Narrator> Making It Grow is brought to you in part by Certified South Carolina.

This cooperative effort among farmers, retailers and the South Carolina Department of Agriculture helps consumers identify foods and agricultural products that are grown, harvested or raised right here in the Palmetto State.

McLeod Farms in McBee, South Carolina, family owned and operated since 1916.

This family farm offers seasonal produce, including over 40 varieties of peaches.

Wesley Commons, a full service continuing care retirement community located on more than 150 wooded acres in Greenwood, South Carolina.

Additional funding provided by the South Carolina Farm Bureau Federation and Farm Bureau Insurance and Boone Hall Farms.

♪ ♪ ♪ > Well, good evening and welcome to Making It Grow .

We sure are glad you can be with us tonight.

I am Amanda McNulty, I'm a Clemson Horticulture Agent.

And I'm here with my fellow Clemson employee, Terasa Lott, who's my co-host and the Midlands District Director.

She has a lot of people that you're trying to, keep, keep these Clemson people in line.

> Oh, they don't require much of that.

Lots of talent among our agents in the Midlands District and across the state.

And it's even better when I get to go out and watch the programing that they do making a difference.

So I recently had a chance to go to, a pond workshop.

Amanda> Ooh!

Terasa> Yeah, so learning about not just water quality but also, if people are interested in stocking fish, how to maintain fish health, what types of fish, if using fish for plant management.

It's pretty complicated.

Amanda> And also you lime ponds.

I mean that was the craziest thing I'd- you know, you lime your land.

And apparently, I mean it's, there's a lot to it.

Terasa> There really is.

Amanda> Yeah.

Well, that must have been great.

I'm glad you learned all about it.

Yeah.

Well, we are glad that you are here with us.

And we have Brad Fowler, and you used to be a Home Hort.

Agent, but now you've decided to learn all about agriculture.

> That's right, that's right.

I'm changing, switched sides on the horticulture team.

So, will be working with, small fruit and vegetable producers in quite a few counties.

Georgetown is my home county, but Horry, Marion, Williamsburg and Dillon Counties.

Amanda> Well, and so you're gonna learn about, you know, fruits and vegetables and all that some people have.

And then also, I guess some of them are probably big row croppers still.

Brad> There are quite a few row croppers, and they're moving, in the direction of small fruit and vegetable production because of the, you know, potential to earn more profit and stuff like that.

<Sure> You know, so, yeah, we do have a lot of row croppers that are, that are doing that as well.

Amanda> Okay.

You just have to find an outlet.

Brad> Exactly.

That can be the difficult, difficult part is- Amanda> Well, and you've got to have, you have to pick.

You have to harvest.

I mean you don't run a machine down.

It's not a cotton picker.

Brad> Exactly.

Amanda> And who could afford a cotton picker anyway?

Yeah.

Okay.

Well, I thank you for taking the time to be with us.

I really appreciate it.

And Carmen Ketron, you have kind of switched from right around down the road to, down in Georgetown area.

And I think that's a beautiful part of the state.

I know you like it down there.

> I Love it, love it, love it.

When I first moved here for undergrad, I went to Coastal Carolina University.

So the Grand Strand, Georgetown area has always been, very important to me.

Amanda> And you've seen it change a lot.

Carmen> Lots of change, yes.

Nothing but traffic now.

But lots of people are excited and moving, and they're absolutely loving our growing season.

They just gotta figure out how to do it.

Amanda> Well, And I think, we're even doing some things, some people now are wondering what to do if there are some more salt tolerant things they can have in the yard, because every now and then, the ocean decides to come in your yard.

Carmen> Yes, exactly.

Ocean spray.

Saltwater intrusion.

It's a whole new way to do, more weather-wise gardening.

Amanda> Yeah, yeah.

Lots of challenges.

Yeah.

Okay.

And then Glen Payne, a Clemson Extension Urban Horticulture Agent.

And I think you dip your toes in salt water too.

Yes, ma'am, I do in Beaufort County, as well as helping the stakeholders in Jasper and Colleton County.

Amanda> Lots of calls about what to do.

Glen> There are, this time of year.

There's lots of calls about "When should I fertilize?"

"What do I, how do I read my soil sample results that I've received?"

Lots of questions dealing with that.

Amanda> The soil sample results can be a little confusing because I think they're generated, and according to the number or something.

So I think people can really get a lot of help from y'all in exactly how to apply some of these things you need to.

Glen> Yes, they can.

And when they receive the results, they've got the number for, the Home Garden Information Center at the bottom, or they always have me as the local extension agent with local knowledge that's able to help them interpreting those soil results.

So they have, the best growing possible.

Amanda> Yeah, don't guess, soil test.

Glen> Don't guess, soil test.

There ought to be a needlepoint in the extension office with that.

[laughter] Amanda> Well, Terasa knows how to do things.

Maybe she could do some needlepointing.

Terasa> That's one I don't know.

I think I might have, cross stitched a little bit growing up, but I think I've forgotten anything I knew.

Amanda> Anyway, we're so happy to have all of y'all here to help us today.

And we're also going to have some fun things for y'all to learn about at home.

Kokedama, which is Japanese moss balls with Alicia Herold.

And Sassafras Nursery and Herbs with our very own Carmen Ketron.

Thanks for going and doing that for us.

Carmen> Oh, so much fun.

Amanda> Yeah, yeah.

Alrighty.

Well, I guess we have some "Gardens of the Week."

Should we start off with that?

Terasa> We should, we should.

Our viewers never disappoint.

You always have wonderful photos to share that are inspiring.

And sometimes they come from your own yard or perhaps a beautiful place in the great state of South Carolina.

Today we begin with Shirley Neumann, who shared a Peace Lily.

She said she'd been searching for quite some time, and this one was just too pretty to resist.

From Millie Pugh, a snowball bush, bluebells and money plants, which she says "makes a beautiful combination in this space."

Cathy Phelps shared onions in a raised bed in Greenville.

From Deborah Stone, a most magnificent crossvine, which she reports, "gets more and more beautiful every year."

And last but not least, Keith and Rachel Gaines shared a photo of their yard with the caption, "Plants are popping up."

And that is in Camden.

And I must say, that, that yard just looks like a nice place to sit and have a retreat where you can just relax and listen to the sounds of nature.

Thank you so much for sharing your photographs with us.

Keep them coming.

I encourage you any time you see us make a call for "Gardens of the Week," don't be shy post your photos in the comments so everyone can see them on our Facebook page.

Amanda> Oh, thank you so very much.

You know, it would have been nice to have a glass of iced tea sitting out there wouldn't it?

Yeah, sweet or unsweet, either way, it's good.

Yeah, yeah.

I think it's one of our official drinks or something like that.

Terasa> It is.

The hospitality beverage?

Amanda> It is hospitality beverage.

I think milk is our state beverage.

Terasa> Yes, we have a state "everything" it seems.

Amanda> Yeah, we sure do.

Yeah, yeah.

Which is kind of nice.

Well, perhaps we can help someone, Terasa.

Terasa> I sure hope we can.

That is one of our main goals with the show and with Extension.

Donnie from Marion said, "When should I start fertilizing my grass?"

That is a great question.

The answer depends or it could depend.

Amanda> Yeah, because we have several different kinds of turf that people grow here.

And they need different amounts and so how do we go about that?

First, I guess you gotta know what kind of grass you have.

Brad> Yeah, so we gotta figure out a few things first.

That will definitely be the first question is to figure out what kind of grass we have.

So, you know, whether it's Centipede or Bermuda or Zoysia or St.

Augustine.

You know, in my part of the world, that's going to be the main grasses that we're going to be growing.

Once we figure that out, then we can determine how much we should fertilize.

You know, Bermuda is going to take a lot more fertilizer, probably, than a centipede is- Amanda> And do you have to apply maybe more frequently?

Brad> Exactly, exactly.

You certainly can, you don't necessarily have to, but you certainly can.

<Okay> The issue, though, that we run into this time of year.

Is it always warms up a little bit around February.

Right?

We always get a few warm days and the grass starts to green up a little bit and people think, "oh, I'll go ahead and start fertilizing."

But it normally cools back off some, especially towards Easter.

[laughter] And so we're really, it's still a little too early.

We really don't want to start fertilizing until around the first of May, depending on what part of the state you are in.

Amanda> So do you want the grass to be actively growing?

Brad> We want it to be actively growing.

We're not trying to force that grass into doing something it's not naturally ready to do.

Because if we force it with a whole bunch of nitrogen, and it puts on a whole bunch of green growth, and all of a sudden we get a late frost or something.

It's going to, hit that grass pretty hard.

So we need to wait.

We have to be patient.

You know, a lot of folks move down here.

And they think, "man it's, it's so warm."

But it's, it's really not there yet.

Around the first of May is when we start getting those nighttime temperatures up in the 60s regularly and getting some warmer daytime temperatures and stuff.

So, 1st of May is kind of a good rule of thumb, but we've got a ton of great fact sheets on each of those grasses that I mentioned.

That kind of give you more specifics about when and how much <Oh> to fertilize each grass as well.

Amanda> And if you don't know what you have, Carmen, is there any way to find out?

There's a lot of great ways to find out.

A nice picture into the Home and Garden Information Center will usually help.

Amanda> But you'd have to wait till it's up and growing.

Carmen> A lot of the times you want to see if it, if it starts to pop up.

But most of the fabulous agents there, they can even tell when it's dormant.

<Okay> Just by the blade.

Amanda> Is that one of the things you do for people sometimes?

Glen> Yes, it certainly is.

As well as, if you're not sure, I'm not sure, Carmen's not sure, we can always take a six by six inch sample and send that to the Plant Diagnostic Clinic at Clemson, and they can identify what type of grass it is for you.

Amanda> Gosh, we've just got it covered, don't we?

I'm proud of Clemson.

Brad> Now I have had people want us to get down into cultivar or variety.

<That's a little...> They can't quite get... They can tell you it's Bermuda grass, but maybe not the... <Okay> anything further than that.

Amanda> Oh, la, la, la, la.

Yeah, or you can just reduce the size of your lawn and just have a small amount and you wouldn't- And plant other things that are going to be larval food sources and things like that.

Native plants.

Just putting a plug in for that.

Because as I say, you need enough turf, to have a slip and slide and a tea party with your kids.

Brad> There you go.

Amanda> Okay.

Well, thanks so much.

Well, Terasa?

Terasa> Let's see what's up next.

Paul from Summerton has a question.

"I have encore azaleas that bloom through the year.

When is it time to prune these?"

Lots of timing questions, today.

Amanda> Yeah.

Goodness gracious.

Oh, and, the azaleas can make such a beautiful display, can't they?

Well, Carmen, what do you do?

So that's... that's fun.

So normally with almost all of your azaleas, you want to, the old saying is "prune after bloom."

But with those encore azaleas you might get a spring, a summer, and then even a fall bloom off of them.

Ideally, what the nice folks that created the encore azalea, say... is you still want to do a pretty significant prune right after that first bloom.

That's right.

That first spring flush, as soon as it's done, that's when you want to do your first big prune, to get it, in the right shape that you want.

If you want to hedge, or if you want to do a more natural look, clean out any of, the overgrowth, anything rubbing, crossed.

But always, if it's dead, diseased or damaged, always just cut it immediately, don't go by that rule.

So, it's kind of fun, though, and, it will still have, you'll cut off a little bit of the blooms, but that's way better than waiting till too late.

Amanda> And then I used to hear that if you got it done before the 4th of July, it would still have time to initiate new buds for next year.

If you wait too late, especially if you have the old-fashioned kind.

You know, you may not get anything.

So you need to get it done, I believe by then at least.

Carmen> You definitely need to get it done by the 4th of July.

And if we stay in our droughty conditions, you definitely want to get it even earlier, right after that bloom.

Because if you're cutting in a drought and you don't have any way to water it in, that can sometimes, kind of beat it up a little bit more.

Amanda> And then sometimes I see places where they have people who come in with, you know, [imitating machine noises] in commercial... or sites- And so the part that didn't get, you know, pruned- [laughter] Carmen> Usually down at the bottom.

Amanda> You got stuff back and forth, you know, some of it has flowers on it, some of it doesn't.

It's kinda crazy looking.

Carmen> You can definitely tell where the shred was.

If it's like... there's no blooms at the top, but there's some like poking out the bottom.

Amanda> Isn't that funny?

Yeah.

Carmen> We love that.

We love to see it.

Amanda> But a pretty, you know, carefree plant in lots of ways.

I think, you know, I think that they really prefer some shade.

Would you agree with that still?

Carmen> Definitely an afternoon shade as well.

Like a nice early morning sun, afternoon shade.

But those encores, they can pretty much take the full sun too.

So there are different varieties.

You've got to read the label and do a little bit of research, but a lot of people will put it- Brand new plant right out in the middle of, you know, the suburbs of Egypt where there's wind and sun and it'll just get beat up.

So make sure if you're doing it that you're making a little plant island, if it's out in full, full sun.

Amanda> Okay.

Good advice.

I appreciate it.

Okay, Terasa?

Terasa> Let's see what's up next.

Oh, this one is a problem.

So hopefully we can help Richard in Beaufort.

Richard sent us a photograph and said "The new leaves on my citrus tree are being attacked by green insects.

Please help!"

With an exclamation point.

Amanda> Oh, so many people now are doing, at home... fruits, I mean citrus.

Gosh, you know, because it's warmer or they can, you know, run them in and out of the garage.

What can this person do and what's happening?

Glen> Well, with Richard, it looks like in the photograph what's happened is he may have jumped the gun a little on the fertilization on his citrus tree, which has led to a lot of sugar production in the ends of the new leaves.

<Yes> And they're attracting the aphids to it.

<Whoa!> And so what's happened is the aphids are getting in between the leaf cuticle, and they're eating the sugar.

Amanda> So it's going down into the leaf itself?

Glen> Right.

And the aphids have a little piercing, sucking mouth part, and they also carry virus on it.

So you have to really monitor that with your expensive citrus trees that you're trying to grow out for the fruit.

And as they begin to grow out, you want to make sure that with the aphids that you're actually treating them.

But first you want to ID what it is.

That's the main thing.

Like what Brad said in ID-ing your turf.

You want to ID what type of insect it is, which will help you with your treatment on it also.

Amanda> So what advice do you have for this person?

Glen> Well, for Richard, what I would say is after he's ID-ed that it truly is aphids.

Amanda> Can he get help from you with that?

Glen> Absolutely.

He can always stop by the Beaufort County Extension Office.

He can always call.

Or he could always email with photographs like they did for Carmen.

Amanda> Yeah.

Send something up to HGIC.

Glen> Right.

So plenty of ways to communicate on it and plenty of ways for us to help and get him in contact with resources to save his, citrus trees.

So with that, once he has identified that they're the aphids that are on the tree, he wants to look around and see, are there any beneficial insects as well?

Amanda> Ah, okay.

Glen> He may have lace wings that are around.

He may have lady beetles that have hatched out all at the same time as these are natural- Amanda> Chomp, chomp, chomp.

Glen> That's it.

And they're hungry.

It's that time of year.

And so they're going to be on the lookout for these aphids.

So before you start with any type of, spray program or anything like that, use the Integrated Pest Management Program.

See if you have any biological, insects that are around that could eat them.

Amanda> And especially since we're going to be... picking these fruits and using them inside, we want to be particularly careful with what we use.

Glen> Right.

You are correct.

And the other thing that would help is before you do your fertilization make sure you have a soil test done.

And if you haven't done it in the last year, it's probably a good time.

If you don't remember, to go ahead and do a new soil test.

Amanda> Even in a container, I guess you would need to do that sometimes?

Glen> Most definitely in a container, because you're going to water it and wash all the nutrients out.

Amanda> Whoa!

I hadn't thought of that.

Of course, yeah, you just wash, wash, wash.

And so... which are the ones that are the most mobile with water and then which one isn't?

Glen> As far as your, chemicals, your potassium is going to really leach out, which is going to affect your root growth.

And there are a lot of things in your citrus tree that can look yellow.

And they all look similar.

Too much water, not enough water, the potassium is washed out.

And if your potassium is washed out, your roots are going to be very shallow.

<Goodness> So that soil report will help tell you that you're low in potassium.

What the recommended amount it would be, for that.

What type that you should put down.

And that will really help you with the root growth.

And once you have roots, then you're able to uptake the rest of the nutrients for your tree.

[laughter] So there's a lot of science going on here.

Amanda> I think a glass of lemonade from a home tree, is not as easy as we might think.

Glen> That's right.

And we could be part of the problem if we're fertilizing and not soil testing.

Amanda> Thank you.

Okay.

Thanks a lot.

Well... Kokedama is an interesting thing to learn about, and I'd never heard of it, but, a Japanese moss ball.

And we had a great time learning how to do this.

And apparently, a lot of people in the United States already know about Kokedama.

But if you don't, here's a way to learn about it.

Amanda> I'm real excited today because Alicia Herold is with us, and we're going to do some kind of very interesting craft and actually get our hands dirty.

Alicia, tell me how you got interested in gardening and all of this.

> Well, I've been around plants and gardening all my life, and... I took the Master Gardeners class, year before last, and I enjoyed it.

But I like making plants look neat.

And the Kokedama is just a really neat craft that you can do with your plants.

Amanda> Well, let's see what we can do today.

I'm excited.

Alicia> Well, let's get started then.

We're going to make a Kokedama, which is, a Japanese craft.

And basically we're going to put our plant into a moss ball.

Amanda> Let's go!

Alicia> All right.

The first thing we need to do, Amanda- Amanda> Have to have a plant.

Alicia> Have to have a plant.

And you wanted to start with your maidenhair.

<I did.> So what we're going to do is we're going to real gentle, just hold it over here so we get the dirt and let's dump it out.

[hand popping on plastic] Amanda> Okay, I got him.

Alicia> You can knock off the extra dirt- Amanda> And you've got- Gah, your root ball was all... [laughter] wound up.

Alicia> Yeah.

Amanda> You want to- Alicia> Just go ahead and knock that off in here.

Amanda> Gah, mine is really beautifully... all rooted in.

<Oh, yeah.> So I don't have any extra dirt, to tell you the truth.

Alicia> All right, well- Amanda> Oh, the top a little bit.

Yeah.

Alicia> Well, the good thing about the Kokedama is you don't really have to take a lot of dirt off the way that we're doing it.

<Okay> So just a little bit.

Amanda> Let's call that done.

Alicia> Alright then, let's sit this right here for a second and let's get our cheesecloth and put it right here.

And what the cheesecloth is going to do for you is whenever we put the dirt into our bowl, we're going to be able to instead of having to pat it together like patty cakes, that's going to hold all our dirt right on our ball.

Amanda> So this is the- And then when we finish, you won't see the cheesecloth that'll all be obscured.

Alicia> Yeah.

It's going to be all covered with moss and then we'll trim it as well.

So- Amanda> And so this is the size that it's going to be?

This little bowl.

Alicia> Yeah.

<Okay> And that's what I do, if I have like a four-inch size plant pot I usually do about that.

So what you need to do is grab a nice little handful of your dirt here.

Amanda> And you've got, potting soil that has some fertilizer in it?

Alicia> Yeah.

This is a higher grade potting soil that I use in mine.

And you don't need too much.

Just enough to keep your plant roots from touching the, making direct contact with your cheesecloth there.

Amanda> Okay, so I put in about... I'm gonna put my finger in it.

<Yeah> So I put in that much?

Alicia> Yeah.

About an inch, an inch a half.

<Okay> All right, so let's- Amanda> Just so people can- Alicia> Yeah, let's go ahead and grab your plant and we'll sit him in there all straight.

Amanda> Okay.

Hey, little fella.

[laughter] Alicia> Now, once you have your plant in here, <Uh-huh> we go ahead and start grabbing handfuls of your dirt and just packing it kind of around.

<Okay> You want to try to keep your cheesecloth- Amanda> Oh, over the edge.

Alicia> Up on the edge.

That way you'll have something to grab onto.

<Okay> [sloshing and splashing] Amanda> You got it really good and wet.

Alicia> Yeah.

<Okay> Whenever we, get it in a ball and start squeezing a lot is going to come out.

Amanda> And I can see it's got this slow release fertilizer, these little pellets in it, so.

Alicia> Yeah and that just- Amanda> Well, yeah it helps- Alicia> Helps it look nice.

Amanda> You don't have to water with fertilizer.

Alicia> Not to start with, but- Amanda> After... if you make a good one and it lives long enough.

Alicia> Yeah.

Once a month... I water mine and use some fertilizer.

Amanda> Okay!

Alicia> All right, so we got enough in there.

<Okay> So now what we need to do is grab your four corners of your cheesecloth.

Amanda> Alrighty.

Alicia> And we're going to- Amanda> Bring it in towards the middle.

Alicia> Yeah.

Bring it in towards the middle.

Amanda> I'm trying to keep my leaves, out of the way.

It's a beautiful little fern.

Okay.

Alicia> All right.

Amanda> Do I lift it out?

Alicia> All right.

Yep... <Whoa!> Lift it right over here.

Amanda> Oh, hey!

That looks pretty good, I think.

Alicia> Now, get it around the top, kind of like you're holding a soda bottle.

And see how my- Amanda> Oh, oh my goodness.

Alicia> Yeah.

You're alright.

Amanda> How's that?

Alicia> It's pretty good.

Alright, so, just kind of- Amanda> For an amateur.

Alicia> Yeah.

Wrap your hand around it like so.

Amanda> Okay.

I've got a good grip on it.

Alicia> Yeah.

See, I've got around the neck, like, and I'm still holding my cheesecloth.

Now we want to squeeze it over and let's get rid of some of this excess water.

[squirting] Amanda> This is fun!

I like this.

Alicia> Making mud pies with Amanda.

[laughter] All right.

Amanda> Okay!

Gosh, I can't even see the cheesecloth already, you know, pretty much.

Oh, we want it to be round.

Kind of sort of.

Alicia> We'll work on the round.

<Yeah, okay.> Alright, here we have some nice sphagnum moss.

Amanda> And you got it nice and damp.

Alicia> Yeah, I soaked it for about 15 minutes and- <Isn't it pretty?> Got it nice and expanded.

Yeah, and it comes in a lot of different colors and things as well.

But, this just looks really natural.

Amanda> Oh, I think this is wonderful.

Alicia> And you can also use, sheet moss or you can use actual live moss.

I've actually foraged moss before and used it, but those, the care is a little bit more intense on those.

Alright, we have jute.

<Okay> So what we're going to do, is for you... we're going to hold it... yeah, just kind of grab that.

<Yeah> And... lay it on, so you're laying your hand sideways like this.

<All right> And now we're going to lay some of this moss on top.

Amanda> Oh okay, on the side.

Alicia> And you see, you've got your string with your finger- <Yeah> and you have to hold it.

Yeah, stay holding on to the piece there.

Amanda> Hold on, I'm getting there.

Alicia> It's aright.

Like, pinch it.

<Okay> So now you come and you wrap.

Go ahead and wrap around.

<Around?> And then as you're going, you just drop, you drop more moss in and you keep your ball.

Amanda> It helps if you stick your tongue out too.

Alicia> Yes, it always does when you're using your hands for... you have to stick your tongue out.

Amanda> So can I turn it a little bit?

Alicia> Yeah, so start turning it and just add that moss on while you're turning.

And I'm using fishing line on mine <Okay> because you can also use fishing line or just anything.

Amanda> Because you know what you're doing and I don't.

<Well> Kind of sort of.

Alicia> The fishing line will cut your hands a little bit if you pull it too tight.

Amanda> But you're just thinking it really disappears and then you don't see it.

Alicia> Yeah, and if I'm using the fishing line, I'll usually come back with a decorative string and kind of fancy- Amanda> Oh, you do?

Alicia> Make it fancy.

Amanda> So the string can be an attractive part of it.

<Yeah> Well I guess we're kind of getting to the end.

<Yeah> Okay.

Hold on there, fella.

Alicia> Yeah, and any of the moss, if it's hanging out, you can just trim it, right?

<Oh, okay.> Like a little haircut.

<Wow, okay.> It's going to stick out sometimes.

Amanda> Well, I think it, you know... [laughter] Not quite as, spherical as yours, but I think for a first try... [hands clapping] Pretty darn good.

Where are we going to set these?

Alicia> Kokedama basically, you go by your plant type.

Your fern here, you know, ferns like moisture.

They like humidity.

So we want to make sure that we put it for light, it wants indirect, so we're going to put it in an indirect light place.

And then I usually set them on a platter.

I make some little like string holders.

You can feel how heavy it is when it's wet now.

If when it starts getting light, usually about every three days, I'll get a bowl.

Just like this- Amanda> Come on, every three days?

Alicia> About every three days, I get a bowl about like this.

And I'll fill it up almost full.

<Yeah> And then, I just soak the Kokedama in it for about ten minutes until it gets some weight to it.

And then you just pick it up, squeeze it out a little and set it right back on its platter or plate.

Amanda> Can people write you, do you have an email?

If people need some help.

Alicia> Yeah, yeah.

I'm, creekgirlfishing@gmail.com And feel free to email me with any questions or anything, and I'll try to help you out the best I can.

Amanda> Okay!

Well, this has been great, great fun and thank you so much.

A new hobby.

Alicia> Yeah.

Love it.

<Okay> Amanda> We really appreciate Alicia Herold coming.

And I think that you may know this person.

I think she took the Master Gardener Course with you.

Carmen> Yes.

She's fabulous.

Amanda> And she's just getting her fingers into everything.

She's having a great time.

<Oh, yeah.> Well, hats, hats, hats.

So, I was out in the yard and, I noticed that the crossvine was going way up a pine tree.

And it is so glorious.

And it has... it was just... there were some that had fallen off the tree, so I had to put that stem back under another one.

Covered, covered, covered with insects and bees and also it blooms when the hummingbirds are first here.

And so it's a great source for them because, and that's this, that is this one right here, this beautiful one right here, crossvine.

So that is something, a native that's just so, so easy to grow if you have any place near your- And it's not like, trumpet creeper.

I mean, it's not going to take over your yard.

It's very, very, very well controlled.

I would encourage you to get that.

And then we also have, Florida anise, which is this beautiful, beautiful one right here.

And that's another native.

And the leaves... an anise tree, as soon as I, moved into where we live with my children, I planted some [sniffs] because my mother would take us out in the yard and get one... and crush it for us.

And it still reminds me of what Mama did.

And I wanted to do that with my kids.

You know, it's so wonderful to continue those things.

And then we have strawberry bush or "hearts-a-bursting with love."

Another beautiful native that grows- Mines in the shade and just pops up everywhere.

And isn't it just the loveliest little flower that you've ever seen?

I mean, just, you know, you don't have to go to Europe.

You don't have to go, you know, around the world.

The world is right here in our, in our own yard.

So, anyway, fun to know about stuff like that.

Oh, goodness, gracious, gracious, gracious.

Well, more stuff we can help people with?

Terasa> I bet there is more.

It seems that there are, we never run out of questions or problems.

Let's see.

This one comes from Jan in Loris.

Jan wants to know how do I know how much insecticide to use when I'm spraying the bushes around my house?

Amanda> Goodness.

Terasa> Not a lot of detail in the question.

Amanda> That's pretty, open-ended.

Brad, I mean, I'd hate to think somebody was just that- I mean, I put mosquito spray on... [laughter] but, that's pretty indiscriminate, I mean, give us some advice here.

Brad> There's a lot to unpack with that one.

And I found out, you know, being with Extension, we almost become detectives, in a way, as we talk with folks.

Because we have to ask a whole lot of questions to get those, those details.

So with this particular problem, I would probably start by saying, "well, what... insects, can you send some pictures of insects that you're seeing-" Amanda> And what are the plants?

Brad> What are the plants that you have?

And so once we can get all that figured out, like Glen was talking about getting the right ID and that sort of stuff, once we can get all that figured out, then maybe we can start talking about insecticides.

But it may be the case that you don't even need an insecticide.

So and that's one of the issues, I think, that oftentimes we're so quick to run to the store, get an insecticide and just start spraying.

But Glen mentioned the beneficials, we may be killing off all of our beneficials as we're trying to kill, pests.

And so we have to ID it.

We've got to get a good idea of what it is, and if it needs to be treated.

Let's just say it does, need to be treated.

Whatever insecticide... I would recommend starting kind of at the very, very low toxicity like an insecticidal soap or a horticultural oil.

Start there.

Let's see if something like that can solve the problem.

If it can't, maybe we have to step it up into a more traditional insecticide.

But no matter what they're using, the label is going to have the rates on it.

<Yes> And I know I don't sit around on Friday nights reading chemical labels.

It's not the most interesting- Terasa> Come on, that's what I find as entertainment.

Carmen> To go to sleep to?

Brad> Well, you could go to sleep to it, for sure.

It's tough.

It's small writing.

Amanda> If you needed to go to sleep.

<Exactly> If you want to get put to sleep.

Brad> But the label does have the information you need.

Now, we can also help with that sort of stuff.

Amanda> Cause sometimes, I will admit, it's kind of hard because, you know, they might have a commercial or I mean, home yard.

It can be a little confusing for people.

Brad> It can and sometimes you get frustrated trying to read that label and figure it out and you're just like, forget it I'm pouring some in a sprayer and I'm moving on.

And we just, there's a whole lot of harm that can come about with that.

And so I just recommend people follow the label "label is the law."

We'll say it 100 times, you know, throughout the week.

But the label will tell us everything we need to know about how much of something to apply.

Amanda> Okay.

Terasa> And how frequently, even things like, you know, a lot of us are animal lovers, we have pets, and we need to know about when it's safe for the pet to reenter the yard.

<Yep> Amanda> Yeah.

Boy, a lot to unpack there.

Well, thanks, you did a pretty good job getting everything out of that suitcase.

I appreciate it.

Brad> That's just the start.

[laughter] Amanda> Well, Terasa, what's next?

Terasa> Let's see if the next one... is as encompassing.

This one comes in from Latta.

Callie said, "I know I need more compost in my garden, but what is the least expensive option to get some?"

I'd say make your own.

I don't know- Amanda> Yeah, if you can.

Yeah.

Goodness.

Well, Carmen, have you got some suggestions?

Carmen> That is the best option is to make your own.

A lot of your backyard compost options can, be just as effective.

It just does take a little bit of time.

One other option in terms of making your own, as opposed to letting everything decompose, is to do cover crops.

<Yes> Even in a small home garden setting, like a little four by eight box or maybe the vegetable patch.

If you can put an area under some type of cover crop, something that's growing, when you're not planting your vegetables or your fruits or sometimes co-planting in the rows instead of mulching.

That's a great way to get organic matter back into the soil.

Have a living, mulch system going so that nothing is exposed.

Because right now, during the growing season, the worst thing you can do is have exposed soil that might leach, runoff, not hold in any of those nutrients.

And having a living root system inside of that soil is one of the best ways to get good microbiota, get good nutrients, actually have a living soil going on.

You always want to have something covering that soil.

So it really is a two-for-one deal where you're having, after you crimp or terminate that cover crop, it works back into the soil as organic matter.

But also you have that living system going on and really creating a wonderful ecosystem in your garden bed.

Amanda> When you read about all the connections, the, microorganisms and the fungus, fungi, arbuscular mycorr- you know, blah, blah, blah, I used to be able to say it.

But it's just fascinating.

Tremendously fascinating.

And when you do that, your soil can increase in organic matter.

And honest to Pete, this is one of the few things I could remember because I'm so old now, and I can't remember much of anything.

But for every one percent increase in organic matter, an acre can keep an extra 22,000 gallons of water on site.

And water is now, to me, the new oil.

Carmen> It really is.

And that's the best way that you can do it, because we have options down here in South Carolina that you can have something growing in terms of cover crop year round into winter.

Start planting in fall, go into spring, terminate or, right now gets a little too hot.

You don't want to mess with the summer okra.

He doesn't.

He hates okra.

<Terrible> But, you can actually, you can actually put a summer cover crop in.

So right now is the best time to start looking at, any of your summer cover crops.

Amanda> And I was reading, if you have something that has to be, you know, has to be tilled in that if you replant immediately, you don't, that living community will still thrive.

So sometimes, you've got something where you have to get something out of the ground, you know, but, if you just immediately come back.

And there's, there's such a movement now towards that, it's very, very, very exciting.

Carmen> It's very- Yeah, and it's how we used to do it.

So just keep on doing the same.

If it's not broke, don't fix it.

Amanda> Yeah, okay.

<Yeah> Oh, thanks so very, very much.

Okay Terasa?

Terasa> Let's see.

Is this one positive or more of a difficult challenge?

Michael in Lady's Island.

Oh, this one's more of a problem.

"It looks like I have crape myrtle bark scale on my trees in Beaufort for the second year in a row.

What should I do?"

Amanda> Boy, this is a new one and it- I mean, that's just the tree for so, so, so many people.

The major thing they've got in their yard and, this new scale thing, it's a booger.

Glen> It really is.

And like Terasa said, this is really a problem.

But I'd like to come at it from the direction of we've got some solutions for it.

<All right.> The, you know, with the new crape myrtle bark scale, it started out in 2004 in Texas and quickly marched across the southeast until it's ended up here in coastal South Carolina.

And with Michael, with those, he was... unfortunate enough to end up with this new type of scale.

There's a couple of types of scale.

This scale has more of a felthy body on it.

It's not smooth, like the little tea scale that you see from time to time on some plants.

And with this scale, if you want to identify it, you'll usually look in the shady areas of the plant.

It gets underneath of the unions, where the limbs join together.

It wants to be in the shade.

It gets too hot for it along the coast.

Amanda> And do you need a hand lens?

Glen> You do not need a hand lens.

They are so prolific, you will see an entire covering of white scale, in these shady areas.

What you can do to identify it though.

Is you can take your hands along the stem and rub down, and you'll actually get a pink film on your finger from the eggs that are inside the scale.

So when you see that pink coloration, you know you've got the crape myrtle bark scale Carmen> Alive... the pink indicates that it's definitely alive.

Amanda> But, what do you do?

I mean, this is a big problem.

Glen> And with those, with your, new crape myrtle bark scale, one thing that you can do is you can wrap double-sided tape around the trunk.

You can wrap it around the limbs that you have that are there.

That's going to be a cultural way that you can try to control it.

As they go across this tape, they're going to stick to it.

And then of course, it takes some maintenance.

You have to maintain and manage, in trying to get rid of those.

So that's one way that you can try to do it.

And then unfortunately, you may have to go the route of, picking up some chemicals and looking to treat the scale, systemically because it's not going to go away anytime soon.

So again, if anybody's doing needlepoint out there, a nice needlepoint with "read the label, it's the law," that would be great.

And you could, use that to, go with, for treating your crape myrtle bark scale.

Amanda> I have, like many people, lots and lots of crape myrtle trees because they're just so beautiful.

I have, fortunately, I also have lots of oaks and other trees as well.

Pecans.

But, I've identified the ones that are very important to me, and I'm using a systemic way.

It's a lot of trouble, I'm just going to admit, for me- And it's somewhat expensive and I'm doing it myself.

So I tell people that they may need to make some choices.

And then, but what we need to start doing is looking for replacement trees.

And I would hope we could use a native tree that might also, you know, benefit the environment.

Glen> A Virginia Sweetspire is a great alternative.

It's not going to bloom at exactly the same time your crape myrtles are.

It does only come in a white colored flower.

But it's a fantastic native plant without all of the issues with, crape myrtle bark scale that, we're going to have to defend against.

And find some solutions.

Amanda> Yeah, yeah.

Okay.

We have, so many things that are now coming in that we're not expecting, and we don't have natural predators for.

That, it's, it's difficult.

There are, I think and it increases the desire to plant natives, which hopefully, aren't going to have some of those problems.

Glen> Agreed.

Amanda> Yeah, thanks a lot.

I guess.

Glen> You're welcome.

Amanda> Carmen, I think you have a treat for us.

We're gonna learn how to do something.

Carmen> Yes, we're going to talk about herbs.

Herbs are going to be your, your best thing to start out for the garden.

And springtime is the best time, for herbs.

I will say that there are a couple quick tips and tricks that you want to get to when you're doing herbs.

You want to know are they annual or perennial?

Amanda> That would help?

Carmen> Are they going to be, are they going to need a lot of water or a little water?

And then are they going to grow well together?

I've got myself a little pot right here.

And this doesn't seem like a very big pot, but when you're starting out with your little babies, a lot of the times you can grow some really great starter herbs- Amanda> Are you kind of teasing the root ball?

Carmen> I am, I'm doing a little bit of teasing.

This is some good, these are some good roots.

I'm not as worried about it with these, but I do tease a little bit.

I got some dirt on the bottom- Amanda> You have some potting soil?

Carmen> I got some potting soil.

If we're doing their containers, we want to do our nice little potting soil.

Third thing you want to make sure is, if I didn't say it already, is it upright or is it prostrate?

How are we going to cut and prune it?

Here, I've got a nice perennial set of herbs, and they're all in the same, they're all in the same cuisine.

So, I'm going to... I'm gonna go on a Mediterranean diet, this year.

That's going to be our best option.

I put some of our, nicer more prostrate herbs like the thyme and the oregano, in.

And I got my prostrate rosemary.

Amanda> Oh, you got a prostrate rosemary?

Carmen> Or an upright rosemary, good catch.

And actually, you know what I really like?

I like a couple rosemaries.

I'll be cutting on those.

Glen> They smell so good.

Carmen> If you wanted to get a little crazy, you can even add a little bit of color to it.

Amanda> Oh, what fun!

Carmen> Pop in some stuff.

This one does need a little bit, but you can just pop yourself in there.

And you can, and you always want to... dress with a little bit more soil on the top.

Amanda> Once you finish?

Carmen> Once you're finished.

I'm not going to grab that, that's silly.

But, this is going to be a great starter.

Amanda> When you water, some of the soil is going to slip down.

You need to be sure that when you finish that the soil is level with the top.

Carmen> Exactly.

And you want to make sure that you've got enough soil, enough water.

These are going to take a lot of soil, a lot of water during the growing season.

And I'm going to be constantly cutting on them to keep them, pretty compact.

But next season I'll probably end up splitting them.

Amanda> Sure, because they grow.

Carmen> And they're perennials.

They'll stay long.

Something like a dill or a parsley that's going to be gone in one season.

I can sometimes add those in.

I like to make a little pasta salad garden with those where, I've got all of my fresh stuff that's just there for the season.

Amanda> And let's put some basil into it.

Carmen> And we love some, love some good basil.

Amanda> Isn't it just the most wonderful thing in the world?

Carmen> Yes.

And it's a lot of fun because you got a whole bunch of different types of basil.

Your Thai basil, whatever you got.

Amanda> Da, da, da, da, da.

Carmen> So make sure you got the taste you want.

Same with mint or spearmint.

And to mention, spearmint that just stays in one, one container.

Please don't put it out in the garden.

Amanda> Yeah.

If you plant mint, you better be sure that it's not going to run over and take your whole garden.

Carmen> Exactly.

But here you got a lovely little pot and you can put it in the container.

Amanda> Wonderful.

That was just so much fun.

Yeah, yeah.

Well, And Carmen, I think, now, we're going to take a visit with you to Sassafras Nursery and Herbs.

♪ Carmen> Hello everybody, my name is Carmen Ketron.

I'm the Urban Horticulture Agent for Florence and Darlington Counties.

But today, I'm here in the beautiful Horry County at UCLA or Upper Conway Lower Aynor, specifically Cool Springs.

We are along the busy 319 highway to the beach, so you'll hear a whole bunch of traffic.

But one of the best things is tucked away along this busy highway is the beautiful Sassafras Nursery and Herbs.

And I'm here today, with Mr.

Chuck Cahoon.

Owner, proprietor, with his lovely wife.

And we just wanted to talk about what a fabulous garden and nursery he has today.

Chuck, thank you so much for having us.

Chuck> Thanks for coming.

Carmen> You have such a distinctive garden.

It just has a life of its own.

Tell me how you started gardening and how you envisioned all this.

How it all came to be.

Chuck> I've always been a... what you'd call an "eclectic gardener."

I never liked everything like everybody else had.

So when we went on vacations, we would seek out that oddball nursery for that oddball plant.

My wife could tell you horror stories about being on the side of a mountain in North Carolina, looking for Sandy Mush Herb Nursery.

But gardening started out as a necessity.

Feeding a young family.

And then later on in construction, it became therapy.

Come home, pull off the shirt and tie, get your hands in the soil, and just release the day's tension.

Now, it's a passion.

We enjoy sharing.

I'm fully retired now, so I have the time to put into not just the propagation and the keeping of the plants, but my own gardens.

My own garden suffered while everything else was going on.

Carmen> You have a beautiful garden and a lot of really cool stuff going on in it.

Tell me a little bit about maybe some of the things that you're trialing out in the garden that the average gardener might not know about.

Chuck> Being in construction, I'm a little bit of a Fred Sanford.

I always brought home salvaged materials.

We'll see one area where we renovated Ripley's Aquarium's Marine Science Center, and all of their old fish tanks were changed out to new ones.

And I said, "That looks like a planter to me."

And I brought home those and... didn't just fill them with compost.

I use a little bit of Hugelkultur and filled the bottom with chunks of wood and limbs and leaves and everything else.

It cut down on the amount of compost I needed too.

You'll see trellises made out of old bed frames.

The cheapest way you can... build a trellis.

All kinds of salvaged materials.

My grape arbor is made out of concrete reinforcing rebar.

As far as things we're trying different.

I follow a guy on YouTube and he called them "living pathways."

So I'm using, annual rye this year, and I stress annual because mid-May, late May, the annual rye should die out.

But right now, it makes a gorgeous pathway.

My puppy dogs just love, just to roll around in the pathway.

But hopefully, if it works, I'll harvest that rye and use it for mulch on the garden.

More and more, I'm trying to go to a no-till garden set up.

If you take that same compost material and you till it into the soil, you introduce so much oxygen into that mix- Our microbes are active ten months out of the year and they just go crazy and they will burn through that organic nutrition in a year's period of time.

The next year, you'll have soil that looks dark and maybe the tilth is better, but the nutrient value is gone.

So, learning to put it on top and letting the earthworms and all the micro... life that's going on, pull it down into the soil structure.

That's an old soybean farmer learning the hard way, I guess, but starting to try to do no-till.

Carmen> Tell me about your layering method for a lot of the vegetable gardens you have.

Chuck> So, this year has been a reclamation project.

And to pull that initial layer off and then lay down cardboard.

And the cardboard, you know, with the plastic removed and as "plain Jane" as you can get for the cardboard.

It acts as an initial layer for the weed seed not to germinate that through.

And then the next layer is leaves and bark and tree limbs and everything I can get my hands on of a woody, porous nature.

And that's going to go down in a three inch layer or so.

And then those reclaimed fish tanks we were talking about, I moved three of them.

So I had a good source for compost, to empty those.

And I capped those beds with three inches of compost.

And then on three of the beds, the next layer was, was a mineral additive just to help with overall nutrition of the soil.

Because I'm feeding the soil, not the plants.

Carmen> You're making soil.

Chuck> I'm feeding the soil.

I did a mineral supplement and then a layer of a shredded pine bark that I use here in the nursery as a planting medium.

And then I used wine cap mushrooms spore.

And another layer of the pine bark.

And the goal is September, October of this year I'll have wine cap mushrooms.

There's another area that I have reclaimed, and I've completely tarped it for the summer with a silage tarp, a black heavy plastic tarp.

And the idea is to cook that weed population down and this fall, reclaim that as a garden so that I can start doing some rotation things with cover crops.

Carmen> Oh, how cool.

The thing I love about your garden is how unique and eclectic it is, and that flows over into the nursery.

So what goes into your decision of what you're going to propagate?

Chuck> It really came from our own garden.

I mean, over the years we've collected the unusual.

I don't want to be like everybody else.

And, you know, I don't want to grow everything that they grow.

So that's where it's taken us.

I love taking someone through for the first time.

And I would encourage them to pinch off something and smell the different things.

We have a salad burnet that it's not all that pretty a plant, necessarily, but you break it off and you taste it, and it tastes like cucumber.

So that's a cool weather source of a cucumber flavor.

When cucumbers aren't available.

We have a cutting celery.

You can't grow a stalk celery here in our climate.

But this cutting celery, if you mince that leaf and a little bitty stalk that it has, it's such a strong celery flavor that you would use less of it in your recipe.

We have an anise hyssop that I always ask, "Do you like or do you hate black jelly beans?"

Because that's a spectrum question.

There's nobody really in the middle.

And, when somebody that loves a black jelly bean, when I break that off and bruise it and let them smell it, it smells just like black licorice.

So, those kinds of things, those different plants, is just where my natural selection goes to.

And that's what we enjoy sharing with the folks who come here.

And we do a lot of medicinal plants that nobody carries in our area.

And my wife knows a lot of those uses.

We have to be very careful about sharing the medical knowledge, we just have to direct... now here's where you can go research that and decide for yourself.

Part of what I share with folks, is because all of our plants, it's either taken from a cutting here or it's a seed that was grown here and then it over winters here.

If you, take one of our plants home and put it in the ground two miles or five miles away, it thrives because it's used to our conditions.

I've got a fig, and we propagate a brown turkey fig.

I got the start, from behind the corn crib of my grandfather's dairy farm.

And I've taken that fig plant with me all over the United States in a big pot.

And when we got here, I planted it in the ground.

We have a red leaf plum that, in a different location- Where I grew up in high school, they were in that yard.

Well, my aunt back in dairy country wanted one, so we give her a start.

My folks move.

My aunt's got the stock now, I get a start from her.

Her's gets blown down in a hurricane.

I have that tree with me, and I propagate that tree, now.

My mom... growing up had a bad hip, okay.

So she loved flowers, but she wasn't physically able to to do a lot.

So I gardened for her, you know, and grew those flowers for her.

And just... it became part of who I was.

♪ Carmen> Where can other people find out more about you?

I have a Facebook page, Sassafras Nursery.

Our address 3221 Highway 319, Aynor.

Not Conway, that'll put you in the wrong spot.

The one thing that's confusing is because we're not set up like a garden center.

There's not a big parking lot, there's not a lot of flashy signage.

And people walk in here and they are amazed at how much they find in behind a pretty low-key front display.

Carmen> But always look for that purple sign.

That's what I always clock when I'm driving by.

Thank you so much.

Chuck> You're welcome.

Thank you.

♪ Amanda> Carmen, you have fascinating places.

I hope you'll take us on more trips.

Carmen> Yes, it's lots of fun.

Amanda> It sure is.

And I want to thank all of y'all for being with us.

And we hope you'll join us next week right here on Making It Grow .

Night night.

♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ Narrator> Making It Grow is brought to you in part by Certified South Carolina.

This cooperative effort among farmers, retailers and the South Carolina Department of Agriculture helps consumers identify foods and agricultural products that are grown, harvested or raised right here in the Palmetto State.

McLeod Farms in McBee, South Carolina, family owned and operated since 1916.

This family farm offers seasonal produce, including over 40 varieties of peaches.

Wesley Commons, a full service continuing care retirement community located on more than 150 wooded acres in Greenwood, South Carolina.

Additional funding provided by the South Carolina Farm Bureau Federation and Farm Bureau Insurance and Boone Hall Farms.