Episode 2544

- [Narrator] Hostas don't fade into a sea of green in a landscape anymore. Annette Shrader tours a garden that features hosta in a variety of vignettes creating color combinations that pop. Marty DeHart shares her tip for controlling weeds in a vegetable garden. And Tammy Algood keeps it light with spicy cauliflower tacos. This, and more, so stay tuned. First, a perennial that can be foreground, or background.

- [Woman] Rain, we've had lots of it this season. And there are plants in our gardens that just love that moisture. I am with Ken and Lynda Correll, his wife, here in Donaldson, and we are going to learn some real secrets because this is a very immature garden with lots of large plants. Ken, thank you for letting us come and I'm gonna thank you also for some secrets you want to share with us about this garden.

- Thank you, it's really good too have you.

- Tell me about it.

- Well, we got started we were looking for a way to cut down on the amount of grass that we cut. And we had some shaded areas that the roses just didn't do real well in. So, we decided to try hostas and got involved with the local hosta society and they showed us a lot of things. We learned some of the plants by touring other gardens. Plants that did well here. And it experimented on some other ones and discovered . So we've really had a lot of fun in the shade. And we didn't have good dirt. So we had to do raised beds and really amend the soil. I tried to get about a foot's depth of really good soil.

- [Annette] And let's look behind us at the varieties you've chosen here under this tree.

- [Ken] Okay, a lot of these are varieties that were recommended by the local hostas club and were varieties that I've seen doing really well in other people's gardens. This one right over here with the deep blue that's rather large is one of the most popular blues, it's called Blue Angel. And right behind it is another variety that we're gonna see in a smaller size that's called Victory that looks like it's gonna do really well. And the leaves get a beautiful yellow color in the autumn.

- [Annette] Well now, let's see, what is that beautiful blossom back there, that bluescape?

- [Ken] Well, that's from one called Fried Bananas. And there's one next to it called Stained Glass. And those are both in a category that has real fragrant blooms. And I placed them there because that area gets more sun and the Planted Jenny, which those varieties are called, can take a lot more sun in addition to having the really fragrant blossoms.

- [Annette] Very fragrant. And there's an elevation here. What did you, how did you prepare this bed?

- [Ken] Well basically I tried to till down about four inches into the native soil and loosen that as much as I could. And after I got that deep, I started running into larger roots. The Dogwood and the Maplewood are here both of them have pretty deep roots. But I didn't want to get much deeper. And then it was just like building a layer cake. I just brought in about one third, or I built a layer of sand, and a layer of pine fines which is ground up pine needles. Or pine bark, I'm sorry. And then another layer of clay. And I just kept layering that. And once I got it to the depth I wanted which was about a foot, then I started at the bottom with my small tiller and just gradually worked back and forth and mixed it all with the tiller. And it was really very easy because if you start at the bottom the dirt just falls downhill.

- [Annette] Right.

- [Ken] And it's real easy to mix. When you get to the top, you're done, it's all mixed up.

- [Annette] And I see you have also protected this tree by not going further up.

- Right, so the tree won't die of cholera I tried to keep the soil around the base of the tree at the same level it was before I started.

- [Annette] Well, I know a few of your secrets. But I want to learn more. I talked about Lynda, and here she is. Lynda, what do you do as far as all these gardens?

- I just enjoy the, I smell the roses. And I enjoy them, and I do a little maintenance.

- Mm-hmm.

- When there's a weed I pluck it. And when there's a leaf that I need for an arrangement, I put it in there.

- And he doesn't say anything.

- Ohhh most of the time not.

- Well you have to be with one another and I can tell by just looking in your gardens that you all have a great partnership and we appreciate it. Now, I'm looking at beauty right here.

- [Ken] That's a really nice yellow and green one it's called Dance With Me. I've never seen one that has quite that yellow mixture in it.

- [Annette] Oh.

- [Ken] But they come in so many different flavors, if you will. Like this one right here is a new one called Ginsu Knife. It has the great variegation, but also that wonderful waviness on the edge of the leaf. Who would ever believe that they're even related?

- [Annette] This one, Dance With Me. And this.

- [Ken] They're both pretty closely related.

- [Annette] Wow.

- [Ken] Then we can get into deeper blues.

- [Annette] This is beautiful.

- [Ken] And one thing they share with me, if you have deeper blues they like more dense shade. They can't take very much sunlight at all. So that's why this is part of the deepest shade area I have, and I've planted a lot of my blues here.

- [Annette] And you know, I've seen different colors in the center, different colors on the outside. I see striping, I see puckering. And then, with that in mind, the pucker and the leaf structure what is this one right here?

- [Ken] This variety is called Deep Blue Sea. And it's one of the most puckered I've seen. It has a really shiny outer layer. And it's got great veination in early spring.

- [Annette] This is your secret, shall we say. So I want to reach right here. This is what you call .

- [Ken] These are, these are very young plants and this is the way I get them in the mail. They come right through the mail. These are actually the product of a process called tissue culturing where they actually almost like put a leaf in a blender, and emulsify it. And then they can actually grow it in like a petri dish to a small plant by adding hormones, and growth substances. And when they get it to this size then this tray has about 96 plants in it. And then they can, they ship it out to the consumer in trays like this.

- I was just gonna ask you, so how many?

- There's 12 plants right there in that one little.

- So this whole tray came like this?

- Mm-hmm. Then I simply go to the potting bench and I'll take three or four or five or six or however, depending on what size they are and I'll just place them in, this is called a chrysanthemum pot.

- Okay.

- It's just a wide pot that's fairly shallow. It's a real easy the plant, and this particular pot has well, it has six.

- [Annette] Yes.

- [Ken] Plants, a new one called Atlantis. But, these are real easy to do and what I like about them is it fills out the pot really quickly because there's so many plants. They like the growth medium, which I can control what I put in here. And then I can pick plants based on their color and kind of, instead of putting all the plants in one color together, I can kind of vary them so it's easier to tell one from the other. And it's real easy to dig these up and move them. Another little secret that I had shared with me is if when you plant these, if you take the bottom part of the pot and just cut it off.

- Half of it?

- The bottom half. And you can throw that away and slip this top part back on as a collar. When I water, all the water is trapped by the pot and goes right down to the roots and ends up wetting the ground below it. So it's easier to get these established using the pot, and a lot of people just throw the nursery container away. But you can use that top part of the pot. And then a few years down the road once it gets established and it's happy where it is and you want to keep it there, you're gonna simply take a knife and slit down one edge and just lift the pot out because there's no bottom.

- Can you do that before you ever put it in the ground? Could you?

- [Ken] You could, sure.

- [Annette] Now what is America's favorite hosta today?

- [Ken] Well, the American Hosta Society's taking polls and this one called June has the beautiful variegation. It does really well in this area with the heat and humidity. It stands up well and looks good all the way to the end of the season. And it's spawned a lot of other kinds called Touch of Class, and there's many many others that are out of that same lineage that just do really well in middle Tennessee.

- [Annette] I can see why that would be. Just from the different color variations. Well, it's obvious that you know what you were doing. And to be such a new gardener I commend you both on the accomplishments to just look in here and know just some of the secrets you've shared with me today how it's been possible. And I appreciate you all sharing your garden with us today.

- [Ken] It was a joy to have you.

- [Annette] Thank you.

- It's spring here in my garden and you can see that my English peas are about to, these are Thomas Laxton they're about a month up now. And the weeds are just getting toe hold. And I want to control that before it gets out of control which is easy to do in this part of the world. And I want a one-stop solution which means I don't want to be out here weeding in July. When it's brutal. And here's what you do. I've experimented over the years and this is what works for me. You'll recognize the paper. I just take sections of this, I save this all winter. I got a stack in my basement that towers. And I just unfold each section. You can see the area in which I live here. And, some will be thicker than others. That's okay, if you come up with one that's really thin just put two on. The idea of, the reason I'm not opening these out is the thicker the layer, the better the weed protection. This is shading out weed seeds. They might germinate under there, but they can't grow. They'll germinate and die. And the paper, because it's printed with soy inks, most newspapers are these days it's completely safe, non-toxic ink. And it will just rot into the ground. This will be all gone by next year. I'll do this again. But it's only once a year. Then I take wheat straw, not hay, wheat straw. There are no weed seeds in this. And if you make the mistake and put hay down you're just putting down a whole new crop of weed seeds. That will germinate once the paper rots. And I just spread this out into a nice thick layer. When you put this down, don't be afraid to put it down really thickly. Six inches is fine. It'll beat down. You never want to be able to see the paper through it that's important. And this will have a multitude of benefits for you. This will keep moisture in your plants, especially in the summer, which you won't have to water unless there's an extreme drought. It keeps the weeds at bay. And it rots and turns into organic matter in your soil which makes better soil. Over time, you're improving your garden actually your soil, by doing this. I did want to show you one thing. These inserts that come in the paper that are usually printed on this shiny paper called coated stock I don't use these, they don't break down in the same way. And I've also discovered, by accident when I did use them, they're slippery. And if you put those under the straw and you're walking on them, whoops. Yeah, I did that, it wasn't graceful and I'm not gonna show you what it looks like. But this is a wonderful way. You can use it if it's printed color, like these comics are fine. As long as it's on regular newsprint paper. This will take care of weeds in this whole row. And once these peas are gone, which will be June, I'm putting pull beans and cucumbers and everything else on these trellises. I won't have to remulch. I'm done for the year once I do this. I'll never see a weed again. Maybe weed a little bit down the row but that's all I'll have to do. And, I'm building up my garden soil. Couldn't do it better.

- [Woman] Well bees are fantastic pollinators of all of our plants, but we may not really think about what we can do to protect the bees. So I'm talking with Alisa Huntsman once of our Davidson County master gardeners about her beekeeping. And, how long have you been keeping bees?

- About three years. Right out here on the front yard. It's a little space that we don't use much. It get the right sun exposure. So we just plop them down right here out front where everybody can see them.

- Well it's fun to watch them.

- - It is.

- But I know that one reason to do this is of course, liking honey. But there's an even more important reason.

- It's the decline of the population. Bees have been dying off. They aren't quite sure why, they have some suspicions. Some evidence. But no clear path saying, this is exactly why. Colony collapse disorder's become so prevalent in bees many beekeepers are losing, the larger beekeepers that do it for a business, some of them have lost 30, 40, 50% of their hives. That's a lot of bees. And, it's hobbyists are beginning to step in and bring back some of the bees. And the feral bee population has really crashed. There's not very many feral bees. The majority of the bees we find these days are being kept by someone, whether they're commercial or a hobbyist like myself. So you have to give them a good environment to live in. One of those being it has to be clean. It has to be the proper equipment. Whether it's a top bar hive or like we have, the traditional hives. That's preference. But it has to be appropriate inside. And then you have to give them space where they're not constantly being interrupted or disturbed. And they have to have a food source. And that's something funny about bees is you think I'm going to plants all these things around my yard. They can fly two miles. They can fly eight miles. It's been proven they've flown as far as eight miles in search of a specific nectar or pollen that they want. So you have to have a lot of things in your neighborhood, not just you. But you want to be in a safe area where there's a lot of good things for them to choose from. And then of course, you have to be able to recognize some of the things that are harmful to them. And that's a lot of different different pests. Mites are a huge problem. Pesticides, fungicides, you don't want to be using any of that around your bees. But, if your neighbors are, or if you're located near commercial areas that are using that that can all be a factor. All these things can lead to whether or not they'll survive.

- [Julie] Well and there are some important things I understand that you have to do. I understand that you actually have to register your hive, and why is that?

- [Alisa] You do, in the state of Tennessee you are required to register your hive with the state . And that is because there are things like that they have to be keeping track of. They do inspect the hives, they come out every so often. And they look over your bees. And they will open up, go through the frames to make sure that you don't have something, something like is so threatening to the bee population that they will, they'll kill the hive. They'll burn your equipment and they'll kill the hive. Because it is so contagious. Other things, they can help you learn show you techniques to control them. Like wax moths, or the different small hive beetles you can learn how to control them. Being we are so global these days we bring seeds and plants from all parts of the world here. Well, we need pollinators. The almond crop is a perfect example, without the almond, without the bees you'd have no almonds. So you have to have those bees in your, around your crops in order to pollinate.

- Well they're so important to us. Now I don't have bees myself but I do see honey bees so I must be doing something to encourage them. What are some of the things we can all do to encourage bees?

- Well one of the easiest things you can do is put herbs in your garden. They love herbs. The love oregano, basil, thyme, lavender, rosemary, mint, all of those plants. They will bloom throughout the summer. And they'll go to it all the time. You'll find them out there collecting the different nectars and pollens. That other thing too is, if you look at my lawn it's not much of a, you'd never see this on a golf course. But there's things in here like clover, chickweed, we let it go in here. Because they will go to that in the winter months when there's nothing else out there in February they'll be gathering from the lawn. And we let them have it. And Holly trees, the love Holly trees and they will go and they will gather nectar from Holly trees. So having a different variety of plants available at all times that are going to be flowering throughout the year will help them because what people don't realize is if it's 40 degrees or above bees are out and they're foraging. When you use those herbicides on your lawn you remove a food source for the bees. It's really, these are, and as I will tell you those are a native perennials. Those plants, we call them weeds. But a weed really is a plant you don't want growing. It doesn't mean it's a bad plant. Sometimes they can be invasive if they're non-native. But those are a native perennials. So when you remove them, you remove an important part of the ecosystem. Not just for bees, but for all of the other insects that might visit those plants or use them for a food source or for a living space you're removing their habitat.

- Well Alisa, thank you so much for sharing your hive with us today and telling us about some of the things that we need to know about bees. So, when you are thinking about bees think about what you can do in your own lawn. Grow those small flowers, enjoy those herbs and know you're helping out the bees. Be careful with your use of pesticides, as always. Come and visit our website at volunteergardener.org.

- Cauliflower is showing up in all kinds of recipes and we're gonna use it today to make a nice vegetarian dinner. We're gonna make spicy cauliflower tacos. Mmm, fun. Okay, let's get started. We're going to start with a little bit of liquid in our pan to soften the cauliflower up just a little bit. So we're gonna start with some rice wine vinegar. Then we're going to add three fourths of a cup of beer. Then we're gonna add some lime juice. I'm gonna get my mincer here we're gonna add some garlic to that. You've got to have garlic in just about everything, I think. All right, add that. Then we're gonna spice it up because these are spicy cauliflower tacos. So we're gonna add some hot sauce. If you don't want it that spicy you can certainly cut down on that. And, just a little bit of soy sauce. Okay, so we're gonna mix all of that together and let that kind of get nice and heated before we add our cauliflower. So our cauliflower is chopped up. So I've taken the whole head of cauliflower which is known as the curd and I've chopped it up into these tiny pieces. You don't want any of the pieces to be very big. You want it to resemble kind of crumbled ground beef when you get through with this. So no bigger than the size of a quarter. And this is a whole head of cauliflower. So this is boiling, we're gonna add this to our mixture here. And we're going to just give that one good stir and then set your timer. You want to put this in this mixture for 90 seconds, no longer. This is in pretty small pieces so I probably will keep this in here right at one minute. Okay, we drained the liquid off of our cauliflower. And I've returned it to the exact same pan so you don't dirty another dish. Now what we're gonna do is spice it up even more. So I've got gloves on to make this a little bit easier. We're going to add some chili powder to that. Some paprika. Garlic powder. Cumin. The juice of half of a lime and if you're not using fresh lime, that's gonna be about a tablespoon of lime juice. And then we're going to add about a teaspoon of olive oil. There we go. All right. Now we're gonna take this and we're just gonna mix this up with your hands. Now you see why I was wearing these gloves. So it's good and coated all the way over. It's still a little warm, that's another reason you want to wear these gloves. And we're about ready to go into the oven. So, this gives it kind of that taco-y kind of a taco seasoning kind of feel to it. Okay, so let me take these off. And what we're gonna do is transfer this to a lightly greased kelly roll pan. Okay. Now, make sure you take your spoon and spread this out just as close to a single layer as possible. This is going to go in your preheated oven at 400 degrees for 20 minutes. While your cauliflower is in the oven we're going to make a nice slaw to go with our tacos. So I've started with some angel hair kind of cutting of half of a green cabbage. And I'm gonna add to that some carrot matchsticks. So again, I wanted it to be kind of I didn't want it to be shaved but I wanted it to be close to the same texture as our green cabbage. Then we're going to add some cilantro leaves to that. And we're going to make a little bit of a dressing. So, I've got some vinegar here. Some oil. I'm gonna add just a pinch of salt to that. And this is why I like canning jars. They're like perfect container for emulsifying a dressing. I'm leaving the cilantro whole, you can chop it if you want to, if you don't like the big pieces of cilantro, but just for fun I'm just gonna leave it with the leaves right now. Okay, then with your hands you're just gonna mix this all together. You can make this ahead, if you want to. Just cover it and put it in your refrigerator. And make sure you use it within a couple or three days. So this is going to go on the bottom of our tacos. So that's our slaw ready, it's ready to roll. So our cauliflower has come out of the oven and it smells excellent. And in the meantime, what I did was I took some corn tortillas, this is the size that I like. And I just heated these in between paper towels in the microwave. If you don't want to do that, you can do that in a dry skillet. So what we're gonna do is just we're gonna with your hands, again, just take some of the coleslaw that we made. And then we're going to top it with the cauliflower crumbles. And you can add any other little adornments to that that you want. Just make sure that the coleslaw is on the bottom. And then top it with the cauliflower. So I like to add salsa to this. Sour cream. A little squirt of lime juice to just kind of set that off. And really, that's about all that it needs. It's really pretty, it's really easy. It goes a long way. And you can see that it's an excellent vegetarian meal. So you utilize that cauliflower differently and make spicy cauliflower tacos.

- [Narrator] 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.