- Hi.

Thanks for joining us for The Family Plot: Gardening in the Mid-South.

I'm Chris Cooper.

Soil mixes aren't just dirt.

There's a lot of science behind them.

Today, we're going to make a mix and talk about what each ingredient does.

Also, groundcovers can help fill in the ornamental garden.

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 Kyle McLean.

Kyle is a horticulturalist at the Dixon Gallery & Gardens.

Thanks for being with us, Kyle.

- Great to be here.

- Good.

So this is gonna be Soils 101, right?

So we want to talk about mixing soils for a raised bed.

So let's talk about the different components.

- Components.

So first of all, I would get- You want 50% of the soil on that bed to be a clay-based soil.

It could be... And it depends.

And you probably wanna get a soil test to see... - Ah, okay.

- What the pH and all that to start off.

But this is screened soil, which is great to work with.

If you are getting your soil ready and it's wet, you're gonna compact it.

So do not till it or break it up.

If it's wet, if you squeeze it together and it stays together and see how that breaks back up, then it's fine to till it and work it.

Initially, depending on the size of your raised bed.

But I would break up that ground on the bottom of the bed and then start amending.

And if you can get... You could take the soil out and amend it and put it back.

If you're not gonna get, buy some screened soil if you're just gonna use your existing soil.

But it would be good to get something that's screened like this.

- So why does it have to be screened?

- Just makes it easier to mix.

And it's finer and broken up instead of being a big clods.

And you know, this is straight clay soil.

That's hard as a rock.

But it not conducive for growing plants, that's for sure.

- Okay.

- Coarse red sand.

- Right.

- And here in Memphis in the Mid-South, we have access to this really coarse sand.

- Loos good.

- Larger granules adds, helps to loosen the soil up.

It has bits of pea gravel, and it will has to loosen that clay-based soil up.

- So the sand is important for loosening up the soil?

- It is.

Adds, it helps with structure.

This happens to be our organic material, our compost.

But this is cotton bird compost.

Which is very rich, so you don't need as much.

But you can use poultry manure, Black Kow manure, leaf compost.

Leaf compost is not as high in nutrients, but it does have the organic matter.

- So why do we need to add that?

- You're adding that because, you know, you look at soil as biological, physical, and chemical.

This is adding microbes, fungi, bacteria to your soil.

And that's breaking down things in the soil so that makes it available to the plant.

- Got it.

- So it's a living ecosystem in your soil.

And then for physical, you're adding sand.

And this bark, this is a screened pine bark, which is... We have access here again in the Mid-South too.

And that's when they take the bark off the pine trees.

This is what's been screened off.

It's very fine.

- So why do we need the bark in the mix?

- To add to the soil, to help loosen the soil.

And it adds organic matter.

You could use pine bark mulch.

I would not use some of the hardwoods and stuff, because most of that is not bark.

It's wood fiber.

And wood fiber to break down, the microbes are gonna take nitrogen outta the soil to break it down, and it takes longer.

You could do it at home and have your sticks and limbs and have them all and let them compost for probably a year or so.

Then you could use that.

As part of- And that'll help loosen the soil as well.

And then doing your- Having your soil tested, you're looking at pH.

And that's your chemical part.

So you got your physical, chemical and then your organic part.

And then you're gonna mix these together.

- Right, right.

- So you- If you're doing it in a raised bed, you could dig out some of your existing soil and amend it or you could layer it.

It's just harder to do in a raised bed.

If you could do it outside of it and put it back in, it's just easier to do.

- So you like to mix one component of it at a time?

- Well, it doesn't matter.

- Doesn't matter?

Okay.

- I'm just doing that, but you know, you could layer, take your soil, put your sand, then put your compost, and then put your bark on it.

This is just easier to... But same thing.

You know, mixing it up.

And the tiller, initially I would, you could use a tiller to mix it up.

But after that, that does cause compaction when you till.

So if you can avoid that.

- So just initially you would do that.

- Do that.

It's just easier to mix it up that way.

Then after that, every year, once you get your really good mix, which we're getting here, you can add an inch or two of some type of compost.

Cow manure, leaf compost every year, and then mix.

And that will help add nutrients back in and help with the biological in it.

- Okay.

So let's, you mentioned compost a couple of times.

So what is compost?

And let's talk a little bit about that.

- Compost is some type of plant material that's been broken down.

It could be leaves, stems, even roots of stuff can be used in that.

And if you have a compost bin, you could put that in there.

You know, you take kitchen scraps.

No meats or anything like that.

- Right, right.

- You can use some coffee grounds, you can use eggshells and things like that that to it.

You just have to be careful, that coffee grounds can be a little acidic.

Always get a soil test to see where you're at.

'Cause you never know.

It might be.

[laughs] - I like the fact you keep mentioning a soil test.

We talk about that all the time.

That is good.

Let me feel a little bit of that as you mixing it.

Right.

- See how loose that is?

So you're getting pore space in between that screened soil that we had or just your regular soil, your... You know, soil is a mixture of clay, sand, and silt.

It could be more of the other here in the Mid-South, it's a lot more clay.

It's very nutritious.

- But we shouldn't curse the clay, right?

- That's right.

- I mean, we actually need some clay.

- It's highly nutritious.

It's just not because of the different part, the charge in the clay.

It may not be the nutrients accessible to the plant.

But when you add the organics and some of the other, it makes it accessible to the plant.

- Oh, that is good.

So you mentioned pore space.

So what is pore space and why is it important?

- Pore space is the spaces between the particles of your soil.

So it allows water, it allows air, it allows those roots to go down into that.

And get deep and get the nutrients they need.

And just... If you don't have that pore space, if it's compacted, that's why you don't want to compact your soil.

Walk on it as little as possible.

Water will not infiltrate down, it'll just run over the off of it.

And so you want it to go down in there.

And that just allows those roots to move down in there.

And then having that clay-based soil gives it structure so the roots can hold.

If you just had straight organic or sand.

Yeah.

It's not gonna be a strong structure for it.

For its roots.

- And I usually tell people this, if I was a plant root, right?

I want to hang out in pore space.

[Kyle laughs] Again, that's where your water, that's where your air, your nutrients going to be.

So it just makes sense to me.

- And their microbes live in that pore space.

- So as we're talking about pore space, what are some other additives that you can add some sort of to create that pore space?

- So earth... Worm castings.

So you can buy that now.

I've got it in bulk.

If you get it fresh, it'll have a lot of biological activity in it.

But if it's been aged, it is still great biological and it's, you know, the little sticky that if you pick up an earth worm, it's kinda sticky?

That helps hold structure together in your soil.

And nutrients, so that's good to have.

Of course, leaf compost.

See how of coarse that is?

That really adds.

That's adding organics plus all that.

Well adding, loosen it up.

Soil conditioner, which we did earlier, which is just screened pine bark.

Again, try to stay away from wood products unless it's composted.

- Unless it's composted.

Okay.

- Like these wood chips, you would want that to be broken down and breaking down, almost becoming soil before you use it.

You don't want it fresh like this.

'Cause the microbes will take the nitrogen and deplete it out of your soil and your plants will not grow well.

- You can really tell the difference?

- You can.

- Okay.

How about that?

- And then a product that we used at the Dixon, if you want really, really good drainage.

And for example, rosemary or lavender need really good- This is a clay-based material that's been heated like 3,000 degrees.

It's pretty much inert.

There's not, the pH is pretty much neutral.

It does not break down.

All the baseball fields and softball fields probably across America have this on the infield and on the pitcher's mound and the catcher's.

So when you have a big rain, it allows it to drain.

It will hold a little bit of moisture, but not much.

But it just loosens the soil up.

So when we planted that rosemary, we did our regular amended soil, then we added almost half and half and we had perfect drainage.

And that rosemary did really well.

You know, we have so much rain in the winter here.

The spring, it really helped with that.

- Well Kyle, we appreciate this man.

- You're welcome.

- It's a good soil mix.

Let's look at that again.

- I know.

- Isn't that nice?

- It is.

- Yeah.

We wish people could, could feel that.

You know what I mean?

[upbeat country music] Last growing season in this area, we put down a black plastic.

After we took off the black plastic in the fall, we saw that there were no winter weeds.

So we're thinking that soil solarization actually happened here.

So again, putting down that black plastic, absorbing that heat, we are thinking that that heat killed a lot of the winter weeds.

In this section again, you see no winter weeds.

When you look in the other section that didn't have the black plastic, I see an assortment of winter weeds.

So, soil solarization works.

[upbeat country music] Alright, Ms.

Carol.

Here's a question we get a lot at the Extension Office.

And Rudy probably gets this question as well.

Groundcovers, what kind of groundcovers do I need to put in this condition or that condition?

So you about to tell us, right, all about the groundcovers?

- Yes, and you know, we're also developing those lists now to be available online.

Our website uthort.com.

We're just finalizing statewide lists to be posted since, so stay tuned there.

Over the years of course, compiled my own personal list for the ones that I have used here in West Tennessee successfully.

And the ones that I absolutely warned people not to plant.

So it is about evaluating the site, you know, sun, shade as it is with anything, wet or dry.

And then choosing the appropriate groundcover.

But another thing I really want to talk about is all I have people do just want it to cover ground in a place where it's easy- I mean, excuse me, difficult to mow.

Or where grass won't prosper.

But there's also just beautiful design reasons to use it.

For example, recently on a hydrangea tour, which of course usually is in shade gardens.

Beautiful, bright, golden sweet flag.

Sweeps of it that pulled you around the paths in the garden.

'Cause I do like in shade gardens to look for those golden or varigated plants.

Dark foliage plants will often just disappear in the shade against the mulch.

And also, they provide great contrast.

Blue, I love blue plants, I love purple plants.

But they don't show up unless you provide a pop of contrast.

Sometimes behind it is, or a golden understory.

Those beautiful Eucharis, you know, that'll have the dark foliage.

But an understory of the dwarf golden sweet flag really makes 'em pop instead of against the mulch.

So, I also wanna warn people... They think they want a fast one.

- Yes!

Yes they do.

- But they don't.

- They don't.

- They soon will find out that fast ones don't know when to stop.

- That's the problem.

[all laugh] - You're like, "Oh okay, this will stop here?"

Well, nope, nope.

I'm a living thing, and I want to cover some ground and I wanna succeed.

So English ivy is famous for being horribly invasive.

It'll get up into your trees, and the neighbors trees, and out into the woodland and just keep going.

And there's plenty of examples if you drive around Memphis.

- Plenty.

Yes.

- Plenty to to see.

It will eventually shade out the canopy.

It's not good for the tree.

It's not parasitic, it just shades out the ability of the tree to photosynthesi- Photosynthesize, sorry, y'all.

But it also will create that danger for that tree to be more subject to windthrow.

It catches the winds and- - Pulls it over.

- I was gonna take a picture of a weeping willow covered with English ivy and they were coming out like little pigtails.

- Oh!

- Oh my goodness.

- And before I got back to take the picture, the wind got it.

- Oh!

How about that?

- It was just last year.

So I like to look for the groundcovers that will stay in discrete clumps.

So they get bigger every year and more full and filled in.

And it's gonna cost more on the front end if you want a solid groundcover.

'Cause you're gonna have to plug more in.

But the lack of maintenance, everybody tells me, "I've never had anybody tell me they want high maintenance."

[guests laughing] So if they want low maintenance, spend a little bit more money, you know?

And get these slower spreading ones that stay in discrete clumps.

And there's lots of them out there now.

There are sedges, and a lot of times we think of our weedy sedges as being problems and running.

But there are many well-behaved sedges that do stay in discrete clumps.

The sweet flags again are ones that slowly spread and come in a variety of colors.

Also, I like to find those that will give me a season of bloom.

Ajuga has a beautiful little bloom.

- Yeah, I was gonna say that.

I like ajuga.

- In the spring.

And the moss phlox.

The phlox subulata, a lot of people like to call thrift.

That's a great little groundcover.

- Periwinkle.

- Periwinkle will too as well.

Sometimes the the vinca, the periwinkle, the large one gets a little bit aggressive.

- Right.

Yeah.

- And another thing I wanted to mention about those really aggressive ones.

You think you're just gonna put it there and you have no more maintenance to do.

But weeds come up in them.

- Yes, they do.

- They do.

Speaking of weeds, right?

- Yes.

I have gone out and photographed in the vinca right behind the experiment station.

All the things that birds like to eat.

Virginia creeper, poison ivy, privet, hackberry.

- They'll drop it right in there.

- The native black cherry, the wild cherry.

That's what happens.

And you, nothing can spray there to kill it that won't absolutely kill the groundcover as well.

- Good point.

Yeah.

- So that's an issue.

- Okay.

- I want people to know there's two kinds of monkey grass.

- Yes.

Please explain that one.

Yes!

Please.

- There are different species, Liriope muscari stays put!

- Stays put.

Right.

- It's a big nice clunk, gets bigger.

But Liriope spicata will run.

And it'll run into your lawn and places you may not want it.

So I like to use it though in places that it's contained.

If it's contained completely surrounded by concrete, by sidewalk.

- It'll fill in pretty quick.

Yeah.

- It fill in beautifully.

And it looks like a river.

It just blows.

It's got a nice texture to it.

But if you need slow spreading, Now, mondo will do that too, by the way.

It's very similar to Liriope spicata.

But the little dwarf mondos don't spread fast.

- I like those.

- Yes.

They're cute as they can be.

They stay a little tiny height.

- Yeah.

They're really tiny.

- And there's even a black mondo.

- Yes, I've seen that one.

That's beautiful.

- It is beautiful.

And it is the slowest thing you will ever plant.

- You're right, you're right.

It's very tedious.

- So I always say go ahead and buy a lot because I love how I've seen people use it to make another plant pop.

A varigated plant, for example with that black background.

But buy enough to make an impact because it's not gonna spread quickly.

You're gonna be waiting for years for the effect that you hoped for.

Also, some of the pretty ones, there's a golden monkey grass called 'Pee Dee Ingot' There's a beautiful silvery sun proof is a common one.

But it's a gorgeous big varigated plant.

And I've seen friends use that as a perennial.

Just put it in next to something that compliments.

And just a little explosion of gold or silvery foliage.

My friend Jimmy Williams up in Paris has a great eye for using those.

Or even in containers.

I use them that way.

Some of the groundcovers, in fact make great container additions.

If you're thinking about the spillers again.

You know, for evergreen, for winter interest, often leave them in containers for years and just add the summer annuals and then the winter things that I wanted to, for more interest.

I wanna talk about sedums too.

- Alright, let's go.

Sedums.

Yeah, I like sedums.

- I read sometimes just this blanket statement.

People will say, "Well, sedums make a great groundcover and they take sun and they don't need much water."

Which one?

[Chris laughs] - There are dozens of species and hundreds of cultivars.

And they don't all make good groundcovers.

And some of them, you know, we think of them as really loving heat.

But some aren't so tolerant of our heat and our humidity.

So Angelina's hard to beat.

That beautiful gold.

And it gets a burgundy color in the winter.

It stays.

And these'll all tolerate a little bit of shade as well.

Chinese sedum, one of my very favorites.

Sometimes called 'Coral Reef' in the trade now.

It gets a little bit of a ruddy color in the winter time.

It stays a little tight rosettes.

And I've seen it do surprisingly well in shade.

And if I had to pick a third, there's one that Paul Little called me.

He said, "Nobody comes in here and asks for that by name."

'Cause it doesn't have a common name.

It's Sedumus takesimense, also classified as Sedum takesimense.

He said, "Is it okay?

"People come in and say, "Could I please buy some of Carol's favorite sedum?

Can I call it 'Carol's Favorite?"

And I said, "I'd be honored!"

So, here in Memphis, it has a label on it now.

- Trade name.

There we go!

- Carol's Favorite.

- Isn't that thrilling?

- Yeah.

That's pretty cool!

- So that's a beautiful, beautiful sedum.

A little bit taller, but again, stays nice and tight.

And the texture is fabulous.

I use it in containers, I use it in the ground.

And the great thing about sedum, you can just pick up a piece and hand it to a friend.

- Right.

- You can accidentally leave it in your pocket for a few days.

- Oh gosh.

It'll last!

- It'll still root.

- Yeah.

- I often show people how easy it is to spread.

For example, Angelina, I'll pull a clump up and go over and throw it on the ground.

I said, "Now come back in a few weeks, it'll be a nice patch there."

- How about that?

- The surprising thing because they are so drought tolerant, because Angelina sedum roots are just about that big.

- Very shallow.

Yeah.

- They get enough moisture from the night air.

They don't really require deep rooted.

Though some of the clump-forming sedums do have deeper roots.

So I'm not gonna tell you they're all that way.

But that's one of the reasons that I like 'em.

If they do get aggressive and they can get into areas where I don't want them, they're easily removed.

You can do it with a rake.

- Okay!

Just rake it up?

- Mm-hmm.

- Right.

The night air?

That's how it get it's moisture.

- I know.

Isn't it cool?

- Ah.

- Oh.

Remember that If you do get bermuda grass, in your monkey grass or mondo grass, you can use, - It's gonna happen.

- Yes.

- It's gonna happen.

- And I have stopped and told people, I've seen 'em on sitting there trying to weed bermuda grass out of the monkey grass.

I said, "You know, there's a herbicide for that."

- Yes, there is.

- Because monkey grass is not a grass.

Mondo grass is not a grass.

They're an entirely different family.

So you can't spray and kill those grassy weeds and those groundcovers and not harm your monkey grass monkey grass or mondo grass.

- Or mondo grass.

Right.

Good stuff!

Alright.

So we appreciate that good information about- - One more.

Creeping raspberry.

- Creeping raspberry.

Real quick.

- Do you love creeping raspberry?

- Yes.

They are unique, yes.

- That's a great ground cover for sun or shade.

The texture, they'll cascade.

And in full sun, they fruit.

- They fruit.

- Full sun.

- Little yellow raspberries that are edible.

No thorns on 'em either.

They're just kind of stiff, but not- - They're edible?

- Edible.

Absolutely.

- Yeah.

And they're nice.

Creeping low.

- I didn't know that.

- Yeah, we need to use that one more.

- There you have it, y'all.

From Ms.

Carol Reese.

They're edible.

Thank you.

That was good with groundcovers.

- Good.

- Thank you much.

Appreciate that.

[upbeat country music] - Now is not the ideal time of the year to prune peaches.

Late winter is the time to prune peaches.

But anytime you see dead wood is a good time to remove that dead wood.

Probably the main reason that we're removing dead wood is because there may be disease organisms present that you don't want to spread to that tree.

So I've got a limb here that's dead, that's several of them.

And I'm gonna go up to the healthy tissue.

See?

There's no leaves on there at all.

I'm gonna drop 'em down there and I'm gonna pick 'em up and get 'em out of here after I've prune 'em off.

Because if you leave them under the tree, they're still... They could still- Fungal spores and things like that can still come from them.

And remember, there may be disease organisms present here.

So that's why we want to get rid of 'em.

Burn 'em if you can.

But get 'em out of the orchard.

[upbeat country music] - Alright Kyle, here's our Q&A segment.

You ready?

- I'm ready.

- Alright.

These are some good questions we have here.

Here's our first viewer email.

This one's interesting.

"Are the seeds from our tree peony viable?

Will they remain true to the parent plant?"

And this is Donny from Springfield, Missouri.

- So I actually have a Japanese tree peony in my bed.

A red flowering one.

Some of those are grafted and... - Oh, okay.

- Most are not gonna, some are not.

Depending on what it is and they've been hybridizing stuff, you're probably not gonna get back true plant from the seed.

If they go onto the American Peony Society, they explain that very thoroughly.

But you know, that inner specific hybrid that Itoh, those are sterile.

They're not gonna have any seeds on them.

And it takes a while to get some, but you can collect on certain ones and have viable seeds.

But it may not be the parent one that you want.

But you know, they took a woody part and kind of on some of those and grafted it onto a herbaceous.

So if you have that growth coming up from the herbaceous, you wanna cut that off.

You want it into that main plant.

But it's a beautiful... It's my white one, of my wife's favorite plants.

- How about that?

You gotta keep that one living, man.

Yeah, you definitely gotta do that.

But yeah, so that was interesting to me.

Actually, I had to do some research about that.

Yeah, I didn't know that for sure.

Because I did read that, of course, a lot of the tree peonies are cross-pollinated.

- Pollinated.

- Yeah.

Or wind-pollinated.

Yeah.

So it actually makes sense what you said.

Okay.

So thank you for that question, Donny.

Yeah.

I learned something from that too as well.

So thank you much.

Here's our next viewer email.

"What can I do to get my Annabelle hydrangea to not just flop on the ground?"

And this is Terry from Chester, Virginia.

He says he cut it to the ground to stop some blight.

It's coming back, but it's not bushy.

- So... If you... If you don't cut it all the way ground, you leave it like 18 to 24 inches or so and then let that new growth come up, it'll have stronger stems.

You cut to the ground, it's all new.

So you'll have a stronger.

But then you can use... You know, for peonies, they wanna flop.

You can use those peony hoops.

Or even a tomato cage.

You'd have to kind of adjust it to hold it up.

You could take bamboo and put it around it and take twine to hold it up as well.

But it is tough to do.

I mean, when they get wet, especially they wanna flop down.

But you're just gonna have to support those stems some way to keep it from flopping.

- Okay.

But again, you would not, you know, cut it all the way back down to the ground?

- No, I mean if he did that and it's not gonna hurt it.

But if you leave those stems up a little bit higher, you'll have the stronger starting out.

'Cause it'll be an older stem.

And... Be stronger.

It won't flop as much.

- Alright.

There you have it Mr.

Terry.

Appreciate that.

Annabelle's are beautiful.

- It is.

- I like those.

Alright.

Here's our next viewer email.

"How do I save my bird of paradise plant?

It is dying."

And this is Tanya from Kansas City, Missouri.

So what do you think about that?

- So, first I would look at the roots.

And see two things that on tropicals and you know, here, it's a houseplant.

We don't plant it outside, but it's in the summer.

Is it getting too much water?

Is it getting good drainage and is it getting enough water?

And then you do need to fertilize it.

You can use like Miracle-Gro or some liquid feed.

Not super heavy on it.

But I would look at that root system.

Maybe it needs to be repotted.

Make sure it gets bright light.

Indirect.

- Tropical.

- It could take a lot of light.

And especially to get it to flower.

And so... I will just look, first thing I'll look is the drainage and if it's getting too much water, if it's got mushy roots on it that are starting to rot or you know, get that off, take that off.

- So you can cut those out?

- Cut those out.

And then put some, maybe get some new soil.

Good draining soil.

Potting mix for it.

And I think it'll be, come back around.

- I think it would come back around.

I would also scout, you know, for spider mites.

You know?

- Yep.

To do that.

- That could be a tremendous problem.

You know, for bird of paradise or scales!

So I'll look for those as well.

But I think everything you talked about is... what I thought, definitely check the watering.

You know?

For sure.

And it is a tropical, right?

So it's gonna need a lot of sun.

- And it likes humidity.

If you can set it on, you know, put some gravel in a tray and put some water so it's out of the water and you can get some of that humidity from that water.

And if you can mist it, depending on how big it is.

And that would like that as well.

- Okay.

So there you go, Tanya.

We hope that helps you out.

Hope you can save that bird of paradise plant.

Alright.

Kyle, fun as always.

Thank you much.

We learn so much, don't we?

- We do.

- 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.

If you want to learn more about soil amendments or mixes, or if you just want to print out Kyle's soil recipe, go to FamilyPlotGarden.com.

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

Be safe.

[upbeat country music] [acoustic guitar chords]