- Hi, thanks for joining us for The Family Plot: Gardening in the Mid-South.

I'm Chris Cooper.

Over time, the soil in raised beds settles.

Today, we're refilling the butterfly garden.

Also, we're planting strawberries in a raised bed.

That's just ahead on The Family Plot: Gardening in the Mid-South.

- (female announcer) Production funding for The Family Plot: Gardening in the Mid-South is provided by the WKNO Production Fund, the WKNO Endowment Fund, and by viewers like you, thank you.

[upbeat country music] - Welcome to The Family Plot.

I'm Chris Cooper.

Joining me today is Joellen Dimond.

Joellen is a horticulturist, and Tom Mashour will be joining me later.

Joellen.

- Yes.

- Good to have you back.

- Good, good to be here.

- All right, so what are we gonna do today?

- Oh, the butterfly garden that we started several years ago- - Several, yeah.

- Has really settled.

[Chris laughs] And we've had annuals in and out of it, and it's time to raise the soil level back in the bed.

So, in order to do that, we're gonna have to take out the few plants that are left in here, and then add soil up to the top where we want it, and then we'll have to plant everything back.

- Wow, so we gotta take it out.

- Take it out.

- Okay.

- So we can save it.

- Save it.

- Because we can put it back.

- Put more soil in there.

- And of course, this aster has grown a little bit too wild, so we're gonna reduce this, and have plenty for people to share with others.

[Chris laughs] - You wanna share, okay!

- Yeah.

- All right.

How do you think the bed performed, though, since we done this a while ago?

- All of these plants that are in here are original to the bed.

So, it's done its purpose.

Perennials have come, and they've come back every year faithfully, and been good for butterflies and other pollinators in the area.

So, it's done good.

- So, it's done good.

- We just have to redo it, 'cause I mean, we're losing soil, and we need soil for the plants to do better.

So, it's time to redo and raise them back up again.

- All right, well, let's do it.

- Okay.

- Let's do it.

- I think the first thing we need to do is get this irrigation out of here.

- Okay.

Yeah, that should be it.

- Well, I'm gonna start digging up the parsley and the butterfly flower, butterfly weed, if you'll start digging up the aster.

- You want me to tackle the aster?

- I'm gonna dig up some of these parsleys and just try to get as much root system with them as I possibly can.

'Cause we've got plenty of soil to fill in, but... This ground is hard.

That's another good reason to get in there.

Okay, now we need to get out the Sedum and the oregano, and then the bed will be cleared for us to add more soil.

We're just gonna set them aside.

- Got it.

Yeah.

- Yeah.

- Let's see how hard this is gonna be?

- Yeah.

[laughs] - Yeah!

- We're taking that at the edge and digging down, and lifting up as we go around until it finally lifts out of the ground.

You just have to take your time.

- Oh!

I'll get it, I'll get it.

- Got it?

- Got it.

- Ooh, very good!

- Now, my mom's gonna put me to work.

[Joellen laughs] - This may come out in parts because it has- - Yeah, it will.

- It has spread so much.

- So, I get this part.

- Yeah, so just, we're just gonna have to take it out in parts.

- Look at that.

You ready?

Yeah!

- There we go.

- I got it.

- I don't think it, oh.

Hey, it's in one piece!

I'm really surprised.

All right, now we've got all the plants out of the bed, we're ready to put the material back in.

And first, we're gonna start, we've got, since we took so much effort and so much time to get this aster out because it had multiplied so much, we're gonna try to contain it in a container in the bed.

And so, we're gonna dig a hole starting about right here.

- Okay.

- We're gonna bury this container in the ground and plant the aster inside of it in hopes of containing the aster.

Because the aster is really pretty.

It blooms at a time when nothing else is blooming, and it's really good for butterflies and pollinators at the end of the season.

I say that's good.

- Lookit there, lookit there!

- 'Cause we still need to add soil to the bed, so it'll work well.

Now, it's time to add the soil to level it off and make it higher.

Well, it looks like we've just about got it all filled up.

And then, now, we're ready to put the plants back in.

- How's it look?

- That looks good.

Let's start with the, - Which one you wanna start with?

- With the two Sedums.

- Okay.

Ah, good and loose.

- It's nice and loose.

- The small one?

- See if that's big enough for it.

- Which way you want it turned?

What's a good face?

- However it looks pretty.

- Okay.

Want me to turn it some more, or- - A little bit more.

- Which way?

That way, maybe?

- There we go!

- Hey, look at that!

- It looks good.

- Look at that.

You gonna make a designer out of me yet, I tell ya.

It's pretty full.

- I was gonna say, I think the way you have it in there was gonna be good.

- This way, right?

Lookit there, lookit there!

What do you think?

- Yeah.

- Yep.

- Mm-hmm.

- Ah!

- That looks good.

- Looks good, nice and smooth.

- And then, we got some oregano.

- And we have two pieces.

- We have two pieces.

Let's put one in between these two and the front.

- All right, how you like the face?

- That's good.

- That's good?

- Yes, 'cause I want it to spill over the edge.

And we're not burying each mound because they're already at the roots at this top surface of where they want to be growing, and we don't wanna bury the crown of the plant.

So, we'll definitely water all of this when we get done.

- Just a little smaller.

- And that little piece, I would like to put him over here.

- Okay.

- Yeah, they look sad now.

It was a rough winter and they're trying to come back, but they have plenty of roots and enough green.

They can be fine.

They're tough.

- They're good.

Okay, so right here?

- Mm-hmm.

- That's good, all right.

- It will be low and grow in the corner and spill over the edge.

Let's plant a parsley right here.

We're growing parsley because this is a butterfly garden, and some of the larvae eat the parsley.

So, that's why we have parsley in here.

Let's plant the butterfly... - Okay, you got some in here?

- Bush, yeah.

Put it back where we had it.

Seemed to do very well in this corner.

And it did come out in pieces, but we'll plant them all back.

Yeah, there's a lot of roots to it and we'll hope that they all grow.

Yeah, let's just start.

- I'll hold it up.

- Start those.

- I'll get it, okay.

- And then, I'm going to add these.

- Ah, there it is.

- And then, these last two.

Come on, guys.

There we go.

Let's see.

- Does it need to be deeper?

- I think it was like this.

- I got you, okay.

- 'Cause there's the crown.

- I see, okay.

Yeah, I got you.

- And we'll bury the root parts and leave the, they need some water.

[laughs] We've got a few more clumps of parsley that we can plant here and there.

We will randomly plant them.

Next, I would plant the aster back in its little container.

[laughs] - Oh, boy!

- Will that fit in there, or do we need to take more off of it?

- Let's see.

It's gonna be close.

- Do we need to put more dirt inside of it?

- Yeah.

- Okay.

- Yeah, it'll fit in there, but yeah.

A little bit more dirt.

Any side, any face?

- I think, no.

I think it's not gonna matter.

- It's not gonna matter, okay.

- 'Cause once it comes back out, it'll grow up tall in that corner.

- Okay.

- Just a little bit of soil around it.

I'm gonna leave a little of the pot exposed- - Just a little bit of it, okay.

- So that the root rhizome won't go over the top, and if they do, they'll be easier to contain.

- Okay, it is.

- All right, well, that's mostly what we had planted in here.

We've got to put the stones and the sand for the butterflies to rest on.

When it rains, the water will fill this sand up.

And then, the butterflies, they like to get the minerals out of the sand.

They'll suck the moisture out of it.

And then, stones are just for them to get a place to rest and dry their wings if they have to.

- Joellen, it's a lot of hard work.

We got through it, right?

[laughs] - Yeah, everybody worked hard, yes.

- We worked hard.

So, thank you so much.

- You're welcome.

- Can't wait to see what it looks like when it gets filled in.

- That's right.

- All right.

[upbeat country music] Let's look how deep these plants were planted and see which one is actually correct, okay?

The first one, I think we planted it too deep.

'Cause as you can see, the leaf is essentially coming out of it, which means, yeah, we planted it too deep, so the plant is essentially choking itself.

This plant is too shallow.

Look, the roots are actually above the ground, so the roots can't even get in the ground to get the nutrients that they need.

And the plant is actually falling over, 'cause it's not stable.

This last planting, I think this was actually pretty good.

Look at it.

We got it in the ground at the right depth, I think.

So, this will be the correct way to plant your plants.

[upbeat country music] Alright, Mr.

Tom!

- Hi, Chris!

- How's it going?

[laughs] - It is going well.

- Well, good.

We're out in our Family Plot garden, and you're gonna show us how to plant strawberries?

- Yes, and UT has a recommended way of doing it for commercial farmers or strawberry growers.

And I figure, if it's good enough for them, which their livelihood depends on, it should also be good for us in our home gardening.

- Well, it should work pretty good.

UT has some good stuff, huh?

- Absolutely.

- Good.

- That's one of my reference points, always.

- Good, glad to hear.

- They're the first place to go.

Okay, well one of the things they recommend is a white covering over the soil.

Now, normally, they prefer a long dome shape, one raising it off the ground.

But in our particular conditions, I don't think that's necessary.

But the white cover is, and it has three functions.

Number one, it keeps the strawberries off the ground, so you don't get any rotting of strawberries or those little critters eating the bottom.

[Chris laughs] Number two, it retains moisture.

And finally, number three, that it reflects the heat.

As you know, in the Mid-South, rain is very few and far between in the summertime.

So, that's how we're gonna plant 'em.

- Okay.

- What this is is actually just a shower curtain liner from a dollar store.

Obviously, it costs a buck.

- Right!

[laughs] - Okay, they're 70 inches by 72 inches, so what I did is I cut it long ways in four strips, or basically quartering it.

And the reason for that is I get more bang for the buck.

- Gotcha.

[laughs] - Okay, so what we did is we laid out two of those strips together.

They're approximately six feet long, and I overlapped them about a couple inches.

And the purpose of overlapping them is because we don't get that rain in the summertime, I can open it up right there and water it, and then cover it back up again.

- Smart, smart!

- That way, it's so much easier to water that way.

Okay, now we're gonna go ahead and plant our strawberries now.

UT, again, recommends spacing them approximately 12 inches apart in 2 rows, with each row offset of each other by about six inches, so it gives them more room to grow.

So, let's get to it.

Okay, what I'm gonna do, again, is just cut some slits into the plastic where I'm gonna plant 'em, and just cut, it slices up real easy.

All right, now we're gonna go ahead and plant 'em.

Since these are already in pots, it makes it easier.

Gonna get a sooner crop and don't have to worry about drying out as quick.

Okay, Chris, may I?

- Yes.

Nice plants, don't you think?

- Absolutely, they're very healthy-looking.

- Now, how deep would you plant those?

- Actually, just, you actually should tear this.

Let me tear this off here at the top, 'cause you do not want any of the peat pot sticking above the ground.

What it'll do is just wick out the moisture.

This is the crown, right here.

You don't want it any deeper than that.

If worse comes to shove, you may have a little bit higher.

But typically, you plant it where the crown is even with the soil, or at least the same depth that it was in the pot.

There we go.

Well, the first one is planted, and now we can go on to the next one.

And by the way, the way I'm holding these things down is I'm using these little garden stakes you get for putting in ground cloth.

That holds 'em down fine and they come up easy, and they're cheap.

[Chris laughs] You can also make your own from the old-fashioned metal coat hangers.

On to the next one.

Again, approximately 12 inches, right about there.

One nice thing about raised beds is it's usually good soil all the way down.

So, you usually don't have that clay layer, as you do in a typical garden.

Now, your average garden plant, vegetable plants, the root zone is about six inches down.

Which is fine, because our top soil is usually only about six inches deep, anyway.

All right.

- All right.

Before I hand that to you, let me take this weed seed that's in there out of there.

- Okay!

- Yeah, you don't wanna introduce that.

- No.

Again, pulling off the top of the peat pot and popping it in there.

And I have no problems using my fingers.

[Chris laughs] Yeah, I guess a happy gardener is one that's got dirt under their nails.

[Chris laughs] And strawberries is not a very critical plant.

You give it just a light touch and so forth.

That's cool.

There's only so much energy available from any plant, be it tomato plant, pepper plant, or a strawberry plant, for producing the fruit.

Thus, the first strawberries are gonna be good-sized.

But then, as more and more strawberries appear, they're gonna get progressively smaller.

So, if you want big strawberries, you do need to thin out the blossoms.

If you don't care, then just let 'em produce.

[Chris laughs] Okay, this is the last 1 of the 10.

- All right, it's looking good, too.

- Yeah.

Now, typically, they will produce their additional runners, which you can pot up or put 'em in containers and save 'em for next spring.

Strawberries plants are usually good for about two years, and then they gotta be replenished.

And you can use runners to replenish 'em.

- Do we need to remove any of the flowers, any of the berries that are present on the plants right now?

- Well, I previously mentioned that the fewer flowers, the fewer the strawberries, the larger the strawberries are gonna be.

- Now, my son, he likes to do 'em and gives 'em away, but he gets 'em about that big and dips 'em in chocolate, [Chris laughs] and then makes swirls around them and the whole bit.

So, the fewer, the bigger they're gonna be.

- Sure.

- And the ones you pick off, the small ones, they're edible.

They're just not as pretty as the big ones are.

And then, if you now remember that we have two pieces of plastic, here.

And the reason for that's so I can open up the center one, take those little clips out, water it, and then put it back together again.

As far as the dirt, looks kind of messy on the outside, but the first rain, it's gonna wash it off.

- Yeah, Mother Nature take care of that.

- So they'll handle it.

- All right.

- They're healthy plants and- - They look good.

- I expect 'em to be good, and I'll be out here in a month of picking.

Yeah.

[laughs] - If I don't beat you to 'em, I love strawberries.

- Yeah, you probably will be.

- All right, Mr.

Tom, we appreciate that demonstration.

- Okay, my man.

- Thank you much.

- I enjoy doing it.

- All right.

[upbeat country music] - Rudbeckia hirta is a good daisy-like flower from the aster family, and it has a nice, flat surface for butterflies to land on and get nectar from.

So, it's very good for the butterfly garden.

It's hardy in Zones 3 through 7.

It does get up to three feet tall, that's mostly with the blooms, and about a foot, 18 inches wide.

So, we're gonna plant it here in our butterfly garden.

It's got a nice root system, little bit of circling roots that we'll just get out of the way.

And we're not gonna bury the crown of the plant.

We're just gonna plant up to the surface.

[upbeat country music] And now, it'll bloom, and the butterflies will enjoy it all summer.

- Joellen, you ready?

- I'm ready.

- This is our Q&A segment.

- Yes.

- These are great questions.

- Yes, they are.

- All right, let's start with the first viewer email.

"My contorted filbert has a blight.

Can I prune it to remove the dead branches?"

And this is Sharon from Louisville, Kentucky.

She says she would really like to save this plant, if at all possible.

So, can we help her out?

- Yes, we can.

- Okay.

- It most likely is eastern filbert blight.

And yes, you're supposed to cut out the dead and keep cutting out the dead parts of it.

- And keep it, right.

- Because you're trying to stay ahead of the blight.

And there is no cure for the blight.

- No.

- There's a Extension publication through Purdue that we'll have available on the website that she can look at.

If it should, in a few years, if it still doesn't survive, I would try to grow resistant varieties, like Red Dragon or something like that.

But yes, keep cutting out the dead parts and try to keep ahead of the blight.

It usually spores.

Black little dots form on it, and that's how the spores multiply.

Try not to let it get to that point.

Just keep cutting the dead out, and hopefully, she'll stay ahead of it.

- You're right, 'cause it is a fungus.

Anything that's dead, dying, diseased, I would cut it out.

- Cut it out.

- And you know what else I would do?

Sanitize my pruners.

- Definitely that, yeah.

- In between cuts, I would do that, 'cause you don't wanna spread the fungus.

- It's true, yep.

And just maybe a little fertilizer and water it during droughts just to try to keep it as healthy as you possibly can.

- Right, right.

I would do that, Sharon, and I think that will help you out.

So, thank you for the question.

Here's our next viewer email.

"I breed Heliopsis helianthoides," right, which is false sunflower, "And they have root borers.

"These are two different adult insects "that developed from pupa I have found.

How do I stop the borers?"

And this is Tony from Illinois, your neck of the woods!

- Yes, I know, my neck of the, yeah.

Well, first thing I would do is, yes, borers, once you've got 'em in the soil, they're very difficult to get rid of.

And so, I would move, I mean, I know they're perennials and he breeds them, but I think he needs to move them because they're already in the soil.

And if he could sterilize the soil after he removes everything, then he could eventually put them back there.

But once they're in the roots and the soil, I mean, mostly it's cultural practices that you need to get rid of them, 'cause there's not a whole lot of insecticides that will get rid of that in the ground.

So, other than moving them to a different location, which, if he breeds them, he must have a whole lot of them.

- Yeah, obviously so.

- But if it's, that's what he's gonna need to do to stop the borers in that particular soil, and if he can, sterilize that soil.

- I would agree with that.

So, rotation, right?

We talk about cultural practices.

Rotation is what I would do.

Something else, I would practice good sanitation, because the borers will overwinter or can overwinter in crop residue or debris.

- Yeah, exactly.

If he's in Illinois, is there farm fields and stuff around him?

You gotta consider all of those factors.

- Yeah, I would definitely consider that.

And then, too, check with your local Extension Office there, 'cause you may be able to use a systemic insecticide.

- Could be.

- Yeah, you may be able to do that.

So, I would check with my local Extension agent there just to see if you can do that, because that could help as well.

But I'm thinking rotation.

- He definitely needs to get 'em out of that soil.

- Yeah, good sanitation for sure, 'cause you don't want them to overwinter in that residue.

I think he'll be fine.

- Yeah.

- I think you'll be fine, Tony.

- It's gonna be some work for him.

- It's gonna be some work.

It's gonna be some work, but I think he can get ahead of it.

- I think he can do it.

- I think it'll be good.

All right, here's our next viewer email.

"How do I get my 8-year-old avocado to bloom?"

And this is Donald from Seguin, Texas.

He says it is growing in a 25-gallon pot and it's full and leafy, but no blooms.

All right, you wanna have blooms, don't you?

- Oh, of course, 'cause he wants avocados.

- Yeah, okay.

So, what do you think?

- Well, I have a question.

Is it a grafted avocado or did he grow it from seed himself?

- I like it, okay.

'Cause there's a difference.

- 'Cause there's a difference, 'cause the grafted one should bloom within five years, which is, it's been eight years.

- It's been eight years.

- So, it should be blooming.

But if it's a seed-grown one that he grew himself, it can take up to 15 years for it to bloom.

So, if he's eight years, he's over halfway there.

- He's almost there!

- But I don't know which it is.

- Okay.

Can I ask you about this, though?

- Yeah.

- Is a 25-gallon pot too big?

- Well, if it's growing healthfully, no.

- No, okay.

- I mean think of it, you put 'em in the ground.

Avocados grow in the ground, so the size of the container sounds fine.

- Okay, I was just thinking about root restriction maybe can help influence bloom.

- That could.

- I was just thinking- - But you know what, I would think it would bloom more because it'd be stressed.

I don't know.

Does he ever take it out of the container to see if it's rootbound?

Maybe it needs to be repotted.

Maybe it needs a bigger pot.

- All right.

- I don't know.

- And we don't know what he's fertilizing with.

- Yeah, and if you want blooms, you don't want to put a whole lot of nitrogen on it, 'cause that would cause it to be nice and leafy green, but never set flowers.

- Right, so I would look for fertilizer that has a high second number.

- Yeah, second number phosphorus.

- Right, which is phosphorus.

Right, right, for blooms.

Yeah, Donald, we have a couple of questions, but yeah.

- I'd be interested to know if it's a grafted or if he grew it from seed.

- Yeah, and not too much nitrogen fertilizer.

Phosphorus is what you need.

So, appreciate that, Donald.

Thank you for that question.

Joellen, it's fun as always.

- Yes, it is.

- We learn a lot, don't we?

- We do.

- That's good.

Thank you much, thank you much.

Remember, we love to hear from you.

Send us an email or letter.

The email address is questions@familyplotgarden.com.

And the mailing address is Family Plot, 7151 Cherry Farms Road, Cordova, Tennessee, 38016.

Or, you can go online to familyplotgarden.com.

That's all we have time for today.

Thanks for watching.

You can find all our previous videos on our YouTube channel, FamilyPlotGarden.

We have thousands of them, including the one where Joellen planned and planted the butterfly garden we worked on today.

Be sure to join us next week for The Family Plot: Gardening in the Mid-South.

Be safe.

[upbeat country music] [acoustic guitar chords]