(00:00:00) It's six minutes now past eleven o'clock and you're listening to midday on Minnesota Public Radio. This is Mark's it a click and st. Paul and my guest today is Betty sites or who runs a business called spatial Harmony for the balance of the hour will be talking Landscaping. Betty sites are specializes in Practical low maintenance and energy efficient Landscaping. Thanks a lot for coming in your car didn't blow off the road or anything this morning on the way out. No, but there is quite a wind out there. Well, we hope to hear from you with your questions about gardening and putting that Finishing Touch on your property. If you're listening in the Twin Cities, you can join our conversation by calling to to 76 thousand. That's 2276 thousand in the Twin Cities outside of the metropolitan area. If you have a question about residential Landscaping, you can talk to us by calling toll-free 1-800 to for to to 828. That's one eight hundred to four to two eight two eight. Well, I can see that the phone lines are already lighting up, but I had to ask you one question first Betty sight sir. What do you mean when you say when you talk about Energy Efficiency? Shit Landscaping. Is this something new or is this something that's always been around? Well, it's something that that has been over the past few years. There's been a lot of research at the University of Minnesota and other research universities across the country and in Canada and what we found is that by judicious placement of plants, you can actually cut heating costs in the wintertime and cooling costs in the summertime. One of the most interesting examples that that I always think of, you know, I grew up out in farm country and in the wintertime the farmers would put bales of hay around the foundation of their house because it helped keep the house warmer in the winter time and what we do in the city instead of stacking bales of hay around the houses to plant Evergreens all the way around the house and we get the same insulating effect with a much nicer appearance. And so it's Common Sense kinds of things. Where do you put the shade trees for the best year round effect. And and where do you put the shrubs and what kind of shrubs work the best for individual locations? So people can get more mileage out of Your Landscaping dollar is this something people are paying more attention to now than maybe they were in the past because there is more attention being paid now presumably to the environment and to energy costs and these sorts of things. Yes, I think so. I think people are very aware of the cost of living. I think people are very aware of landscaping and putting plants and enjoying plants and on their own property in the to sort of dovetail very nicely. Well, I've got pages of questions of my own but I suppose we better share your knowledge with the listeners. So we'll go right to the phones Terry and st. Louis Park. You're on the air with a question for Betsy sight, sir. Betty sight sir. (00:02:36) Yes. I am planning to put a head in front of my house along the boulevard. Actually. It's my side of the sidewalk and I'd like to know the best type of bushes to put in there and how far apart I should plant them. There's about 30 feet of property there and it's mainly it's an area in front of the sidewalk and it's mainly to kind of keep people who are walking. Dogs and such from turning in the yard and also just basically keep people off and so I thought instead of a fence would be nice to have a nice hedge that either is flowering or maybe just has a nice fast growing type shrubs and I just wonder what type to use for that (00:03:18) is the spot fairly sunny or are you in (00:03:20) the shade banana semi there are trees there but it's on the east side of the house so it gets the E sun in the morning and then of course, you know in the afternoon, it's Shady. (00:03:32) Okay. Are you getting Noonday Sun there (00:03:36) some somewhat? Okay. Yes. (00:03:38) And one more question. How is your soil? (00:03:40) It's pretty fairly dark and black soil. But if you go down about a foot or so it gets (00:03:47) Sandy. Okay, so you're not dealing with heavy clay (00:03:50) there. No, it's more of a saint kind of a mixture of sand and clay when you get down a foot below the topsoil. (00:03:56) Okay. Well if you wanted a nice hedge, that didn't necessarily get real. Halt you could plant any of these fiery has in there the spider Ria's bloom in the early part of the summer in June and July and if you trim them back a little bit, you'll get a second flush of Bloom the colors range from White through shades of pink and red and that makes a very nice low maintenance kind of hedge. I also like in a kind of a shady spot like that Alpine current makes a wonderful hedge, even though it doesn't Bloom it's a nice Green Hedge and you can keep it well trimmed. So it's got a good height on there. You're a little too shady for some of the shrub roses which for people who are looking for a hedge to 203 or four feet tall in a real Sunny Spot shrub roses make a wonderful hedge, but I wouldn't try them in your case because you want something that's going to be more shade tolerant. You could try arborvitaes evergreens make a wonderful hedge and of course, they're more year-round than some of the things that will drop their leaves arborvitaes. Um again can be trimmed to a very nice size and if you wanted a lower hedge and it sounds like you do the hets midget our bird our Arbor Vitae would be a good a good bet for you there. Now. Is it too late put it this way? Is it possible? If you put a shrub in this here that that shrub will actually be two three four five feet tall this year by the end of this year or does it take several years to build up a good shrub. Well Hedges take a different amount of time depending on the size that you start with and of course, there's a cost trade off the larger the shrub the more it's going to cost you generally the Deciduous shrubs the things that drop their leaves grow faster than the evergreen shrubs. And so if you want a shrub that's going to very quickly get to a large size. Then you should look at a deciduous shrub or by a larger Evergreen the distance that you plant them apart is is dependent on the plant that you buy and if you if you are using any of the Spy Ria's you would want to plant them so that there is About two two and a half feet between plants. The Alpine current would be about two feet between plants to get a nice thick hedge quickly. You're listening to midday on Minnesota Public Radio. Betty sites. Are is the guest and we're talking about residential Landscaping. Let's go to the phones Wes and Lake Elmo. You're on with a question for Betty sight, sir (00:06:20) morning Mark morning Betty. Good morning. I've got a question about some landscape timbers. I salvaged an old barn that had a lot of like eight by eight and ten by ten sighs beams their untreated. I wondered if they're usable for anything contacting the ground and how to treat them. The second question would be I've got a lot of cement to pour around my house for walkways and stuff and I want to know if there is a form around that I can get to make a brick pattern in that poured cement and I'll just hang up and (00:06:49) listen. First of all on the Timbers. There are spray on treatments that people use on Timbers the the problem with them is that you spray them on once and then Build the wall and you pack soil against one side of those Timbers and you're going to find that they're going to very quickly wrought with the effort that you have to put into building a retaining wall. You really want to be dealing with a pressure treated product and the product should be labeled with some kind of a statement of a guarantee from the company that did the pressure treating and that's your protection that the Timbers are going to last long enough to justify all that work because it is a lot of work to put up a retaining wall with Salvage Timbers like that. What you could do with them is make a raised bed planter and rather than filling with soil use large pots in the pots that your shrubs came in would be a good bet and set the pots down in there so that there's not actual soil contact with those Timbers. I hope that gives you something to do with them since you've got the material it's nice to find a way to use it. The concrete work is it is another issue now commercial concrete workers do have forms that they actually stamp. Patterns into the concrete and as far as I know these are not available to the general public but they do make wonderful wonderful patterns and you could call some of the concrete people in the Yellow Pages and see what they might be willing to do with you as far as getting you a pattern on the concrete. I have seen a plastic form that people use for sidewalks and this is available to residential people and it makes a path about two or two and a half feet wide and it it's supposed to look like random Stone in the form itself is maybe two and a half feet square. So you do little sections of concrete and work your way down that might offer you a good alternative to getting you know, a pattern other than just plain concrete. It's interesting to what people are doing with concrete. Now, I wasn't aware that you could do some of the things that you can do now. I was going through a landscaping book a couple of weeks ago in the dyeing it and shaping it. You can turn it in almost anything. It does not look like your industrial concrete anymore. Oh, no. At all and they've got additives that you can put into it that will prevent cracking. Some of the fiber additives are offering good promise for concrete because it's a very economical material another thing that's available now in this market that I've seen they have a pebble surface that they mix with an epoxy that they actually spread on the concrete that will give you a high gloss of very very nice sophisticated finish on concrete again at a reasonable price. So look for some of those products to help keep your costs down Betty sites here as a guest and you're listening to midday and Minnesota Public Radio. It's about 16 minutes past eleven. This is Mark zdechlik in the Twin Cities. If you have a question about residential Landscaping, we'd love to hear from you this morning. If you're listening in the Twin Cities area, you can join our conversation by calling two two seven six thousand that's 2276 thousand in the Twin Cities. If you have a question about Landscaping outside of the metropolitan area call us toll free anywhere. You can hear the broadcast 1-800 to for To 2828 toll free once again one eight hundred two, four two two eight two eight David Minneapolis. You're on the air with a question. (00:10:08) You've got a question for you. I've got a some Evergreens and some shade of the area flight Hill that faces basically North I'm having difficulty getting any grass to grow. Their first question is is there an easy way to test the acidity of the soil at the weather how much lime I should add secondly once I determine that and balance out the soil. What should I plant there so I can get some ground covers to keep the erosion from going away or grass or should I go to something else? (00:10:36) Well, there are a couple of different things. Let's let's deal with the soil testing first. There's an easy way to get your soil tested actually there a couple easy ways. You can go to any Garden Center nursery and buy a very inexpensive soil test kit that will tell you what kind of acidity you're dealing with there. And then if you need to make an adjustment, we'll talk about that in a minute. The other way that you can get your soil tested is to call the University of Minnesota extension office and they will send you a soil test kit and this will be much more accurate and much more complete of a soil test kit. I've got the number for the different counties. What county do you live in? I think we are lost got is we have a general number for the extension office or well the Extension office's are different in different counties and they there are they're all different numbers. Okay. Maybe we should give him a pen and Ramsey and leave it at that then another puke a the Ramsey County extension office would be 7 7 7 1327 the Hennepin County office would be 374 8400 and you can call those numbers and ask for soil test kit. There is a charge for the soil testing but it is a much more complete and accurate soil test. Once you get that tested then you can find out if you have an acid soil you can add lime to it to bring bring the pH back to a more normal level. If you have a very alkaline soil you can use some of the acid type fertilizers and that's usually not a problem around here to get things to grow in shady areas on a heel grass does not like that that kind of environment especially if you have what's most common in this part of the country of bluegrass. At type of Lon the best thing if you want to try to grow grass you want to get some of the fescues red fresh red Fescue creeping Fescue chewings Fescue and they are shade tolerant and they're wonderful because they really don't get real tall and they're not as fast growing as Bluegrass. So they tend to be lower maintenance. I am not a big grass fan because it does have to be mowed and it does take a lot of care. I like ground covers. One of the best of course is hostile lilies. And if you haven't looked into these there are lots of different kinds of hostile lilies, they're grown as foliage plants mostly in they have large green leaves green and white leaves blue leaves there lots of different color combinations for that foliage there drought-tolerant. They're very tough. They'll take over the Hillside and the distance that you plant them apart depends on the Hostile Lily because they do have quite a size range in that family. Some of them only get about a foot around others. Cover 3 Square 3 feet hostilities are great Sweet Woodruff is a wonderful ground cover. It's a little more delicate looking kind of plant that blooms in the spring and I like that as a shady ground cover. There are some other things pachysandra. You want Emma SAR also Shady Ground Covers, but I think for something that's going to be low maintenance and will tolerate that shady heal. Their hostile lilies are probably the best bet. Okay, and for the soil testing just to clarify again people can call their local County Extension office's mmm find out what they need to do if they want the county to actually test their soil. Yes. Okay. Let's go back to the phones Mary Lou and Minneapolis. You're on the air with bits Betty sight sir. (00:14:01) Good morning, Mark and Betty. Is there a wonderful plant? Anyway, I have a question about a little magnolia tree that I've had for about four or five years and it has yet to bloom. It gets really nice leaves in all throughout the summer, but it never bloom The spring and I'm wondering what I should do about it or if there's anything I can do about it (00:14:26) what Magnolias Magnolias are wonderful they bloom early in the spring very fragrant flowers. The catch is they want to be in Southern Iowa or Southern Illinois. They're they're kind of an import here. The best luck that I've had with them is is getting them planted in the correct location. And the correct location is sometimes a little difficult to find they have to be where they're very sheltered particularly sheltered from winter sun and they do like some Summer Sun. So people always wonder how do you get them in the shade in the winter? And in the sun in the summertime, I do it by planting mine on the north side of my house and I have a two-story house. So in the winter time, the sun is at that little lower angle and that magnolia tree is shaded all winter long. And the reason for that is that you don't want those buds to start opening too early in the spring. We'll get these light. Boss these late cold weather days and if those buds have already started to grow and open up, it'll freeze them right off and they're done. They're there is no coming back from that in the summertime on the north side of the house because the sun is higher in the sky than the Magnolia is in the sun All Summer Long now, they do set their buds in the fall and they look like pussy willows their kind of fluffy and soft like little catkins. And so you want to see if you're getting buds on there. Then you know what the problem is is that you're losing them over the winter somehow by exposure to wind and cold or by exposure to Sun in the winter time. If you're not getting flower buds at all, then you've got a problem either with not getting enough nutrients in the soil or not getting enough sun in the summertime and and again location would be location location location, like the real estate people say that would be the thing to do would be to move it to a little bit better spot. I suppose a lot of people listening right now probably have some questions or would like to know what kind of Maintenance things they should be doing around their their yards. Now. That spring is here. Could we just do that housekeeping question right now and sort of get it out of the way. What kind of things do people need to be doing right now. Well right now is a good time. You know, we're going to get warm weather this weekend things are going to be popping. And so you want to go around today and kind of take an inventory. I look at the lawn this time of year. And if you live in an area where snow plows have plowed snow up onto your Boulevard get out there and rake that sand off of that grass rake it back into the street so that the grass crowns aren't suffocated. I also look at whether or not I had crabgrass last year and and start planning to use that pre-emergent around the 10th of May or so to get that under control. It's a good time to look at the large shrubs that you might have the large multi-stemmed shrubs like dogwood. The viburnum is and The Cranberries lilacs even and if they've gotten a little big for their spot or they're looking a little bit out of Control, it's not too late to go out and give them a good pruning with multi-stemmed shrubs. I take out the largest stems and I cut them off right at ground level so that I get some of those younger more attractive stems growing and then if I need to I'll cut the tops back but I always like to do as much pruning at the ground as possible. The other thing that you want to be thinking about if you have oak trees is that it's time to stop pruning them and wait now until fall. I also like to see perennial beds get cleaned up, you know, if you're like me in the fall of the year, you don't have a lot of interest in being out there when it's cold and pulling dead leaves off of things. So now if you haven't done that already go out and get those Dead Leaves off last year's perennials and start getting ready for this year's growth. This is a personal question I guess but what if you're afraid to prune your trees and shrubs because you think you might be taking too much off of them and hurting the plants that sort of thing. Is there a rule of thumb to doing that and do is it true maybe that some people don't do it because they worry they'll kill the plant at this. Many people I you know, I think fear of pruning is one of the biggest fears in the Horticultural world because people are afraid that it's hurting the plant and there are some things that you can do generally speaking one rule of thumb. I like to tell people if you've got a tree or a shrub that has gotten big overgrown ugly. It's in the way and it's causing you a problem. What have you got to lose by pruning? So so that's the one to practice on and see what your pruning does a lot of large shrubs can be cut back very severely and if they've got a good root system, they're going to come back for it. And now I'm talking about deciduous. That is the shrubs that lose their leaves rather than Evergreens Evergreens like to be trimmed but not cut back when you're pruning. If you're pruning something with a lot of stems you want to think in terms of pruning is close to the ground as possible when you're pruning things that bloom it's always safe to prune them right after they've finished blooming anything can be can be trimmed at that time when you're pruning trees. It's important to Young trees particularly trees that have a trunk diameter of less than four inches. You should be pruning those just about every winter and the only real rule of thumb to remember on that is that you want to make the correct cut and an easy way to do that. If you if you hold your hand out in front of you with the Palm facing away fingers facing up and put your thumb up at about a 45-degree angle. You'll see a little fold of skin there where your thumb connects to your hand on the top part that fold of skin. We're going to pretend that your thumb now is a tree branch and what we're going to call that is the branch collar now on a tree if you go out and look at your trees, you'll see something very similar to that little fold of skin. And that's the branch collar. Once you see it on the top then you'll be able to follow it around the branch when you make your pruning cut on a tree you want to cut as close to that Branch collar as you can without actually cutting into it and that will become the Catalyst material that heals that wound over so young trees Them in the wintertime February March. We're getting a little bit late now because the buds are starting to swell but you cut off low branches you cut off branches that cross each other you cut off branches that are maybe too close together. If they're an inch or two apart cut off one of them and the tree then we'll use the extra energy that it has to put on new growth. The next year. Betty sites are is a guest and we're talking residential Landscaping today on. Midday. We have a lot of people on the line and we'll start getting through some of those calls Marjorie and pin Galley Minnesota. You're on the air. (00:20:52) Thank you. I guess that you I my question is right in line with what you were talking about. We put in White Pine seedlings 14 of them about four years ago last summer the there was a lot of water they grew the top part grew 12 or 14 inches this now the snow is gone and we see that's all turned brown that new growth that was from last year. Should we be cutting off for it's (00:21:16) brown? Well, you want to wait it's a little bit early to be (00:21:19) Thing (00:21:20) that off yet. I'd like to see you wait and see what happens with the buds as a general rule of thumb evergreens are trimmed in late June and some of those trees you'll find will have buds along that growing tip along the leader that will Sprout out and grow others of them will not and they've had more severe damage all of them. You want to be looking at them at that time and in late June to make sure that there's a leader and the leader is just one Central little Branch that's growing straight up in the air when they get winter damage and it's very common for seedlings to have winter damage and for the young trees to have winter damage, but what will happen is that the leader will be killed out and now the plant is very confused. You know, it's like a country where the King dies everybody's running around saying who's going to be the boss. And so you have to choose the new leader of that tree and you look for one little shoot that's growing as straight up as possible. And sometimes they're they're not growing very straight, but they will if you cut out all of The competitors and let that become the new leader. You can also later in May fertilize those with a fertilizer that's formulated. It'll say on the label that it's for evergreens and give those trees a little bit of nutrient boost and then watch and see what happens with the buds. But besides that I don't know that you came prepared for this but let's go down to Augusta, Georgia and Gisela. Good morning. (00:22:44) Good morning. Good morning question. I will be moving up to Columbus Ohio from the nice warm climate to the iceberg age. There are certain plants. We've had from family members and friends that we've moved from house to house and I have a feeling some of them are not going to grow up there for instance. What about gardenias? (00:23:09) Gardenias, you know, you're right you're moving up to an area. That's a little bit colder course Columbus. Ohio is quite a bit warmer than Minnesota is so you haven't quite gotten to the iceberg yet gardenias will grow fairly well for you, if you keep them in a pot and in this part of the country, we take them in in the winter time and move them out in the summertime actually here in Minnesota, which is a whole whole lot colder than Columbus Ohio. I know several people who have some that are five or six feet tall and are doing very well with that that practice and we wait until the fall just before it starts to frost and that's going to be sometime in September there for you in Columbus and then move that pot into the house and a nice sunny window in the summertime. It goes into a semi shaded place on a patio or in the backyard. Okay, and explain to people listening that Gizelle has probably listening on cable. George either that she has an enormous antenna Michelle and Minnetonka you're on the air with Betty sight sir. (00:24:12) Thank you. Good morning. I have a question. I'm living in a single-family dwelling that's part of an association and I have a northern wall that has no windows. It's just siding and a roof line. I'm looking for something that would be cost effective to improve the appearance, but I'm not going to be here long. So I don't want to invest too much. (00:24:33) Okay, the northern wall. You have an area that you can plant right next to that. How wide is that (00:24:39) area? I can go up to three feet from the (00:24:42) wall. Oh, so you need something. That's very upright. There are of course a couple of vines that will work for you there. And you want to check with the association. They may have rules on planting Vines Boston Ivy will work for you in a shady location like that. There is another Vine that you would need to provide some trellis work for but it would be something unusual and very Active and that's called the Dutchman's pipe vine. And like I said for Dutchman's pipe, you need to provide some trellis Boston Ivy will climb on its own the Dutchman's pipe has really large heart-shaped leaves and very very attractive in the summer time. Now for a columnar thing that's going to give you some good height and grow really quickly columnar Buckthorn is your best bet because that is a very fast growing shrub. It's very tolerant. You can keep it trimmed of trim to that with you're going to need to plant fairly close there. So you want to put it out at least two feet from the house and then start with some plants that are maybe three or four feet tall. So you get some good growth on it and water it. Well, it will grow pretty quickly for you. Okay, let's take another call Mary Ellen in Brooklyn Park morning. (00:25:58) Hi. I'm calling about the issue of the concrete driveway. We had one installed about eight to ten years ago. And since that time it suffered some erosion. And it has a lot of stains and discolorations and we're wondering if there's anything short of replacing it that can make it look new again some kind of (00:26:15) resurfacing. Well, there are some resurfacing ideas that sometimes work resurfacing is going to be a short-term and not a permanent cure. And so if you are looking at maybe putting off the cost of replacing it for a few years or getting it spruced up to sell you might want to look at some of the short-term options you're going to need to talk to a concrete contractor because this is not a do-it-yourself project in my opinion and talk to them about about resurfacing it either with a concrete surface or that Pebble surface that I was talking about. The they mix very small stones stones that are about a quarter of an inch in diameter with an epoxy and they can spread that on and that might you might be able to use that in some of the areas maybe along the edge too. Create a nicer appearance but really for concrete the that's eight or ten years old you are looking at replacement either sooner or later is concrete lasting now longer than it used to as well. So someone who puts a new concrete thing driveway and now might well expect it to last much longer than would have been the case 20 years ago. Definitely especially if you're using some of the new high density concrete's or if you're using concrete that's got some of the like I talked about the fibers that have been mixed in with a concrete. It does add a lot to the longevity. How does a homeowner make sure he or she is getting the best deal on concrete and and getting the right kind for the job this sort of thing. Well with any contractor when you're dealing with Landscaping, I like to tell people to ask their friends who have you used go around the neighborhood take a walk in the evening. Look at some of the new neighborhoods that are being constructed and find out who the contractors are there. Ask for references drive by see some of their work and especially when you're asking for references a To talk to people who've had the work done three or four or five years ago rather than people last summer who had the work done, but I think a referral from a friend is a wonderful way to find out who a good contractor is Betty sites. Are is a guest in your listening to midday on Minnesota Public Radio. It's about 25 minutes before 12 noon. This is Mark's it a click and st. Paul. If you have a question about residential Landscaping and Gardening and these sorts of things. You can join our conversation by calling two two seven six thousand. If you listening in the Twin Cities metropolitan area, that's two two seven six thousand in the Twin Cities outside of the Twin Cities. You can call toll-free at 1-800-222-8477. 802 for 22828. Let's go back to the phones to Eden Prairie with the question from Patrick (00:28:54) III. Thanks for all the good information on the show today. I was wondering if you could talk a little bit about what kinds of environmental hazards if any are associated with the use of use ties for retaining (00:29:08) walls You know, I've run across a few people who have have gotten huge quantities of these railroad ties and wanted to use them for retaining walls. And and I think that price is probably the biggest motivating factor railroad ties have been treated with creosote which is an incredibly effective would preserver and so people like that because they know that it's going to last a long time and it does really give them kind of an advantage in that way. I'm not a big fan of creosote. I have found that it's difficult to grow plants next to the next to the wall unless the the Timbers are very old and the creosote has has been pretty much leached out of it. I don't like the smell of it. You can't sit on the wall without worrying about getting your clothes stained, especially on hot sunny days. It's not a material that I recommend people use in the home landscape, but I have to say that the treatment materials that are used on Timbers to make them. Work in ground conditions all of the materials offer environmental hazards. And so you you weigh one against the other for instance. One of the most popular treatments for Timbers right now is CCA and you'll see that stamped on the wood or you'll see a little tag attached that says treated with CCA that's chromatid copper arsenate, which is not something that you'd want to add to your lunch this afternoon. And so when you're cutting those Timbers anything that's been treated with a chemical like that. You want to wear face protection and skin protection. I recommend good heavy gloves and long sleeve shirts face mask and safety glasses to be worn at all times when you're handling the Timbers a good alternative on the market in the past old five six years has been an explosion of these concrete products for building retaining walls, all kinds of different shapes and sizes and weights and colors of concrete blocks and they do offer a wonderfully safe alternative and I think Lot easier for Homeowner to work with when they don't have to cut Timbers with chainsaws and be pounding nails with sledgehammers. I think they're that for a lot of reasons. They make a better choice. There's no doubt when it comes to Landscaping environmental concerns come up quite a bit. I mean, we should talk a little bit about some of the chemicals people put on their lawns. I don't remember the statistic but something the effect of an acre of a residential Gardens and Lawns uses many fold more chemicals in an acre of farmland or something like this and then oftentimes people at least According to some of the the officials or whatever aren't putting the stuff on the right way and they're using too much of it and putting it on at the wrong time. So some of the fertilizers and chemicals and poisons in this sort of (00:31:54) thing are running off in the wrong (00:31:55) areas. How did how do you do a responsible job by using some of these things that you can arm yourself with that almost any hardware store? Well, you know, you're absolutely right that the average homeowner is using way too much and when you walk into a garden center Hardware, There's so many choices on the shelf and they're all offered for sale. You don't have to sign anything or get any approval from anybody to buy it. And so people assume that they're safe the first rule of thumb that I tell people to be very sure is it is to be very sure that you need the chemical before you put it on and what let's talk about groups of chemicals. There are pesticides for killing bugs pesticides are great because we do have some plants that are attacked by bugs that can cause some serious damage the catch is that the pesticides are generally not selective and so we're seeing a declining butterfly population. We're seeing a declining bird population because these pesticides are so effective and I always tell people to keep in mind that a pesticide is something that will kill if it'll kill a bug it will kill you the truth. The dose is just different and so you want to use responsibly if you have a bug on your lawn or on a tree or a shrub first thing is to identify what it is and you can do that very easily call dial you Call 119 760200. That's one nine seven 60200 and there is a charge for this call or call your County Extension agent and they will give you information about how to get that bug identified. And the reason you want to identify it is to determine whether or not it's a hazard to the plant or to the lon. If it's not a hazard don't treat it just think it's cute get a magnifying glass study its life. If it is a hazard. You have two options one option, of course is to treat it with chemicals the other option if it's a shrub is to remove the shrub and plant something that doesn't have a bug pests. And I think that's by far the better option. We try sometimes to grow plants in places where they don't belong and that's why we get bugs. The second group of chemicals are herbicides. And those are the things that we use to kill weeds. Now. They are wonderful in terms of being Time Savers and in terms of improving appearance, but again, Think about first of all do you really need to control? The weed for years The Better Homes and Gardens kind of lawn that looked absolutely perfect. Even up close was the the norm and the ideal that we all worked for now. I think it's a little better to think in terms of accepting a few weeds in the yard rather than to broadcast weed control or to spot treat weeds walk around the yard rather than spreading dandelion control on your whole lawn for five dandelions walk around and Spritz each one individually or better yet. Pull it by hand. You're going to have a lot better weed control if you're using crabgrass preventive. No reason to spray the whole lawn if the only place you have it is on the boulevard herbicides used correctly can be very safe and can do a good job for us, but you cannot just spread it because you don't want to have a single weed in your Lon the third class of chemicals. I would call fertilizers. And the best thing for your lawn is to call the County Extension agent get a soil test and find out what you need for fertilizer. And if you've been fertilizing three four five times a year and you don't have sandy soil you need to stop that right now. The best fertilizing is done in the fall. I fertilize around September 15th and around October 15th, and that's plenty for most Lawns and if you get your soil tested, you'll know what you need. The university is recommending a lot less fertilizer than they used to two pounds of nitrogen a year and it will be enough for most Lawns, especially if you leave the clippings on you get a mulching lawn mower fertilizers, cause a lot of runoff problems in an especially in areas where it can run off into ponds where you'll get the pond will be destroyed in a very short course of time. So responsible use generally means using a lot less and first of all determining whether you actually need it or not, we end up saving quite a bit of money to because this stuff isn't cheap. Let's go back to the phones. Good morning Michael and Minneapolis. (00:36:05) I've got a question. I had one question when I started while I was on hold I came up with another but the first question my wife when I just bought a house and we've got an archway on the northeast corner that we were thinking about planting a clematis on to grow up and over and was wondering things like how long would it take for it to cover a good area and Bloom what type size of plan should be looking for and what should we expect to pay for cost and the second question. We've also got a very lumpy Lon and I was thinking about rolling it but didn't know when we should how often and whether or not that was really going to solve the problem. (00:36:44) Well, let's let's take the first question first and congratulations on your new house. You've got all kinds of new opportunities to experiment with growing things on the northeast corner of your house. Now. I had a on my old house. I had a clematis on the northeast corner that did quite well it did. However always try to reach around to where the sun Shone most on that corner clematis like to be planted where their roots are going to be in the shade and the top will be in the Sun. So if you've got a one-story house, that'll work quite well. You will find it won't Leaf out very well at the bottom. And so you might want to plant some hostile lilies or something else around the bottom of it to to hide that bareness clematis does require a trellis to climb and they can be they can be left to grow for several years without pruning or you can cut them back every year. If you want to kind of get control of it you asked about how long it would take to get a good size. Aunt when you buy them you're going to find them in Old probably about a six-inch pot and that's that's the only size I've seen on the market either a round or Square pot and the little plant will be attached to a stick and that young plant is very brittle more people than not break those off when they're planting them. But the the plant should come back and grow just fine for you. I would expect in about two to three years. It would be tall enough to go up to the top of the trellis. And from there. It'll just Thinkin out and get a little bit wider after that if you cut it down every year if you cut it back so that the stems are all about 18 inches to 2 feet tall. It will get back to the top of the trellis by the end of the summer every year you can expect to pay oh and an average seven to Fifteen dollars for a clematis sometimes more and I want to urge you to look around for some of the newer hybrids that are on the market for Years. Everybody planted the the Jack man, which is the deep blue clematis, and it's very nice, but there are some There are some striped flowers that are red and white lots of shades of pink and white. One of my favorites is called Hagley hybrid and that has flowers that actually fade as they open their kind of a pink color and they'll fade and so it looks like it has multiple colors on there. So they're wonderful plants and you can plant them in a sunny or location as well. So some of those of you who have full sun take a look at planting those because they are nice now with the law and the lumpiness in the lawn is a whole nother problem most of the time it's a good idea to find out why it was lumpy because rolling sometimes will work but more often than not it tends to compact the soil. And so you'll have other problems what I like to do with a with a lumpy lawn is to plan about a three to a four year plan of changing that and what I start with in the fall of the year and sometimes you could do it twice a year you could do it in the spring and in late. Is a good time to do this but aerate the lawn do a core aeration that actually pulls some soil up out of the ground and spreads it out on the top. I do a core aeration and then I oversee the lawn with a grass seed that's appropriate for the the sun exposure either a shady mixer Sunny mix and then I spread Milorganite on top of it and water it. Well the Hope being that you're going to kind of get some soil down into those low areas and build it up. Sometimes lumpiness is from from worms. Sometimes lumpiness is from Little Critters that are burrowing under the lon. And sometimes the lumpiness is just because when the lawn was put in in the first place, it wasn't handled well and so getting somebody to help you identify what the cause of the problem is so that you can get rid of it would be a good idea. But he cites here's a guest in your listening to midday on Minnesota Public Radio. A lot of people on the line will try to get to as many questions as we can in the remaining 12 13 minutes here, Debra and Cottage Grove. Good morning. (00:40:43) Good morning. I also came up with another question while I was waiting. The first one is a morning glory doesn't need a trellis or kind of grew up on the side of the house. And the second question is all alone has their big patches of dry grass just sitting on top of Law and when you pick up those patches with your hand, it's just you're just seeing Earth underneath. It says if large patches of the lawn have just died over the winter. What would you what would be your recommendation for dealing with (00:41:14) that? Okay morning glories must have a trellis. So that's easy to answer with the lon rake off that dry grass. And then in those areas where it has dried you want to identify again what the problem is, I would call the extension office and get the soil test kit have the soil tested and then talk to the extension agent. You may have a disease in the lawn that you need to treat. And so you need to identify that. Okay Stephen Rochester. You're on the air with Betty sites here. (00:41:42) Yes, my wife and I live on a lake and are putting in a 30 by 50 Beach area the lake which means hauling in a fair amount of sand my question deals with the preparation of the ground before I bring in all this and I've gotten a lot of suggestions such as plastic and Landscaping felt and all sorts of chemicals, but I don't really want to use any chemicals and I also don't want any weeds or maintenance. What do you suggest I put down before I bring in all the sand. (00:42:07) Well creating a beach where there wasn't one, you know your kind of fighting Mother Nature on that one and it may be a losing battle because she's bigger and tougher than all of us. But if you do want to bring in this and I would not put down any plastic or landscape fabric, you're going to find that coming back up and causing you a lot of problems later on. I would clear the area of weeds by raking them pulling them getting them out of there and then just spread the sand right on top of the soil. Okay, let's take another call lonni and Minneapolis. You're on the air with Betty sites here. (00:42:36) All right. Yes. I'm calling about a walnut tree. I just moved into it very new very old house. And the walnut trees at least two stories high and I want to put I want to put an apples and pear trees on the section of lawn. Is that going to is the walnut tree going to be toxic for that? And the second question is if I were to harvest that tree would be expense outweigh the sale of the Walnut, which I know can be sold. (00:43:05) Well on the first question walnut trees create a chemical called juggling which is in the root system and it is toxic to many plants apples and pears included the problem that you're going to find is that even if you cut down that tree the root system has spread so far throughout your entire lawn that it's going to be persistent for a very very long time. And so you can call your extension agent and get a list of plants that will grow under walnuts now as to the cost of harvesting that I'm not sure about you're going to want to find somebody who actually would be willing to take the wood and turn it into Lumber and to buy it from you to get some some prices on that. Okay back to the phone lines, Joan and Inver Grove Heights. You're on the air with Betty sites here. (00:43:50) Hi, I'm yes. I was wondering if it's too early to say it to go on yet. (00:43:56) Well, I would not do it just yet. I would let the girl let the grass green up a little bit and it gets a little bit stronger and she said Thats Right thats. Okay. She wanted to detach the lon. But I would wait a couple weeks on that yet. Okay, let's go back to the phone lines. Good morning. You're on the air with the question for Betty sight sir. (00:44:15) Yes, Betty have two different clematis, Montana Rubens and sweet Autumn the sweet Autumn. Should it be pruned back to the ground or should we leave it about 18 inches you she was suggesting and the Montana Rubens is it to be left full growth or should it? Also be pruned back (00:44:36) boy. I'm not sure about that. Most of them I cut back and leave them about. Inches tall in order to have some some stems there that will grow and I like to cut them back. Oh sometime over the wintertime. Now you could do that right now in early spring up until oh maybe about a week and a half from now would be the end of the time that I'd want to have that done. Okay, let's take another call. Good morning. You're on the air with ready sight sir. (00:45:05) Hi, we have a home out in Plymouth with newly sodded grass about two years old and we've had a problem with the mice or the voles eating along the grass in the winter. Now in the spring, it's all chewed up. What should we do to repair that? (00:45:19) Yeah, those vowels can do quite a job. They go along under the snow and eat those grass crowns. What I would do. First of all is to reseed those areas and you can go ahead and put grass seed on right now and get that with a starter fertilizer. So it grows pretty well. The next thing is to treat the voles in the fall to get some kind of either capture. Poisoning so you don't have the same problem next year. Okay. Let's go back down to Rochester John. You're on the air with Betty sites here. (00:45:49) Hi Betty. I was just calling to see if there's any trick to helping some trumpet vine trying to bloom. I've had them in a couple of years and I've seen no blooms yet. And I'm just wondering if maybe I'm rushing them or if there's some way that I can help that (00:46:01) along well trumpet vine. That's another plant that wants to be in Southern Iowa there marginally Hardy here and you may just have to wait and see and let the plant grow as it will you could try fertilizing it with a fertilizer formulated for Blooming shrubs and that would or for perennials and that would help you out a little bit for people who are beginning with their first home. You were here a lot right now that the real estate markets going crazy and a lot of new home construction. There are a lot of people probably listening that are sitting in their house looking at a yard that might be just dirt with just a couple of trees if any trees what kind of things can they start doing this spring in hopes of having some sort of landscaping this summer. I think the first thing people should do is put a shade tree in and you want to shade so that you shade the south west facing Windows not straight south of the house Southwest of the house is where you put the shade tree. And and so that you get that growing because they do take a long time. The second thing is there should be Evergreens around the foundation and I think that's a good priority because it does improve the appearance of the home. It gives you the energy energy conservation that we talked about earlier and it's going to give you good resale value down the road and then the third thing I always tell people to put a little flower garden or some blooming shrubs outside the windows where you can see them from the inside because you'll really enjoy them. Okay, go ahead and I especially like people to look at some of the shrub roses that are on the market. Now if you have a Sunny Spot, if you don't have a Sunny Spot if you got a shady place look at a still bees. This is a perennial that is wonderful has a long period of Bloom and really really pretty in the Summertime. What do you recommend to put underneath Evergreens in these sorts, if you're putting Evergreens and around the foundation of a house, do you recommend a rock garden or because grass normally is not going to grow their what do you recommend doing with that the ground? Well, I'm a I'm very anti-rock. I like wood mulch either shredded wood wood chips You Can Get It Free from you can call NSP or call tree trimmers in your area and ask them about getting chips. You can get very nice wood chips that have been screened and they're all the same size or shredded wood from several different places check with your local Nursery or garden center wood chips are a wonderful mulch. They keep the soil temperature constant. They hold moisture in the soil. So the plants can grow very well. They add organic matter to the soil. And by the way, we don't put plastic or landscape fabric under our wood chips because you know plants breathe and take in water through their roots. And if you put plastic over the part of you that breathes in takes in water, you wouldn't live very long. It really doesn't do. Many favors, if you have to have Rock then you would use a landscape fabric that will let air and water through to the roots of the plants but really wood mulch is by far the better choice. Okay, let's go off to River Falls, Wisconsin Audrey. You're on the air with Betty site, (00:48:56) sir many. I wish you would reconsider telling people to plant Buckthorn RC are a group of spends hours in these deep Parks trying to get rid of that invasive (00:49:07) exotic. Well in this in the state parks, it is a problem for people in the urban areas, you know, the caller earlier asked about planting it by her by her condominium. And for these people it makes a wonderful hedge and here we're talking about the columnar Buckthorn that does make a wonderful wonderful quick-growing Hedge for us. Okay. We have a caller from Missoula Montana on the are presumably another person listening to Capel. Good morning. (00:49:35) Hello. This is Kim Bellinger. I have a question for you about a tall blue spruce hedge. It's 10 feet tall. About eight feet thick and it's very hard for me to prune. Do you can I cut that back? So it's shorter and not as (00:49:48) thick. Well, are you talking about blue spruce trees planted as a hedge? Yeah. Oh, okay blue spruce trees want to be 50 to 60 feet tall. And so trying to keep them under 10 feet tall. You're really fighting some strong growth forces here. You can cut them back. What you will find is that you will shorten the lifespan of that hedge significantly, it will start making multiple leaders. And so you're pruning will be to go into that tree. Continually not just cutting across the top with a hedge Clipper but going inside and cutting out some of those competing leaders as they develop into heavier stems and you could maintain it that way for a period of time and we have time for a real quick question last question from you'll in (00:50:33) Roseville. Yeah. I have a comment for the thousands of people that make retain acquired out of railroad ties. They lured ties in contact with the soil last about 12 years, which you can found that out. There is a park down Saint Anthony Main and I it was built in 1972 in 84. I just happened to be there and they were already rotting so they don't last forever. Uh, they don't about now one way to extend the Lifetime by a factor of 3 is I lined them on the side that they are contacting the dirt with plastic you see then they are not in contact with the plastic and you know, black plastic is the best. Hmm. Now if you put them vertically if you use them defense don't I stick the bottom part in a plastic bag, you know on the drop the railroad times, you know with a plastic bag around into the ground and then tab (00:51:31) possibly. Okay. Well, thanks a lot for that suggesting we have to go now Betty sites or thanks a lot for being here on midday today. Betty sites are runs a business called spatial Harmony, and we've been talking about residential. Landscaping appreciate you coming in? Thank you for having me. Midday is made possible on Saturday by the oriental rug company specializing in sales and service of handmade oriental rugs and located in Minneapolis at 50th and Bryant the technical producers for the program have been Clifford Bentley and Bryant honest and kitty Isley produced midday today. This is Mark zdechlik. Thanks so much for tuning in.