Focus 580; Lawn And Garden Care

Sir it will be gardening something that we talk about each month on the program. We have been doing that for a long time now with Sandy Mason she's a horticulture educator with you by extension in Champaign County. She stops by and we do this on the the second one which is the first Tuesday second to the second Tuesdays. She knows and I'm not so sure one of us know if the second Tuesday and we do that to give people a chance to call in to ask questions about things that grow in the home landscape and it's always a lot of fun when she is here. Also in this first hour we will have a special guest a man who is quite well known as a garden expert and author a photographer His name is Ken Drew's. He's joining us this morning by phone but he will be here in Champaign-Urbana in the early part of March and we'll talk more about that and take whatever questions people have about plants and taking care of them. Also we just want to mention that in the second part of the program Rich Warren will be here. It's been a while since we have talked with Rich. He's a contributor to The Chicago Tribune. He writes a column for The News Gazette other publications that have to do with audio and video and that's what he does. Primarily he writes about consumer

audio and video and will be here to take whatever questions people have that will be an hour. Number two. Today's broadcast is made possible in part by a grant from pianos plus your Steinway piano show room in Bloomington arenas pianos plus offers new and Prion pianos by Steinway and sons Boston by Steinway and other fine pianos. Today's broadcast is made possible with support from Warden Martin Subaru a Subaru stellar performer certified dealership. Now in their new location in front of the Savoy 16 Theater across from Ward Martin Nissan information on the web at Warden Martin Super root dot com. Well once again welcome to focus 580 glad to have you with us we're also pleased to have back on the program Sandy Mason from cooperative extension or I guess I don't call it anymore just extend university and they're very uncooperative very cooperative extension. She's here and she's she's good enough. In addition to everything else she does. To stop by here once a month and answer questions on this program so whatever's on your mind it has to do with trees shrubs

flowering plants stuff you can eat house plants any and all of that's the same thing that we always do but we do Also this morning have a special guest and his name is canned Druce and as I mentioned he's an author has written several books including the natural garden the natural shade garden and a new one that's just out which is titled A passion for gardening inspiration for a lifetime. He's written the text. He has also taken photographs and he's quite well-known for writing about gardening issues. And he's joining us by telephone but he will be in Champaign-Urbana March 5th and will tell you all about that in just a moment. Questions welcome 3 3 3 9 4 5 5 toll free 800 to 2 2 9 4 5 5 and I say to any Mason. Thanks for being here. Thank you. And Kendrew Hello. Hello David I'm glad you could be with us we certainly appreciate it. The book is beautiful it's just beautiful and I just want to make sure that I would clear her Sandy and I were talking back and forth you did take the pictures for the book is airing. Yes I do know of an actor right. And

it is really beautiful. As we go along here I'm sure there will be able to talk a little bit about the book we'll talk about the fact that he will be here. Why don't we also go ahead and talk with just to make it even more confusing will bring up the who are listening. And let me give the number in Champaign-Urbana if you would like to call 3 3 3 9 4 5 5. OK. Same as always. We do also have a toll free line 800 to 2 2 9 4 5 5 so questions are certainly welcome. The First up is someone who is listening this morning in Lafayette Indiana. Line number four below. Oh yes. How do I remove or at least control. Ma running amok in various places of the yard. The small stone that I have around trees and on the sidewalk and I'm a bored man. Well I think I might have a feeling what Ken might say I think.

You're right I mean yes and there was one of the guard will leave it alone. Yeah OK well sell it to your neighbors. Yeah you know actually it is one of those things it's it is really quite beautiful I think there isn't anything quite so green I think is Moss. But my Redwood is green wood Redwood is green wood the redwood mulch on your redwood is green wood What do you mean your redwood bagger it's green with mono. That's actually algae if you're if it's on the ground and in the sort of place in the shade where it's very moist where you want to grow grass and that's probably Moss if you've got green on the building or on a deck and it's probably held up. Usually people use a power washer to get rid of that once a year or you can use a mild flu some of bleach. So it's like algae that grows in any wet place but it's actually not Moss. But. Just wash it down with bleach and you'll have to repeat it once a year for places

where. You can't use bleach because of what it will kill and you need to use a mild solution would probably work power washing will work too. This time of year I think if you used a mouth Lucian of bleach and water maybe 30 percent bleach to water them and control the dripping maybe put a tarp down. Most things are dormant they're not going to be damaged by that too much. But it's washing is what I would say if it's on the surface. Hard vertical surface. What you think Sammy. Yeah I think that sounds like a great idea and use a beep if you are concerned about the run off if you can just add a little extra water in those areas just to sort of help dilute a little bit more but I really don't think you're to have a big problem with that this time of year but but that's really a best bet so so leave the mosse alone and kill off the algae. Second question has to do what I have some fair chance of success if I. If I put out grass seed it this season.

Normally we'd wait until April or so around here and I know sometimes used to read well they'd said you know plant the grass. The last snow or something and you know and that was probably a good idea maybe back when people used when wheat is as for their lawn and that actually probably worked out just fine but really we're talking about Kentucky bluegrass perennial ryegrass they really germinates much better under warmer conditions and when you put it out there in the wintertime it's subject to all kinds of things from freezing to birds eating it to whatever I think you're better off in the long run just waiting. I was hoping I could thereby avoid extensive showing tromping because of me. Oh I see what your friend you may be in certain areas maybe you don't really have to do a lot of tilling depending on what the soil already looks like if it's halfway decent saw you may find you really don't have to do a lot of that and just basically just work in the the seed in the top earner so her native quote. OK. Well that would be my suggestion is to wait I think you're going to get more bang for your buck by waiting.

OK. Thank you. All right thank you for the go. Let's continue and our next caller would be back here in Champaign line number one. Hello. Yes. It's pretty long unless you go that route and sort of came up a little patchy and I need to do my thing. No one's ever had it from either of us me to overstate it. I don't know what order to do these things. Well I guess you kind of have to decide where you where you are in this whole process. If it really is something that you feel like it needs to be airy it is in that's really compacted soil something along those lines. You can certainly do that before you see which is fine. You may not really find you have to do that if you don't have a terribly compacted saw you may find you can just over seed and then just work it in by it with a garden rake or something along those lines so you can Ampeg decide whether that's really an issue for years. I don't fertilize fertilizer.

Usually you wait till you've mowed it a couple of times if you're unless it's just a little bit over seating. But if you're doing major areas you wait until you've mowed it at least twice. If that grass didn't come up because of. Drought only just so I'm going to go and April will work fine. Yeah right. Also what is the right type of grass is greener. Want to know what I want. Brown stuff going on with the players. Well normally or cool season grasses are the ones that are going to be green years who normally Kentucky bluegrass and grass are the ones that tend to stay greener longer. I don't know I saw some recently maybe can I saw some recently in this slick ads they talked about this. Canada green. I don't know do you get that out in your in New Jersey. No I haven't heard of. Yeah and it wasn't you know slick ads which I always worry a little bit them in the newspaper. But it was called Canada green and it was supposedly stayed green all winter long and I'm a little concerned about what they never said what it was that's Astroturf.

Yeah that would be the next they would. So I don't know what that is and so I don't know what their weather is sort of thinking about that by be really concerned I'd find out what that is first before I really know whether it's a quality line or not. Thank you very much. Thanks I guess I would my question would be if you find something that really is going to be green in the winter time then what's it going to look like in July. You will look tolerate the heat. Good point you got to you know you can't really have you can't have both. Yeah unless you have Astroturf. There are of course when I saw a lot for example if I do it in a city but mix three different kinds together. Let them through. Get out. I want to progress. Survive is the one I'm looking at. Well let me ask you because I know one of the questions that we have gotten over and over again from people who are listening is they say look I've got the shady spot and I want to put grass there you know how to do that first guy with the moss. That you've got. Yeah well maybe that's the end and always course what Sandy says is Well maybe you might like to consider some ground

covers that like shade because there are certain conditions under which the grass just not going to grow because it it's not going to get enough sun right and it might even have competition for moisture from roots of local trees nearby trees. And sometimes I suggest to people that they make container gardens there with Hostis and other shade plants because working out into the roots of a tree is a dangerous thing. And people want to have those ground covered go right up to the tree but it's a beautiful place to sit in the cool say in the summer and put a bench there put a couple of containers up on bricks and have a container garden in the city. What's that what do you think if if someone really wants to have something that looks like a lawn something that's going to be green. It may you know maybe they don't mind knowing that they want to have that sort of green carpet he kind of look. Is are there other things other than grass or maybe some mixture of some grass and something else that if you're not if you're not so hung up on it that you want something it's going to look like a putting green but you want something that's kind of alone like.

Well Sandy may have some ideas about this too and we were kidding about the mosque but that would be the first I would if the place that especially first in that clay soil kind of perfect for for growing moss and really cultivating mosques there are lots of ground covers but there's no real living ground cover that can take the use and abuse that grass lawn cam but grandson also need sun. There are some things like Kerik says and other kinds of grasses that would be able to grow and look green they sort of look like thinning hair. Maybe the looking one would want. There are plenty of ground covers. You just can't exactly mow them. Yeah I was there's a place that my wife and I have gone on vacation for a long time is in Atlantic Canada. And I don't know when it was I discovered this there was there was one day I was walking along on what was a large lawn that belongs to the people who own the cottages where we stay and one day I looked down and I realized it was time.

And I thought they had some guys I'd love to have a big deal of time in front of my head off with your nose or with your. Well I think actually with my eyes I don't know. It wasn't that I smelled it and I think I finally just looked at it and realized what it was and thought well that's extremely cool now maybe in champagne or in Ghana that wouldn't that wouldn't work. It would work but not in the state. Well that's true it is a it is a big open area and does get full sun although you know as much false on as there is yet. I had some friends who used the time lawn for where they park their cars and when they drove up they drive over the time and it smelled fantastic and they didn't know it but it was as we said Brilliant right. Yeah. Well this morning here in this part of focus 580 we have as our guest Sandy Mason she's a horticulture educator with you by extension in Champaign County. She's here once a month on a Tuesday we talk about gardening and as our special guest joining us by phone Kim Druse he is a nationally known garden expert. He is an author and photographer has published a number of books has a new one out which is titled The passion for gardening and inspiration for a

lifetime. Potter is the publisher Clarkson Potter and it is a really beautiful book. And I just want to mention here because as of this morning we are going to be asking people to send money to the station. We have as a special gift. If you call and you make a contribution this morning during focus between 10:00 and noon if you will make a pledge at the $100 level or above you may request as you think you gift a copy of this book a passion for gardening and if you are a gardener I guarantee you will enjoy it if if nothing else in the dark of winter in January you will pull this book down and you will page through it and you will see wistfully and you will think of spring and believe me you'll feel better. Let's hope some of the people here in fact we've got the lines full Let's go next to Piet county line number two. Yes I also have state and I don't really care about grass or ground cover. But what this time of year I was thinking along the lines of. Evergreen but he and I don't mean you know the perfectly clipped haired evergreen

Bush. I'm not looking for that but is there an evergreen that can take shade. It's an overhang area and it's I mean I it's not dry necessarily but it certainly. Well I guess it depends on what you mean by evergreen if you know needled evergreens we probably don't have a whole lot of those Canadian hemlock will take but take some shade but it tends to open up a little bit. It's not quite as thick. Plus you could shear it'll get bigger but you could actually trim it down. Use will take some shade but there are no other one though that sort of opens up and you may want to think about even things like I wrote it Dendron boxwood. They will take some shade. So those might be some options maybe can and some other suggestions I've had awfully good luck with books wouldn't say surprisingly especially low ones. It opens up it doesn't matter what clip only Or there's the redemption for a perfect example if you have enough acidity in the soil there's Cherry Laurel which is marginally harder for you.

But that's a beautiful Prunus which is a cherry relative an evergreen and it gets little white spiders. The summer that are very fragrant also for cocks that you have for Cox out there I check I can't remember them yeah I don't remember ever seeing any here so I'm not sure it's red very stupid. I think those are some. Its existence you know if we said something kind of general you were talking about the middle of evergreens the larger the leaf the more light that plants kind of absorb so you can kind of go to the garden center and pick which plants are going to be tolerant or shaded by the size of that leaf. OK when my question I noticed all the sudden been my thing my bulbs I planted in the fall are pushing their leaves. I'm going to be bad and I know it's going to get colder. I'm going to be OK. Yeah. Yeah I noticed that too this past weekend. But they'll be fine. It's just the flower itself is still deep inside the bulb. So it's really not a big issue. OK Kareen thank you so much.

I think we have all these questions about Satan even though it's self promoting I did do a book on say called the natural state which is very nice gives people all kinds of ideas for it's my most popular book it's from 1992 and big seller as you can tell we get a lot of questions about which I remember years ago people used to say I have to say. We're going to do kind of cut them a neighbor's tree. They know it's 15 degrees cooler. Yeah you know this. Yeah I live out on the open prairie and I couldn't wait until I finally got some trees big enough that so I could have shade in July and August rolls around it's a much more pleasant place to hang out in garden. Wouldn't true love I'm off. Yeah I do love the most. OK well let's go and talk to somebody else here pain line 3. Hello hi. I actually have a very similar question. My ex and I are building a home that's going to be facing north and so the front yard there will be a section of the Ark is going to get as much sun as you know the back yard and we're starting to think you know what are we going to do landscape wise and I wondered if you had any suggestions

on strawberry or trees that you know would look nice that would also be able to take the conditions on the north side of the house. Well as far as trees there's a lot so we have lots of understory type trees that take shade I don't know do you really have a lot of shade at that point or if this is a brand new house where there are trees there or you just know well it's a brand new house in a subdivision there aren't any trees at all around our house we want to plant a couple in the front if we could. But like I said we want to do something that's going to do well in the front of the house. What if young and small are not going to get as much fun as want to you know bigger and taller. Right now the North is tough. You're pretty sure it's quite north through north maybe to the west. Maybe a bit north west. Well I think part of the problem is that depending on how big your overhang is sometimes it's a real dry shade which sometimes is a little bit harder on some plants. It is not going to be terribly dry shade there are some

nice shrubs that we have that tend to do very well around here even in some shady or environments but they do like more and more. There is something called an idea and it has a beautiful fall colors nice vivid red fall color but it does like moist conditions and nice shrub. We also had the Summer St. Cloud throw which tend to do fairly well around here and it does have nice fragrant flower and again needs a little one more Easter so those may be ones that you could use but you may have to make sure that it's not too terribly dry for them. OK yeah we have lots of. There's all kinds of smaller trees that do very well around here that you could think about is if you want something out front that's a little bit smaller. Certainly one of my favorites around here is the pagoda dogwood. Even though it sounds like it's not native It is just a beautiful small tree. Viburnum several viburnums that I really like I'm trying to think of the common name with a black called Viburnum that does really well around here.

Looks kind of thinking too that it might be the spot for a woodland garden. Actually that would be nice you could really sort of set that up would be quite attractive. Right when the dogwood in the center and I'm having them in the spring the femoral flowers that you enjoy and then when they go away just make sure you always look at the back of the house. Ok Great well thank me and I will thank you for the call we have some other folks and we will get to them in just a second. Our guest this morning Sandy Mason she's a horticulture educator with you by extension in Champaign County and joining us by phone can Drew's nationally known gardening expert author photographer. His newest book is the passion for gardening and some of the others as we've mentioned are the natural garden and the natural shade garden. And that would be one for you. Let's recall that all those people out there who have shade and are looking for some inspiration for anybody who would like to call in this morning and make a contribution to the station. We'd be happy to ride you with a copy of the passion for gardening. We just ask that you call in and make a contribution if you can do hundred dollar level or more with our Thanks we'll send you a copy of the

book and I know that you will enjoy it. The number to call to make a pledge now is 2 4 4 9 4 5 5 Jack brightness stepped into the studio sometimes heard as host on the show. Wright was longtime producer of the program now he is overseeing our Web operations but every once in a while we we wrestle him back in here and he doesn't focus 580 shows and I'm a fan of the show. I listen all the time I love the show especially I love when Sandy Mason is on because. Yeah I know I just love to hear about growing things it's such a great way to reduce stress. It's much less stressful than raising money for example. But that's what we're about here right now and we hope that you will help us out reduce our stress by giving as a pledge call right now to 1 7 2 4 4 9 4 5 5. We're talking about growing things in shady environments. Folks oil is not a shady environment. There's lots of sunshine around here we are one of the most open community organizations you'll ever encounter. And we respond to your requests for particular

subjects to cover or ideas for things on the show. And you know it's very very much an interactive kind of process here. And we it's also paid for in an interactive process so we're counting on your pledge call right now 2 1 7 2 4 4 9 4 5 5. And speaking of community Kimberly cronic who is our outreach coordinator is with the volunteers in our pledge center. She isn't in charge got a lot of things going with regard to community activities and so forth. And I hear a phone ringing back there. Yes you do Jack that's great because we are trying to get 15 callers during focus 580 today and that could be our first call. We appreciate that. The numbers 2 4 4 9 4 5 5. You know Jack and Dave and Sandy in Cannes and everyone listening out there you know radio has the power to change lives. But WRAL has a responsibility to change your life for the better and that's why we offer programs such as gardening programs where you can get questions answered that impact your life we

bring you information from experts and local people to help you be an informed citizen and that all makes our democracy our community a better place to be. So now is the time for you to participate in the future of W.L. by joining an extraordinary group of people known as the Friends of WRAL who actively support the mission. Well and that could be you. Help us get to that 300 goal of new members for this driver up to 52. So if you haven't pledged before now's the chance. Now's your opportunity to become a new member and be part of the friends of W.. Please call us now at 2 4 4 9 4 5 5 just want to remember you can also pledge on line at our website w i l l u r u c dot edu. And if you can make a pledge of $100 or more will thank you by sending you Ken's book the passion for gardening those phones are ringing that's our second call. Go ahead and give us a call be a new become a new member AWOL or renew your membership to 4 4 9 4 5 5 thankful and well thank you very much Kim and Jack and we will talk to you again near the end of the program.

Our guest here this morning Sandy Mason. She is a horticulture educator with U of I extension in Champaign County and joining us by phone Ken Druce. He's an author garden expert photographer and again his new book is the passion for gardening and I want to ask Sandy here to talk for a minute about about the fact that Ken's going to be here in March. How can people get involved in this event. Well it's going to be a great day it's March 5th which is a Saturday it's called a breath of spring is that lovely. It will be held at the Holiday Inn in Urbana here in Urbana. And there's actually several different folks that are going to come and talk to us besides can also Tony even to I think a lot of people know from his catalog plant delights knows quite a bit about some of the new plants that are out there and he's going to talking about those. We have a wonderful person Carol Reese is going to be talking more about landscaping She's from the University of Tennessee. And then Erica GLASSNER I think a lot of people may know her from HGTV and she's also appeared on Victory Gardens. She's going to be talking about colorful

combinations and so that Saturday March 5th they can give us a call at the Champaign County Extension office at 2 1 7 3 3 3 7 6 7 2. And we'd be glad to send them some information about that. You know Jack was talking about how. Gardening reduces stress and my latest book The passion for gardening is really about. About that how gardening is not about getting the task over as quickly as possible but how we can get more time to spend in the garden. And it's also about gardeners giving back to the earth and I think gardeners are in a wonderful position to be able to do that which makes me think of your place draft because if you're enjoying something like gardening it's not so bad to give back a little bit of payback for some of the pleasure that you get and you can do that with. We appreciate that. In the end and again I bought a mention if you can make a contribution at the $100 level or above with our Thanks we will send you a copy of the book and it truly is a beautiful book and I think one of the things that made me think Ken and looking at the book was that you know there are there are people who put plants in the gar in the ground and then there are

gardeners and there is a difference between those two it's not just about putting a plant in the ground and I think it's about. It has to do I think with with. Your thinking about your relationship to nature and what comes through for me again and again looking through the book as is patience. You which you really need to have as patients because garden I think real gardeners would tell you of their garden. Well it's never really done. It's a continuing process. It develops over time. It's always if it's you know what everybody is now going for is year round interest. So you always want something to be going on so maybe always something will be coming something will be fully in its fullness. Something I fine but it's a lot of patience. So I think that is anticipated for a while so I was feeling pretty chilled bolt stick them right in the ground instantly and I'm not a student I'm not going to plant my bulbs and stand there and watch them grow up but I'm told that there's

something else I think about you know from watching that tree it's patience through but I think the other thing I really liked about the book was that I think your emphasis on the process rather than I think were so into the end product. This is how it's going to look. It's going to look like this pictures. Yeah. And your whole idea of the passion for gardening is I think one of your quotes was it's it is the gardening that calls me more than the garden and I think for a lot of us that's really what it is that's where we get our joy is really from the gardening process so I think we all need to sort of step back quit thinking about the end products so much and really think more about what we're getting from and really what we're giving back as you said every day. Well let's talk with some more folks who are listening. We have someone in Urbana where we are next on our line one. And here I keeping in mind that it's a process and that a product has helped me. I call it that I like an out member who is from is that you're not challenging yourself as a gardener unless you kill a

sleep. A few points there you go. And dead plants are called opportunity to plant a new one. We turned our front yard into a woods with woodland flowers because it was on our side of the house and we weren't going to be using it. We didn't need the grass and we didn't feel like mowing and it was definitely an exercise in patience but it was definitely an exercise in enjoying the process because we started out with grass and we had to get the trees big enough to have a chance to kill the grass. And so we now have a ground cover that's mostly paralegal throughout the year and I borrowed from neighbors and friends that I bumped into native woodland plants that they were growing in their yard and we also have access to some from a family farm in Ohio that has it woodland. And little implants take allowed to spread but we now have a gorgeous display of bluebells in the spring time and I would love to

watch. Love to go out and look for where the new ones are and will see them coming up and watch the leaves change color and see the progression of the native wildflowers. And I don't know whether people realize this but then they have families take advantage of the. I'm sure you know this but the listeners might not take advantage of the early spring light before they deciduous trees so that's when they bloom and that's when they store their get their food store back in their room. If a tractor problem enters through when our trees were a little it was we we didn't realize how fast trees grow in Champaign-Urbana and they do grow fast. We've been here for 32 years we planted the first year we were here we planted a six foot red oak. I look at that tree now and I think I can hardly believe it. It's tree and it was a little and we had some other trees that were pretty little enjoying looking at the leaves when they came out each spring we go out inspect the branches with a small tray you

can see the details of the leaves coming out we would go for a walk and suspect our estate. And isn't that nice. Yeah because I know one of the things that Ken talked about in the book is sometimes people and I hear people say that if you're like in your 50s or something and they'll say oh you don't want to plant a little tree. I'm too old I'm too old to plant a little tree and it's not that way. Somebody along the line planted a little tree so that you can enjoy a big tree now. So it's been about really thinking about there are so many especially in Illinois there's a lot of park all parks with old trees and I never see the little trees that are going to place all those trees when those trees do finally go we have to plant trees for the next generation of the generation after that and they really grow faster than people realize I think sometimes also I think I'm all one often takes off. So as you can buy. A six foot tree from the nursery by a three foot tree from a nursery and the three foot one will catch up with the big one. You know I've heard park district people tell me that too. Well that plant the really large ones and then the plant a small one and then the small ones always seem to catch up if not take off.

Beyond the bigger one but we have to also on why that is the case. You reduced routes I would imagine as a whole I did you know that you'll grow them reduce troops exactly. I also want to mention I used some creeping time in the garden walkway that's get that gets full sun and I really enjoyed that but my only problem is I'm not a great leader and things would see themselves into it and be kind of. It's lovely to smell. Thanks. Thank you for your whole life. Let's talk with someone in in Indiana Oaktown Indiana one for Miller. Yes I want if you could recommend a control for patrie mildew. Q q Cumbers Q cubit gourds. I'm downwind from literally hundreds and hundreds of acres of melons and cucumber or cantaloupe and this is when born I've been towed. If I went down to Purdue

Can I have a wonderful place down there. I recommand it controls what I can afford to buy at $300. I like to walk into some big box store and you know get like a $9 bottle and you know when you when you're when you have the power powdery mildew that actually killing your crops right. The vines will grow and probably sit on fruit maybe golf ball size but the plant itself where it's in the ground. The vines have washed suckers or whatever and they'll live that the where the plant is planted in the ground. These guys that Perdue diagnosed as forming that's what they told me what's going on there. Yeah. Go ahead go ahead. Go ahead Ken. Oh well it's a long story about

moisture in the spring and dryness in the spring and what actually makes those plants to settle on it sounds like fun to have somebody next door who finding all their powdery mildew spores to Norway. And I've had some success with baking soda and Sun Oil mostly on roses and lilacs and I haven't tried it on a food crop but I wouldn't be afraid to because it's a vegetable oil product and baking soda. And probably if you look on line you might find some recipes and some people who have had success with that I always start with the least toxic even if it's a little bit of bleach in water the least toxic cure or preventative to any kind of problem which is part of what we call integrated pest management. So those even that $9 box from the garden center would be a little bit of afraid of and you can also if you want my website is Kendra's dot com and people can ask questions there and I'm might be able to research that for you. One kind of oil is that it's called Sun Oil is that what you call it out there to Sandy or summer oil maybe.

It's not a dormant oil and oil spray It's a fuel called Sun oil or oil sprays and they're completely organic. And I know with the roses we use two tablespoons of big mix of the two I think a gallon of water it's not much bigger than a drop of dystopia to make us make its bread. And we've had good luck with that. And I have seen that actually on cucumbers pumpkins using baking soda. And there there is that I can't think of any and there is a commercial product as well that's baking soda and you guys are using that Murphy's Oil So I think we're sort of talking about the same thing you know you know if you're making your own. I'd be afraid to put anything I wasn't very sure about edible product. Well it's not going to be and it was for Gord's. Oh they've been dying for like 8 years now and if you try planting them in a different spot used brand name calling and brand new out of the bag you know compost whiner.

But the guy's a producer to me this is all one born. You know I am that there are literally hundreds and hundreds acres millions of krauts just up one for me and unfortunately is fairly common around here to see that a lot of them. Yeah well I guess I'll try again in the spring. Yeah I would try the baking soda product that I've had really good results. If it first you don't succeed you're bound to be a gardener. OK good luck. Thanks for the go. Their goals are certainly welcome here we have about 10 minutes left in this part of focus 580 with McAndrews. He is a nationally known gardening expert writer or photographer. His most recent book is titled The passion for gardening and he's going to be here to take part of the program on March 5th and in here in Champaign Urbana. And we'll try to mention again to the end of the program the basic information about that certainly you can get in touch with the people at extension if you want to find out more about it. And here in the studio with us is Sandy Mason she's a horticulture educator with you high extension in Champaign County and is with us every

month on the second Tuesday at 10 o'clock and we talk about gardening and encourage people to call in if you have questions about things that grow in the landscape. Maybe you've had a problem you're not quite sure how to solve your interested in a suggestion about a particular variety of plant or particular kind of plant for a certain setting. Any and all of that is certainly welcome also. We've taken house plant questions we can do that 2 3 3 3 9 4 5 5 toll free 800 to 2 2 9 4 5 5 and we have some more color sheer foam lined up in Urbana. Next line number one. Well last year I didn't do anything in the yard due to other things that were happening and the creeping charlie which I've usually pulled by hand and gotten totally out of hand. Part of it is. In the lawn area and part of it got over to the garden area. What do you do first second and third to restore the yard. Well maybe you can't tell who's better. Maybe he has better ideas.

We get this question so often so no creeping charlie out there is that which you call ground combing the mosque you know that. I'm afraid that I hand we that it's one of the few things that have it's one of my worst we get out there and pull it early as I can in the spring and try to just roll it up and get it out. Now it's possible that you have a kind of a rainy season last year. Yes there were certain times when it was fairly raining. I think it did very very well. If you have a little bit more a little bit more of a normal season a little bit less water it may help bring it back a little bit. Of course you can use it in the lawn you can use a broad leaf herbicide. I don't do that. I do use a pre-emergent herbicide which is made out of corn corn gluten I think it is. And my lawn I never feed my lawn. I actually don't even use that reemergence

my lawn I use it in the garden and it does pretty well. I think if you mow a little bit lower you might get rid of a lot of it too but I would go out there and try to get a nice pad for your knees. Pretty early like April end of April and roll from of that stuff up you might just get it back where it was before. I get this if I mean I've done it for years that way and when I pull that essentially I'm leaving words behind the lines and that's a good tool. Some little spiky jewelry Japanese weed knife is great and just stick it straight down in their employ it up. And if you can stop it from blooming and flowering that will be great. Yeah I probably will yeah I think this is probably one of the big things is not to wait too late when it starts to flower then and boy you need to get out there right away. Ok don't have anything to run it searing just pull it and then feed. So you see the graph with your question. Yeah just just pull up as much Charlie as you can and just go in there with grass seed. You know I think the grass will fill in really quickly especially in the early spring. If you pull it out if you have some

bare spaces the grass is going to fill right in and you can also just drop a few seeds in and step on them and they'll come up to. You and good luck to Urbana next line number two. Hello. You're quite there yet. Colored in a battle on two. Yes. Where we're having mad we're having some trouble hearing you and I'm not sure what the problem is that better. That's better go ahead. OK I have enjoyed the crab apple tree along with Iran and a band I think that infernal treason I think robbing the Nazis in the last week I've decided I need some crab apple tree and the three gas cans on variety. Wow that really wow. Well you know we were talking about powdery mildew and that I would say that the top of the list. First find out who doesn't get powdery mildew and then start making your selection. If you go to a beautiful garden

center or a public garden or a park or anywhere start to try to discover which varieties are the ones that have flowers that you like there's literally a thousand. You can also go to the library and get out. Dr. Michael ders book on what he plants and he has crab apples listed by height color tolerance to ones that are resistant to mildew and things like that so I would really put first I'd go for the ones that were healthy. And disease resistant insect resistant and picks the colors and what color do you like. Get almost anything but yellow and blue colored of an apple is a critical black root. Nice and wonderful fruit and I would look for ones that are apple scab is a real problem for us too besides mildew so I'd make sure that their apples get resistent there's plenty of them out there there's actually one that from the University of Illinois called prairie fire that's been real popular and what kind of shape does that have. Yeah it's really more of an oval it's not one of the wide spreading

one so it kind of depends on what you're looking for and that's just as Ken was saying there you name it from sizes to how wide they get to how tall they get the size of the fruit sometimes people really don't like the bigger fruit so they go for some of the smaller fruit. Those are some of the things you really are an incredibly popular Sunni crab is very popular. They're both kind of shrubbery. I really like snow drift is one of them that I have it has kind of pink but open so white flour is a very small fruit on it the robins love. So I had a real good luck with that one. And you know the trees on the approach to Willard airport if you're going out they look like they've they look like an African savannah tree is it. I think Hawthorne but you know they look like they've been through it on the bottom by giraffe because they're real flat on the bottom they're very Embro shaped on the approach to Willard. Well I think Ken is coming flying into Willard Maybe I'll take a look. Take a look at him. They've been through it on the bottom of some other critter. I mean I don't think they are but they have that umbrella trait that's real flat on the bottom and I haven't. I've always

been tempted to but I've never stopped to see whether they're hos wonder whether the crab apples with a good spot for early spring Robin. OK well Hawthorne I mean there might be a possibility because they can get kind of a wide spreading kind of flat. Yeah yeah. Someone at the airport to the ground if they know that's going to find out if they do know somebody with those trees in one. Yes they did although it probably the university in there but that's a good that's a good that's a good place to look. Well I'll be looking to. OK thank you very much today. Thank you. We'll try to get at least one more here as a listener and balance on line for Hello. Oh can I. It's such a thrill to talk to you. I live at the edge of a maple wood. And your natural shade gardening book just like it has been an inspiration continually. I love that book. I have it a different kind of question however we have a fledgling farmer's market that is in an area that is just bare right now

and one of our committee members has a woods and has transplanted two oaks and and ḥasan know any way to make trees through the trees had been freshly planted. But on the other side of the market we need trees that are going to be under a power line. You have an idea for you know smallish trees and this is the funny location too. Yes very funny. One of those crab apples would be perfect. We're not talking about that there are some shrubby ones we were talking about those two that I see we need something that's going to grow tall enough to walk under it walk under Exactly and I think the critical choice at the canopy under that sort of and some of the other flowering fruit trees from the cherries and well we as the market starts I mean they'll be beautiful any way that the market doesn't start until June so you know we're not going to get a lot of benefit from the flowering. But people driving by will feel that they will add to it.

The advertising without lighting the lamp to criticize you want to attract more than the tomatoes. OK all are absolutely and they're all going through and it was just cause and anything else that you'd want to add to the list. You know the problem with these questions of how do you pick one out of thousands that flood your mind. Super Hardy and all those things. I'm sure you think you're going to get well I mean as far as any of the smaller tree I mean I love service berries and they're native to this area and they have lovely flowers and fruit later on and so they seem to do quite well and they're kind of the same with the crab apple you can get more upright ones or the ones are more shrubby looking ones but those are really very attractive and you know certainly red buds. I mentioned the pagoda dogwood That's another nice one so there's plenty of small trees that we can put under these para lines with without having to to deal with the size of a tree later.

Japanese friends truth that we can now wonder what the budget is on this. Right without knowing what we are doing nation. That will be next. OK thank you very much. All right well thank you very much and I think we're just about THE POINT we're going to have to finish up for this time around with the promise that Sandy will be back next month because she's here once a month and also again our guest special guest here can Dru's it will be here in Champaign or banner on March 5th. And Sandy do you want to give the basics on that one more guess it's it'll be Saturday March 5th there's several folks talking as well as can and it's a breath of spring is going to be held at the Holiday Inn in Urbana just right off Interstate 74. If people want information on how to register they can give us a call at the champagne County Extension office at 2 1 7 3 3 3 7 6 7 2. You can also go online and actually print out a brochure and send it in a registration brochure and send us and send that in to us and that's extension UIUC dot

edu slash champagne. So it's got a great opportunity for people going to love but we're also going to have some vendors there so you know gardeners love to shop and look at other things so not only will you get the years and great speakers but you get to enjoy some garden shopping. And I want to say to you can thanks very very much for talking with us. Great thank you. And no matter where you are. You can go down to the bookstore and look for some of the books by our guest and by the way his last name is spelled d r u s e can Drew's and His books include The natural garden the natural shade garden making more plants and the most recent which is the passion for gardening inspiration for a lifetime. Well again thanks guys. Thank you. We appreciate it. Well we have a minute or two here before we go to our market update to urge you to go to the telephone and dial another number it's not the one we use for this program but that's the one that you should use to call in and make a pledge of support to focus 580 the afternoon magazine Morning Edition All Things Considered whatever the program is that you value most on this station. It needs your support. It's

really important because over the last few years we have really lost a lot of our tax based support particularly on the state level. It was something on along the lines of you know significant amounts of money like hundreds of thousands of dollars over the last few years. We rely on people who listen to supply about half of the budget for the station and so now you can see where when that other money declines. The only place that we can go for the help to make sure we have the resources that we need to do the job is to you. You folks out there who are listening. If you're already a supporter of WY A Well what we want to say things obviously that's wonderful but if not this time around we're really trying to encourage as many new friends new supporters as we can to go to the phone and pick it up and dial the number 2 4 4 9 4 5 5 and call in and make a pledge financial support to the station standing by and pledge central I think is Kim chronic and she has her job really involves outreach getting us out in the community getting people who don't

work here involved in the radio station and getting us who spent all of our time here in front of the microphones out and kind of doing other things. Word we're looking for all the ways we can to get involved in the community above and beyond the fact that you know we're doing the programming that's right David and we think that kind of outreach and programming that combination is something you don't find on commercial radio and I know listeners some appreciate that we do town halls in the community on issues that impact your life in our lives. We have a thing called the public square where you can submit a commentary on any topic of interest to you and be part of the public debate on issues. No other radio station does that. And we know it's worth supporting So give us a call 2 4 4 9 4 5 5 I do want to thank some listeners. We had Cheryl from Bloomington called in. Thanks for your pledge. Michael from Charleston thank you for your pledge he's a new member. We appreciate that. And Karen from Penfield is a returning member so we have three people who've become members in the last hour we need to have 15

by noon. So we're about one fifth of the way there. We need you to call in you know private gifts from our listeners the friends of allow us to fulfill our mission to enrich people's lives to improve democracy to give you solid information about the things you care about whether it's gardening whether it's health whether it's foreign policy all that is found on WRAL AM 580. Give us a call we want to have three hundred members by the end of this break. By the end of this drive we're up to about 55. And again we want to hear from 12 more people today by noon to reach that goal. The numbers 2 4 4 9 4 5 5. We can take your Visa Mastercard Discover or American Express or perhaps you're sitting at your computer and be easier just to go to WRAL UIUC dot edu and make a pledge you remember at the hundred dollar level and we've had several people have taken advantage of this offer you can get Ken's book the passion for gardening. That's for a pledge of $100 so please call us right now with any amount hundred dollars or more get you the

book the passion for gardening 2 4 4 9 4 5 5 and it is a beautiful book a motto if you have a chance to take a look at it. But if anyone who is a gardener I think would enjoy it and may be you there or someone who is close to you who is a gardener it would make a lovely gift. The passion for gardening can as in in addition to knowing a lot about plants and things that grow. He's a great photographer and all of the pictures in the book are his own. So it's a beautiful thing so in addition to supporting the station you will get. With our thanks to copy this book and it's really beautiful so. And that offer is good until noon so you can keep calling in the next hour as we focus on something else which Warren will be here will be talking about consumer electronics audio and video and I would encourage people to call in with their questions. Programming here on AM 580 as made possible by a grant from the thrifty Nichols American classifieds distributed each Thursday and over 100 towns in east central Illinois on the web at American classifieds dot com programs also made possible by a grant from Christopher's fine

jewelry design a gallery of imaginative jewelry and gifts in downtown champagne offering one of a kind custom designed gemstone roundtables and conflict free diamonds direct from Canada. We're going to take a break. We'll have an update on the markets and news will be back so stay tuned. The current Center for Rural Health and farm safety is proud to underwrite agricultural programming on W while the cider helps residents of rule communities with education and training and farm safety. For more information call 2 1 7.