Episode 2911

- [Narrator] Annette Schrader, visits with a nurturing gardener, who proclaims to be the best friend a plant could have. She shares her favorite trees, perennials and fruit producers. Jeff Poppen passes along his experience growing carrots. Plus he'll have recommendations of proven varieties. And Troy Marden, highlights the creative floral displays in the design gallery of the Nashville lawn and garden show. First, the joy that comes from the planning and the planting, the caring and the nurturing of plants.

- What a morning, what a morning, and a pleasure to be here in the gardens of Les and Rhonda Shanks in Clarksville. They are a product of Fort Campbell military base in Clarksville so has so many wonderful residents now. And you've been here in this location 20 years?

- Yes ma'am.

- Well, give us a brief beginning point and what your goals were.

- What appealed to me was the fact that it was going to be big enough for my dogs to have a place to run. So the first thing we did was put up the fence. When we moved here, there was only two Bradford pears and the lightning of course took those down right away. Thank goodness. 'Cause they're so invasive.

- [Annette] Yes, and so you began with some foundation trees, didn't you?

- Well, my river birches which I love.

- Yes.

- But they're very messy. They drop a lot of sticks but I don't mind because I think they're beautiful. I do lay my hands on them and I talk to.

- [Annette] You had to have shade for sure.

- [Gardener] Yes.

- [Annette] And then you added beauty. I love your sunset ribbon trees.

- [Gardener] Oh I do too. And I got them on clearance and I saved them on my saver. I wanna save everything. And so they were dried out and they look bad, no leaves. And I brought them home and baby them. Yeah, and that's what I do.

- [Annette] And you're planting of trees, you've added edible fruit, haven't you?

- [Gardener] Yes, apple trees. And I've added plum trees throughout the years and cherry trees. I have two cherry trees that I've made.

- [Annette] It's obvious that you have a full palette of plants that you are collecting and continued to multiply for sure.

- And then I met some master gardeners and we all became friends and they would give me plants and then I would grow some and share. And it just started getting to where I can't kill a plant. I'll tell you, that I can't kill a plant. I have to give it to somebody or replant it. So it started growing that way. And then I would go to Lowe's when they had it on clearance and I would buy plants then. And then once I went to Margarita oaks day lily farm that was over, I had to have more .

- [Annette] Well, it's the beginning of dillydally season. And yours is definitely begun and a beautiful woman named Bela Gosi--

- [Gardener] Bela, Bela Lugosi. Is that the vampire guy .

- [Annette] Oh, okay.

- [Gardener] Bela Lugosi, yeah.

- [Annette] Well, you know, I noticed the color of that how well it blended with all the pieces.

- [Gardener] It does, and it's a good pod and pollen parent, which I like.

- [Annette] Okay, and then, you know, there was one up that I think might be parromod green.

- [Gardener] Yes.

- [Annette] That is, it was--

- [Gardener] It was my favorite for a long time. And I've gotten three or four places. I was kinda stingy at first .

- [Annette] Yeah.

- [Gardener] I love how it opens up and you can just see it from across the yard.

- [Annette] Okay, now that's two of my favorites. One is one of your favorites

- [Gardener] Happy Valley, by Robertsom and blue Ridge.

- [Annette] Huh!

- [Gardener] It's just, it's very Hardy. It's sets pods. It's a great pollinator, but it opens up really big. The foliage is low. The stocks are hard enough to where the dogs don't knock them over when they're chasing baby bunnies and things like that. So, I mean, I really liked that one.

- [Annette] I couldn't help, but notice as I've walked through your gardens that your day lilies had this substance, this deep rich green foliage, and your stems are nice and thick and even the color and your day lily. What are you doing to produce this type of--

- [Gardener] Day lilies love water and they love fertilizer. And I put the, I believe it's called Milorg, Milorganite, I put that on there three times. You know, like starting in March really. And I put that on there about every two weeks. And then I go with the miracle grow or Osmo coat, I go with either one of those. But see we have fish.

- [Annette] Yes.

- [Gardener] And all the fish waste every time he does a 10% change on all the ponds every week. So he'll hook up the hose and whoever I think needs something gets it. So their babied, you know from here on to the house. So they're really babied. I mean, they they're well are happy, yeah .

- [Annette] I can tell you this. Anything that gets 50 hours of your time a week, they are babied.

- [Gardener] Yes ma'am, and they're loved and they know it.

- [Annette] Yeah, Yeah I think, I was quite interested that you have an edible sunflower.

- [Gardener] I do. The leaves are edible there, especially whenever it's short. I don't recall the name but I know that it blooms when it blooms it just like a bunch of little sunflowers on it.

- [Annette] I noticed a wonderful berry back there. And I have to say, I've never eaten a gooseberry.

- They are a little bit sour, but these are called Pixwell, and they're not as sour but once they start turning pink they sweeten up. And they're easy to grow, in fact, I've just started babies of them last year. And I only had two bushes now I have like seven and I gave some to a lady that came out here. Not too long ago. Her husband loves gooseberry pie and I've offered for her to pick them, 'cause I didn't know if I'd have time .

- [Annette] Well she doesn't the birds nuts?

- [ Gardener] No, they will get nuts over the blueberries 'cause I like my blueberries and I don't want nobody getting there.

- [Annette] There is a beautiful Echinacea in your garden. Also the white one. What is the name?

- [Gardener] Well that's a PowWow.

- [Annette] PowWow?

- [Gardener] But we have native Tennessee plants here too.

- [Annette] I've seen them.

- [Gardener] Yup, the purple ones are all the native Tennessee.

- [Annette] Well, I'll say I was struck by the you've made a tree of life.

- [Gardener] I did.

- [Annette] Now, what did you use?

- I used a climbing hydrangea, once it got up there real good I just started, we now had all the little leaves so it look like it was a tree. And then I had my husband cut out some little wooden boards and then I just painted it and wrote the names of my husband and my children and my cell phone.

- Yeah, I loved what you had done with that. But to now that plant itself sometimes gets a little unruly. So are giving it's boundaries?

- Yes, it has boundaries. Absolutely it does .

- Well and do you also got pond for the fish, do you grow fish and give them away?

- [Gardener] I do. That's my husband he's takes care of the fish. Now I have to ask permission to feed them, because they're his.

- Yeah, now you do have vertical tenure gardens but I like what you've accomplished with a vine. You have a Dutchman spot?

- [Gardener] Dutchman spot vine. It was given to me as a baby years ago by Judy. And she had given me several every year she gave me one and they always died. So I was so excited to get one to live. And now I've gotten several off of that vine, but yeah I like it because it's the butterfly, you know there's only one butterfly that will go to that bottom line.

- [Annette] Yes.

- [Gardener] They call it the pot vine butterfly.

- [Annette] Yeah.

- [Gardener] That's a very pretty one. So I would like to get some of those in the yard .

- I have something tells me that you will you'll get, and I love how, when talking to you you're talking about the people that have given you thing and how you have shared with other people. But let's go back to the beginning. You have a love of gardening because someone taught you.

- I followed my grandfather around when I was like less than two years old. And he had like four different properties and they all just had old houses on them, but every one of them had a garden in it. And up until right before he died, he would get down on his knees and dig a weed out of an onion. But I have two things. I have a corn shucker, and I have a little tractor to seat that he made with an old disc from a tractor. And I take care of those because that's my memories. Now sometimes, you know, I can hear him what he tells me that's right when I'm working. And when I planted corn out in the garden, one year I was really fighting the stocks, trying to pick the corn. And he said, "go to the beginning and walk backwards and pick, "and they won't do anything." So I did and they didn't scratch me. They didn't, you know, it was like, wow, walk backwards through here. So there's a lot of little things that you can remember that helps you get through.

- I can see that picture because I've got some corn rows that I'm going to walk down real soon.

- That's good. Well, it's been a pleasure to glean from you. Obviously you are a gardener extraordinare because if you had a cow and a pig, I would say you almost have an urban farm.

- [Gardener] Well when the city allows it, I probably will but they'll have names and there'll be pets.

- [Annette] Yes, well, it has definitely begun my beautiful day, here with you and your gardens.

- [Gardener] Oh, thank you so much.

- [Annette] Thank you.

- [Gardener] I appreciate it.

- Today, we're at the Bells Bend gardens where they have a CSA and a market garden, it's been going on for 10 or 11 years with a beautiful, beautiful crops. And today we gonna talk about carrots. Gardeners have been growing carrots for a long long time from their origin in Afghanistan they found their way to Japan and China and eventually to Greece where they were used medicinally. These carrots were white, just like their wild relative queen Anne's lace which is the plant that carrots are domesticated from. So these white carrots then, were grown for another thousands years until the 18th century, when in France gardeners started developing orange roots. They're so common today. Carrots are unusual vegetable and that these Spears of light in the dark earth bring in color and a delicate aroma that's usually only found in a flower up in the air. Carrots are well-suited for the backyard gardeners raised beds, because they require really good drainage. And in a raised bed, we can add sand and get that soil where it sinks in real deep. In a field situation like this, we do drainage through plowing and over the course of the year. And now we have the carrots growing in a soil that has a lot of friability in it with real loose. So those carrots have to have that loose soil so they can put their roots in it easily. You don't want to have a heavy clay soil, the roots will become stunted. Carrot seeds are tiny. There's 20,000 of them in an ounce. And so it's really easy to plant them too thickly. Back in the old days, the older peasants were the ones who got to sew the carrots because they were patient, and they walked slowly through the fields dropping the seed like lightly falling rain. 'Cause impatient younger folks, tend to get them too thickly. So we have a few tricks up our sleeves. We have sand that we can put into a bowl and add the carrot seed to the sand and mix it up real good. And so at that way, and that'll keep the carrot seeds spaced out farther apart. But an even better idea has come about with the pelletized seeds. And these are carrot seeds, each one is coated with a little clay. And so these seeds are much easier to plant an inch or two apart. Because we can just set them, right where we want, whereas these seeds are way too small to do that with. Compost is it key to raising a healthy garden and this beautiful black biodynamic compost be perfect for carrots. Carrots like a fully decomposed more mineralized compost than say other crops like maybe a corn or a squash. They can take compost not fully decomposed and still get a lot of use out of it, but not carrots they want it to be all the way done. I mean, this is just gorgeous stuff. This compost has life in it, I can feel it. Let's make a furrow and plant a little carrot seed. But first we might want to sprinkle the soil with some wood ashes or lime. Carrots like a pH of about 6.5 to 6.8. So we wanna ensure that the lime and or wood ashes have raised the pH enough so that it'll go to the carrot. So we just take a hoe and make a shallow furrow. Carrots don't wanna be planted very deep. And you can see how it was hard to get this carrot seed spaced out. They just wanna fall too sickly. And then you have the job of having to thin them out later to a two inches apart. Whereas if you can find the pelletized seed, it's much easier just to plant, seed their, seed right there, one right there. Then you avoid the tedious job of thinning them out later. Carrots are a great companion plant in the small backyard garden. They love to grow beneath the peas and lettuce, which will be harvested, and the carrots can then take over that spot. Carrots also like to grow with beets and onions. So they're really a good crop to just put in with your other vegetables. The Scarlet Nancy's varieties are what most people are growing these days, they're very sweet and tender. This one is called Yaya. And over here we have one called Napoli. There are other varieties of carrots. There's the imperator types, which have real long roots but they needed deeper soil of course. For disease resistance, people have always loved Danvers Half Long. It's a very old heirloom variety that makes a nice, big good carrot, real clarity flavor, stores well, and it has some disease resistance to this Alternaria which is a black leaf thing that happens the leaves turned black like they've been hit by fire. And another variety that's resistant to Alternaria is called Balero. And so these are bigger carrots maybe more grown in fields in the older days, yeah. Besides the traditional orange carrot that most people grow, nowadays they have carrots all kinds of colors. Here's a yellow carrot, and here's a purple carrot. For storing carrots, we can put them in some damp sand in a root cellar or maybe some damp leaves, but that has to be real well-drained you wouldn't want that to rot because it's too moist. And they'll keep pretty good through the winter, but you can also grow carrots in the fall. They're a little difficult to get started in early August because it's so hot. But if you can find a shady spot in your garden and get some carrot started, you'll have some good fall carrots and of course these will store better than the ones that were planted in the spring. So be sure to plant lots of carrots and eat lots of carrots. The Vitamin A is good for your eyes and help you see things clear.

- Welcome to the Nashville lawn and garden show and the Joe Smith floral design gallery. It's always a pleasure to be at the lawn and garden show. And it comes along at a time of year when I need it the most. The end of winter as we're going into spring. And there's exciting things happening this year at the lawn and garden show, new space, new building and a new floral design gallery. So Kathy Bates is the curator of the floral design gallery and is also on the board here at the Nashville lawn and garden show. Kathy, how long have you been involved with the show?

- I began working in the gallery back in the late nineties.

- So 20, 20 some years, we'll say that. And so tell us about the floral design gallery, Joe Smith, it's named for Joe. He was a well-known florist here in Nashville for a very long time.

- [Kathy] Absolutely.

- [Troy] So this is kind of in his honor now.

- [Kathy] Joe Smith was a big flower personality here in Nashville for many years and he did begin the gallery.

- [Troy] Right.

- [Kathy] I was lucky enough at a young age that he welcomed me here and he was good about inspiring young designers and getting them involved in the industry. So Joe went along having the gallery every year inviting new florist in, new designers in, and kept the gallery going for many, many years.

- [Troy] Right,

- [Kathy] And so after his passing, the gallery kind of had a few hiccups. And so this year we really, really tried to bring the gallery back to Joe Smith's standards. Joe was AIFD, which is American Institute of floral designers. It's one of the highest honors for a floral designer to be involved in that organization. So AIFD has instilled a scholarship in Joe's name.

- [Troy] Oh, nice.

- [Kathy] Yes, so the scholarship will be good for a Tennessee designer only to go to their national symposium that happens once a year. Week of education with you know, a lot of the national top designers, it's a great experience here.

- [Troy] So this design was entered into this show this year by gardens of Babylon home of my co-host Matt Kerske And this is a really unique piece.

- [Kathy] Absolutely.

- [Troy] Give me--

- [Kathy] Absolutely. your thoughts.

- [Kathy] Absolutely, I was thrilled when they brought this in yesterday afternoon. They've got this beautiful piece of driftwood and they've just brought in a lot of great natural elements. There's a lot to see in the arrangement. I mean, I think you could stand here for 15 minutes and discover new elements.

- [Troy] And the fact that they have used something so unique as a container. You know, it's not a typical urn or a bowl full of Oasis or glass vase full of water. It's something that's truly unique.

- [Kathy] Right.

- [Troy] Creative.

- [Kathy] Absolutely.

- Well, speaking of co-hosts, this is our friend Philip Chadwick, also a volunteer gardener cohost. Each year Phillip does something unique and beautiful, mixing colors that maybe other florists wouldn't have the nerve to do but it always pulls off so beautifully. This arrangement features bulbs and pin cushion flowers and daffodils blooming, just all kinds of unique and beautiful things. In addition to some Moss and different kinds of bracket fungus, Phillip has got it all in this one. This incredible arrangement, and one of the largest in the room was done by Jim Knestrick, who is a long time florist here in Nashville and has been involved with the floral gallery here at the show.

- I'm almost beginning, yeah --

- Inception.

- Yeah.

- Yeah. You know, so tell me about your design this year.

- Well, I kind of went with just the secret garden. I mean I love the garden feel, and because it's the lawn and garden show, what better way of doing it is to have something that kind of transports you into a different place.

- Right, and almost looks like something that you really went out and gathered from the garden.

- [Jim] Yeah, yeah. And one of my favorite things to do is to do an arrangement where you have the visitors coming in and they're kind of going, what on earth is going on with the arrangement and how it's put together where you see none of the mechanics.

- Huh, so yeah, you see your earn here, but you don't see anything that any of the flowers are actually right. And you don't see it's a license, right. It's a very unique plant material and flowers in this one too. The cut cabbages and tales and things that people might not be used to seeing this cut material

- [Jim] As well as these falls. Little green ball--

- Green balls, Dianthus. and then of course some garden roses and twigs quints this time of year having kind of an early spring I saw a few places where the quints was actually flower. So really just the kind of arrangement on a grand scale that the kind of arrangement that you might be able to go out and at least bits and pieces of it. Now nobody has roses right now. You'll have to pick these up the floral up and some hydrangeas and things but things that you can harvest from the yard mixed with other materials--

- Absolutely, absolutely.

- Have a really nice effect.

- Sure.

- [Troy] So here's another arrangement on a very grand scale. And all of these arrangements in the gallery are large. They have to be in a room this size, but something else on a very grand scale and with a unique compliment of types of flowers. Tell me a little bit about some of the other florists to do work here in the gallery each year and represent there.

- The most amazing thing about this year, I mean Nashville is growing so much and we've got such great designers in Nashville and you're gonna see so many unique ways that they represent themselves and how they do their design.

- Right, so there are no really restrictions on anybody?

- Absolutely.

- As far as what they can create. So really is an opportunity for them to represent themselves and the way they design. And one of the really unique things about this arrangement are the little magnifying glasses it's really cool. Every so often throughout the arrangement there's a magnifying glass that's focusing in on some particular part of a flower so that you can see it up close and personal.

- [Jim] It goes with their whole thing with a through looking glass where you can see really the defined part of that flower telling up gorgeous.

- [Troy] So designers like you represent a kind of multi-generational group of designers here in Nashville and several shops around who have been around for a very long time, but we also represent young new talent.

- Oh sure, we do. I mean, this is a village of flowers and a Hillsboro Village and they're an incredible team of talented designers.

- [Troy] Right. And you know, just a newer, fresher look, new trends in design with the pompous grass and--

- [Philip] Yeah with the pompous grass and you have almost like a selfie kind of thing with the hashtags, the flowers and focus, which is the theme light and with the new show in a new location. Well, an old show in a new location and kind of upping the ante wow a little note, raising the bar.

- [Jim] Absolutely.

- [Troy] So this floral design gallery this year is now juried. Is that correct?

- [Jim] That is correct.

- [Troy] And tell us what that means.

- That means they're gonna have a team of people that will go around and look at each arrangement and we'll get different awards for different types of arrangements today.

- [Troy] Well, it's always a pleasure to be at the Nashville lawn and garden show--

- [Jim] Oh yeah, where it's absolutely phenomenal.

- [Troy] Happy to be here each spring when we need it the most.

- [Jim] That is true.

- [Troy] Thanks so much.

- [Jim] Appreciate you, appreciate thanks.

- [Narrator] For inspiring garden tours, growing tips and garden projects visit our website @volunteergardner.org or on YouTube at the volunteer Gardener channel and like us on Facebook.