00:00:32
Speaker 1: And welcome back. You are listening to Let's Guard with Scott Berline. Can be heard on 52 stations around the country and available as a live stream on the iHeart app if you don't get good reception where you live. And all the podcasts are available. All the past shows are available as a podcast wherever podcasts are available. There's your microphone.
00:00:57
Speaker 2: Yeah.
00:00:58
Speaker 1: Well, I'll tell you what. Let's go to Dave. He's on the line. Probably has a question. What's up, Dave?
00:01:06
Speaker 3: Sorry about the probably. I felt bad. I left the weights on Saturday mornings, and these guys are dead left between 500 and 600 pounds and benching 500 pounds, so I'm scared of them, not you.
00:01:18
Speaker 1: Oh, yeah, I would be.
00:01:21
Speaker 3: I'm running so late this morning, it doesn't matter. Yeah, so the lettuce, I don't remember the.
00:01:29
Speaker 1: Soil and the You called, yeah, several weeks ago had soil that was not, a garden bed that was not producing any kind of lettuce and beets or whatever would not grow there. And so we suggested a few things and you got an update.
00:01:45
Speaker 2: I guess.
00:01:47
Speaker 3: Well, I mixed the, some of the soil, I just remixed it. I just, and I finally got some lettuce seeds and they came up, they, they, came up through the ground pretty quickly. I don't know how they're going to do. I mean, I'm not going to be able to probably harvest them, but that seemed to go okay.
00:02:03
Speaker 2: Yeah.
00:02:04
Speaker 3: Well, but the other ones I thought I realized, I thought my wife was watering our little garden plot.
00:02:09
Speaker 2: Oh, dear.
00:02:10
Speaker 3: You thought. And I found out she wasn't.
00:02:12
Speaker 1: Oh, bad wife.
00:02:13
Speaker 3: And the shoot, well, I'm going to ask her if she might be listening. It's very nice. I love you, honey. But it's just one of them once or twice, and The lettuce that was there like sprang a whole nother level of, it almost looked like new nodes came out.
00:02:32
Speaker 4: On the top.
00:02:33
Speaker 1: Oh, interesting. Okay. So it put no growth.
00:02:36
Speaker 3: None of the peppers I planted came up. None of the, none of them. And then I mixed some potting soil with some of the other soil and that's where I planted the turnips. The first time I planted turnips, beets, and all the other root when radishes.
00:02:53
Speaker 1: And when did you do that? What time of year was that?
00:02:56
Speaker 3: I just did that, I think, after I talked to you a couple weeks ago. I had some seeds left over for those. I didn't have any lettuce, so I'd have done it then, too.
00:03:03
Speaker 1: I think part of your problem is a germination issue, because right now the soil temperatures are probably too cold for peppers to germinate. And in the summer, it was probably too hot.
00:03:14
Speaker 3: The peppers were at the beginning, sorry.
00:03:16
Speaker 1: Okay, all right. But, yeah, there's two kinds of problems you can have. One is having plants germinate, and the other is having them grow. And, um, you.
00:03:27
Speaker 3: Know, it's just too hot. So I didn't put the peppers till like first week of June.
00:03:33
Speaker 1: Probably was okay. The soil needs to be, uh, what do you think, John, 60 and above?
00:03:38
Speaker 5: You know, I'm not smart enough on annuals to know.
00:03:41
Speaker 1: I would say actually more like the soil temperature for peppers would be, need to be around 70, uh, to see good germination. I don't know, you know, in June, if you get that, it just depends on the June, I would think, but.
00:03:53
Speaker 5: So he could try to do some inside germination.
00:03:56
Speaker 1: Yeah, I would do that with peppers and tomatoes.
00:03:59
Speaker 5: Yeah, that's right.
00:04:00
Speaker 1: You know, the typical start in, what do they say, St. Patrick's Day, start your seeds.
00:04:05
Speaker 5: That's right.
00:04:06
Speaker 1: You know, grow them under lights.
00:04:07
Speaker 3: I did that.
00:04:08
Speaker 1: You did that?
00:04:08
Speaker 3: I did that with nasturtiums a year or two ago.
00:04:10
Speaker 6: Okay.
00:04:10
Speaker 3: And they grew pretty well. I was really sick. I couldn't get them out. This year I planted nasturtiums outside about the same time. And I got... Piddly little stuff. I didn't get any blooms. Yeah, I did them inside. I got one bloom, and this year I didn't get any blooms.
00:04:27
Speaker 1: I don't know.
00:04:28
Speaker 5: Have you done soil testing?
00:04:31
Speaker 1: Yeah, it might be time to do some soil testing.
00:04:32
Speaker 5: I think I would send a soil test off. I think there's a lot of.
00:04:36
Speaker 3: Well, I probably need to. Well, I think I told you I've done topsoil and compost mix.
00:04:41
Speaker 5: What part of the world are you in? Yeah, so I think extension offices will test your soil for you, won't they? Maybe not in Kentucky. They'll tell you where to send it. Yeah, check with the extension office, and they'll tell you where to send your sample to. But I think with all these problems you're having and things not germinating, it would be worth just ruling out some simple things that a soil test could help you with.
00:05:05
Speaker 1: I agree with that. And, you know, when you say you buy topsoil or buy potting soil, there's no– definition on what those need to be. So you could be getting anything.
00:05:16
Speaker 3: You're not kidding. Yeah.
00:05:18
Speaker 1: You know, you could get good stuff, you could get weird stuff, bad stuff.
00:05:23
Speaker 3: Well, topsoil looked like sand, but the compost looked like compost, and I mixed it. Uh-huh. But I didn't understand. So one other thing you said, I don't mean to interrupt you, but one other thing you said one time was maybe they're not getting enough sun, and I think I told you there's a big sycamore tree there, and I'm guessing it's four to six hours of sun a day. Maybe that's not enough for garden vegetables.
00:05:43
Speaker 1: At the bare minimum, at the very least, and maybe not enough.
00:05:46
Speaker 5: Maybe not enough.
00:05:47
Speaker 1: And the root competition too. Sycamores are thirsty plants that draw a lot of moisture out of the soil.
00:05:55
Speaker 3: This is a huge one.
00:05:58
Speaker 4: Yeah.
00:05:59
Speaker 1: That could definitely be a big part of the problem.
00:06:03
Speaker 5: For sure. The other thing that I was considering that might help you is you said you had lettuce in and you're worried that it won't get big enough to harvest this fall, but if you made a little cold frame, to put over top of it when we start to get those, you know, you talked about all those different levels of frost, but I really think that just make it a little simple cold frame that you can put right over top of your patch of best-growing lettuce, and you might be able to extend that season by a few weeks.
00:06:27
Speaker 1: Or even just harvest them very small and have your microgreen salad. That's possible, too. It's near to hard winter.
00:06:34
Speaker 3: First year, my wife is here from Indonesia. She's never heard of a killing frost.
00:06:39
Speaker 2: Oh.
00:06:39
Speaker 3: And we're watching the TV, and they mentioned it. She asked what that was, and I told her. She was almost in tears because she had done tomatoes and roses and stuff. I was out there for two weeks with tents and posts. And then finally, I said, honey, it's going to get to be 25. She got out a huge pot. I mean, a huge, like a two- or three-foot round pot, put it in a wheelbarrow. And it all went along. I was rolling this wheelbarrow in and out of the garage.
00:07:04
Speaker 1: Trying to protect these plants.
00:07:07
Speaker 2: So.
00:07:09
Speaker 1: Well, good luck with all of that, and keep us posted as things proceed.
00:07:16
Speaker 3: Yeah, I appreciate it. I'll try to send you more pictures, too.
00:07:18
Speaker 2: Okay.
00:07:18
Speaker 5: Get a soil test.
00:07:19
Speaker 1: Thanks very much.
00:07:19
Speaker 5: Do a soil test.
00:07:20
Speaker 1: Thanks for your call, Dave. We'll proceed with favorite plants. What's your next one?
00:07:26
Speaker 5: I really like it. It's an obscure plant, but it's a Mahonia belii. I think I'm pronouncing that right.
00:07:31
Speaker 3: Yep.
00:07:31
Speaker 5: Is that how you pronounce it?
00:07:32
Speaker 1: That's how I do, yeah.
00:07:34
Speaker 5: Not sure if it's correct or not, but it's this really cool plant. smaller evergreen shrub can be a little cold sensitive in a really cold winter, but it has just so many interesting things. It looks like a big holly leaf. It's a little bit sharp, but it's got so much character. It's amazing fall color. The flower's interesting. The fruit's interesting. And it's not often used, but I just, every time I see one.
00:07:58
Speaker 1: It's a wonderful plant. It's evergreen.
00:08:00
Speaker 2: Yeah.
00:08:00
Speaker 3: Yeah.
00:08:01
Speaker 1: Flowers like in February or March, these big, bright yellow flowers are, It's only hardy, I think, to like 6B, somewhere around there.
00:08:09
Speaker 5: That's right.
00:08:11
Speaker 1: And then you get that beautiful fruit, which I looked up, and that comes later, like in October, on red pedestals and blue fruit. It's pretty big. It's like the size of a grape.
00:08:21
Speaker 4: Yeah.
00:08:22
Speaker 1: And it's edible.
00:08:24
Speaker 5: I didn't know this. I didn't know that.
00:08:26
Speaker 1: Yeah, it's edible. It's very tart, but put enough sugar on a tart thing, like a lemon or whatever, and you've got a delightful dish. So maybe Mahonia, Beely Eye, Grape Holly. is something you can harvest and have fun with at home.
00:08:43
Speaker 5: I don't find the other Mahonia. What's the main one? Aquafolia. Yeah, that one doesn't interest me the same way. No, it's kind of a cool plant.
00:08:51
Speaker 1: I've seen where it looks good in other places, but here it just looks scraggly.
00:08:55
Speaker 5: I'm only saying that because if you're going out looking for a Mahonia, you need to specifically go after the Belii, which is tough to find.
00:09:03
Speaker 1: Yeah, and I do have good pictures of that on the Facebook page.
00:09:06
Speaker 4: Oh, cool.
00:09:06
Speaker 1: So it's good to see, yeah.
00:09:07
Speaker 5: You know what I like most about this segment is you always teach me about a plant that I don't know about. And you have such a crazy diverse palette of plants that you use. And your garden is like a one-of-a-kind spot.
00:09:21
Speaker 1: Well, you know, I feel like I'm learning a new plant every day and forgetting about an old plant, like three of them every day. So, yeah, trying to stay up. I'll tell you what, we will take a break. Mark Wessel texted. He's at an apple tasting thing in Vermont. Tough job, but somebody's got to do it.
00:09:42
Speaker 5: Sounds great.
00:09:42
Speaker 1: Yeah. And when we come back at 7.30, Pam Bennett will come on and talk about Master Gardeners. But for now, we're taking a break and we'll come back with more favorite plants. Stay tuned for that.
00:10:07
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00:11:45
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00:12:38
Speaker 1: And welcome back. You are listening to Let's Garden with Scott Berline. And I'm here with John Butcher from Madison Tree Care and Landscape.
00:12:47
Speaker 6: Hey, Scott.
00:12:48
Speaker 1: Yeah. In just 15 minutes or so, Pam Bennett will join us and talk about the Master Gardening Program. If you have questions about that, call us, 800-823-8255. We'll take the call. And also Jim Herbert from Bud Herbert Motors comes on at 8. And he will talk about new cool equipment that's out there for homeowners, power tool type of equipment, and how to take care of it. So that'll be very informative. And you won't want to miss it. But for now, we're still talking favorite plants right now. And I've got a couple of perennials I want to mention.
00:13:22
Speaker 5: I want to hear about them.
00:13:23
Speaker 1: One is one called Ceratostigma plumbaganoides.
00:13:27
Speaker 6: Huh.
00:13:29
Speaker 1: And I guess the common name is hardy plumbago.
00:13:32
Speaker 5: Oh, that's easier to pronounce.
00:13:33
Speaker 1: It's not a well-known plant. Have you heard of this plant before?
00:13:36
Speaker 5: Plumbego, yes.
00:13:37
Speaker 1: Yeah, Plumbego. It's a ground cover. You would buy it like a perennial, but it's a ground cover. And over time, it'll spread through a garden bed.
00:13:46
Speaker 5: This is the one with the little blue flower?
00:13:47
Speaker 1: Little blue flower starts in late May, maybe June, and runs all the way to a killer frost. It's about, I'd say, less than a foot tall.
00:13:56
Speaker 4: Yeah.
00:13:57
Speaker 1: And it will climb over a rock wall. I've got good pictures of it on the Facebook page. Those are really pretty. Unbelievably pretty flower. You know, you're getting a gorgeous blue flower all season long, practically. And then it actually has red fall color. And the calluses left behind when the flowers are done are like a spiky red thing. That's pretty attractive too. So a very good plant that just is criminally overlooked. I don't know why. It's so easy to grow. Goes almost in full shade. Almost. I'd say, let's say partial shade. And then all the way into full sun, it does well.
00:14:35
Speaker 5: How do you treat that in the winter? Are you cutting it back like a traditional perennial? That one stays green for a long time, doesn't it?
00:14:41
Speaker 1: It does. But at some point, it just kind of looks ratty to me. I could leave it up because it would grow past that and be fine. But usually I lose my mind with it like in February and I just string trim it down.
00:14:52
Speaker 5: It's very easy to do.
00:14:54
Speaker 1: Or mow it. I do mow my... Perennial beds a lot in the wintertime. It's a really quick way to do the work.
00:14:59
Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, yeah.
00:15:00
Speaker 1: Just wait till the ground is frozen.
00:15:02
Speaker 2: Right.
00:15:02
Speaker 1: So I'm not like tearing up crowns and stuff. I just roll over and put it on the highest setting.
00:15:06
Speaker 5: Highest setting. Do you put a bag on the mower when you do that or you just let it go?
00:15:10
Speaker 1: I just let it go.
00:15:10
Speaker 4: Let it rip.
00:15:11
Speaker 5: Get that material back out. Let the organic break down into the soil.
00:15:15
Speaker 1: 100%.
00:15:15
Speaker 5: Rebuild.
00:15:16
Speaker 2: Yeah.
00:15:16
Speaker 1: Love it. I also want to mention Calamagrosis brachytrica or Korean feather reed grass. It's one of my favorite grasses for late season. It's related to Carl Forster, but it's an entirely different look and not very often used. It's good in pretty heavy shade, like part shade again.
00:15:34
Speaker 5: That one does shade?
00:15:34
Speaker 1: It does shade.
00:15:35
Speaker 5: Because most grasses don't do well in shade.
00:15:37
Speaker 7: Yeah.
00:15:37
Speaker 1: But it comes up late in the season with a beautiful flower spike and then a seed head. And it's just really, really striking.
00:15:43
Speaker 5: What's the cultivar on that again?
00:15:45
Speaker 1: It's not a cultivar. It's just a species. Okay. But it's called Korean feather reed grass. Okay. And you can buy it from a seed packet if you can find it online somewhere. And just spread it around and it'll grow. It takes a few years to kind of build up size that way, but, or you could buy it as a nursery plant. But a great one that I really enjoy.
00:16:04
Speaker 5: That's cool.
00:16:05
Speaker 1: What's your next plan?
00:16:06
Speaker 5: I'm going to do a really boring one.
00:16:08
Speaker 1: Boring, but I know what you're going to say.
00:16:10
Speaker 5: Well, so gray owl juniper is like such a utilitarian, can be used in parking lots. It can be just treated, but with, with, needle cast with the blue spruce and the juniper, upright junipers that never do well.
00:16:27
Speaker 1: A blue upright juniper.
00:16:29
Speaker 5: Is just never going to, never going to succeed in a Cincinnati growing environment, but somehow.
00:16:35
Speaker 1: Or any hotter humid.
00:16:37
Speaker 2: Yeah.
00:16:37
Speaker 5: And you can get this great splash of blue from grayish blue from that gray out juniper that just gives, and you need to give it enough room to grow. It's probably not the right plant. for your foundation, but around borders and other places like that, the deer don't eat them. It just is, I don't know why, I just always overlook it and I never really think about it because it's not, you know, this cool new plant and you can use it at, you know, you can put it in the middle of a street berm and it'll grow out there, but it just adds a splash of color all year.
00:17:09
Speaker 4: It does.
00:17:09
Speaker 1: It gets about like maybe five feet high. It may be, A really old one gets to around 10 feet across.
00:17:17
Speaker 3: Right.
00:17:17
Speaker 1: Eight or 10 feet across.
00:17:19
Speaker 5: Wider than tall, for sure.
00:17:20
Speaker 1: You want to give it that room because the worst thing you can do to it is prune it or shear it. Just let it be itself. It has a great form. So if you got that space for, you know, a good evergreen that's actually ever blue. Right. And can get past the criminals, meaning deer, and everything else. Tough sites, full sun. Pretty much a full sun plant.
00:17:45
Speaker 5: It's a Virginiana.
00:17:47
Speaker 1: Well, it's a native.
00:17:47
Speaker 5: Juniper is Virginiana, so it is a cultivar of a native plant, which is a big win.
00:17:52
Speaker 1: Yeah, and you know it can take tough sites because that's the plant that grows along all the freeways and the compacted soil, the scraped off stuff.
00:18:00
Speaker 5: Tolerates terrible soil.
00:18:01
Speaker 2: Yeah.
00:18:02
Speaker 3: Yeah.
00:18:02
Speaker 1: And so it's a great plant for all those situations.
00:18:05
Speaker 5: So a little boring, but I just felt like it was worth mentioning something that has that kind of color and utilitarian.
00:18:11
Speaker 1: We need to do that more because as horticulturists, we get excited about the rare plants, new plants and things. But for regular gardeners and homeowners, the plants they can easily access at garden centers are the ones that they're more likely to use. And this is one that does deserve using.
00:18:27
Speaker 5: Yeah, for sure.
00:18:28
Speaker 2: Yeah.
00:18:29
Speaker 1: I've got some annuals. We'll get through those real quick and we'll be done with the favorite plants right now. And again, these are all on the Facebook page. Pictures and a little bit of a description at least. But we walked around the Cincinnati Botanical Garden and Zoo last week and saw some really cool stuff. That's just still in October looking fresh and beautiful as if it were still May. Love it.
00:18:53
Speaker 5: Celosia, it's a favorite with kids. I'm not familiar with that. What is that one?
00:18:57
Speaker 1: It's an oddball. There's two kinds. There's a kind with plumy flowers and there's a kind with like wavy, like cock, what do they call them? Cock, what's the thing?
00:19:06
Speaker 4: Cock's burr.
00:19:07
Speaker 1: Cock's burr flowers or whatever.
00:19:09
Speaker 5: I do know which one you're talking about now.
00:19:11
Speaker 1: I know exactly.
00:19:11
Speaker 5: That's a really pretty one. It does hold up well late in the season.
00:19:14
Speaker 1: It does. And this was the one I saw that really knocked my socks off was twisted orange dark leaf. And it's just gorgeous. You can see it on the picture, you know, on the Facebook page. You should check it out. A couple of the coleuses, a lot of, all the coleuses still look great.
00:19:30
Speaker 5: What a cool plant.
00:19:31
Speaker 1: Yeah.
00:19:31
Speaker 5: So much diversity, like the genetic alterations they've made on those to breed.
00:19:37
Speaker 1: Straight colors without having to worry about a bloom.
00:19:39
Speaker 5: It's so cool.
00:19:40
Speaker 1: Yeah. But two in particular look great from the downtown series. So downtown Greenville looked really good and downtown Santa Monica looked good, but they all did. Also, Impatience Beacon Orange Improved. This is notable because it's the Impatience that was knocked out by the mildew, but they bred a resistant variety. And here we are in October and it still has not succumbed. to the mildew, so that's wonderful.
00:20:07
Speaker 5: That's great.
00:20:07
Speaker 1: And the orange color was to die for. It was really good. Also, the Sun Patient series just needs mention all the time. Vigorous Purple was the one I was looking at. And then finally, Salvia Rockin' Playin' the Blues. Beautiful, absolutely beautiful, full of flowers and full of bees and other pollinators. Great at this time of year.
00:20:26
Speaker 5: Another great reason to visit the zoo.
00:20:28
Speaker 1: Or any other botanical garden. You are listening to Let's Garden with Scott Burleigh. We'll be back with Pam Bennett and talk about the Master Gardener program In just a few minutes, you won't want to miss it.
00:21:02
Speaker 4: Wet and Forget Outdoor Spaces is made for outdoor living areas. It's designed to clean over time with no constant effort. Just spray it on and let's do its work.
00:21:11
Speaker 1: It's that easy.
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Speaker 4: It cleans outdoor stains caused by mold, mildew, algae, and moss. Ideal for patios, sidewalks, decks, siding panels. patio furniture, and outdoor fabric. Wet and Forget is always bleach-free, no scrubbing, no rinsing, and you get up to 1,500 square feet of coverage. Wet and Forget Outdoor Spaces, the one-step application available at Home Depot, Walmart, and Meyers. Well, you got something stinky? We all know stinky things happen, so let's be prepared. Gary Sullivan here. Burned dinner, musty basement, smoke in the car, stinky sports gear, or maybe that mystery smell you just can't find. Odorexit eliminates tough odors instead of covering them up with added fragrance. Be ready with Odorexit. Odorexit.com because you never know what's going to stink next. Odorexit.com And good morning.
00:22:28
Speaker 1: You're listening to Let's Garden with Scott Berline. I'm here with John Butcher from Madison Tree Care and Landscape.
00:22:34
Speaker 5: Good morning, Scott.
00:22:35
Speaker 1: We've got a clarification on what celosia's common name is or the types. So there's the plume type, and the other one is a coxcomb type.
00:22:46
Speaker 5: Good clarification.
00:22:47
Speaker 1: Good clarification, yeah.
00:22:48
Speaker 5: They'll be able to find it much easier.
00:22:50
Speaker 1: Yes.
00:22:50
Speaker 3: Yeah.
00:22:51
Speaker 1: I could not remember that name. Anyway, we have Pam Bennett on the phone. And she is a professor with Ohio State University with the Extension Department. They do a lot of plant trialing. She's up at Clark County. She also leads the Master Gardener program in Ohio, I believe. And we're going to talk to her about Master Gardeners, the program, and everything else. Good morning, Pam. How are you doing?
00:23:17
Speaker 6: Good morning, Scott. I'm doing great. How are you doing?
00:23:18
Speaker 1: I'm doing fine for this time of day. Thank you. having fun talking about plants and getting in trouble and all kinds of stuff, but you know, basically having, having a good morning.
00:23:31
Speaker 6: Doing the Scott thing.
00:23:32
Speaker 1: Doing the Scott thing.
00:23:33
Speaker 2: Yep.
00:23:34
Speaker 1: Borderline on the edge of getting, you know, going too far. Sometimes. Who knows? Who knows?
00:23:40
Speaker 2: Anyway.
00:23:41
Speaker 1: Um, so you are, uh, is there, am I right? The director of the, the program for the state of Ohio?
00:23:48
Speaker 4: Right.
00:23:48
Speaker 6: Yeah, sure.
00:23:49
Speaker 1: So, uh, uh, Several people have called in or emailed me about wanting to know more, and I thought you are the perfect person. And so what is the Master Gardener program for those who don't know about it?
00:24:03
Speaker 2: Okay, so it was a program that was started actually back in the 70s in the state of Washington through the Extension Office. When gardening got to be really popular, the Extension educators figured they needed some help with the outreach, teaching people about gardening and so forth. And Dr.
00:24:22
Speaker 6: David Gibby said, well, let's do this program.
00:24:25
Speaker 2: How about if we train volunteers to help us answer gardening questions? Well, of course, their administration, like I hate to say this, like administration sometimes does, said, no, that's not going to.
00:24:38
Speaker 6: Work. So he went ahead and did it anyways.
00:24:41
Speaker 2: And basically you train through the extension office with volunteers. all different kinds of people in terms of horticulture content, you learn botany, plant physiology, entomology, you get a little bit of everything. And then in return, you give 50 hours of service back to the extension office. And that's where the volunteers then would answer the questions and help, you know, extend our outreach into the counties.
00:25:06
Speaker 6: So it's a, it's a training program. but it's a volunteer program more than anything else.
00:25:10
Speaker 2: And then once you are certified as a master gardener, then you can continue with the program for as long as you want.
00:25:17
Speaker 4: Yeah.
00:25:17
Speaker 1: It's a really great program. And we get a lot of at the Cincinnati zoo and botanical garden, and I'm sure your trial program to really benefit from master gardeners, fulfilling those, those volunteer hours.
00:25:29
Speaker 6: Absolutely.
00:25:31
Speaker 4: Yep.
00:25:31
Speaker 2: We have four major impact areas, environmental horticulture just kind of picks up everything, but we, focus on teaching ipm backyard local foods um and so we try to keep our program areas in those you know particular um categories one of our biggest areas is the grow ohio program where we are growing um vegetables for food pantries and many of yeah many of our counties have um community gardens.
00:26:02
Speaker 6: They work with local gardens.
00:26:04
Speaker 2: Some of them do gleaning, you know, where they go out and pick, you know, or fields that are finished. Uh, and all of that then goes to the food pantry and Franklin County, for instance, gives over, gosh, they're like up to a hundred thousand pounds because they've got so many community guards, but they have a large, they have a large program too.
00:26:21
Speaker 6: Very large program.
00:26:23
Speaker 1: No, the training itself is, is rigor rigorous. I mean, um, you learn pretty much all facets of horticulture, at least to some level.
00:26:34
Speaker 6: Yeah, it is an introduction to horticulture. So you learn, like I said, you learn all the basics.
00:26:38
Speaker 2: And then we build on that with herbaceous ornamentals, woody ornamentals, fruits, houseplants, herbs.
00:26:45
Speaker 6: You know, we touch on all the other categories.
00:26:47
Speaker 2: It's an introduction to each of those.
00:26:49
Speaker 6: And, you know, we don't expect people to remember it.
00:26:52
Speaker 2: The biggest thing, Scott, with this program is we want our volunteers to to be able to give back to the community, but also to share solid research-based information. So they, they learn where to find the information.
00:27:06
Speaker 1: You know, I think that's the most valuable thing you can learn in horticulture as you learn more and more is learning where more information can be had.
00:27:14
Speaker 6: Yes.
00:27:15
Speaker 4: Yes.
00:27:15
Speaker 2: Especially with AI coming in and how to handle it, you know, how to diagnose a plant problem, how to make recommendations, you know, the one thing people trust about our recommendations is that they're based on science.
00:27:27
Speaker 6: They're not, I'm not trying to sell something to you.
00:27:29
Speaker 2: You know, we're, we're looking at, okay, yes, that is an ash tree or no, that's not an ash tree. That's a walnut tree, you know, something like that. So there's, there's so much misinformation as you know.
00:27:42
Speaker 1: Oh yeah. And that's what I think the beauty of extension in general is, is that, and I don't know that most gardeners use it as much as they, they could, but, Extension programs are all the information they put out. And there's usually a lot is science-based and, you know, in bite sizes sometimes where you can learn it in one place easily. And, you know, every county, almost every county in the country has an extension agent or office. Some have horticulturists, some don't. So you might need to seek out one with a horticulturist in your region.
00:28:19
Speaker 6: Right.
00:28:20
Speaker 1: But so much good information can be found there.
00:28:23
Speaker 5: I would like to say thank you from a professional perspective as well. Extension is really a valuable resource to companies as well that have, you know, bigger tree issues and things. And Joe Boggs is one of the people that we lean on a lot. But just extension in general is such a great thing for all of us learning and And the information you provide is so helpful. And I just wanted to say thank you for doing what you do all the time.
00:28:55
Speaker 6: Oh, it's a pleasure. And it just it always interests me.
00:28:59
Speaker 2: And I don't know what surprised me, but people just don't know some of the simple basics about plant growth.
00:29:05
Speaker 6: And they read stuff and even more today with the Internet, they read things.
00:29:10
Speaker 2: You know, that, oh, you should do this. Why are you doing that? You know, it's not based on science. It's not based on science.
00:29:16
Speaker 1: You got to be savvy on the internet to know, like, that sounds like junk or that sounds great. I always tell people, you know, like a good way to know that you're reading good information is if it comes from an EXT suffix on the website address because that means extension. Or EDU.
00:29:37
Speaker 5: Yeah, EDU.
00:29:37
Speaker 3: EDU.
00:29:38
Speaker 2: Yeah.
00:29:38
Speaker 6: Or sometimes.
00:29:40
Speaker 1: ORG if you're looking like at botanical gardens and things like that. Those are the real sources where you're going to get real answers. And the cool thing about extension is, you know, a lot of times you get these questions and you don't know the answer. But extension has the time to go and research it and come back with an answer.
00:29:58
Speaker 3: Yeah.
00:29:59
Speaker 1: The plant diagnosis, diagnostics that you guys do and all that, really a great service.
00:30:06
Speaker 2: Right. And even if we don't know the answer, we're connected with our university researchers. And not just our university researchers, but, you know, like in the world of plant pathology or entomology, we're all connected.
00:30:19
Speaker 6: We're all networked.
00:30:20
Speaker 1: Even that state up north. Well, you know, we.
00:30:24
Speaker 6: Draw the line right there. Michigan State, though, they're the land grant. We like Michigan State.
00:30:28
Speaker 1: They do a great job. They do a great job.
00:30:31
Speaker 5: They have a great program.
00:30:31
Speaker 6: They do. They sure do.
00:30:33
Speaker 1: Yep.
00:30:34
Speaker 2: Yep. So, yeah, so the research-based information is important. And that's one of the things we teach during training. You know, you may come in here with your own ideas and preconceived ideas.
00:30:45
Speaker 6: On, like, pesticides, for instance, Scott. People don't like using pesticides.
00:30:49
Speaker 2: But once they learn about them, they learn how to read a label correctly and Um, and then they learn how to use them properly. You know, they're not as dangerous as people think they are.
00:31:01
Speaker 1: Exactly. Um, you know, I'm like wondering right now, like, well, first of all, I want to mention the social aspect of it too. So a lot, you know, a lot of these people become lifelong friends that these class classes that come through the program. And, you know, I see that all the time with our volunteers is, as they go through the program together. And then once they're out and volunteering, you know, they're making these associations and friendships often later in life when it's a little bit harder to meet new people and get to make friends. But it's wonderful for that.
00:31:34
Speaker 2: Yeah, we're getting ready to launch a big study with Ohio Volunteers that talks about, you know, why do you do this and what motivates you to stick around?
00:31:45
Speaker 6: And in our earliest pieces of the focus groups. Education is one thing.
00:31:50
Speaker 2: They want to continue that lifelong learning, but it's that social aspect that they meet people with like interests, people who like plants, the same plants they do.
00:32:02
Speaker 6: Or maybe somebody's really into date lilies or whatever.
00:32:04
Speaker 2: They find somebody like that and they stick around for that.
00:32:09
Speaker 6: There's a lot of research on as you.
00:32:12
Speaker 2: Age, volunteering, being out in the community, socializing is really important for your health, your mental health, your physical health and overall health. So, you know, with our program, we call it the perfect program for volunteering because you're outside, you get to play in the dirt, you learn about plants.
00:32:31
Speaker 6: Sometimes you get free plants. Like sometimes the zoo has given.
00:32:35
Speaker 2: Away free plans to try to some of the volunteers and, uh, you know, they just, they just love giving back to their community. And that's the biggest thing I think that, that we try to promote is that, you know, we're engaging people to give back to their community in a very different way than say, if you volunteer, like at the art museum or, you know, I mean, everybody has.
00:32:54
Speaker 6: Their own niche for volunteering.
00:32:55
Speaker 3: Right.
00:32:56
Speaker 2: But this is just something that's very unique and very different in our communities.
00:33:02
Speaker 1: I agree. And like with our volunteer group at the zoo, the best, the best Christmas parties, you know, they bring the potluck is out of this world is fantastic.
00:33:15
Speaker 6: And I love the food's always good.
00:33:18
Speaker 2: They are cooks. Yes.
00:33:19
Speaker 1: Yeah. And I always enjoy seeing like at the end of, of their four hour volunteer shift or whatever it happens to be. So many of them just gather up in a group and they go to the zoo's cafe and they have lunch together. You know, it's just a, it's just a great thing to see. And I, you know, the work they do is so appreciated by us for sure. We're going to go ahead and take a break. When we come back, I want to ask you about like how people can sign up and what the commitment is, how much commitment is involved. So stay tuned for that. And we'll be back in just a few minutes.
00:34:03
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00:35:27
Speaker 1: Welcome back. You're listening to Let's Garden with Scott Berline. I'm here with John Butcher from Madison Tree Care and Landscape and also Pam Bennett from the Ohio State University Extension. And we're talking about the Master Gardener Program. And, you know, if people are interested, how do they find out more and how do they sign up to join us, Pam?
00:35:47
Speaker 6: So this is run by the, through the extension office.
00:35:50
Speaker 2: Now it's not in every County in Ohio, but not in our Southwest part of Ohio.
00:35:54
Speaker 6: We've got pretty much one in every County.
00:35:56
Speaker 1: And other States too.
00:35:59
Speaker 2: Yes.
00:35:59
Speaker 6: Well, yeah.
00:36:00
Speaker 3: Yeah.
00:36:01
Speaker 6: Sorry. Sorry. I forgot you were. Yeah.
00:36:03
Speaker 4: Sorry.
00:36:03
Speaker 1: I'm countrywide.
00:36:04
Speaker 2: Yeah.
00:36:05
Speaker 6: Yeah.
00:36:06
Speaker 2: I know.
00:36:06
Speaker 1: I know.
00:36:06
Speaker 6: That's so impressive.
00:36:08
Speaker 2: So you go to your extension office and that's through your land grant university. And you would check their websites and usually they'll have a sign up. You can register there or you can call their county extension office. Most of the time, Scott word of mouth is what gets out as far as our advertising. We are the best kept secret, I think, in the country. Most people don't even know about extension. We're not real good at advertising. So you go to your extension office and check if they have a program. Some of them have programs like for several counties, groups of counties would go together and train, or you might do online. And that's something we've started in the last, well, since COVID, of course, we have online trainings. The online trainings, we require that you have some face-to-face workshops or labs because it's that socialization piece that keeps people volunteering. So you would check your local county extension office or your land-grant universities, just Google Master Gardener, whichever university, and you can find all the information there.
00:37:12
Speaker 6: Now, there usually is a fee.
00:37:14
Speaker 1: I was going to ask, does it cost money?
00:37:16
Speaker 6: Yeah, there's a fee.
00:37:17
Speaker 2: And it's based on where you might live, what the market can bear. But it is basically for your training costs, for your manual.
00:37:26
Speaker 6: And believe me, the manual is like, you know, a hundred pounds, maybe.
00:37:30
Speaker 1: Yeah, it's a good resource.
00:37:33
Speaker 6: It's a great resource.
00:37:36
Speaker 2: And you would pay for that fee and usually get a t-shirt and a name tag and all the things like that. You know, we're not in this to make money on it. So it's just basically covering the cost of the training. and then you start your classes. And the classes vary. I mean, the majority of our volunteers, Scott, are, you know, retirees, so they can take the daytime training. But if you still want to volunteer and, you know, are working or are still interested in learning and volunteering, there are many states and counties that have online training classes.
00:38:07
Speaker 1: That sounds really good. How much commitment, once you've got the training, how much commitment is the Is there for volunteerism and everything else?
00:38:17
Speaker 6: So it varies by state.
00:38:18
Speaker 2: Ohio's minimum is 40 hours, and I think that's the nationwide minimum now.
00:38:24
Speaker 6: But we in.
00:38:26
Speaker 2: Clark County, for instance, we charge 50 or we have 50 hours to give back. And I'll tell you, once people jump in, they learn that, you know, the winter when we train, the winter goes so fast because we do it on weekdays face to face and we do a hybrid model, you know, the online as well. The days go fast, the winter goes fast, and then you jump right into spring and there's all kinds of different projects that people get involved in around the country. You know, pollinators, I didn't mention that, but that's, you know, pollinator gardens, that's one of the big things.
00:38:56
Speaker 6: But the whole.
00:38:56
Speaker 2: Mission really is to teach research-based science, you know, and have fun doing it. And so the commitment is really what you make it. You know, you do your minimum hours, but there are people, Scott, that, as you know, you've got people down there, I'm sure, that do more than, you know, 100 hours, 200 hours in a year.
00:39:14
Speaker 1: Oh, yeah, because it's a passion of a lot of these people.
00:39:17
Speaker 3: Right.
00:39:17
Speaker 2: Right. And they learn so much while they're doing it. Plus, you know, we talked about socializing. They're having fun, too. And who wouldn't have fun working outside, you know, with plants and teaching people about plants and. you know there's all kinds of projects too we have educational programs that our volunteers are delivering we have you know teaching libraries we have community gardens we have school garden programs that a lot of our groups are doing baking pollinator gardens I mean if you look across the country there's just a bunch of different great things that volunteers are doing in the world of horticulture.
00:39:52
Speaker 1: If somebody just wanted to sort of explore it, you know, could they, how could they just see what volunteers do and, and, and just kind of get an idea for it?
00:40:02
Speaker 2: Well, talk to your county extension office and ask about that. And I'm sure people would be happy to let you hang around for a few hours while we're doing, or share with you all the different projects. Hamilton County has a whole bunch of different projects, Clermont, Warren, all the counties in.
00:40:19
Speaker 6: Our greater area.
00:40:20
Speaker 2: But then each county is, what's the beauty of it, in my opinion, is it's focused on your individual.
00:40:28
Speaker 6: Community and where you live.
00:40:30
Speaker 2: So as state director, I don't tell each county what they have to do. We have these general categories. Focus your efforts on invasive species. So you might have them doing invasive species removal, teaching about invasive species. I just did a program the other day about, you know, all the different invasive species that could be in the landscape.
00:40:50
Speaker 6: So they focus on their county needs.
00:40:52
Speaker 2: And like I said at the very beginning, growing food is one of those things, community gardens, teaching people how to grow their own vegetables.
00:41:01
Speaker 6: That's one of our big project areas.
00:41:03
Speaker 1: It's important to note, too, that there are volunteer opportunities for people with physical limitations.
00:41:09
Speaker 6: Oh, yes, absolutely. We need all kinds of help. You know, we've got newsletters to put out. We've got the biggest thing is website.
00:41:17
Speaker 2: If people have like experience creating or doing websites, keeping the website updated, you know, we get so busy that we forget to put dates on the calendar and take them off after it's over. And, you know, there's a lot of things that people can do. And we really try to make sure we can have those projects and opportunities for all levels of physical ability.
00:41:39
Speaker 1: Well, Pam, we're kind of winding down here, and I know you wanted to talk about tools for older people. What can you say in a minute that people can benefit from?
00:41:49
Speaker 6: I wanted to talk about tools for women.
00:41:53
Speaker 1: Women, old women, you said. I was like, what about old men? Because I need that help, too.
00:41:59
Speaker 6: Well, you got all the tools. Men have tools.
00:42:02
Speaker 7: Women, as I've aged, and I'm not saying I'm older, but as I've aged, you know, there's tools– I'm a heavy duty gardener and the tools out there for women, light enough that I can use them, but so powerful.
00:42:16
Speaker 6: Enough to do the job are limited. I'll tell you what, those are the things that I get.
00:42:19
Speaker 1: Why don't we bring you back for more discussion on that? And I also want to bring you back to talk about your extensive Clark County annuals trials or plant trials. And maybe we'll do that more towards like March when people are starting to think about their plants for the next year.
00:42:37
Speaker 2: Sure.
00:42:37
Speaker 6: I'd love to, Scott. Thank you so much for having me.
00:42:39
Speaker 1: You're welcome, Pam. It was great to have you here. You're listening to Let's Garden with Scott Berline. When we come back, Jim Herbert will join us and talk about power tools and the cool new ones and the things we need to do to keep them running. We'll be back in just a few minutes.
Speaker 1: And welcome back. You are listening to Let's Guard with Scott Berline. Can be heard on 52 stations around the country and available as a live stream on the iHeart app if you don't get good reception where you live. And all the podcasts are available. All the past shows are available as a podcast wherever podcasts are available. There's your microphone.
00:00:57
Speaker 2: Yeah.
00:00:58
Speaker 1: Well, I'll tell you what. Let's go to Dave. He's on the line. Probably has a question. What's up, Dave?
00:01:06
Speaker 3: Sorry about the probably. I felt bad. I left the weights on Saturday mornings, and these guys are dead left between 500 and 600 pounds and benching 500 pounds, so I'm scared of them, not you.
00:01:18
Speaker 1: Oh, yeah, I would be.
00:01:21
Speaker 3: I'm running so late this morning, it doesn't matter. Yeah, so the lettuce, I don't remember the.
00:01:29
Speaker 1: Soil and the You called, yeah, several weeks ago had soil that was not, a garden bed that was not producing any kind of lettuce and beets or whatever would not grow there. And so we suggested a few things and you got an update.
00:01:45
Speaker 2: I guess.
00:01:47
Speaker 3: Well, I mixed the, some of the soil, I just remixed it. I just, and I finally got some lettuce seeds and they came up, they, they, came up through the ground pretty quickly. I don't know how they're going to do. I mean, I'm not going to be able to probably harvest them, but that seemed to go okay.
00:02:03
Speaker 2: Yeah.
00:02:04
Speaker 3: Well, but the other ones I thought I realized, I thought my wife was watering our little garden plot.
00:02:09
Speaker 2: Oh, dear.
00:02:10
Speaker 3: You thought. And I found out she wasn't.
00:02:12
Speaker 1: Oh, bad wife.
00:02:13
Speaker 3: And the shoot, well, I'm going to ask her if she might be listening. It's very nice. I love you, honey. But it's just one of them once or twice, and The lettuce that was there like sprang a whole nother level of, it almost looked like new nodes came out.
00:02:32
Speaker 4: On the top.
00:02:33
Speaker 1: Oh, interesting. Okay. So it put no growth.
00:02:36
Speaker 3: None of the peppers I planted came up. None of the, none of them. And then I mixed some potting soil with some of the other soil and that's where I planted the turnips. The first time I planted turnips, beets, and all the other root when radishes.
00:02:53
Speaker 1: And when did you do that? What time of year was that?
00:02:56
Speaker 3: I just did that, I think, after I talked to you a couple weeks ago. I had some seeds left over for those. I didn't have any lettuce, so I'd have done it then, too.
00:03:03
Speaker 1: I think part of your problem is a germination issue, because right now the soil temperatures are probably too cold for peppers to germinate. And in the summer, it was probably too hot.
00:03:14
Speaker 3: The peppers were at the beginning, sorry.
00:03:16
Speaker 1: Okay, all right. But, yeah, there's two kinds of problems you can have. One is having plants germinate, and the other is having them grow. And, um, you.
00:03:27
Speaker 3: Know, it's just too hot. So I didn't put the peppers till like first week of June.
00:03:33
Speaker 1: Probably was okay. The soil needs to be, uh, what do you think, John, 60 and above?
00:03:38
Speaker 5: You know, I'm not smart enough on annuals to know.
00:03:41
Speaker 1: I would say actually more like the soil temperature for peppers would be, need to be around 70, uh, to see good germination. I don't know, you know, in June, if you get that, it just depends on the June, I would think, but.
00:03:53
Speaker 5: So he could try to do some inside germination.
00:03:56
Speaker 1: Yeah, I would do that with peppers and tomatoes.
00:03:59
Speaker 5: Yeah, that's right.
00:04:00
Speaker 1: You know, the typical start in, what do they say, St. Patrick's Day, start your seeds.
00:04:05
Speaker 5: That's right.
00:04:06
Speaker 1: You know, grow them under lights.
00:04:07
Speaker 3: I did that.
00:04:08
Speaker 1: You did that?
00:04:08
Speaker 3: I did that with nasturtiums a year or two ago.
00:04:10
Speaker 6: Okay.
00:04:10
Speaker 3: And they grew pretty well. I was really sick. I couldn't get them out. This year I planted nasturtiums outside about the same time. And I got... Piddly little stuff. I didn't get any blooms. Yeah, I did them inside. I got one bloom, and this year I didn't get any blooms.
00:04:27
Speaker 1: I don't know.
00:04:28
Speaker 5: Have you done soil testing?
00:04:31
Speaker 1: Yeah, it might be time to do some soil testing.
00:04:32
Speaker 5: I think I would send a soil test off. I think there's a lot of.
00:04:36
Speaker 3: Well, I probably need to. Well, I think I told you I've done topsoil and compost mix.
00:04:41
Speaker 5: What part of the world are you in? Yeah, so I think extension offices will test your soil for you, won't they? Maybe not in Kentucky. They'll tell you where to send it. Yeah, check with the extension office, and they'll tell you where to send your sample to. But I think with all these problems you're having and things not germinating, it would be worth just ruling out some simple things that a soil test could help you with.
00:05:05
Speaker 1: I agree with that. And, you know, when you say you buy topsoil or buy potting soil, there's no– definition on what those need to be. So you could be getting anything.
00:05:16
Speaker 3: You're not kidding. Yeah.
00:05:18
Speaker 1: You know, you could get good stuff, you could get weird stuff, bad stuff.
00:05:23
Speaker 3: Well, topsoil looked like sand, but the compost looked like compost, and I mixed it. Uh-huh. But I didn't understand. So one other thing you said, I don't mean to interrupt you, but one other thing you said one time was maybe they're not getting enough sun, and I think I told you there's a big sycamore tree there, and I'm guessing it's four to six hours of sun a day. Maybe that's not enough for garden vegetables.
00:05:43
Speaker 1: At the bare minimum, at the very least, and maybe not enough.
00:05:46
Speaker 5: Maybe not enough.
00:05:47
Speaker 1: And the root competition too. Sycamores are thirsty plants that draw a lot of moisture out of the soil.
00:05:55
Speaker 3: This is a huge one.
00:05:58
Speaker 4: Yeah.
00:05:59
Speaker 1: That could definitely be a big part of the problem.
00:06:03
Speaker 5: For sure. The other thing that I was considering that might help you is you said you had lettuce in and you're worried that it won't get big enough to harvest this fall, but if you made a little cold frame, to put over top of it when we start to get those, you know, you talked about all those different levels of frost, but I really think that just make it a little simple cold frame that you can put right over top of your patch of best-growing lettuce, and you might be able to extend that season by a few weeks.
00:06:27
Speaker 1: Or even just harvest them very small and have your microgreen salad. That's possible, too. It's near to hard winter.
00:06:34
Speaker 3: First year, my wife is here from Indonesia. She's never heard of a killing frost.
00:06:39
Speaker 2: Oh.
00:06:39
Speaker 3: And we're watching the TV, and they mentioned it. She asked what that was, and I told her. She was almost in tears because she had done tomatoes and roses and stuff. I was out there for two weeks with tents and posts. And then finally, I said, honey, it's going to get to be 25. She got out a huge pot. I mean, a huge, like a two- or three-foot round pot, put it in a wheelbarrow. And it all went along. I was rolling this wheelbarrow in and out of the garage.
00:07:04
Speaker 1: Trying to protect these plants.
00:07:07
Speaker 2: So.
00:07:09
Speaker 1: Well, good luck with all of that, and keep us posted as things proceed.
00:07:16
Speaker 3: Yeah, I appreciate it. I'll try to send you more pictures, too.
00:07:18
Speaker 2: Okay.
00:07:18
Speaker 5: Get a soil test.
00:07:19
Speaker 1: Thanks very much.
00:07:19
Speaker 5: Do a soil test.
00:07:20
Speaker 1: Thanks for your call, Dave. We'll proceed with favorite plants. What's your next one?
00:07:26
Speaker 5: I really like it. It's an obscure plant, but it's a Mahonia belii. I think I'm pronouncing that right.
00:07:31
Speaker 3: Yep.
00:07:31
Speaker 5: Is that how you pronounce it?
00:07:32
Speaker 1: That's how I do, yeah.
00:07:34
Speaker 5: Not sure if it's correct or not, but it's this really cool plant. smaller evergreen shrub can be a little cold sensitive in a really cold winter, but it has just so many interesting things. It looks like a big holly leaf. It's a little bit sharp, but it's got so much character. It's amazing fall color. The flower's interesting. The fruit's interesting. And it's not often used, but I just, every time I see one.
00:07:58
Speaker 1: It's a wonderful plant. It's evergreen.
00:08:00
Speaker 2: Yeah.
00:08:00
Speaker 3: Yeah.
00:08:01
Speaker 1: Flowers like in February or March, these big, bright yellow flowers are, It's only hardy, I think, to like 6B, somewhere around there.
00:08:09
Speaker 5: That's right.
00:08:11
Speaker 1: And then you get that beautiful fruit, which I looked up, and that comes later, like in October, on red pedestals and blue fruit. It's pretty big. It's like the size of a grape.
00:08:21
Speaker 4: Yeah.
00:08:22
Speaker 1: And it's edible.
00:08:24
Speaker 5: I didn't know this. I didn't know that.
00:08:26
Speaker 1: Yeah, it's edible. It's very tart, but put enough sugar on a tart thing, like a lemon or whatever, and you've got a delightful dish. So maybe Mahonia, Beely Eye, Grape Holly. is something you can harvest and have fun with at home.
00:08:43
Speaker 5: I don't find the other Mahonia. What's the main one? Aquafolia. Yeah, that one doesn't interest me the same way. No, it's kind of a cool plant.
00:08:51
Speaker 1: I've seen where it looks good in other places, but here it just looks scraggly.
00:08:55
Speaker 5: I'm only saying that because if you're going out looking for a Mahonia, you need to specifically go after the Belii, which is tough to find.
00:09:03
Speaker 1: Yeah, and I do have good pictures of that on the Facebook page.
00:09:06
Speaker 4: Oh, cool.
00:09:06
Speaker 1: So it's good to see, yeah.
00:09:07
Speaker 5: You know what I like most about this segment is you always teach me about a plant that I don't know about. And you have such a crazy diverse palette of plants that you use. And your garden is like a one-of-a-kind spot.
00:09:21
Speaker 1: Well, you know, I feel like I'm learning a new plant every day and forgetting about an old plant, like three of them every day. So, yeah, trying to stay up. I'll tell you what, we will take a break. Mark Wessel texted. He's at an apple tasting thing in Vermont. Tough job, but somebody's got to do it.
00:09:42
Speaker 5: Sounds great.
00:09:42
Speaker 1: Yeah. And when we come back at 7.30, Pam Bennett will come on and talk about Master Gardeners. But for now, we're taking a break and we'll come back with more favorite plants. Stay tuned for that.
00:10:07
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00:11:45
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00:11:46
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00:12:38
Speaker 1: And welcome back. You are listening to Let's Garden with Scott Berline. And I'm here with John Butcher from Madison Tree Care and Landscape.
00:12:47
Speaker 6: Hey, Scott.
00:12:48
Speaker 1: Yeah. In just 15 minutes or so, Pam Bennett will join us and talk about the Master Gardening Program. If you have questions about that, call us, 800-823-8255. We'll take the call. And also Jim Herbert from Bud Herbert Motors comes on at 8. And he will talk about new cool equipment that's out there for homeowners, power tool type of equipment, and how to take care of it. So that'll be very informative. And you won't want to miss it. But for now, we're still talking favorite plants right now. And I've got a couple of perennials I want to mention.
00:13:22
Speaker 5: I want to hear about them.
00:13:23
Speaker 1: One is one called Ceratostigma plumbaganoides.
00:13:27
Speaker 6: Huh.
00:13:29
Speaker 1: And I guess the common name is hardy plumbago.
00:13:32
Speaker 5: Oh, that's easier to pronounce.
00:13:33
Speaker 1: It's not a well-known plant. Have you heard of this plant before?
00:13:36
Speaker 5: Plumbego, yes.
00:13:37
Speaker 1: Yeah, Plumbego. It's a ground cover. You would buy it like a perennial, but it's a ground cover. And over time, it'll spread through a garden bed.
00:13:46
Speaker 5: This is the one with the little blue flower?
00:13:47
Speaker 1: Little blue flower starts in late May, maybe June, and runs all the way to a killer frost. It's about, I'd say, less than a foot tall.
00:13:56
Speaker 4: Yeah.
00:13:57
Speaker 1: And it will climb over a rock wall. I've got good pictures of it on the Facebook page. Those are really pretty. Unbelievably pretty flower. You know, you're getting a gorgeous blue flower all season long, practically. And then it actually has red fall color. And the calluses left behind when the flowers are done are like a spiky red thing. That's pretty attractive too. So a very good plant that just is criminally overlooked. I don't know why. It's so easy to grow. Goes almost in full shade. Almost. I'd say, let's say partial shade. And then all the way into full sun, it does well.
00:14:35
Speaker 5: How do you treat that in the winter? Are you cutting it back like a traditional perennial? That one stays green for a long time, doesn't it?
00:14:41
Speaker 1: It does. But at some point, it just kind of looks ratty to me. I could leave it up because it would grow past that and be fine. But usually I lose my mind with it like in February and I just string trim it down.
00:14:52
Speaker 5: It's very easy to do.
00:14:54
Speaker 1: Or mow it. I do mow my... Perennial beds a lot in the wintertime. It's a really quick way to do the work.
00:14:59
Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, yeah.
00:15:00
Speaker 1: Just wait till the ground is frozen.
00:15:02
Speaker 2: Right.
00:15:02
Speaker 1: So I'm not like tearing up crowns and stuff. I just roll over and put it on the highest setting.
00:15:06
Speaker 5: Highest setting. Do you put a bag on the mower when you do that or you just let it go?
00:15:10
Speaker 1: I just let it go.
00:15:10
Speaker 4: Let it rip.
00:15:11
Speaker 5: Get that material back out. Let the organic break down into the soil.
00:15:15
Speaker 1: 100%.
00:15:15
Speaker 5: Rebuild.
00:15:16
Speaker 2: Yeah.
00:15:16
Speaker 1: Love it. I also want to mention Calamagrosis brachytrica or Korean feather reed grass. It's one of my favorite grasses for late season. It's related to Carl Forster, but it's an entirely different look and not very often used. It's good in pretty heavy shade, like part shade again.
00:15:34
Speaker 5: That one does shade?
00:15:34
Speaker 1: It does shade.
00:15:35
Speaker 5: Because most grasses don't do well in shade.
00:15:37
Speaker 7: Yeah.
00:15:37
Speaker 1: But it comes up late in the season with a beautiful flower spike and then a seed head. And it's just really, really striking.
00:15:43
Speaker 5: What's the cultivar on that again?
00:15:45
Speaker 1: It's not a cultivar. It's just a species. Okay. But it's called Korean feather reed grass. Okay. And you can buy it from a seed packet if you can find it online somewhere. And just spread it around and it'll grow. It takes a few years to kind of build up size that way, but, or you could buy it as a nursery plant. But a great one that I really enjoy.
00:16:04
Speaker 5: That's cool.
00:16:05
Speaker 1: What's your next plan?
00:16:06
Speaker 5: I'm going to do a really boring one.
00:16:08
Speaker 1: Boring, but I know what you're going to say.
00:16:10
Speaker 5: Well, so gray owl juniper is like such a utilitarian, can be used in parking lots. It can be just treated, but with, with, needle cast with the blue spruce and the juniper, upright junipers that never do well.
00:16:27
Speaker 1: A blue upright juniper.
00:16:29
Speaker 5: Is just never going to, never going to succeed in a Cincinnati growing environment, but somehow.
00:16:35
Speaker 1: Or any hotter humid.
00:16:37
Speaker 2: Yeah.
00:16:37
Speaker 5: And you can get this great splash of blue from grayish blue from that gray out juniper that just gives, and you need to give it enough room to grow. It's probably not the right plant. for your foundation, but around borders and other places like that, the deer don't eat them. It just is, I don't know why, I just always overlook it and I never really think about it because it's not, you know, this cool new plant and you can use it at, you know, you can put it in the middle of a street berm and it'll grow out there, but it just adds a splash of color all year.
00:17:09
Speaker 4: It does.
00:17:09
Speaker 1: It gets about like maybe five feet high. It may be, A really old one gets to around 10 feet across.
00:17:17
Speaker 3: Right.
00:17:17
Speaker 1: Eight or 10 feet across.
00:17:19
Speaker 5: Wider than tall, for sure.
00:17:20
Speaker 1: You want to give it that room because the worst thing you can do to it is prune it or shear it. Just let it be itself. It has a great form. So if you got that space for, you know, a good evergreen that's actually ever blue. Right. And can get past the criminals, meaning deer, and everything else. Tough sites, full sun. Pretty much a full sun plant.
00:17:45
Speaker 5: It's a Virginiana.
00:17:47
Speaker 1: Well, it's a native.
00:17:47
Speaker 5: Juniper is Virginiana, so it is a cultivar of a native plant, which is a big win.
00:17:52
Speaker 1: Yeah, and you know it can take tough sites because that's the plant that grows along all the freeways and the compacted soil, the scraped off stuff.
00:18:00
Speaker 5: Tolerates terrible soil.
00:18:01
Speaker 2: Yeah.
00:18:02
Speaker 3: Yeah.
00:18:02
Speaker 1: And so it's a great plant for all those situations.
00:18:05
Speaker 5: So a little boring, but I just felt like it was worth mentioning something that has that kind of color and utilitarian.
00:18:11
Speaker 1: We need to do that more because as horticulturists, we get excited about the rare plants, new plants and things. But for regular gardeners and homeowners, the plants they can easily access at garden centers are the ones that they're more likely to use. And this is one that does deserve using.
00:18:27
Speaker 5: Yeah, for sure.
00:18:28
Speaker 2: Yeah.
00:18:29
Speaker 1: I've got some annuals. We'll get through those real quick and we'll be done with the favorite plants right now. And again, these are all on the Facebook page. Pictures and a little bit of a description at least. But we walked around the Cincinnati Botanical Garden and Zoo last week and saw some really cool stuff. That's just still in October looking fresh and beautiful as if it were still May. Love it.
00:18:53
Speaker 5: Celosia, it's a favorite with kids. I'm not familiar with that. What is that one?
00:18:57
Speaker 1: It's an oddball. There's two kinds. There's a kind with plumy flowers and there's a kind with like wavy, like cock, what do they call them? Cock, what's the thing?
00:19:06
Speaker 4: Cock's burr.
00:19:07
Speaker 1: Cock's burr flowers or whatever.
00:19:09
Speaker 5: I do know which one you're talking about now.
00:19:11
Speaker 1: I know exactly.
00:19:11
Speaker 5: That's a really pretty one. It does hold up well late in the season.
00:19:14
Speaker 1: It does. And this was the one I saw that really knocked my socks off was twisted orange dark leaf. And it's just gorgeous. You can see it on the picture, you know, on the Facebook page. You should check it out. A couple of the coleuses, a lot of, all the coleuses still look great.
00:19:30
Speaker 5: What a cool plant.
00:19:31
Speaker 1: Yeah.
00:19:31
Speaker 5: So much diversity, like the genetic alterations they've made on those to breed.
00:19:37
Speaker 1: Straight colors without having to worry about a bloom.
00:19:39
Speaker 5: It's so cool.
00:19:40
Speaker 1: Yeah. But two in particular look great from the downtown series. So downtown Greenville looked really good and downtown Santa Monica looked good, but they all did. Also, Impatience Beacon Orange Improved. This is notable because it's the Impatience that was knocked out by the mildew, but they bred a resistant variety. And here we are in October and it still has not succumbed. to the mildew, so that's wonderful.
00:20:07
Speaker 5: That's great.
00:20:07
Speaker 1: And the orange color was to die for. It was really good. Also, the Sun Patient series just needs mention all the time. Vigorous Purple was the one I was looking at. And then finally, Salvia Rockin' Playin' the Blues. Beautiful, absolutely beautiful, full of flowers and full of bees and other pollinators. Great at this time of year.
00:20:26
Speaker 5: Another great reason to visit the zoo.
00:20:28
Speaker 1: Or any other botanical garden. You are listening to Let's Garden with Scott Burleigh. We'll be back with Pam Bennett and talk about the Master Gardener program In just a few minutes, you won't want to miss it.
00:21:02
Speaker 4: Wet and Forget Outdoor Spaces is made for outdoor living areas. It's designed to clean over time with no constant effort. Just spray it on and let's do its work.
00:21:11
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00:21:12
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00:22:28
Speaker 1: You're listening to Let's Garden with Scott Berline. I'm here with John Butcher from Madison Tree Care and Landscape.
00:22:34
Speaker 5: Good morning, Scott.
00:22:35
Speaker 1: We've got a clarification on what celosia's common name is or the types. So there's the plume type, and the other one is a coxcomb type.
00:22:46
Speaker 5: Good clarification.
00:22:47
Speaker 1: Good clarification, yeah.
00:22:48
Speaker 5: They'll be able to find it much easier.
00:22:50
Speaker 1: Yes.
00:22:50
Speaker 3: Yeah.
00:22:51
Speaker 1: I could not remember that name. Anyway, we have Pam Bennett on the phone. And she is a professor with Ohio State University with the Extension Department. They do a lot of plant trialing. She's up at Clark County. She also leads the Master Gardener program in Ohio, I believe. And we're going to talk to her about Master Gardeners, the program, and everything else. Good morning, Pam. How are you doing?
00:23:17
Speaker 6: Good morning, Scott. I'm doing great. How are you doing?
00:23:18
Speaker 1: I'm doing fine for this time of day. Thank you. having fun talking about plants and getting in trouble and all kinds of stuff, but you know, basically having, having a good morning.
00:23:31
Speaker 6: Doing the Scott thing.
00:23:32
Speaker 1: Doing the Scott thing.
00:23:33
Speaker 2: Yep.
00:23:34
Speaker 1: Borderline on the edge of getting, you know, going too far. Sometimes. Who knows? Who knows?
00:23:40
Speaker 2: Anyway.
00:23:41
Speaker 1: Um, so you are, uh, is there, am I right? The director of the, the program for the state of Ohio?
00:23:48
Speaker 4: Right.
00:23:48
Speaker 6: Yeah, sure.
00:23:49
Speaker 1: So, uh, uh, Several people have called in or emailed me about wanting to know more, and I thought you are the perfect person. And so what is the Master Gardener program for those who don't know about it?
00:24:03
Speaker 2: Okay, so it was a program that was started actually back in the 70s in the state of Washington through the Extension Office. When gardening got to be really popular, the Extension educators figured they needed some help with the outreach, teaching people about gardening and so forth. And Dr.
00:24:22
Speaker 6: David Gibby said, well, let's do this program.
00:24:25
Speaker 2: How about if we train volunteers to help us answer gardening questions? Well, of course, their administration, like I hate to say this, like administration sometimes does, said, no, that's not going to.
00:24:38
Speaker 6: Work. So he went ahead and did it anyways.
00:24:41
Speaker 2: And basically you train through the extension office with volunteers. all different kinds of people in terms of horticulture content, you learn botany, plant physiology, entomology, you get a little bit of everything. And then in return, you give 50 hours of service back to the extension office. And that's where the volunteers then would answer the questions and help, you know, extend our outreach into the counties.
00:25:06
Speaker 6: So it's a, it's a training program. but it's a volunteer program more than anything else.
00:25:10
Speaker 2: And then once you are certified as a master gardener, then you can continue with the program for as long as you want.
00:25:17
Speaker 4: Yeah.
00:25:17
Speaker 1: It's a really great program. And we get a lot of at the Cincinnati zoo and botanical garden, and I'm sure your trial program to really benefit from master gardeners, fulfilling those, those volunteer hours.
00:25:29
Speaker 6: Absolutely.
00:25:31
Speaker 4: Yep.
00:25:31
Speaker 2: We have four major impact areas, environmental horticulture just kind of picks up everything, but we, focus on teaching ipm backyard local foods um and so we try to keep our program areas in those you know particular um categories one of our biggest areas is the grow ohio program where we are growing um vegetables for food pantries and many of yeah many of our counties have um community gardens.
00:26:02
Speaker 6: They work with local gardens.
00:26:04
Speaker 2: Some of them do gleaning, you know, where they go out and pick, you know, or fields that are finished. Uh, and all of that then goes to the food pantry and Franklin County, for instance, gives over, gosh, they're like up to a hundred thousand pounds because they've got so many community guards, but they have a large, they have a large program too.
00:26:21
Speaker 6: Very large program.
00:26:23
Speaker 1: No, the training itself is, is rigor rigorous. I mean, um, you learn pretty much all facets of horticulture, at least to some level.
00:26:34
Speaker 6: Yeah, it is an introduction to horticulture. So you learn, like I said, you learn all the basics.
00:26:38
Speaker 2: And then we build on that with herbaceous ornamentals, woody ornamentals, fruits, houseplants, herbs.
00:26:45
Speaker 6: You know, we touch on all the other categories.
00:26:47
Speaker 2: It's an introduction to each of those.
00:26:49
Speaker 6: And, you know, we don't expect people to remember it.
00:26:52
Speaker 2: The biggest thing, Scott, with this program is we want our volunteers to to be able to give back to the community, but also to share solid research-based information. So they, they learn where to find the information.
00:27:06
Speaker 1: You know, I think that's the most valuable thing you can learn in horticulture as you learn more and more is learning where more information can be had.
00:27:14
Speaker 6: Yes.
00:27:15
Speaker 4: Yes.
00:27:15
Speaker 2: Especially with AI coming in and how to handle it, you know, how to diagnose a plant problem, how to make recommendations, you know, the one thing people trust about our recommendations is that they're based on science.
00:27:27
Speaker 6: They're not, I'm not trying to sell something to you.
00:27:29
Speaker 2: You know, we're, we're looking at, okay, yes, that is an ash tree or no, that's not an ash tree. That's a walnut tree, you know, something like that. So there's, there's so much misinformation as you know.
00:27:42
Speaker 1: Oh yeah. And that's what I think the beauty of extension in general is, is that, and I don't know that most gardeners use it as much as they, they could, but, Extension programs are all the information they put out. And there's usually a lot is science-based and, you know, in bite sizes sometimes where you can learn it in one place easily. And, you know, every county, almost every county in the country has an extension agent or office. Some have horticulturists, some don't. So you might need to seek out one with a horticulturist in your region.
00:28:19
Speaker 6: Right.
00:28:20
Speaker 1: But so much good information can be found there.
00:28:23
Speaker 5: I would like to say thank you from a professional perspective as well. Extension is really a valuable resource to companies as well that have, you know, bigger tree issues and things. And Joe Boggs is one of the people that we lean on a lot. But just extension in general is such a great thing for all of us learning and And the information you provide is so helpful. And I just wanted to say thank you for doing what you do all the time.
00:28:55
Speaker 6: Oh, it's a pleasure. And it just it always interests me.
00:28:59
Speaker 2: And I don't know what surprised me, but people just don't know some of the simple basics about plant growth.
00:29:05
Speaker 6: And they read stuff and even more today with the Internet, they read things.
00:29:10
Speaker 2: You know, that, oh, you should do this. Why are you doing that? You know, it's not based on science. It's not based on science.
00:29:16
Speaker 1: You got to be savvy on the internet to know, like, that sounds like junk or that sounds great. I always tell people, you know, like a good way to know that you're reading good information is if it comes from an EXT suffix on the website address because that means extension. Or EDU.
00:29:37
Speaker 5: Yeah, EDU.
00:29:37
Speaker 3: EDU.
00:29:38
Speaker 2: Yeah.
00:29:38
Speaker 6: Or sometimes.
00:29:40
Speaker 1: ORG if you're looking like at botanical gardens and things like that. Those are the real sources where you're going to get real answers. And the cool thing about extension is, you know, a lot of times you get these questions and you don't know the answer. But extension has the time to go and research it and come back with an answer.
00:29:58
Speaker 3: Yeah.
00:29:59
Speaker 1: The plant diagnosis, diagnostics that you guys do and all that, really a great service.
00:30:06
Speaker 2: Right. And even if we don't know the answer, we're connected with our university researchers. And not just our university researchers, but, you know, like in the world of plant pathology or entomology, we're all connected.
00:30:19
Speaker 6: We're all networked.
00:30:20
Speaker 1: Even that state up north. Well, you know, we.
00:30:24
Speaker 6: Draw the line right there. Michigan State, though, they're the land grant. We like Michigan State.
00:30:28
Speaker 1: They do a great job. They do a great job.
00:30:31
Speaker 5: They have a great program.
00:30:31
Speaker 6: They do. They sure do.
00:30:33
Speaker 1: Yep.
00:30:34
Speaker 2: Yep. So, yeah, so the research-based information is important. And that's one of the things we teach during training. You know, you may come in here with your own ideas and preconceived ideas.
00:30:45
Speaker 6: On, like, pesticides, for instance, Scott. People don't like using pesticides.
00:30:49
Speaker 2: But once they learn about them, they learn how to read a label correctly and Um, and then they learn how to use them properly. You know, they're not as dangerous as people think they are.
00:31:01
Speaker 1: Exactly. Um, you know, I'm like wondering right now, like, well, first of all, I want to mention the social aspect of it too. So a lot, you know, a lot of these people become lifelong friends that these class classes that come through the program. And, you know, I see that all the time with our volunteers is, as they go through the program together. And then once they're out and volunteering, you know, they're making these associations and friendships often later in life when it's a little bit harder to meet new people and get to make friends. But it's wonderful for that.
00:31:34
Speaker 2: Yeah, we're getting ready to launch a big study with Ohio Volunteers that talks about, you know, why do you do this and what motivates you to stick around?
00:31:45
Speaker 6: And in our earliest pieces of the focus groups. Education is one thing.
00:31:50
Speaker 2: They want to continue that lifelong learning, but it's that social aspect that they meet people with like interests, people who like plants, the same plants they do.
00:32:02
Speaker 6: Or maybe somebody's really into date lilies or whatever.
00:32:04
Speaker 2: They find somebody like that and they stick around for that.
00:32:09
Speaker 6: There's a lot of research on as you.
00:32:12
Speaker 2: Age, volunteering, being out in the community, socializing is really important for your health, your mental health, your physical health and overall health. So, you know, with our program, we call it the perfect program for volunteering because you're outside, you get to play in the dirt, you learn about plants.
00:32:31
Speaker 6: Sometimes you get free plants. Like sometimes the zoo has given.
00:32:35
Speaker 2: Away free plans to try to some of the volunteers and, uh, you know, they just, they just love giving back to their community. And that's the biggest thing I think that, that we try to promote is that, you know, we're engaging people to give back to their community in a very different way than say, if you volunteer, like at the art museum or, you know, I mean, everybody has.
00:32:54
Speaker 6: Their own niche for volunteering.
00:32:55
Speaker 3: Right.
00:32:56
Speaker 2: But this is just something that's very unique and very different in our communities.
00:33:02
Speaker 1: I agree. And like with our volunteer group at the zoo, the best, the best Christmas parties, you know, they bring the potluck is out of this world is fantastic.
00:33:15
Speaker 6: And I love the food's always good.
00:33:18
Speaker 2: They are cooks. Yes.
00:33:19
Speaker 1: Yeah. And I always enjoy seeing like at the end of, of their four hour volunteer shift or whatever it happens to be. So many of them just gather up in a group and they go to the zoo's cafe and they have lunch together. You know, it's just a, it's just a great thing to see. And I, you know, the work they do is so appreciated by us for sure. We're going to go ahead and take a break. When we come back, I want to ask you about like how people can sign up and what the commitment is, how much commitment is involved. So stay tuned for that. And we'll be back in just a few minutes.
00:34:03
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00:35:27
Speaker 1: Welcome back. You're listening to Let's Garden with Scott Berline. I'm here with John Butcher from Madison Tree Care and Landscape and also Pam Bennett from the Ohio State University Extension. And we're talking about the Master Gardener Program. And, you know, if people are interested, how do they find out more and how do they sign up to join us, Pam?
00:35:47
Speaker 6: So this is run by the, through the extension office.
00:35:50
Speaker 2: Now it's not in every County in Ohio, but not in our Southwest part of Ohio.
00:35:54
Speaker 6: We've got pretty much one in every County.
00:35:56
Speaker 1: And other States too.
00:35:59
Speaker 2: Yes.
00:35:59
Speaker 6: Well, yeah.
00:36:00
Speaker 3: Yeah.
00:36:01
Speaker 6: Sorry. Sorry. I forgot you were. Yeah.
00:36:03
Speaker 4: Sorry.
00:36:03
Speaker 1: I'm countrywide.
00:36:04
Speaker 2: Yeah.
00:36:05
Speaker 6: Yeah.
00:36:06
Speaker 2: I know.
00:36:06
Speaker 1: I know.
00:36:06
Speaker 6: That's so impressive.
00:36:08
Speaker 2: So you go to your extension office and that's through your land grant university. And you would check their websites and usually they'll have a sign up. You can register there or you can call their county extension office. Most of the time, Scott word of mouth is what gets out as far as our advertising. We are the best kept secret, I think, in the country. Most people don't even know about extension. We're not real good at advertising. So you go to your extension office and check if they have a program. Some of them have programs like for several counties, groups of counties would go together and train, or you might do online. And that's something we've started in the last, well, since COVID, of course, we have online trainings. The online trainings, we require that you have some face-to-face workshops or labs because it's that socialization piece that keeps people volunteering. So you would check your local county extension office or your land-grant universities, just Google Master Gardener, whichever university, and you can find all the information there.
00:37:12
Speaker 6: Now, there usually is a fee.
00:37:14
Speaker 1: I was going to ask, does it cost money?
00:37:16
Speaker 6: Yeah, there's a fee.
00:37:17
Speaker 2: And it's based on where you might live, what the market can bear. But it is basically for your training costs, for your manual.
00:37:26
Speaker 6: And believe me, the manual is like, you know, a hundred pounds, maybe.
00:37:30
Speaker 1: Yeah, it's a good resource.
00:37:33
Speaker 6: It's a great resource.
00:37:36
Speaker 2: And you would pay for that fee and usually get a t-shirt and a name tag and all the things like that. You know, we're not in this to make money on it. So it's just basically covering the cost of the training. and then you start your classes. And the classes vary. I mean, the majority of our volunteers, Scott, are, you know, retirees, so they can take the daytime training. But if you still want to volunteer and, you know, are working or are still interested in learning and volunteering, there are many states and counties that have online training classes.
00:38:07
Speaker 1: That sounds really good. How much commitment, once you've got the training, how much commitment is the Is there for volunteerism and everything else?
00:38:17
Speaker 6: So it varies by state.
00:38:18
Speaker 2: Ohio's minimum is 40 hours, and I think that's the nationwide minimum now.
00:38:24
Speaker 6: But we in.
00:38:26
Speaker 2: Clark County, for instance, we charge 50 or we have 50 hours to give back. And I'll tell you, once people jump in, they learn that, you know, the winter when we train, the winter goes so fast because we do it on weekdays face to face and we do a hybrid model, you know, the online as well. The days go fast, the winter goes fast, and then you jump right into spring and there's all kinds of different projects that people get involved in around the country. You know, pollinators, I didn't mention that, but that's, you know, pollinator gardens, that's one of the big things.
00:38:56
Speaker 6: But the whole.
00:38:56
Speaker 2: Mission really is to teach research-based science, you know, and have fun doing it. And so the commitment is really what you make it. You know, you do your minimum hours, but there are people, Scott, that, as you know, you've got people down there, I'm sure, that do more than, you know, 100 hours, 200 hours in a year.
00:39:14
Speaker 1: Oh, yeah, because it's a passion of a lot of these people.
00:39:17
Speaker 3: Right.
00:39:17
Speaker 2: Right. And they learn so much while they're doing it. Plus, you know, we talked about socializing. They're having fun, too. And who wouldn't have fun working outside, you know, with plants and teaching people about plants and. you know there's all kinds of projects too we have educational programs that our volunteers are delivering we have you know teaching libraries we have community gardens we have school garden programs that a lot of our groups are doing baking pollinator gardens I mean if you look across the country there's just a bunch of different great things that volunteers are doing in the world of horticulture.
00:39:52
Speaker 1: If somebody just wanted to sort of explore it, you know, could they, how could they just see what volunteers do and, and, and just kind of get an idea for it?
00:40:02
Speaker 2: Well, talk to your county extension office and ask about that. And I'm sure people would be happy to let you hang around for a few hours while we're doing, or share with you all the different projects. Hamilton County has a whole bunch of different projects, Clermont, Warren, all the counties in.
00:40:19
Speaker 6: Our greater area.
00:40:20
Speaker 2: But then each county is, what's the beauty of it, in my opinion, is it's focused on your individual.
00:40:28
Speaker 6: Community and where you live.
00:40:30
Speaker 2: So as state director, I don't tell each county what they have to do. We have these general categories. Focus your efforts on invasive species. So you might have them doing invasive species removal, teaching about invasive species. I just did a program the other day about, you know, all the different invasive species that could be in the landscape.
00:40:50
Speaker 6: So they focus on their county needs.
00:40:52
Speaker 2: And like I said at the very beginning, growing food is one of those things, community gardens, teaching people how to grow their own vegetables.
00:41:01
Speaker 6: That's one of our big project areas.
00:41:03
Speaker 1: It's important to note, too, that there are volunteer opportunities for people with physical limitations.
00:41:09
Speaker 6: Oh, yes, absolutely. We need all kinds of help. You know, we've got newsletters to put out. We've got the biggest thing is website.
00:41:17
Speaker 2: If people have like experience creating or doing websites, keeping the website updated, you know, we get so busy that we forget to put dates on the calendar and take them off after it's over. And, you know, there's a lot of things that people can do. And we really try to make sure we can have those projects and opportunities for all levels of physical ability.
00:41:39
Speaker 1: Well, Pam, we're kind of winding down here, and I know you wanted to talk about tools for older people. What can you say in a minute that people can benefit from?
00:41:49
Speaker 6: I wanted to talk about tools for women.
00:41:53
Speaker 1: Women, old women, you said. I was like, what about old men? Because I need that help, too.
00:41:59
Speaker 6: Well, you got all the tools. Men have tools.
00:42:02
Speaker 7: Women, as I've aged, and I'm not saying I'm older, but as I've aged, you know, there's tools– I'm a heavy duty gardener and the tools out there for women, light enough that I can use them, but so powerful.
00:42:16
Speaker 6: Enough to do the job are limited. I'll tell you what, those are the things that I get.
00:42:19
Speaker 1: Why don't we bring you back for more discussion on that? And I also want to bring you back to talk about your extensive Clark County annuals trials or plant trials. And maybe we'll do that more towards like March when people are starting to think about their plants for the next year.
00:42:37
Speaker 2: Sure.
00:42:37
Speaker 6: I'd love to, Scott. Thank you so much for having me.
00:42:39
Speaker 1: You're welcome, Pam. It was great to have you here. You're listening to Let's Garden with Scott Berline. When we come back, Jim Herbert will join us and talk about power tools and the cool new ones and the things we need to do to keep them running. We'll be back in just a few minutes.
