Episode 2820

- [Narrator] A lawn is just not for me this homeowner tells Annette Schraeder. Instead she's got a pollinator friendly garden for a front yard and a people pleasing garden in the back. Then Phillip Chadwick meets an impressive grower, who reaps abundant yields of veggies and herbs. Plus she's all in with a newly planted orchard. Join us. First, who needs a lawn anyway.

- If you're keeping up with the current gardening trends, you do know pollinator gardens and no grass. And when we finish talking to this gardener, you're gonna see how she's done this. We are in Memphis and here is the gardener, Molly Riggs. Thank you for allowing us to step into your pollinator garden. Now how long have you been working here?

- For almost 25 years now.

- Okay, so when did you go to this trend?

- A long time ago. I decided I didn't like lawns almost immediately.

- Yeah, they require certain things, don't they?

- They do and it's just not me.

- And you have the freedom in this area where you live that you can do what you want.

- Oh, yes.

- In your front lawn. Okay, let's discuss some of the plants that you've chosen here. I notice right here before us.

- [Molly] Lantana.

- [Annette] That lantana is huge.

- [Molly] It's huge.

- [Annette] And that means it's been here a while.

- [Molly] It's been here. This particular batch of lantana been here for over three years.

- [Annette] Yeah, so you're fortunate enough in this zone. Occasionally I'll have one. I do like the artemesia that really is a contrast to some of the other plants that you have in and it's a nice vertical for you. Then up front here, those two plants, the echinacea.

- [Molly] Yes, and the verbena.

- [Annette] The verbena and you know, some people call that pilaris verbena. But it definitely is a receder, isn't it?

- [Molly] Definitely yeah.

- And a lot of these plants, that's the great thing about the ones you've chosen is you aren't constantly having to go out and purchase new plants. Well, what is the season that you experience along with the first bees you see and the last you see in the fall? What are you seeing in this pollinating garden?

- They come pretty early actually They were here early may.

- Yeah.

- Oh, you've got a dragonfly by your head.

- Oh, a dragonfly. That means he's eating mosquitoes.

- Yeah, and actually I get quite a few hummingbirds as well. And I don't put out feeders.

- Well, typically I don't either, but I can see that the echinacea has the activity of the bees early in the morning, don't they.

- [Molly] Oh, yeah, definitely.

- [Annette] And you know, you've got another plant in here that probably is a little perennial for you. The Mexican petunia.

- [Molly] Yes.

- [Annette] And so you've seeing activities from your pollinators on it.

- [Molly] Definitely, quite a bit.

- [Annette] So you don't have a lot of maintenance time either in this garden, do you?

- [Molly] No, I don't. Not up here as much as I do in the back.

- [Annette] Well, we're gonna go see that back.

- [Molly] Yeah.

- [Annette] But it's very nice to see that from the street. You're educating. You're not only just providing, you're educating and showing your neighbors this is just as beautiful as mown grass, isn't it?

- [Molly] It is. It is and it's a lot less time consuming in the end once you have it established.

- [Annette] And aren't you proud that you did it?

- [Molly] I am, I am, makes me happy every day.

- [Annette] Let's go see your other style of gardening.

- [Molly] Okay.

- Well, Molly, as I step into this refreshing shade back here, I know around this corner there has to be surprises. I already see that you are a plantaholic.

- Yes, definitely.

- I see that you like containers. And oh, my goodness, you've got a courtyard going. This is a wonderful example of an artist. You're an artist in this garden aren't you?

- I'm an artist in life.

- Okay. Well, let's start out with what you pick as your favorite thing in the garden today.

- [Molly] Some if it's personal. The fountain came from my parents.

- [Annette] That's very personal and that's what we like, to utilize those things from the past.

- [Molly] Yeah, definitely. The arbor's from my parents.

- [Annette] And you have wonderful plants, but I'm gonna just sit off of this sitting area that you've created back here. There are sets of agave. How old is that?

- [Molly] I've had it for about 20 years. And it came from a father of a friend and it was a pass along from a great grandmother.

- Yes. I know what you have to do. You have to bring it out and take it in.

- Yes. I've got quite a few of those.

- I like what you did over here. If God gives you lemons.

- [Molly] Yeah, that was an olive tree that I adored that I drug all the way back from New Orleans that passed away one year and I just, it also have special meaning to me and so I decided I'm not gonna get rid of it.

- [Annette] Exactly.

- [Molly] I'm gonna do something fun with it.

- [Annette] I think that's really great in how we utilize the plants and items with a purpose.

- [Molly] Yeah.

- That's right. Well, and I like your stepping stones. And now these bowling balls, that's a nice creation right there.

- [Molly] That's a start, yeah. It's part of my barricading of this new bed, you know, with my babies, my three dogs.

- [Annette] I understand. We all have those things. I like your choices of what you put over here to decorate with. And I like your shells in that wheelbarrow. I've seen plants in wheelbarrows, but I don't know that I've ever seen the shells and the glass. Now I know, this is a Bird of Paradise.

- [Molly] It is and that actually came from the same person as the agave plant.

- [Annette] And have you had it bloom?

- [Molly ] I have not.

- Well, you know, it's still an interesting plant, isn't it?

- Mm-hmm.

- Well, and I know that there are some other items that you have repurposed here in your garden. Now do you have much maintenance in this area?

- I actually have more back here than I do up front.

- Really?

- Yeah.

- Well, it's because you're preserving in and out and making sure the elements are right because.

- That's a lot of it because in the beginning of the season, this actually gets a lot of sun.

- [Annette] Before it loops out.

- [Molly] Yeah, and actually the Bird of Paradise got a little sun blister. I drug it out here for the garden too soon.

- [Annette] You didn't acclimate it.

- [Molly] Yes.

- I do love this corner of your garden Molly and I think that you have said that there are particular things of interest in here for you. Let's start with this arbor. You said it has meaning to you.

- That also came from my parents. They had an antique store for many years and this was one of the first things with the fountain you saw when you came in the front door.

- [Annette] I'm seeing something I didn't see before.

- [Molly] A lemon tree.

- [Annette] You have, is it a Meyer?

- [Molly] A Meyer lemon tree.

- [Annette] Oh, and you have little lemons.

- [Molly] Yeah, and there's actually a decent sized one kind of tucked under there.

- Well, I hate to tell you this, one year I had 17 on mine.

- [Molly] Wow.

- [Annette] But you have to take it in.

- [Molly] Yes, another take in.

- [Annette] And it blooms in the winter and it's so fragrant. It's a self-pollinator.

- [Molly] Right.

- [Annette] That's why we can have them. I really admire this wall, this eclectic wall over here. What you've got, a headboard.

- [Molly] Yeah.

- [Annette] And what's that special artwork in that?

- [Molly] Just a little garden window.

- [Annette] Yes, but did you do the art in it?

- I did, but that's not typical of my artwork. That's my garden artwork.

- It's typically good right here.

- Thank you. And this is chicken house.

- [Annette] That's what I thought. Everybody recognizes the chicken coop.

- [Molly] The chicken stable, it's huge.

- [Annette] Well, and you have residents?

- [Molly] I do, I do. Several girls that live in there.

- [Annette] Well, it definitely makes a statement and it just completes this whole area for you. You don't have to, you know, worry about plants. You've got residents.

- [Molly] I do, I do.

- [Annette] I admire your usages of things from the past.

- [Molly] Yeah.

- [Annette] And how you've introduced plants that are the now time and you have a lot of different points of interest, so I'll say, this whole entire area back here. You've done well.

- [Molly] Oh, thank you for coming.

- Well, no good conversation about proven performers would be complete without talking about ground covers and I am literally surrounded by a sea of wonderful ground covers here at Mary's and I've pulled some of my favorites, some that I know you would have success with at home. Over here on my left-hand, of course, we've got your fan favorites, your sedums. But these are no ordinary sedums. We've got a couple of unique varieties. that have come on the market as of late. The sunsparkler dazzleberry series. Funny name, great plant. We got the chartreuse color foliage from the sedum ogon and the sea urchin, which is just a really unique star shaped type sedum, real mass, mounding type sedum. Really great in the garden. Over here in front of me, I've got a couple new varieties of the sempervivum or hens and chicks, as they're sometimes referred to. We've got Pacific blue ice, purple beauty, a little bit of shading difference and a little bit of leaf size difference. And then, of course, you've got the jewels of the ground cover world, the colors of the ice plant are just fantastic. They're literally called the jewel of the desert, the garnet and the wonder hot pink. Great little succulent type ground covers that are hardy in the middle Tennessee region. Beautiful color on this. You just don't get this kind of a color with any old ground cover. And then something to note with a lot of these ground coverings is the sedums are succulents. They like it hot and they like good drainage. A lot of people kind of forget to kind of plant them in really heavy clay and that's just not where they're gonna thrive in. You wanna get a little bit of sand in, a little bit of compost mixed in around all the root structures of all these plants. They like it hot. They can take full sun, but they don't mind a good half a day sun as well and that's really what's gonna make them thrive is that good drainage in our area and then going on to kind of more part shade to shade varieties, we use a lot of these in our landscape company in our designs. Mazus reptans is a great plant to go in between stepping stones if you're looking for something that has some color to it, comes in blues and whites and really a tough creeper there. Takes foot traffic, dogs, children, whatever. It's gonna keep growing through all the tough stuff there and then, of course, a little bit of lysimachia. Now this is a little bit of a creeper alert. It does like to spread, but in my garden, it's nothing like mint or anything like that. I keep it pretty well contained. Every couple of years I'll cut it out, but I love it, because it really holds the soil and some shade to part shade environments, doesn't mind it being dry. You don't have to be out there with the hose every couple days on it. It really takes care of itself. Wakes up early, take a weed whacker to it maybe early in the springtime to kind of clean up that dead foliage and all that new growth is really gonna come out and make a pop in the shade garden and that's it. But try these wonderful ground covers out and you'll be happy that you did.

- [Rene] Hi, Phillip, welcome to my garden.

- [Phillip] Hey, good to be here Rene.

- [Rene] I'd love to show you around if you're interested.

- [Phillip] Yeah, please, let's go in.

- [Rene] Let's take a look.

- [Phillip] Got some real healthy asparagus plants here going.

- [Rene] They are healthy, even though they're a little bit wind blown right now. They don't seem to stay upright, even though I try to tie them together with some tie wraps, that did not work.

- [Phillip] Right, right, they definitely--

- [Rene] But they're happy, they're happy either way.

- [Phillip] Yeah, but your strawberry plants are right on time, you know.

- [Rene] They are, yeah, for early May they're producing pretty well this year. I have a few varieties. I've got some ever bearing and then some June bearing.

- [Phillip] And then do you treat them as perennials?

- I do treat them as perennials. These, all of these were actually transplanted from my old garden up in the field over here and so I've had these guys for a few years now and, of course, strawberries make runners. I will divide them each year, but I keep the original ones. And if there are empty spots, I'll fill them with runners or I'll make new strawberry beds and give it away to people.

- Yeah, well, they definitely look happy. So, it looks like you've got onions over here.

- [Rene] I do. I have some red onions. My husband is a huge fan of them. The first grow here are actually from some red onions that I had last year that kind of got forgotten in the bottom of a box.

- [Phillip] Uh-huh, as they do.

- [Rene] And they sprouted roots and I can't throw anything away with healthy roots.

- [Phillip] It looks like someone's been grazing in here. I see you have fence.

- I do have a fence. I have a fence to keep all the big critters out. The dogs, most of all, the rabbits, the deer. But you're right, somebody has been grazing on these and that's my youngest son.

- Oh, really, on the onions?

- He comes in here and he will just pick off big old fat chunks of onion greens and he will walk through the garden and eat it like it's candy, it's the funniest thing, but it's good for him.

- Right, that's wonderful, yeah.

- So, if that's how he gets his vegetables, then I'm not complaining.

- That's great, yeah. It looks like your peas are just starting to come into bloom here.

- [Rene] Yeah, the peas are starting to bloom. I'm very excited about that. And these are sugar snap peas. Okay, wonderful.

- I've tried a variety of different peas before and it seems like the family prefers the sugar snaps, so I didn't even bother putting anything else in except for those one.

- [Phillip] And what have we, chives here.

- [Rene] I have some chives and these chives are old. They are also from the original garden in the field and then I've got some carrots as well.

- [Phillip] Yeah, so the root crops do pretty well in here?

- Root crops do really well in here. I've had a lot of success with carrots, surprisingly, 'cause I wasn't really sure how that would work with the raised bed only being a certain level, but I've had some monster carrots come out of this and the kids just love it 'cause they're really big and fat and tall.

- Yeah, yeah.

- So yeah, it works just fine. I've had beets in here.

- Wonderful, yeah. I do see a huge plot of potatoes, can we go look at that?

- Sure, absolutely, let's go.

- So, yeah, it looks like you've got some really full beds of potatoes here.

- [Rene] I do, yes.

- [Phillip] And they do well in these raised beds.

- [Rene] They do really well. It might be surprising to some people that you can grow potatoes in a raised bed, but I've done it for a couple of years in a row now and it's been very successful. I have tried growing potatoes in a big 55-gallop plastic drum.

- [Phillip] Kind of the mounting things.

- [Rene] Mounded up and the actual potato plant ended up being taller than I was and when it came time for me to harvest it, I dumped everything out and I was disappointed by the amount of potatoes that were in there, being that I had mounted it up and everything. So, get a lot of potatoes in the raised beds like this, even though I don't mound it because there's not really enough space or room to build it up.

- [Phillip] Right.

- [Rene] You do get a lot of potatoes out this way.

- [Phillip] What varieties are we growing here?

- [Rene] I have Yukon gold and then I'm gonna have some russet potatoes.

- [Phillip] Your greenhouse is beautiful. Can we take a look at that.

- Of course, yeah, let's go.

- Let's go in there.

- Sure.

- So we're here in your wonderful homemade greenhouse?

- Yes, it's completely custom built by my dad and my husband. I have been bugging him for years for a greenhouse, a glass greenhouse and all the windows in here are repurposed. I had gone to window companies that would otherwise just take to the dump and throw them out and I took them and here they are. And it's perfect, I love it.

- Yeah, and it allows you to start, I see a bunch of melons here.

- [Rene] Yeah, we love watermelon, we love melon. They're gonna go out here in the field whenever they're grown up.

- They probably get way too big for the raised beds.

- They do get big. I've had them in the raised beds before and some of them did okay, some of them didn't. But they tend to get out of control and grow over everything else and then they get into the grass part and I have to lift them up or mow around them and it's a lot of work and if they don't produce, then it's all for nothing. So they're going out in the field this year.

- That's good, that's where they've got space to ramble and they take off.

- Yeah, they'll be happy there. But I'm also growing my sweet potato over here.

- [Phillip] On, right, that's sweet potato.

- Right here my sweet potato and it's making its little baby, so it'll take off and I'll put it out in the field.

- [Phillip] I was gonna say, you'll put that out in the field, too?

- [Rene] Yeah.

- They definitely get huge and need some space to go.

- Yeah. Sweet potatoes are a lot of fun.

- Wonderful.

- Yes.

- [Phillip] So you've got a really nice orchard started out here.

- [Rene] Thank you.

- [Phillip] What kind of trees do you have?

- [Rene] I have a little bit of everything. I've got three different apples varieties, I've got pears, peaches, plums, cherries.

- [Phillip] Wonderful.

- Apricots. Some grapes, so, you know, I wanted an orchard, I wanted everything and I bought it all at once, stuck it in the ground without having a clue of what I was doing, but I've definitely learned through the years.

- Right, right. Well, a saying I always hear is the best time to plant a tree is 10 years ago.

- Yes, I know that saying.

- So go ahead and do it now.

- Exactly, yeah. They take while to get established. My apple trees actually bloomed for the first time this year and they've got little baby apples on them, so I'm super excited about having apples finally after waiting for so long.

- [Phillip] Well, I've had a wonderful time and you're a very enthusiastic gardener.

- [Rene] Thank you so much, it was wonderful having you here and you guys are welcome to come back any time.

- The Nashville Zoo is a wonderful place to come and see all the animals, but for us gardeners, it also is a horticultural wonder and here we are at the busiest part of the Nashville Zoo, right in the middle by the cafe, a great place to get some tips today about how to grow durable plants in all or our landscapes. I found Scott Barnes, who is the horticulturalist at the Nashville Zoo, and Scott, I'm curious what are some of the challenges that you've faced in your job here?

- Well, our biggest challenge is the amount of people that come through the zoo and we have upwards of 800,000 guests a year and a lot of those are kids who are very hard on the plants.

- Well, I can certainly understand and much like our own yards, dogs, kids, even having parties can be a challenge, so maybe we can get some tips. Shall we work from the ground up?

- [Scott] Sure, right behind you we have vinca as our major ground cover in this area because it is very durable. Kids and jump on it, stand on it, I can walk through it to garden and it always comes back year and year and it's just very prolific and it is a little bit invasive, that's why we keep it inside of a plantar, so as not to get out of the area.

- Well, that's a great start. Now, what about midway up in our canopy, what are we looking at?

- Like back here we have a nice rhododendron, which is very similar to azaleas, very shade tolerant. It's a wonderful plant who puts off very beautiful purple pastel colors. It matches nicely with the contrast of the vinca. And then above that we have a very nice lace bark elm, that has beautiful exfoliating bark and has very nice winter interests and there in the summer cast a nice shade.

- And I'm sure these are both really quite durable in case somebody accidentally gets hold of them.

- Yes, the rhododendron is not as durable as other plants, but that's why we put things like these rocks in front of it, where the kids will want to play on the rocks, but not necessary want to go further into the rhododendron, which is very thick as it is, so that's an excellent plant to put where the animals and plants and people can get through it.

- Well, that's a wonderful way to protect these plants and let's take a look at some of the other things we're doing here. Well, oh, just like in my garden, sometimes the dogs or people's kids decide there's a pathway they need. I guess you have that going here.

- That definitely happens at the zoo. We've got long pathways where a kid will see there's an exhibit on the other side and they just wanna bolt right through there and that happens all the time, so we have these little man-made pathways and sometimes you can't get around that. You just gotta let them make it and accept it and let them, or actually we could pave it, too, and just make it a nice easy way for them to get down there. But still we do have a nice durable plant in there. We have a nice crepe myrtle here that's extremely durable. I could hang from that and it won't break and it ha nice vertical trunks and just really good to keep kids from climbing on it.

- [Julie] Now I also see you have some beautiful and delicate irises, but they seem to be cleverly placed out of harm's way.

- [Scott] Yes, we have some nice yellow flag irises out there. They are right behind a fence. If the kids could get to those, they would destroy them. So you can see them and see the exhibit at the same time.

- Well, this is certainly a wonderful prickly plant with beautiful attractive fruit.

- Yes, this is a loved leaf Mahonia. We use it extensively through the zoo because it is very prickly and it does keep people out of that certain area, especially when you really need to keep them out of an area they keep cutting through. We'll put a nice plant like this. That's not gonna hurt you, but it's gonna deter you from going through. It keeps a good year round interest. It keeps its foliage all year. It keeps these nice beautiful blueberries on them and we also use grasses as a very good deterrent for kids to run through them because they kind of have a lot of silica in them, they're very abrasive. And for, we will not cut them down until the very last second when they start growing in the spring to keep that brown foliage there, keeps the winter interest as well and to keep the kids from stomping on the old dead grass so we don't mash the roots before the spring comes. Throughout the zoo, we'll use various different kinds of barberries, piracanthas, we use a lot of those, we have a lot of those in the parking lot. And hollies tend to be prickly as well and Mahonia, like we said, we have several different kinds of Mahonias. Those are all great plants that really deter people from getting into areas they shouldn't be in.

- [Julie] Well, and a good choice for us at home, as well.

- [Scott] Yes, yeah.

- And this is a great way to keep people on the paths in areas where you really don't want them in the woods where you might have poison ivy for example.

- Which, poison ivy in Nashville is very prolific. We find it all over the grounds. We do try to take care of it as best as possible, but it does, you know, it's a very woodland vine and if the kids get back into the woods, they will, you know, probably encounter poison ivy.

- Well, you are are in a very sensitive region here being near Mill Creek with the endangered Nashville crayfish, so I know you might be limited with some of the things you use. How do you get rid of the poison ivy?

- For the most part, if it were in an area where we think they're might be some run-off to the Mill Creek, we will just hand pull it with chemical latex gloves that come up to our elbows, throw in the plastic trash bag and throw it in the dumpster. That's the best way for us to dispose of it. Sometimes, if it's in a non-sensitive area, we will just spray it with Roundup or something similar to kill it.

- [Julie] This is a gorgeous tree and it looks really sturdy.

- Yes, this is a weeping katsura. Has a beautiful graceful form that weeps down to the ground. It will actually, the leaves will go all the way to the ground if you let it. It's extremely durable and kids do love to climb into this one 'cause it has good structure. But you can see after many, many years of kids climbing in it, still looking good, still doing well.

- And what about some of your other small trees here, what are your favorites?

- Yeah, we have a nice weeping yaupon holly right in front of the cafe. Those are nice and sticky, like people don't like to get into them. They're not prickly or anything, but they just got a lot of dead twigs and stuff in it that look good and really keeps people out of them. We also have a cryptomeria japonica over there. It's a very good plant. People tend to shy away from conifers because they think they're all gonna be prickly even though, not all of them are, but they tend to stay away from them.

- [Julie] Well, and very durable is the bamboo that you have, but people steer away sometimes from bamboo because it can be so invasive. What are you all doing?

- [Scott] Yeah, we have lots of bamboo throughout the zoo, but we do try to keep very good control of it by either keeping it in a planter, but if you do see it out in the park, it's probably lined with plastic, as well. We'll dig a nice deep trench two feet deep, put a very thick plastic in there and wrap it around, maybe even twice just to protect the roots from getting out of that one area.

- I love these oak leaf hydrangea, but they're sort of delicate.

- Yes, they're very delicate. That's why you see we put them right behind a bench. People can still enjoy them, but they're protected from the kids and other people, as well.

- [Julie] Well, I bet those little flowers are very, very tempting.

- [Scott] Yes, the are. Kids love to pick the flowers. That's why it's important that we place plants appropriately throughout the zoo.

- Well, Scott, things look wonderful around here, but I don't know, is this something that you didn't get to this winter?

- No, we left this on purpose. The old sticks of the plant tend to keep people out of them and allow the new growth to get tall enough before we prune this back and it saves the new growth from getting stomped on.

- [Julie] Well, I really love that tip 'cause I'm always trying to figure out how to keep my dogs out of those kind of things.

- [Scott] Yeah, you can do this with any perennial that dies back and leaves a nice twiggy stick behind.

- I love the carousel, but I bet it presents its own little challenges when the kids see it.

- Yes, that is definitely true. That's why we put these beautiful knockout roses in the way. It's one of the better deterrents to keep kids and adults out of the planters.

- [Julie] Well, Scott, thank you for all of your wonderful tips and ideas, things that we can use in our own homes to keep more inquisitive feet and hands out of some of our more delicate areas in our gardens. And it's just been a delight to be out here to talk with you at the Nashville Zoo.

- Well, thank you very much. I enjoyed it.

- And to see all of these great ideas in action, to see the beautiful plants, oh, and the animals, too, come on out to the Nashville Zoo.

- [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.