- You can add that into your wood chips. It's going to break down your wood chips into a rich healthy soil and it's going to feed your plants. And it produces this beautiful burgundy mushrooms that are gorgeous. Andd they taste great too.

- Right. And if you would like to try growing mushrooms it's something that almost anyone can do. All you need is just a little bit of space, a shady place, and a water hose.

- We're gonna talk about landscaping with herbs today. Whether it be in pots, for your patios, and grand vistas in your gardens. And we're at the home of the Humphreys in Nashville, Tennessee at Foxwood Gardens. Well we're entering your herb garden Judith.

- [Judith] Yes ma'am.

- [Sheri] Tell me all about this.

- [Judith] This is what I call a courtyard.

- [Sheri] Okay.

- [Judith] My courtyard garden. And you'll notice that there is a border of winter savory around all of these beds. That is the most magical herb for putting in soup. It changes a bland soup into flavorful. It's like wow.

- [Sheri] Now Judith, do you cut and dry this as well, for your winter usage?

- [Judith] Yes I do. One of the things that helps let the winter savory live longer is it needs occasional really hard pruning. You can see right here this is old wood, and even though it has gruff on it, eventually that's gonna die out. So you cut it right at the juncture above the new growth and you do that to all of the old stems. And then you can keep your hedge growing forever.

- [Sheri] What's in your pots here?

- [Judith] Eucalyptus. Got that at the Herb Society Plant Sale this year. And I like to dry that just for looks. It's not culinary. So I'm hoping.

- It does not winter over in this area.

- No, but I got to pray now.

- Okay.

- I planted it in a pot.

- You have lots of thyme. Some steppable thymes, and some other thymes.

- Oh, I have been working on the creeping thyme forever. There's a red creeping, the pink creeping, there's a little bit of white creeping. And a lot of it's already bloomed. The white is still here.

- [Sheri] Yep, there's some.

- [Judith] In this bed, right over here, some of it just coming to a bloom is a French thyme, an English thyme and a lemon thyme.

- [Sheri] And you have your Silver Mound Artemisia.

- [Judith] Yes ma'am. And it opens up and you just have to bear with it.

- [Sheri] I see you have lavender here Judith. What kind is this?

- [Judith] This one happens to be Phenomenal. Which is, really is phenomenal. It is a relatively new hybrid and it And it winter's over for me better than some of the other varieties. But I have learned from some of my other herby friends that it not necessarily does that in everybody's garden. And that's a good point. Gardening, you have to make a plant happy but you also have to make the gardener happy. That's one of my strong philosophies in gardening.

- [Sheri] So Judith, I want you to explain to everyone that you can grow herbs in pots for those that don't have garden area that just have patios.

- [Judith] Yes ma'am.

- What do we have here in these pots?

- I, the first pot here that has just started to bloom, is the Tennessee Kong flower. And a lovely friend gave me a sprig or two, when it was on the endangered list. Thank goodness it's not on the endangered list anymore. And then I've got just a regular geranium for color. Again, this is about landscaping with herbs. These are not, well the mint is edible, but the others are not.

- And even though you have a set of geraniums here, it's important for viewers to know that they are not grown for the flowers. Even though they do flower, the flower is minimal. They're grown for what?

- [Judith] They're grown for their smell, for their wonderful leaf structure, their color. I just think they're so.

- [Sheri] You can flavor sugars.

- [Judith] Delightful.

- Pound cakes.

- Better cooks than me can. But I know that they have culinary uses. The apple mint, to me, is one of the prettiest mints. It has this fuzzy texture which is just so delightful.

- [Sheri] And I see you also have some spearmint in pots, as well. And it's important to remember that we grow mint, or we should grow mint, in pots, because it's very very very invasive. Sends those runners out. All right Judith, I call this one thing and you call it something else. I call it red vein sorrel and you call it?

- [Judith] Lady Duck. Neither one of us have the Latin name, but it's okay.

- [Sheri] Uh huh.

- [Judith] It is an edible herb but I grow it for its landscaping properties. It has a gorgeous red vein in it and I think that's where your name comes from. And sorrel can get bitter too if you don't cultivate the young leaves. So young leaves are great, tender in salads.

- And right behind here there's wonderful mist. Loving the mist. You said you just let this reseed and that's why it's so prolyphic right here.

- [Judith] Yes, yes.

- [Sheri] It's wispy and it's wild and I think it's a great addition.

- [Judith] This is a huge bed so it can take something growing wild.

- [Sheri] And your yarrow is gonna give you a really dramatic show in another about a week or so, isn't it?

- [Judith] Exactly.

- [Sheri] Judith, I want to talk about this beautiful strip here you have going on. It's not only showy, it's full, it's lush. You have the yellow primrose.

- [Judith] Yes, which I call sun drop.

- [Sheri] I think the reason why I like the yellow ones the best is because they're sturdy, they're upright, they're not lazy. These tend to be droopy.

- [Judith] And as you can see, but if you're growing them among other things, and this is a King Alfred daisy back there. They are more upright. And this is my lovely balloon flower. I thought I had lost it.

- [Sheri] And so what is this beautiful purple thing here?

- [Judith] Oh, this is the spider wart. It's a love hate relationship. If you don't cut it back soon enough it's gonna seed absolutely everywhere. And I didn't cut it back last year so I can't tell you how much of it I pulled up. But I've also learned, and I think this is a pretty neat trick. If you cut it off after one is almost bloomed out at the next joint, or sometimes down here see that will produce a bloom stalk. So I do that to prolong the season. So maybe I was too good to it.

- Maybe so.

- [Judith] I actually started getting interested in flowers and herbs when I was pregnant with my second child. And I started reading every magazine, every book I could get my hands on. And then when I learned about The Herb Society not that many years ago. I knew how to grow herbs but I didn't know how to use them. So The Herb Society has taught me.

- [Sheri] And that's the Nashville Herb Society.

- [Judith] Yes, Nashville Herb Society. And there is an Herb Society of America. And the Nashville unit is part of that big national group.

- [Sheri] Great.

- [Judith] It's a wonderful place. There's so much to learn. Can I tell you about my citrus trees?

- [Sheri] Sure.

- [Judith] This is Meyers lemon and what is unique about this particular citrus tree is that you can find all three stages of growth. First, you have the blossom and then you'll have a little bud which will grow, like this. You see some others over here.

- [Sheri] And then there's a full grown one.

- [Judith] Yes. That's almost ripe enough to pull. And the arugula, another herby friend Rob Stylen gave me this. It is self-seeding and it comes back every year. And so I'm not gonna cut those blossoms. I'm just gonna let it keep seeding. And see what we can do with it. I just love my garden.

- [Sheri] Well Judith, I want to tell you thank you so much for sharing your gardens with us, and your knowledge on herbs and landscaping with herbs. It's been great. Thank you.

- [Judith] Thank you.

- Donna I know when I first visited with you I saw a leaf that you won a top award in a Convention. That leaf is long gone.

- Mm-hmm.

- But, it's twin is lying on the ground over here in front of us. I want you to start us in the process of maybe choosing that leaf.

- [Donna] Okay.

- What to look for.

- All right.

- What works, what doesn't work.

- Well, it all has to do with what leaf you like, what you have available in your garden. You can even go to your friends gardens and borrow leaves. The main thing is to decide which size of leaf you'd like. What you also need is a leaf that shows really strong definition in terms of the veination in the leaves. As beautiful as this is, the beauty doesn't do it. The beauty doesn't do it. You're going to cast this in concrete so it's gonna come out just a plain gray color like dried concrete will. So all of this beautiful coloration and variation in this leaf won't show up at all. The reason this leaf is really not such a good candidate is because the veining in this leaf, as you can see, is pretty shallow.

- [Annette] Yes it is. Now from the other side it's even smooth.

- [Donna] Well, on the other side it's absolutely smooth, except for the main vein in the center. Now this leaf would not work. It's a beautiful leaf and you probably love it an awful lot, but as far as for this particular project it wouldn't be a good candidate at all.

- [Annette] Put the flower in a vase of water.

- [Donna] Okay.

- [Annette] That would work. Now I found another little leaf when I was shopping in your garden.

- [Donna] Okay.

- [Annette] Now this is a leaf from a perennial begonia.

- [Donna] It is.

- [Annette] It's also a symmetric type leaf.

- [Donna] Mm-hmm.

- [Annette] Where the bend and where the stem comes into the leaf. It's not centered, like our are.

- [Donna] That's right.

- [Annette] Also I see some other things in this leaf, will they be a problem? We have a few little bug bites, snail bites. And this right here where we were losing the chlorophyll.

- [Donna] Mm-hmm.

- [Annette] Starting to die out. Is any of that gonna affect the perfection of the leaf casting?

- [Donna] Actually, not when you're done this won't even show. Actually, to fix this little problem you just take another leaf of any kind.

- [Annette] Uh huh.

- [Donna] And place underneath where these two holes occur.

- [Annette] Uh huh.

- [Donna] And you're done.

- [Annette] How's this gonna work for me?

- [Donna] Oh, that's a perfect leaf for this project. Beautiful shape. The leaf itself is in good shape with the exception of that tiny little hole and we can fix that with no problem. When you turn this leaf over you see it's a veination is extremely defined. The veins are really deep. This would be perfect because it's gonna show up. All right, the first thing want to do let me tell you the materials you'll need to complete this project. You're going to need a bag of sand. You can use just play sand, any kind of sand. Play sand is a little less coarse than the construction grade sand. So I opt for the play sand. You're also gonna need a bag of premixed concrete. Also you can use any kind of concrete. Some of the concrete has a little more aggregate included in it. This particular specimen here had a lot of aggregate in it. So you can just see the little bitty pebble grains of rock that are in there.

- [Annette] And this was, you used, which product with this?

- [Donna] I used just regular Quickcrete concrete.

- Okay.

- Okay. But what we're gonna use for this is called Vinyl Patch. And I've come to like Vinyl Patch for these leaf projects because the texture is a little bit finer of the concrete. It doesn't have much aggregate in it and it gives you a much more smooth texture on your leaf so that the definition shows up.

- I would think this something substantial there with the vinyl to bind it together.

- Mm-hmm.

- And keep it.

- That's right.

- Maybe it won't break as easy.

- Right. It will last in your yard a little bit longer too so that's another good.

- Tell me what to do now.

- Okay. We're gonna mix this premixed concrete. All you have to do is mix it with water.

- Okay.

- We have your water right here.

- Okay.

- You're gonna mix that with water. You're gonna need a trowel for this project. If you don't have a trowel you can use an old metal spoon.

- Okay. And am I gonna start out with my cup full?

- [Donna] You're just gonna start out with a little bit of water.

- [Annette] A little bit. A little bit.

- [Donna] A cup for this is probably good.

- [Annette] A half a cup.

- [Donna] Just keep going, you want to stir that around real nicely.

- [Annette] tHat's about a cup.

- [Donna] And what you end up with. You're gonna need a lot more than that though.

- [Annette] Okay.

- [Donna] And that what you're gonna end up with is the consistency of a thick brownie mix.

- [Annette] How about a mud pie?

- [Donna] A mud pie, that will work.

- [Annette] Okay, this is finished then. There's an important step coming next.

- [Donna] Okay, the next step is to put our sand in here. This is gonna form the base to support your leaf. Okay? So you just mound that up.

- [Annette] Can the mound be too high or too flat?

- [Donna] Well, it really can. It just depends on the size of your leaf. You want to have a good surface for that leaf and every part of that leaf to rest on.

- [Annette] Maybe we could say how much we want to cup the leaf? Okay?

- Actually that depends on the shape of your leaf.

- Okay.

- Because some leafs are already kind of cupped.

- Right.

- And have that shape to them. You want your sand to follow that shape.

- Yes.

- As much as possible.

- Okay, my elephant ear here.

- For this elephant ear it's practically, it's practically flat. Okay? But, if you want it to have kind of a concave shape, like this leaf does when it's done.

- You can manipulate that.

- You can mound this sand up toward the middle. Just a little bit more. And take your hand, just kind of smooth it out a little bit. And you can play around with this, you rest your leaf on there and if that's the kind of the shape you want it to be you see if the sides come down just a little bit. So it will be a little bit of a dip in the middle of that.

- [Annette] Yeah.

- [Donna] So if you want it as a bird bath it'll hold a little bit of water. Now what we're gonna do you got a pretty long stem on this. So I'm gonna cut that off. Okay?

- [Annette] Uh huh.

- [Donna] And then you see here it exposes that part of the leaf. Because we're gonna need to cover every bit of that with concrete.

- [Annette] All right.

- [Donna] Okay?

- [Annette] We're just gonna put our hands in this.

- [Donna] All right. Now before we get started I have sensitive skin so I would put on a glove. To apply this concrete.

- It's active is the word. So we don't want.

- No we don't want to get this. Brush off that little bit of sand. Put that on there. We're gonna take some plastic wrap. Just your plain old kitchen plastic wrap. We lay over that.

- [Annette] We see it's not as wide.

- [Donna] Let's pull that over just a bit because we want the edges of the leaf to be covered.

- [Annette] Double layer it then.

- [Donna] And the reason we do that is because we don't want the concrete to spill over to the side of the leaf. It would. Okay.

- Okay.

- Okay. Now that will make that leaf we want this to spread out real evenly.

- Mm-hmm.

- Because we don't want these little parts to interfere with our veination in that leaf. Okay?

- [Annette] Mm-hmm.

- [Donna] This plastic is also gonna help you remove this leaf when it's done.

- [Annette] Oh, we got a step to go don't we?

- [Donna] Oaky, we've got a step to go.

- [Annette] Okay now so what we're gonna do is evenly start in the center, at the top, or just start?

- [Donna] You can start right in the middle. And come all the way around. And then you evenly bring it out to the sides.

- [Annette] We're gonna roll it like a rolling pin.

- [Donna] Now you don't want it to go any further than the outer shape of your leaf. Okay?

- [Annette] Let me just give you what to work with and you start working.

- [Donna] All right. Now see we're going right over to the edge.

- [Annette] Let me ask you this question. Is it important that the thickness be the same all the way through, or does that matter? Do you take a little toothpick and test it, or?

- [Donna] Well, I don't think you have to necessarily do that.

- [ Annette] It's not an exact?

- [Donna] It's not an exact thing and you can't really do it a wrong way.

- [Annette] That's a good project.

- [Donna] You just want to make sure that you got a pretty good thickness in here where you've got this little concave or deeper area. You want to make it a little bit thicker in there. And you want your edges to be thinner. You don't want any more than about a quarter of an inch on the edge of your leaf. We're gonna just leave that stem like that. And that'll be easy once you're done there'll be a little hole right here.

- [Annette] Okay.

- [Donna] Which would be real good if you want to hang this. Some people do that. This is a leaf that I've already done. I did this about 48 hours ago. And you need about that much time for it to cure before you can actually flip it over and remove the leaf from the bottom.

- [Annette] I want to see.

- [Donna] So generally, if you have not made it thick enough, the place that you're gonna have weakness is right along the edge and a piece might break off. So you want to avoid that happening by supporting the leaf underneath the bottom, just put your hand down in that sand. Grab the middle of the leaf. Give it some support on the back. And bam. Just flip it over.

- [Annette] Oh!

- [Donna] Remove that. And you can see what we have.

- [Annette] It didn't even burn it out.

- [Donna] It didn't even burn it off.

- [Annette] Okay.

- [Donna] Now you can see where we did a little patch where there was a hole in this leaf, there was a tear. We remove that.

- [Annette] Well look at that. The veins are there.

- [Donna] The veins are there.

- [Donna] But there are going to be. So here's what we do.

- [Annette] Did you ever use a wire brush on this? Now you did take a little divot out of that.

- [Donna] Yes ma'am, but that's okay.

- [Annette] We can put it back in there.

- [Donna] Because we can take this brush, and we can keep working it.

- [Annette] Molding.

- [Donna] Working it until we can give it more of the shape we wanted. It's almost like a nail file.

- [Annette] I want to peel. This is kind of like peeling nail polish.

- [Donna] It is. It is.

- [Annette] Just get in here.

- Well, so you see what we have here?

- Yes.

- It's beautiful. If you see any little residue of that leaf, like down in here where a little bit of the concrete kind of worked its way under there, you simply just take that brush and you work it.

- [Annette] Yes.

- [Donna] And you get down to where that leaf is and smooth out these edges.

- [Annette] Okay, so here are your possibilities now.

- [Donna] Mm-hmm.

- [Annette] I know that you've shown us that this can be simple.

- [Donna] Yes.

- [Annette] You used colored concrete.

- I did.

- [Annette] And you can find those the powders to mix into.

- [Donna] Yes.

- [Annette] Or dye.

- [Donna] Yes.

- [Annette] When I first started working in concrete projects it wasn't out there.

- Well they've got special dye just for concrete. You can make it any color that you so desire.

- Now you painted this one?

- I did paint that one.

- And did you use a special paint?

- Well, here's what you use for these. This one was made to simulate a fall leaf.

- Yes.

- Because it has a couple of different colors in it. So I used kind of some gold and then some orange and red mixed in around the sides. What you want to use for this is more a color wash than actually using paint. So what you would do is take some acrylic paint and you'll use about three drops of acrylic paint, to two cups of water.

- [Annette] Mm-hmm.

- [Donna] Okay, so it's more like a wash. You have to let this one cure for over a week. Before you actually start painting or sealing this leaf.

- [Annette] Because it's still green.

- [Donna] It's still a little bit green.

- [Annette] Okay.

- [Donna] And we don't put it in a kiln, or anything like that like we do pottery, so you just have to let it dry out and cure on its own.

- Yeah.

- For a week.

- I want to get everything out of your brain I can.

- Okay.

- So this right here did you do this with the brush after you had done the coloring you went back and added these darker colors for the veins.

- Right.

- Okay.

- I put a little green in there for the veining so it would show up a bit more. And it's done in layers. I did start with the green. And then I put the layer of the yellow. And then ended up with this reddish-gold on the edges.

- And did you put anything like a poly eurothene or anything to seal it?

- Okay. Now you can choose to seal this if you want to use it especially for outdoor applications you'll need to do that. And what you'll need for that is some of this Thompson's Water Sealer.

- Oh.

- You can use either Thompson's Water Sealer, or Dry Lock. Okay, either one will work. For these smaller projects I just use it in a can, it's much easier to manipulate it and I'm done real quickly. You want to do one coat, let that dry, wait about an hour. Come back and do another coat. Do the same thing on both sides until you get full coverage. If you're doing really big leaves or several of them you might as well go ahead and get a gallon of that and get your paint brush and just paint it on.

- [Annette] So, I thank you for showing us the possibilities of taking something we love.

- [Donna] Yes yes.

- [Annette] This year was special and next year it's even more special because you have it in your garden.

- [Donna] Yes ma'am.

- [Annete] Thank you.

- [Donna] You're welcome Annette, enjoyed having you.

- Thank you.

- [Voiceover] For inspiring garden tours, growing tips, and garden projects, visit our website at VolunteerGardener.org. Or on YouTube at the Volunteer Gardener channel. And like us on Facebook.