The last answer is a very short version of permaculture outcomes. I left out that insect and disease resistance is also tied to poor planting, plants being overly wet, or overly dry, and sometimes just poor plants. I'll explain more in future videos. At the end of the day it all comes down to keeping the ground covered to protect the beneficial. Thanks for watching!
Yesssss! I love the way you explained the symbiosis between the beneficial bacteria and fungi and how they provide what the plants need. I learned this in my sustainable horticulture class at OSUOKC and I try to explain it to people all the time. You did such a beautiful job explaining it. I want to try to clip out that segment of this video and send it to all of my clients. Actually you should make a clip of that section of this video and turn it into a TickTock and maybe it will go viral in the whole world will learn that this is how it works. 👏👏👏
Such good logic and common sense! Feeding the soil, for example, rather than feeding the plants, is also my own philosophy. Using organic fertilisers too, and quite sparingly, and using organic mulches instead of digging the soil. Highly inspirational advice too. Brilliant videos
The black mulch in HOA-Land make me really glad we moved to acreage after having previously lived in an HOA neighborhood that not only required us to have Bermuda grass, we also were not allowed to use winter rye because "Everyone's yard needs to be cohesive" We have a mostly wooded lot with some patches of grass that I simply mow pathways through now. The pollinators and wildlife love it and so do I. Even better? I no longer have to submit a $25 application every time I want to plant a shrub!
Thanks for the last question and answer. Judging by many of the comments below, anytime you want to expand on this topic, we are ALL here for it. Everyone seems pretty eager to learn.
You are a wealth of sound information - that was so interesting. I never knew anything about sugar in plants - the curse of the sweet tooth strikes again! Thanks for sharing your knowledge and experiences.
Funny story I saw a few years ago, the close caption identified a hedge as "Laura Petalum". It gives me a smile seeing how CC deals with plant names & terms. Only you Jim, can sit in that beautiful yard & say it looks "okay"! I have great luck making moisture domes by cutting plastic bottles of various sizes & fitting them over pots. Doesn't lend itself to large numbers but since I don't have a mist house, it works for me. Finding the right planting mix for this is sometimes tricky but fun when it works! Nothing ventured, nothing gained!
Thanks for this video. I now know why only one allium bloomed. When I planted them in the fall I didn’t realize how close they were planted to daffodils. So I will keep my eye on them and move them when I can.
Yes! Thank you for this! Gardening is science, and while you don’t have to be a scientist to enjoy it, if you aren’t the least bit curious about the “how” and “why” of things, you shouldn’t be on RU-vid spouting incorrect information. You’re doing an important thing here. 👍
As I’m watching the video, we’re getting some much needed rain in southeast Alabama, but I’m watching my mulch float just as you described🤦🏻♀️🤦🏻♀️. It’s hardwood mulch, but not triple shredded. I have searched everywhere I can think of for it, with no luck. If anyone reads this and is in/around southeast Alabama, I’d love to know if you’ve found triple shredded hardwood mulch or a good alternative that’s not pinestraw (too many bugs and snakes for me in the pinestraw). Thanks!
So many burning questions answered in this episode. Thank you very much for your excellent, informative videos and fascinating tours (loved the ones with various horticulturalists showing their gardens). Your channel is a 'go to' for my gardening learning. Particularly loved this video, so felt I had to register a positive comment. Please keep making your great gardening content! Gardener in Zone 9 here - South East Ireland, so more temperate and wetter that USDA 9.
Great gardening. I learn more about organic gardening today. Tolowly agreed about high shade, earlier of planting many different types of plants. Many types of hydrangeas bloom thaer.
As an elementary school teacher who teaches a big unit on soil and plants, I love your answer to why organic fertilizer are best. I found myself nodding along as you were talking. With food there are many products that may falsely be labeled “organic”. I’m wondering, as a consumer and gardener, what should I be looking for in a good organic fertilizer? Thanks again for your awesome videos!
Thank You Jim for pointing out and explaining fertilizing once a week - never heard of such a thing until few years ago on RU-vid. You were spot on too on its effects on the soil and detrimental pests. The same goes for lawn turf, healthy soil healthy lawn.
The difference between a Snickers bar & a 3 course meal is how I would explain the difference between feeding the soil naturally and using chemical fertilizers. While I love tons of blooms, a healthy plant with blooms that can withstand stress is so much better! Thank you for stressing this and teaching good gardening practices.
I could use some advice on proper tree staking. I bought a flamethrower redbud whip and when planting, noticed a wonky bend right at the graphed root flare. As the ‘tree’ began branching, it started leaning. The trunk is barely an inch in diameter and since leafing out, it heaves in the slightest wind. I don’t know if I should stake it, or dig it up and reposition the rootball to upright the trunk. I thought I saw the serviceberry in your front yard had been staked. Can you provide some guidance, please? Thanks Jim and Steph!
Thank you so much for these Q&A videos. I just planted an American Wisteria vine into a container to grow up an arbor. The container is about 20 inches wide and 24 inches deep. How long can it do well in a pot? I'm in NY, zone 6b. Thanks so much!
Fascinating discussion on your last point about organic fertilizer and nature’s processes. Never knew about plant sugars. Also didn’t know about mites taking out vulnerable plants. I recently used some organic fertilizer solution on some of my shrubs. Interested to see how they will progress.
As always great information! Thank you for the organic fertilizer information. I use it but had no idea why or how it actually works vs inorganic. So Thank you again 💓
Wow, this was a particularly informative Q&A! I've witnessed the ebb and flow of spider mites on certain houseplants....for example my croton is absolutely glorious in the full afternoon sun from June to November, but when it has to come inside, I struggle with spider mites, dropping leaves, etc, unless it is perfectly watered, in front of the best possible window, and has a grow light. Right now I'm dealing with some mealybugs in the canopy of my super giant, super old hoya. Going to put it outside (not just on the screen porch) and hope some predators help me out. Thanks for the wealth of knowledge and inspiring me to "keep the faith" with my leaf mulch and 🐔 💩
I've found that bleeding heart and Jacob's ladder both are great self-seeders. I watch for the seedlings and move them around. However, after a while, I have to treat the new seedlings like weeds. They are beautiful enough, though, to put up with pulling out the extras.
Jim - I inherited Wild/American Violet groundcover in my flower beds/yard. I actually love the beautiful heart shaped leaves and how it fills in my front flower beds. This comes from giving up the fight - ground cover is good, but do you think this particular ground cover or an abundance of any ground cover will compete for nutrients or overpower the shrubs in my beds? Thanks!
Very helpful Q&A.. thank you. I bought a neglected Red Bud in the fall once & Borers found it so quickly.. they didn’t bother anything else. My question is how do you know if your soil is healthy w/ plenty of beneficial bacteria? How do you track the progress of your soil improvements?
I just hate dyed mulch! If mulch is made correctly it is black as black! We lived close to a sawmill that had a recycling pond that had nitrogen put in the water and sprayed on the huge mulch piles and drained back into the holding pond and just kept recirculating. It was the best stuff ever! I wish more places would do it that way. It was fabulous stuff and was not so expensive either. I wish had enough land to do similar where I live. 😊 Also amen on the whole plants and fertilizers! Thank you!
So much good info! I purposely didn’t fertilize my gaura this year (but I did fertilize other things in the bed with plant tone in early March), and as you say it “looked healthy,” but it is covered in aphids and they’re sucking the life out of them. I spray them off, but they come right back. Should I just scrap the plants? Thanks for all the great info! Most of my family lives not too far from Raleigh in Johnston County, so I love following along!
How can I battle squash bugs? Planted squash for the first time last year and squash bugs took my plants out. I did add fresh compost this year and chose a different area in which to plant squash.
Would you please make a RU-vid playlist for evergreen or semi evergreen? You are my go to source looking for ideas by zone and an evergreen list would be wonderful.
It's good to hear the way you do the potting soil in your pots! I've been doing the same thing the last years. Most annuals I've pulled at the end of the season only have roots in the top half of the pot. I do dig down through the lower soil to loosen it up before adding the new soil to the top and kind of stir it all up together before planting. It's worked well so far!
The rant/ info, I get.. with my long term plants I roll the way you roll with doing things. But with annuals and containers its a different story, i give them fert every 2 weeks with a cheap 2 week timed release granular fert to get my moneys worth out of them. Anyway a Big question for you Jim when is this illusive fence going in around the backyard. lol
Hi Jim, is there any way you can give your advice on eradicating MOSQUITOES!!! Its the only thing I hate about gardening. Many Thanks😉 Zone 8a (Dallas, Texas)
Thank you for elaborating about fertilizer. Does this still hold true for annuals in pots? Does potting soil have enough in it to last the season of the annual? I mix some compost in with potting soil and put some plant tone over the surface. I thought I needed to do more . Here in the Pacific Northwest, my annuals don’t size up like they do in the south. Maybe that’s just the way it is in our climate.
Excellent Q&As. I’m wondering about fungal issues and if it’s the same as with insects. I can’t seem to get the black spot on my climbing roses under control. I have been using the Bayer 3 in 1. The plants are growing well and this year I have an amazing amount of blooms. But inevitably they start getting naked from the black spot. I clean up the leaves, they have good air flow, they’re on an arch. What I’m wondering is if I include a clematis will it too be affected by the black spot? I thought it would help hide the naked stems.
What is the best way to add organic material such as compost, manures, etc. to your soil when they are covered with groundcovers outside of adding organic fertilizers?
The use of a refractometer is interesting. I've seen it used to measure the sugar in tomatoes. I've always had an analytical mind. I think it would be interesting see how you test your plants with it. How is the liquid extracted from a leaf or flower to test it?
We use a refractometer testing our wine grapes. Some grape varieties are picked at 20-22 BRIX, some above 25 BRIX. Most red grapes fall in the higher category, white grapes typically fall in the lower BRIX reading. Napa Valley CA
Hey Jim, Can you make an episode on natural remedies to get rid of Fire Ants, beetles, catepillars, snails etc while not killing benefical insects like bees and ladybugs?
I love watching your videos to learn something new. I’ve been using organic soil conditioners for 25 years, I live behind the town leaf mulch depot and prepped all my tree, shrub and perennial beds with pickup truck loads of the black gold I got from there. Whenever I buy a shrub or plant it seems like there is a ton of what looks like inorganic fertilizer laying on the surface, for the reasons you just explained are the growers trying to put out a good looking plant that is dependent on inorganic fertilizer ?
Hi Jim. Digging along my fence line I am constantly having to cut roots that come under the fence...seems everybody here thinks a fence line is for growing Bradford pear, privet, ailanthus and other nasty stuff with wild abandon...so I wondered if it might be better to dig the roots and NOT cut them but leave them exposed to heat and drought to die..they might not grow back so fast. What think you? Love the videos..hugs to the dogs.
Is there anything I can do about mason bees? They are drilling into my deck. I have purchased the bee houses a few years in a row. The bees just prefer the deck.
Maybe if you went for bee houses that were more like the deck? I'm going to experiment with making my own by using wood (not bamboo), matching the hole diameter, and adding some sort of canopy (like the deck or soffit provides). B/c my front porch looks like a sawmill and they are getting into my antique zinc topped washstand!
Hi Jim, always a great video. Planted some sunshine Ligustrums last year. I noticed a few dark area around the edges of the leaves and spots. They even dropped the leaves and one went naked. They did recover some what and came back after the winter. But now they are starting to drop leaves again. Is this a fungus? We are 10 miles south of Winston-Salem.
Hi Jim. I’m a Raleigh local and this year my garden is overrun by squirrels & voles. Voles have been dragging my veggie plants underground & squirrels are digging everything up. Yesterday, a squirrel tore a hole in our screened porch to get a birdfeeder I had brought inside for the rain. Any recommendations on what I can do to limit or repel all the pest damage?
I had same problem. I purchased cheap Peanut butter, melted it in microwave and put in Rat Poison pellets in a old pie pan.. I put it out in the evening in the backyard. This worked for my Squirrel problem and whatever small rodents in my yard. I don't have any pets or kids and I have a Privacy fence in backyard.
One last question - I had a Kwanzan Cherry tree that was destroyed by groundhogs in my yard (huge learning curve, all my trees have borders around them now), but I left about 18 inches of the damaged stump there until I could get a good power tool to remove it completely - it has gorgeous new growth coming from one side of the stump and from the ground - do you think the roots are viable enough for this new growth to turn into something like a new shrub or tree? Thanks~
I had planted many allium bulbs last spring but they all seem to have disappeared this year. Not even a leaf came up. I had let the foliage die back on its own and I dont know what happened or what I did wrong. I live in zone 5b, do you know what could have of happened? and Will they come back next year instead? Thank you for all that you do esp the garden tours!
Zine 7b AL: We have one-inch holes all thru our flower beds. They go fairly deep. No plants seem to be harmed, but I’m afraid to tend the areas with holes because I don’t know if something with “squirt” out of a hole. We have blue tailed lizards and black racers, zero chipmunks. Advice? Tganks.
Hey Jim, thanks for you for all of your horticultural knowledge and informative videos. Central Texas Zone 8b. You are my first reference when I have questions. Right into it. I bought a young leyland cypress at Lowes last year and a deer came and snapped it in half a few nights after I put it in the ground. I moved it to the fenced back yard and it’s been doing well and the lower branches are growing up. Will the tree make a new trunk with one of its remaining branches? Was it worth saving, or have a created a huge failure in the making. I have a photo that I can share later if you’d like. Thanks for your time.
Jim, please share your seed starting space in the house with your lighting and set up and techniques and steps up to time to transplant. I have inside space with grow lamps in a garage fluorescent fixture hanging over the seedlings and would like to see another gardener's feedback and tips.
I haven't watched today's video yet--I always watch them in the evening when I can really relax and enjoy (and I watch each and every one). I do have a question. How much sun can a Sum and Substance hosta tolerate? Online there were different answers, some saying that they needed more sun than some other hostas to retain their coloring. I don't have any dappled shade here, just bright sun and then some darkish shade near the house. I'm in zone 6B.
Hi Jim. We had a late snowstorm a week and a half ago and the heavy snow weighed down a lot of my shrubs and trees. The trees have mostly regained their form but my lilac and viburnums are sagging. They are in the four to five feet range. How do I get them to regain their shape? Thank you!
Hi Jim, I have sunshine ligustrum that have lost leaves early in spring and haven’t filled back out yet should I be concerned? And what causes them to lose leaves they were so pretty and full.
I really enjoyed the organic fertilizer information. I would love to learn more about building the soil and composting. Would adding a light layer of grass clippings to my flower beds throughout the growing season be beneficial? Or would the higher nitrogen content reduce flowering? Thank you!
Question - is it possible to make a weeping redbud start to bend at a different spot once it already has a weeping bend at the top? I purchased a young whitewater weeping redbud last spring. It was ~3' tall and came with a bamboo pole that had a tie where the end was weeping over. I had no idea at the time that trees mainly grew from the top so just left it as it was. After more research this winter, I found out that I should have kept tying it to the stake until I had a achieved the height I wanted. The main trunk is still somewhat flexible but obviously not enough to bend it straight up again. Is there anything I can do or I am doomed to have a very short weeping redbud! Thanks for the videos! I recently found your channel and have been enjoying the Q&A's, as well as the great garden tours, and having fun going back into the archives. Much appreciated :)
I have bermuda grass, so do my adjoining neighbors. Would it be possible to transition my grass to zoysia? If so what's the best way to do that and how hard would it be to maintain with the neighboring bermuda?
Earlier this year you advised to leave my Camellia Japonica (from builder) with black leaves be and see what happens. I thought the wait had paid off bc it’s gone, leaves look great it’s growing. BUT now there are tons of little bugs congregating on the under sides and stems of new leaves. I’ve started blasting them w the hose but I’m wondering if the plant can push thru this and become healthy enough to deter the insects in the future? Or if this will be a continuous problem?
Hi Jim. When refreshing containers, why do you opt to replace some of the soil as opposed to top dressing with a small amount of organic fertilizer? Would both techniques achieve the same results?
You keep moving house to house and adding plant value to miss it and having start over in a new location? New canvas ...Some of the plants where I buy them in Texas are not found some have to order where the best websites are ? Camillas looking for fragrant plants.... thanks
I have an oak tree (not sure the type...I picked up the acron on the OU campus in Oklahoma) that has sprouted from an acorn that I pitched into a container. Its about 6 inches tall. Should I put it in the ground or baby it in a pot for a few years?
Question: Much to my dismay, my landscape was just sprayed with a fungicide & now the majority of it has been damaged. Shriveled leaves, discoloration, frequent wilting despite having been watered. What can I do?
Mark Biggs, I'm right there with you on wanting to know how leaves and grass are tested with the Brix Refractometer. Jim or Stephanie. will either one of you demonstrate this for us? I also don't like to overuse fertilizers or pest control products even though they may be labeled as organic. ~Margie
Hey Jim, love your informative videos! I have two pampas grasses that I planted about three years ago and they’re green, but they’ve never bloomed or gotten any bigger, what can I do to get them to bloom or look healthy. My neighbors have them and never do anything to them!! I’m willing to do the work, but I don’t know what’s wrong. Do I need to fertilize them? do I need to cut them down to the ground? what would you suggest?
Hello, I planted a Wisteria bush last year and my plans are to train it to tree form. It has two main branches growing twisted and off center. If I twist the branches together will I hurt the plant?
If I were to make a barrier ( concrete or metal sheets maybe) to prevent my awful Bermuda from creeping constantly into my gardens how deep do I need to go? I'd love to replace it all but the whole neighborhood is Bermuda so I worry my neighbors Bermuda would just creep back into my lawn.
I just purchased several small perennials online in 4-inch containers, including some clethra, sweetspire, mock orange, and rose of sharon. Is it okay to go ahead and plant them now while they're so small, or should I grow them in larger containers until they're bigger/more established? Thank you!
