Episode 2538

- [Announcer] Urban living, sidewalks, and a lush landscape. Can you have a sampling of trees, shrubs, favorite flowers and foliage? Yes you can, says designers, Bill Hewitt and Marty DeHart. Plus getting the most out of your annual bed by keeping the nutrients replenished for a healthy soil balance. Join us. First, when the right plant is in the right spot.

- Today, you're gonna see a real transformation. We're here in the Richland West end area of Nashville, which is a historic district, lots of really interesting old craftsmany kinda houses and cottages. And, a lot of these properties, having been around for so long, have a lot of older features in their yard, and, we have a wonderful, wonderful example of what you can do in one of these relatively small city lots. And modernize it and make it so useful. The man whose vision you're about to see, is Bill Hewitt, who's here with me today. He's the designer of this wonderful garden. Hi Bill.

- Good morning.

- Bill, explain to me, a little bit about, how you decided how to treat this landscape and what the homeowner was after.

- The lady that lives here likes variation of plants. She likes more of a cottage-like garden. So, I tried to give her a lot of different textures and colors of plants, and. Somewhat, a little bit on the historic side because of the neighborhood and yet, bringing it forward into our more modern plants and new varieties that we have nowadays.

- [Marty] Right, for example I'm seeing those, small Oakleaf Hygrangea's there. That's a new variety right?

- [Bill] That's a new munchkin that was developed in Winchester by a lady from TSU.

- {Marty] That's a really dwarf variety, right.

- [Bill] Yeah, suppose to stay under three feet, and about four foot wide.

- [Marty] But it blooms just like a regular Oakleaf.

- [Bill] Just like it, much more prolific bloomer. And it'll be totally white.

- And in a small yard like this, that makes a ton of sense whereas a regular Oakleaf would be a big problem. Yeah and I see you've done sort of a mix of perennials and shrubs and, a really nice textural thing. And a lot of Evergreens.

- Yeah, I tried the Evergreen's for the wintertime, hoping to hold the color. And, different things, have different purposes. I tried to use like the plumies, because they're very soft

- I love those.

- [Bill] And a trimmed look. And, just a great plant.

- [Marty] And you've got another one I love there, Rohdea. That's really, really beautiful.

- [Bill] Yeah Rohdea is unknown to most people. But it's probably one of the toughest plants for the deepest shades you can buy.

- [Marty] Exactly. I love the way you've used rocks too.

- [Bill] Yeah that's kind of my signature on all

- It is.

- [Bill] Of the gardens I do. I want to use the boulders within in to, create interest.

- Mhm. With the lichens on them, it's so beautiful. And I really love the walkway, that you, you know, you put this new walkway in correct?

- Yeah, it's somewhat of a Japanese style. And when you go into the back of the, the back garden, it's all very oriental lookin, so, it's somewhat got the flavor of the neighborhood, but yet got a little

- Right. I can

- Design to it.

- There is a kind of a, an Asian cottage kind of, meld there.

- [Bill] We even took it forward into the driveway,

- [Marty] Yeah, it's really.

- We changed all the elevations in the yard when we come in here.

- [Marty] Yeah I can see, you've flattened the driveway out. It looks like in this neighborhood they tend to go downhill, as the lot,

- [Bill] Yeah, on this side of the road, everything goes down into the houses.

- [Marty] Right, the backyard's lower than the front.

- So we brought it up, to, even tilt the water back to the street instead of toward the house.

- That, yay, changing the grade. Always a good idea. Well this is really beautiful, I mean, obviously you had big trees to start with. But I love the way that you've burned up a little bit over here too.

- [Bill] Yeah that's, raise beds are much better than land and a lot of people just go in and plant what they got.

- [Marty] I know it.

- And if you can raise em, so much easier to grow the plant.

- [Marty] And drainage is so much improved, especially when you have clay. And you've used the, you sodded here with Zoysa I'm assuming.

- [Bill] Yeah, there's a new variety called Zorro, which is a finer texture than what we've had.

- [Marty] It is, it's much finer. That's really beautiful.

- [Bill] Yeah, it's a really nice grass.

- [Marty] Bill I see you've used a couple of really striking conifers out of the front part of this garden.

- Yeah, the oriental spruce, is, we're lookin at is a very neat, weeping conifer that's really a very slow growin plant. That one, we're lookin at is probably eight to ten years old. So it is very, three or four, and five inches a year, about all the growth rate on the little tree.

- And really a graceful habit on that.

- Right. Nice specimen, corner piece.

- And it does well under part shade like that?

- Yeah, in our climate, yeah, where it's really hot, it likes that little bit of shade, it's gonna get.

- That's great. And then over here, you have a camisiperous.

- Right. And it's an opstusinaina. It's a top graph plant. It's got a little bit of trunk showin.

- [Marty] Mhm, I see that. A little squat trunk.

- Very dwarf. Very slow growin. It also likes the shade of this dogwood tree somewhat.

- And I really like the dark green, contrast of that deep foliage. And I always loved the fan shape of the foliage too, it's delightful. A lot of movement in there.

- [Bill] It likes the raised bed, whereas it's got a lot of drainage and likes very rich soils.

- [Marty] Well, it should be happy. I'm sure you've done a great job on the soils. I tell you what, let's go look at the back.

- [Bill] Okay.

- [Marty] And this corkscrew, will oh I guess, was here.

- Yeah this is one of the owners, I think when they first bought the house and it's a neat tree.

- I love the shape of it, yeah, yeah.

- [Bill] It handles nicely.

- But obviously you've pretty much done everything else here. This is amazing, this waterway going down.

- [Bill] Yeah, that was one of the requirements, that we have to create the sound of moving water, which is very relaxing. And it takes away some of the city noise that's around and this, it's just a neat stream.

- [Marty] It is. It's just gorgeous. It is really really beautiful. And it takes advantage of the slope, that's

- Right.

- [Marty] Here.

- [Bill] Great slope to build on.

- [Marty] And of course, you're, what I think of is, some of your signature, small conifers, that, you have so many of at your nursery. It's beautiful.

- [Bill] Right.

- A little spruce.

- This great little plants, I mean, they love to be in these really fertile beds. Most of the time, if we can get em into really well drained areas, they all will do really well here.

- Yeah, that's I love the blue and then this contrasting, isn't that gorgeous? Just a great shape. I mean it's like a little specimen surrounded by this, by this lovely

- Thyme.

- Thyme. Look how happy that is. She wanted a vegetable garden?

- [Bill] Neat and natural bed, raised garden,

- [Marty] That is a raised bed of rock.

- [Bill] Said we're done, it was just blocks, and this is really an organic way of doin, you don't have anything within that, that's manmade.

- [Marty] Right. We're at the end of the season, so things are fairly spent. But you can see she had some great tomatoes, and beans, and lots of herbs.

- [Bill] Nice herb garden on the back of the house, and very convenient to the house.

- [Marty] For sure. And then a little like a flower bed here. Looks like a lot of butterfly plants too.

- [Bill] Mainly for the children for the,

- [Marty] Right, enjoy

- Children to have part of the garden.

- [Marty] Bill I really, really like these spruces you've used, going down this property line. What kind is that?

- It's called Cuperssina, it's a type of Norway spruce. It stays very narrow as it grows. It'll grow 30 feet and not be over five or six foot wide.

- Wow.

- That was the idea of puttin them there to hide the neighbors property

- Right.

- From this property. Eventually they'll grow into a big wall. But to have no pest problems, is a reason. Lot of people use our providers, and they have to fight bag worms

- Bag worms and mites.

- All the time. This is a great plant, to substitute instead.

- [Marty] I really love these Cryptomeria that you've used at the end here. What variety is that?

- This one called Sekkam Sugi. It'll actually be white in the springtime, when the new growth comes on it.

- [Marty] Oh, really light.

- [Bill] Is right, it looks like it's been decorated. So, it's a wonderful change in the landscape.

- [Marty] And that's another plant that does really well here.

- Yeah.

- [Marty] How big will that get?

- [Bill] Oh, probably 40 feet.

- [Marty] , so but stays narrow.

- [Bill] Yeah, somewhat narrow.

- Another really great screening plant. And I love the lower obviously, the contact,

- The little black pines.

- Little black pines, yeah. Japanese black pine.

- [Bill] Some of the new, Abelias, they sunshine, they dreams.

- That's really pretty. That's nicer. I like that variegated form better than the other.

- [Bill] Yeah this one's really neat in the fall. That's when it's showtime.

- And I know we're standing on, the underground pond.

- Right. Is a safety feature for this yard. This is a big tank, it's almost like a cistern underground is what we deal with.

- And that's what the water, the stream runs into.

- Flows into it. It protect the pump, you don't, I mean you don't accumulate a lot of algae in your water because it's all underground. The stream stays fairly clean.

- This lovely, lovely, outdoor room. Spectacular.

- [Bill] Yeah. A little Japanese tea house. It's fully enclosed to give you a very private area. Which you can come to your garden and sit, and listen to the water run, and,

- Oh and screens

- Just relax. Right.

- So you don't have to get eaten alive, while you're out here.

- That's correct.

- And it, but it's all, Tennessee Cedar.

- Yeah. Tennessee red Cedar.

- Oh, it's beautiful.

- Has no preservatives, and it's

- So it'll just wither to a nice silvery gray.

- Yeah, right.

- Oh what a lovely place to have out here. Oh man.

- [Bill] Nice to entertain friends.

- [Marty] And you built this.

- [Bill] Right. No precut pieces to this thing. It's all just handmade.

- [Marty] Wow

- Pieces, I just kinda really drew a little sketch on a paper, and

- [Marty] Had at it

- And started building.

- Well it's beautiful. Just beautiful. But coming out of this wonderful garden room, I love the way the back of the house, the aspect out into this beautiful backyard that you've built.

- [Bill] Well, in any good garden design, it's what it looks like on the inside out. You're gonna enjoy it. As our wonderful picture, from inside even in bad weather, you're gonna be able to look out and just feel the outside comin in.

- [Marty] That's true, that point of view is really critical. People spend more time looking out the window, than they do out in the garden.

- [Bill] Too many times people plant right up next to their house, and when they look out the window, they don't see it. So if you move it out into the lawn area, where you can actually see what you have, and it makes a lot, more sense.

- [Marty] Yeah.

- It's how you do things.

- [Marty] And aesthetically, its just so much more pleasing. Well, I just gotta compliment you on this place. You've done a ton in a, it's a pretty small lot.

- Right. It's not very big at all. It's pretty typical of the West end neighborhood.

- [Marty] It is. But you've really made it work, with he beautiful stonework and I love the way you've changed the elevations. It's just really, really, really, handsome.

- [Bill] It's a great retreat for someone that's very busy. That they can come home and relax.

- [Marty] Well, thanks so much for givin us this great tour. It's really beautiful.

- As adult gardeners, we're always enthusiastic to get in there, and work with the plants and get our hands dirty. But sometimes it's kind of difficult to work with kids and children and get them equally excited. And one of the ways we do that, is through fairy gardening. Which has really been popular over the years. It's a very whimsical, creative way, to, bring a child's imagination to life, when it comes to working with plants and soil and moss and creating these little, scenes, that really get the imagination going. And kind of get kids familiar with the plant world. One of the examples of typical fairy gardening, might include good soil, different types of plant varieties, and then to top it off, and that's where it gets really fun and creative for the kids, is taking little whimsical items like these little mushrooms or little table sets, or even a little sun flower state, home grown stands that they can really kind of let their imagination run wild. And it's just a really great way to get kids involved in the world of gardening and have fun doing it.

- [Annette] I always admired the planted annual beds, and you know, then sooner than later they have to go. There are things You can do to enhance the soil. And I'm gonna talk with Karla Kean.

- Well we're running to amend our soil, so that's the first thing you need to concentrate on, is, putting some organic matter in the soil, and we've got our black cow. And we're gonna dig that in. We wanna work with the parent soil. You don't wanna try to take out all this soil and bring in something new. You wanna work with what you've got.

- Karla has some recommendations that will help you to make that soil do far better next spring. So what are you gonna start out with?

- Okay, well you're starting here with your parent soil. One thing, that a lot of people think, is that they can pull out the parent soil, and just bring in some more. No, we don't wanna do that. You're gonna work, you're gonna stay with your native soil, that you've got, and you're gonna amend it with organic matter. And so, we've got a little bit of the black cow, there are other organic, sources, sources of compost and organic matter that you can use. Worm castings, would be another, just well rotted compost, and such like that. Dig that in to the top about six inches of your soil, and you've got some nice soil here.

- I try.

- So we're just gonna you know, we just dig that in, and, as we go along, we're mixing that in with our parent soil. So I don't see a lot of red clay, you've already got a good start here. But all this is going to break down, over the winter months, and, make your soil richer and thicker next year. And it just makes a happy place for the roots of the plants to grow.

- Say if, it's sort of like you see the farmers plow the field and leave em plowed under, during

- Yeah, exactly.

- The winter time.

- Exactly.

- And, so, once they've done this, is it alright to, like if they're gonna plant Pansies, or, is it better to leave it dormant?

- Well if you're trying to improve your soil structure, I would plant something, in the way of the farmers, like a cover crop. And even in a small area, you can do that. Your radishes, your turnips

- Oh just happen to have some.

- That you have there. You can plant those, even if you don't plan on eating them. Plan on digging them under, after we get the first hard freeze and they start to die back. But the root crops will actually help to break up your clay soil. And then you, you turn em over, and this adds to the organic matter. And it just builds up that overall structure. And you've got a better soil structure, and a better place for the plant, plant roots to live.

- It keeps it from compacting.

- Keeps it from compacting, and it keeps it from washing away if you've got erosion problems. So, like I said, I take a lot of my old seed packets, you know, I usually buy a lot up in the spring, and then I have em left over, and so, a lot of times that's how I get rid of my extra seeds. I will just go ahead and plant them in my beds, and, be ready to turn them over. And I do it in the garden also.

- So, if we had a nice supply, of say, mulched up leaves. Once the leaves have fallen,

- Yes.

- And then, how deep can they be, with, and not have them decompose. Is there a certain, level of it? Or just pile em on?

- I would work them into the soil, because you do want them to break down. I mean you might leave a couple inch, layer on the top as a mulch. Is that what you were meaning?

- Yeah.

- Yeah, okay. But if you're improving soil structure. Again, you wanna get, your compost matter down, in the soil. So it can be working. And there's good bacteria, and fungi and things that are gonna work to help that composting process, and so.

- So if we were to have, let's say that, what they call the January thaw. And we wanted to garden. We had done all of this. And it's a good time, that we could go out, and could we go ahead and turn this soil. And have it more ready to plant.

- Yes.

- Because when it gets wet again, it's hard to dig.

- Yes, yes. And it also depends on what you're planting. I mean if you would wanna start now, we're in the middle of September, and developing this bed, six weeks down the road, if you wanted to go ahead and plant your Pansies, your, ornamental cabbage, kale, things like that, you could go ahead and put that in here too. Or if you're wanting to plant bulbs, you know, things that are gonna come up in the spring. That you really wanna have a show in the spring. You could do that also. But if you're just wanting to improve the soil structure, just, you know, throw out some greens and different mix of seeds and, till, plan on tilling them in. Turning them under.

- Yeah and we shouldn't have to worry that its not always got somethin flowerin, do we?

- Right. Right. Now this would be, you know, its not gonna be real pretty. But it is gonna help your soil in the long run.

- It'll cut down on the native

- Fertilizer. The need to water. Cause it helps hold the water in place. Your compost, your organic matter helps hold that water in place. So yeah.

- Well you've encouraged me, once it gets a little cooler, I might, bond that little garden again.

- There you go, there you go.

- Thank you Karla, for the tips.

- Welcome to the Nashville lawn and garden show, it's always a wonderful place to get some great quick tips and ours today, is all about planting your tree properly, to make sure it lives a long time. So first of all when you get out there, dig that hole, twice as big as, the bottom of the tree that you just bought. You need a lot of room for that hole. Now once you start to put it in the hole, you need to remember, not to plant that tree too deep. Biggest mistake people make. Big tree killer. You need to see the flare on the trunk of the tree. That's where it sticks out. Don't bury that, if you have it will die. That's too deep. Now, you need to make sure after you mulch it, to keep that mulch away from, the bark of the tree. It will rot it out faster than anything else, and again, you're gonna lose your investment. As you put it in the hole. Don't forget, that these trees that come wrapped in burlap, is a great way to protect em while you have them transporting, but that burlap needs to be pulled off partially at least and completely buried under the ground. If any of this burlap sticks up, it's just gonna wick water out of the ground and into the air and your roots are going to dry up. If you have any kind of twine under there or metal pieces, maybe some wire that's been wrapped around that tree root. You need to go ahead and cut it. So that the tree root's can grow out and flourish. Now while you're thinking about this tree, you might be tempted to go ahead and do some pruning. But be aware, if you have beautiful buds already forming and you trim at this time, that you're gonna prune those buds off. So just be aware, pay attention to the season you're in with that tree. Now, when you prune, a few basic things, look for deadwood and get rid of it. Look for any kind of branches that are crossed over each other. That's not going to be good for the tree. And then after that, you're really pruning for shape and ultimate size of the tree. So you may wanna get more information about that particular species to see how it's going to grow best. Finally, last word of warning about pruning, whether you do it or someone else does, if they say they want to top the tree, run as fast as you can, really bad for the tree. Looks awful and your investment will be lost. So this year, have some wonderful trees in your yard and just remember, don't plant em too deep and don't ever, ever, top them.

- You've probably got loads of cilantro that is in need of harvest before it goes to seed. So let's pair that cilantro with nice silky avocados. We're going to make avocado fries. And we're going to have a nice cilantro dipping sauce to go with that. So let's go ahead and get started with our avocados. When you're selecting avocados, you wanna pick them like you do a peach. And what you're gonna do it make sure that they, just yield to gentle pressure in your hand. All the ones at the super market are gonna be firm. So make sure that you give plenty of time for these to soften a little bit when you get them home. And then, they ought to be able to, twist open, and they're ready to use. Okay, now these will turn dark after you cut them, so you might want to spray them with a little bit of, citrus juice, lemon juice. And what I've done, is I have just cut these into slices, like fries. I've got some all purpose flour here, and we're just gonna drop these slices in here, a few at a time, and then just shake them to evenly coat them, in the flour. The easiest way to do that. Excellent. I'm gonna add a few more. And this is, this is how you typically do this. Just shake, add a few more, shake, add a few more. Don't add them all at one time. So that you can evenly coat them. Okay, so I'm gonna leave those, right there. While we get ready to do our batter for the avocados. So what I'm going to do, is I'm gonna add two tablespoons of water, to three eggs and we're just gonna whisk this up really quickly, and make sure you whisk this well. Kay, so you, this is gonna be our wet coating for the fries. Alright, that's ready to set aside for a second. Now let's do the dry. So the dry we're going to start with, some panko, we're going to add, some garlic powder, chili powder. Chili powder is a mixture of six different items, mainly dried chili's, and some, seasoned or onion or garlic salt. Either which, whichever one you prefer. Kay, so what I'm gonna do is just shake this up really well. And then we're going to put this, in our breading pan. So it's just seasoned, just slightly. In the meantime, we started pre-heating our oven to 450 degrees. And what we're going to do, is do a typical fry dip. So these are coated in flour, we're going to drop them into the egg. And then we're going to put them into, the mixture for the bread crumbs. So what I like to do is keep one hand wet, one hand dry. One hand wet, one hand dry. And then just coat these really nicely in the bread crumb mixture. And then what I've done, is I've just greased very slightly, a baking sheet. With the rim. Otherwise known as a jellyroll pan. And then we're just gonna line up our fries. They don't have to be just perfectly coated, I like em actually to kind of look a little bit irregular for this. Kay. And we're just gonna repeat, do that again, with all of our avocado slices. So if you don't panko, you can use just regular breadcrumbs for this, but it's not gonna have just as much of a crispy coating to it as panko does. So you might wanna double dip these twice to add a little extra crispiness to that. So we're gonna do this one more time. And add these to our baking sheet. I like to serve this really as an appetizer, versus a side dish. Because it's really quick and easy. It only takes about 10 to 14 minutes in the oven. So the good part about this, is while you're fixing the rest of the dinner, your guests can be, munching on their avocado fries. After you get all of these on your baking sheet, you're going to spray these, generously with some more cooking spray. That kind of sets your coating on there and makes it so that they're easier to serve. So, that goes into, the oven at 450 degrees. And while that is in the oven. We're going to make our cilantro dressing for this. So we're gonna start with about a third of a cup of sour cream, and we're gonna add a equal amount, a third of a cup of mayonnaise to this. If you don't have sour cream, or you don't like sour cream, you could use plain Greek yogurt for that. Then we're gonna add some more garlic powder to this. And the juice of one lime, which is two tablespoons. And then to add to that kind of lime taste to it, we're gonna add some, two tablespoons of chopped fresh cilantro. Now, this is one of those sauces, that the longer it sits, the better it gets. So if you wanna make this up ahead of time for your fries, that's perfect. Just put it in the refrigerator, you can make it up to two days ahead of time. Avocado fries. A nice cilantro dipping sauce to go with that.

- [Announcer] For inspiring garden tours, growing tips, and garden projects, visit our website at volunteergardener.org or on YouTube and the the volunteergardener channel, and like us on Facebook.