Episode 2539

- [Lauren] Introducing the element of water into your landscape can be a win, win, win. A pleasant focal point, support for wildlife, and the possibility of an exciting new plant palette. Troy Marden visits with a certified aqua-scape contractor to explore the options. And Tammy Allgood sees what's behind this strawberry production operation that expects to harvest 33,000 pounds of berries during the Spring. This, and more, so stay tuned. First, ponds and pond-less.

- Some of you may have water features in your gardens. Some of you may be considering it. Today, I'm going to talk with a master-certified aqua-scape contractor about the maintenance involved in a variety of different kinds of water features. We'll look at everything from full blown ponds with waterfalls, to very small features that are completely self-contained. Let's go find Derek and see what he has to say. So this is maybe kind of a medium-sized pond.

- Yeah.

- Not too small but it's not the size of a swimming pool. Is this kind of a typical installation for you guys?

- This is probably kind of that almost that finished pond cause most people will start out with maybe like a six by eight, eight by 11.

- Right.

- Then you kind of graduate to this. Most people don't typically go beyond this.

- Sure.

- I mean sky's the limit.

- Right.

- You can do whatever you wanna do, but this is kind of... The average home owner, or pond owner I should say, will either rebuild or redo their pond at least three times and this is kind of the finish.

- This is--

- This is where they end. Yeah.

- And the reason being is once they find out that it's really easy to deal with and low maintenance, then you're more apt to, you know take up a little more space from your garden.

- [Troy] I'm curious if you know having more gallons of water, the temperature doesn't fluctuate as much, those kinds of things is it easier in the long run to have something that's rather than a little three by four pond--

- Sure.

- That heats up badly those kind of things.

- I think heats up, I think that's a key point.

- Yeah.

- The smaller the water the features evaporation.

- Right.

- Is definitely more of a concern, so.

- Yeah. And you have more trouble with maybe algae and those kinds of things.

- [Derek] If it's not set-up correctly because then if you have a heavier fish load--

- Right.

- Then we're lookin' at more algae problems.

- You're out of balance.

- [Derek] Yeah, so it's yeah. The more you graduate, it does get a little bit easier. So, I agree.

- [Troy] Are there any depth requirements for a pond like this? Minimums, maximums?

- [Derek] Really, it's just fish health. You don't wanna exceed two feet necessarily.

- Okay.

- One probably safety concerns cause we're getting deeper, you know concerns with children--

- Right.

- And stuff that like that. But you definitely wanna be more than a foot for fish health.

- Sure.

- You know, our winters don't get that cold. But we don't want the fish to freeze.

- Right.

- Cause they do go dormant. Their metabolism slows down.

- Right.

- So we really just kind of stay at that two foot, you know, foot print. So it just makes a very aesthetically pleasing pond and it's great for safety and fish health.

- [Troy] If you don't want the full blown pond water feature, then these pond-less water features offer up a great option. Tell us about installing one of these and what advantages these have maybe to the home owner.

- [Derek] So I wanna get into the pond-less and the fountain scape side.

- Yep.

- Small spaces.

- Sure.

- It's a big deal. Lotta people want water features. Well Nashville's growing, right? We have a lot of urban settings. They don't have the space they used to.

- Sure.

- So this is perfect for those small areas. And not only that, this one kind of has that kind of modern, contemporary feel.

- Right.

- So, it can really fit into a formal garden. It can work into you know, your traditional--

- [Troy] Right.

- [Derek] Perennial garden. But really, there's almost, I can't say zero maintenance, but there's really nothing to do to this thing but add some water every couple three weeks or something.

- Right, you have a pump, which is an electric thing.

- Yeah.

- And you know at some point, that probably has to be replaced down the road. So you know occasional things like that. But a little leaf clean-out once in a while, everything's underground.

- [Derek] Yep, has the underground basin underneath there.

- Yeah.

- This thing holds about 100, 120 gallons of water underneath.

- Okay.

- So as you can see, the leaves have fallen.

- Yep.

- It's just sitting right on the gravel, it doesn't effect the flow at all.

- [Troy] Well and the thing that I love about this is that as we're standing here looking this is you know eight or nine feet by 10 or 12 feet. So even if you lived in a condo--

- Yeah.

- Even if you just had a small plot of land behind a condo or a town house something like that, you could do something like this and have a fantastic water feature...

- [Derek] Absolutely.

- [Troy] Without having to have an open body of water.

- [Derek] This is as safe as a bathtub.

- Yeah.

- Same responsibility.

- Sure.

- And birds...

- Yeah.

- I mean it's--

- You still get the wildlife.

- An amazing bird bath, You know.

- Yeah. This feature is similar in size to the one that we just looked at but a much more naturalistic approach. Rather than, you know two big bowls that are spilling water, this is... It's really a naturally built water fall. What's the difference in installation and maintenance of this versus you know what we've just seen?

- [Derek] Sure, so the installation process obviously a little more tedious because we're using bigger boulders versus you know the spillways and the bowls back there.

- Right.

- [Derek] So installation, you know a little more aggressive a little more intense.

- Yeah.

- [Derek] But it still fits into a small space.

- Right.

- So there again, if you have a small area, small space in the backyard I mean truly, if you just have this much room in your backyard, this would be pretty sweet to just sit on your patio and enjoy.

- Yeah.

- And just as you can see we have some plants staged here. So it's the maintenance, is really the same. So the basin down here, well it's the same basin as the other one as far as function and pump and maintenance.

- Right.

- Same process, it just kind of flows into a more you know, erosion type gravel basin. So that's the main motivation when we're doing this is to recreate what nature's doing. This is actually, in the Smoky Mountains there's a trail called Chimney Tops and it's just a cool trail. And this a little section that I've... Did I replicate it perfectly, no but I just always think about that so when this was being built, this is a little section that I see and I love the streams. It's just, so yeah.

- [Troy] The other thing I noticed about this one that you've done that I think is really cool is that there's lighting in here.

- Yeah.

- There's water proof little fixtures--

- Yep.

- [Troy] That you can put down in a pond or in a waterfall or wherever. So this is the largest of your sort of pond-less features that you have here on this particular property. And is there anything different about doing something like this versus something a little smaller?

- Sure, this allowed, you can kind of see the creative freedom. Cause we really are not restricted to how big. If you have the space--

- Right.

- We can install it. This one is great for commercial settings. So as you can tell with the road noise, here we are, we're in front of the garden center.

- Right.

- [Derek] But this is a great space. You know, you can put it in front of restaurants, apartment complexes, and there again it's a safety thing. So with traditional ponds, they typically don't do that because of the safety concerns.

- Right.

- Here, you know I mean what do we have, like an inch of depth of water--

- Right.

- Consistently running. So and there again, we're bringing in wildlife. We're attracting birds, so it's just a larger expanse. And, well we can jazz it up too so the drama--

- Yeah of course.

- That you can create. You've got a much wider area to work with or you make the area as big or as small as you want. So you can create a really dramatic effect with your waterfall, multiple steps and you know we've got one up here and one down here. So just the larger you can go, the more opportunity you have to do creative things.

- So Troy what we were talking about before, small spaces.

- Yes.

- This is a relevant small space. So actually this kind of six foot, eight foot footprint is where we started.

- Okay.

- And like we were talking about before, the average customer will expand or build on at least three times.

- Right.

- Case and point, we added another 12 feet to this particular water feature because they enjoyed it so much. And as you can see, they got their chairs and stuff. This is where they sit and just enjoy.

- [Troy] What a great way to fill sort of a difficult space. It's pretty well sloped so I would imagine that in a space like this, you know if it was just a mulched bed every time it rains, you're gonna have mulch running down the hill and all of that sort of thing. So a perfect way to utilize a spot to me you know with something that really takes advantage of the natural lay of the land.

- Right. And we've filled the space so. I mean we talked about maintenance and low maintenance. There's really not a lot going on here even with the landscape.

- [Troy] Right. Ivy that needs to be trimmed once in a while you know, that sort of thing. A few Japanese Maples. So I notice in this feature like in your others, the little light fixtures--

- Yes, LEDs.

- That are along the stream. So as we were saying before, you know you get more than just the daytime enjoyment out of this. If you're sitting on the porch in the evening or if you have guests coming over, you get a different experience at night than you do during the day.

- Absolutely, so imagine these are on photo self.

- Okay.

- So, you come in the evening you've had a long day at work. You're greeted by--

- By this.

- You know, tranquility.

- Sure.

- And just to you know take the worries away.

- Yeah.

- So it's just... And we try not to over light too. It's probably kind of hard to tell cause we do try to hide the lights discreetly.

- Right.

- We don't over light the area, we still wanna have some shadows and some interests.

- Of course.

- So it's, and there's a safety factor.

- Right.

- You know, you come home in the evening, this area's lit so you feel not only feel inviting and glad to be home but there's you know, well we're walking along steps so you know... a tripping hazard.

- Exactly.

- [Derek] So there's multiple, multiple benefits. The day time water feature, the night time water feature.

- Sure.

- [Troy] Now, if you were a homeowner or a gardener and you're looking for something that you can just sort of tuck away as a hidden surprise.

- Exactly.

- This seems like the perfect thing to me. This is all completely self-contained.

- [Derek] Yes.

- [Troy] So here we're looking at what, basin underneath?

- Yes, same basin as--

- Same concept.

- As the other concept. So this is, you described it well with just that really small space. I see this as like a vignette.

- Right.

- So it's like you have that in your garden, you don't see it when you first walk in. You're meandering through and this is what you find.

- [Troy] Yeah and you hear it. You know that's the thing that I think would be so interesting in a landscape large or small about this is, that you would hear that long before you ever found it. And it kind of becomes a scavenger hunt then through your garden to go, you know where is that water. I know I hear water.

- Yeah, yeah just where is it?

- So they either have a feature or they have an irrigation--

- Something's going on.

- Right?

- Absolutely.

- So but this is so... I love this because I think this is something that anybody, no matter the size of their garden large or small, can accomplish easily. Again, it's lit so you can enjoy it day or night.

- [Derek] And if you have a little bit of algae that starts to grow on the rocks, you can just cut this one off and let it sit off for a day. The algae will dry up.

- And it just cleans itself up.

- You can take take a hose and just wash it right off so it gets, it's really simple and this again is pet friendly.

- [Troy] What we really haven't talked about is the bigger picture of the ecosystem of the whole garden.

- Absolutely. Absolutely.

- And once you get a water feature added then you know you've sort of completed the picture.

- Sure, the element of life.

- You have everything... Yeah exactly.

- You can't have life without water so you know, good karma.

- [Troy] Well I can't thank you enough for taking a little bit of time--

- Absolutely.

- To show me and all of our viewers a variety of different ways that we can add this element of life to our garden.

- [Derek] Exactly, I appreciate it. Everybody wants a water feature, they just don't know it yet.

- [Troy] Right.

- We're here in Jackson, Tennessee at Dutch Garden Berries. And you may be thinking, oh I don't know. Strawberries may have taken a hit or, I don't know if we're gonna have any berries this Spring. Well, no worries here because we've got half an acre of strawberries under glass. Bos Van Buuren is the owner of Dutch Garden Berries. And boy, this is a sight for sore eyes. We were worried about berries but you've got 'em.

- Yes ma'am.

- [Tammy] You've got half an acre and what's the kind of berries that you're growing here?

- We're growing day neutral varieties. Most of 'em have been developed by UC Davis in California and we're trying out several different varieties right now to see what suits us best and what the consumers actually prefer. The system was originally developed in Northern Europe, in Belgium and the Netherlands in particular. Labor up there is scarce and it's also very expensive and if it can be done more... Worker friendly, it has to be done that way otherwise people just won't do it.

- Right.

- So this here's actually made to gradually walk by the aisles and pick 'em and you know should be fairly easy to do and fairly enjoyable.

- Well absolutely, you don't have to worry about heat, you don't have to worry about bugs, you don't have to worry about cold.

- Right.

- So you've got the perfect set-up here. So when you got this idea how did you decide that, okay it's gonna be strawberries?

- I have several friends of mine in the Netherlands and one friend of mine in particular in Belgium that has done this for many many years. And I was looking for a crop that would be financially feasible in a small greenhouse cause even though this looks large, from a greenhouse standpoint it still is fairly small. And strawberries really is one of the only crops that you can grow and come out ahead on financially.

- [Tammy] Exactly.

- [Bos] And it's also one that I enjoy I have to be honest with you.

- [Tammy] So yeah, you know everybody kind of comes out of their winter slumber and they're ready for something nice and fresh. And so strawberries are always a hit for that.

- Right.

- How many plants in his greenhouse?

- [Bos] 17,400.

- [Tammy] That might take care of my needs for strawberries for today.

- [Bos] I believe it will.

- [Tammy] So you all going to be pre-picked and you're gonna sell them right out of your greenhouse facility, correct?

- Yes ma'am, yes ma'am.

- And you were telling me, you don't have any pests.

- No ma'am and I'm sure part of it is because this is our first year so we didn't really have any pests built up. That's part of it. The other thing is, we're tryna make everything as perfect as possible for our plants. We've got these pipes here, this is actually radiant heat. So you can feel this pipe, it's warm cause it's cold outside right now.

- Yes.

- So what we're tryna do is bring heat underneath the plants and start evaporation early on. These pipes will warm up at about 4:30 in the morning so on days that the sun does come out unlike today this plant is already ready to evaporate. So when the sun comes out, boom it's ready to go. The roots are already working. Also what it does, it brings your humidity out. So you know, all your humidity that could potentially be harmful for fungal disease--

- Correct.

- You know, it gets those out. And it creates a happy plant.

- [Tammy] And so how do you water these, because I see your little system here.

- Yes, we have drippers. We have two per bag and we have three per bag on the south side because they get more sun and they're gonna need more water. This system was all designed in the Netherlands and in Belgium and it's called a sub-straight system. There still is soil in these bags, but it's peat-mix that the mix actually has very little or no nutrients in it and we add the nutrients with this machine here.

- [Tammy] I see.

- This is our b-tub. There's our a-tub. When you have, the reason we got two different tubs is when you take... A fertilizer contains calcium and you take one that contains sulfur if you combine them together, they settle. They create sheet rock pretty much. So we gotta separate those when they're in high concentrations. Once they go into the sub-straight machine it mixes 'em as you can tell here.

- Yes, yes.

- [Bos] Then they are in such small quantities it doesn't really matter anymore and they don't settle out. There's a lot of research that's been done on what the plant needs precisely and that's what we're giving it. We have three different mixes. We have a mix that we put in when we first plant the plants then we have a bloom mix and then we have a harvest mix.

- [Tammy] So obviously now we're in harvest and bloom.

- Yep.

- So that's one of the reasons why that if you were to just plant these without those nutrients, you're not going to have this.

- No.

- I mean it's not got anything to feed it.

- Right.

- The plant's just kind of sitting there. It would be, in essence, I'd guess shut down.

- [Bos] Yeah and then we have bumble bees to pollinate. Another feature that we have is you see how these flower tresses are long?

- Yes.

- What we want is we want these flower stresses to hang out up here. So we actually get the fruit hanging here for several reasons. One, it's much easier to harvest. They ripen much more evenly. But also, they never stay moist that way. So they dry out, less fungal diseases.

- [Tammy] Got it.

- This here, these bags, I will lift one up, have drain holes in them.

- Oh I see that. I was wondering how that would drain out of there. I see.

- [Bos] And what it does, you can see the little white tips here from the roots. What it does, it air prunes the roots cause there's air underneath here. It also catches the drain water that comes out of these bags and it can be recycled.

- Wonderful.

- So it all runs to the end, that's why up here the gutters are slightly higher than they are in the back because they all had to slope that way.

- [Tammy] So did you hand plant each one of these? Just cut a whole in the bag and hand planted?

- They actually when we order the bags they'll ask you, "Where do you want the holes "and how many holes do you want?" So they will custom do it for you.

- Okay so like next year, will you discard these and start all over?

- Yes ma'am, we will.

- So this is a one year...

- Yeah, this year we started in January. We will grow these hopefully until the middle to the end of June, depending on the heat.

- Right.

- Once it gets constantly above 85, 90 degrees these berries start producing, I mean stop producing flower so then there won't be any berries.

- Right.

- When that happens, we'll cut the water off, we'll let 'em shrivel up. Then we just kind of take a stick, knock off the foliage then we take a knife, we cut out the soil and reuse the soil for horticulture or agriculture or just whatever we wanna do. We'll probably compost it. And then dispose of the bags. Then we'll plant again, we're hoping somewhere around September the 15th, depending on the heat. And then grow all the way through Christmas. Then we'll give 'em a break for about four to six weeks. We're gonna have to see how long that's gonna have to be. All this is you know trial and error.

- Right.

- Then we should have berries again in, you know, early March. And we'll do that crop and then we'll start the cycle again in the fall.

- So the whole purpose of this greenhouse is exactly what we as consumers crave. It's going to give us wonderful, delicious, juicy, local fruit, local berries in all times of the year except for the dog days of summer. So we can extend our strawberry season and enjoy local fruit for months rather than weeks.

- The Nashville Lawn and Garden Show has a really neat theme this year. It's the gardens of the future. And what are gardens of the future if they're not sustainable? So we're gonna take a look around while we're here at the Nashville Fair Grounds and see what kind of sustainable ideas we can get for our gardens. Matthew Neal with Mean Green mowers has a really fantastic solution to all of our electrical needs when we're out there mowing and so forth. So this is a really great looking mower and it has a sunshade that is a special sunshade.

- Yes it is, it offers recharging of the battery as well as shade to the consumer which in the hot summer time, we're all after more shade.

- Now the electricity you're getting from this is all coming from the solar power?

- This is a trickle charge from here. There is a 200-watt panel that comes auxilerated that would mount to a fixed location to the side of your house or somewhere out building and that can completely charge this mower to be able to mow five acres in two and a half hours, whichever there the equivalent for one homeowner for one week. So basically it makes you net zero on your electric consumption from the grid. And then we also have very low noise. Because it is an electric piece of equipment it sounds more like a vacuum cleaner than it does a lawn mower. And also what a lot of people are kind of tired of contending with is the fumes that come out of a lawn mower. They're not regulated. There are no emissions in place to mitigate those fumes. So basically, you can take a piece of equipment and when you compound those emissions, they're astounding once you find out what the criteria is that makes them go where they go. It's like taking a road trip across America versus running your lawnmower for two hours. It's kind of the equivalent which a lot of people never put that into perspective. So it gives you zero emissions, quiet, which is nice to be able to have your windows open in the spring without you know without that bothering noise of lawnmowers that we've always known. And the low maintenance of electricity too. Electrical items just don't require the maintenance that combustion engines require.

- Alright, great products and certainly something that is very sustainable and something we're probably all looking forward to having in our gardens in the future. Thank you so much Matthew.

- [Matthew] Glad to do it.

- Vickie Dow with Red Bud Farm has one of the most sustainable things which is something that comes, well, right from mother nature itself, worm castings.

- That's right.

- Now Vickie, what are these worm castings?

- Castings is a nice way to say what worms cast off, it's their manure. And it has no odor at all, it doesn't stink. I can show it to you here and you can even smell.

- Oh!

- Even when you smell it.

- It doesn't smell like anything.

- It has no smell at all. It feels and looks like black coffee grounds. See how clean it is to the touch and it comes right off of your hands. This will never burn anything in any concentration. It's child safe and pet friendly. It never goes bad, you can store it indefinitely in a garage or shed. You don't have to be in a hurry to use, it doesn't expire. When you do use it, it lasts in the ground for a year or more.

- Oh that's fantastic. Now once I get this, what are some of the benefits I'm gonna expect out of it in my garden?

- It does everything for every kind of plant. You're not limited to anything. You can use about a handful or so per plant. Put it in the hole at the root level when you first plant, or with a seed. Things already growing and established, use it like a top dressing and put it around the base of a plant. Rain and water will take the nourishment down. You can also mix it in water and make a liquid fertilizer called worm tea. Pour that on your plants and water with it anytime for a boost of nutrition.

- Well this is a really great product. Well native plants are always the first go-to choice for sustainability in your yard. So can you give us a quick tip on a tree, a shrub and a flower that would be native from Tennessee?

- Well there are so many different species that are native to Tennessee. There are like 2,800 different species of plants that are found in the state and 2,400 of them are native. And so these plants have evolved and grown in this area. They've evolved with the wild life as well. So if you're looking for sustainability, something that's adapted to the soil, something that's adapted to the climate, something that's adapted to the wildlife, native plants are the way to go. It's that kind of diversity in your yard that's going to allow your yard to be beautiful throughout the year. So things like, for example, our Oak trees. Oak trees are some of the most wildlife friendly trees that you can have. From especially birds and butterflies, there are like 500 different species of butterflies and moths that use our Oak trees. Then you've got birds, you've got squirrels, you've got bears, you've got all the other wildlife and all kinds of insects as well. So you can't go wrong with an Oak, whether it's in the white oak part of the oak family or the red oak part of the oak family. An oak tree is excellent. And plus, it's something that can live 100, 200, 300 years or more. As far as a shrub, one of the interesting ones perhaps might be Winterberry. It's a Ilex, it's a holly and it loses it's leaves during the winter time but it keeps these beautiful red berries throughout the winter. So you have that wonderful look ornamental aspect of it during the winter time. But then later in late winter or early spring, the Robins will come in and they'll eat all those fruits. So you're feeding wildlife when they need it most, when food is scarce.

- [Tammy] Alright so, great wildlife entertainment for us?

- Exactly, exactly.

- Very sustainable for everyone, and a flower?

- A flower, well there's so many. But one of my favorites I guess would be the Wild Blue Phlox, Phlox Divaricata. It has a wonderful fragrance so in April, it's going to just perfume the garden. It lasts for at least three weeks and it would just kind of sow itself into these gentle drifts in the backyard and I think it's beautiful.

- Oh that is fantastic. And of course we can always learn more from the Tennessee Native Plant Association.

- Absolutely, our society is open to any member that would like to join and be a part of us. We have field trips throughout the year to various places throughout the state in order to see these native plants in their habitat and learn all about them. They're led by very knowledgeable botanists in the state and so there's a lot to learn from our organization.

- All great resources, thank you so much.

- You're very welcome, thank you.

- Well sustainability really has always been with us. It doesn't just have to be some sort of fancy machinery or new technique you learn. In fact, you can use things like logs that have fallen on your property to use around your garden. It adds some great texture, some color, as well as that just wonderful feeling that you're using something that otherwise you might just cast off. But we want you to think about the future while you're gardening this year. Think about all of the sustainable things that you can do, your plant choices, your soil choices, all of those extras, how you use water, how you even use electricity when you garden.

- [Lauren] 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.