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Hi, thanks for joining us and welcome to "The Family Plot:
Gardening in the Mid-South".
Summer Celebration Lawn and Gardening Show at the West
Tennessee Research and Education Center is a one-day adventure
for gardening enthusiasts and anyone else who enjoys the
outdoors.
Today, we're going to give you a preview of Summer Celebration
including a cooking demonstration with this year's
featured food -- eggs!
That's just ahead on "The Family Plot: Gardening in the
Mid-South."
So stay with us.
This is a production of WKNO - Memphis.
Production funding for 'The Family Plot: Gardening in the
Mid-South' is provided by Good Winds Landscape and Garden
Center in Germantown since 1943 and continuing to offer it's
plants for successful gardening with seven greenhouses and three
acres of plants plus comprehensive landscape
services.
♪♪♪
Hi, welcome to "The Family Plot."
I'm Chris Cooper.
Joining me today is Dr. Amy Elizer.
Amy is the U-T Extension Director in Madison County.
And Carol Reese is here.
Carol is the U-T Extension Horticulture Specialist for West
Tennessee.
Thanks for joining me ladies.
Good to be here! This is going to be fun!
Cookings always fun, Chris.
Cookings always fun.
Absolutely!
Alright, let's get started.
Summer Celebration just around the corner.
When is it?
Where is it?
And I understand there's going to be cooking demonstrations.
Absolutely!
July 11th at the West Tennessee Research and Education Center in
Jackson, Tennessee.
We look forward to having everybody come up and see us.
Now is there a fee?
There is a five-dollar fee to get in the entire event.
And it's nominal.
It's a five-dollar fee.
So it kind of helps to fray some of the additional costs that are
incurred at the station to put on such an event.
Okay.
Now cooking demonstrations -- What kind of demonstrations?
What's the theme?
The theme is "eggs" and so we need to talk a little bit about
our eggs.
The wonderful thing about eggs -- They're full of protein!
They do have cholesteral but they're pretty low in fat
otherwise.
And so they're a great protein source.
So today I'm going to be making curried egg salad.
I can smell the eggs!
I know!
And the curry and all the things we've got going on here.
So what I have, I've already mixed together part of our eggs
and some apple that I roughly chopped.
But I did want to talk a little bit about our eggs.
Now one of the things that I often -- and Carol and I were
talking about this on the way here.
Sometimes people say had-boiled eggs.
Yes, they do.
It's really hard-cooked eggs.
The water's boiled.
And the eggs cook in there.
So I have to kind of straighten people out.
You know, we are the U-T Kitchen Divas and we joke about that.
But we like to throw in some handy cooking tips in addition
to having fun.
So the way that I like to hard-cook my eggs -- Hard cook.
Hard cook!
Bring my water to a boil.
Put the eggs in.
Put the top on.
Turn the electricity off.
Let it set there for about 10, 15,
20 minutes depending on the size of my eggs.
Then drain the water off.
And then for this one, I'll kind of show you everybody.
The best way I know to peel our eggs is just crack them all
around.
I'd already done a little pre-cracking here.
Alright.
I just simply take off all our shell and kind of throw it
around there.
Let me wipe it off here just a little bit since I'm not at my
sink.
And then I just, you know, you can chop your eggs for a salad
how ever you want.
But I'm doing it this way today.
And when we do that, we have our really easy egg that we can dump
right in to our curried egg salad.
And so we got to bring our curry in.
And what I have here is a down in the bottom,
I don't know if they can see it at home,
but we've got non-fat yogurt -- plain yogurt -- and just about a
tablespoon or less of mayonnaise,
the real deal.
Dumped our curry in.
What this does is it cuts out a lot of the added fat because if
you use just your traditional mayonnaise,
there'd be a whole lot more fat there.
So we have a really nice rich color there for our dressing.
Now what I want to do is go on.
And I know I like to add a lot of nutrition.
So that's why I put the egg in our.
That's why I put the apple in our egg salad.
I left the peel on so we've got the fiber.
But I'm also adding some finely chopped up celery pieces,
some craisins.
Now you could add onion, raisin, anything.
You can change it up however you want.
And a little bit of pecans.
You can use almonds or whatever you particularly like.
I like pecans.
Okay so that works for ya.
Okay.
We can roast those to bring out a little added flavor.
But what I like about this is, you know,
if we had just a traditional egg salad and we didn't add all
those colors, it'd be kind of bland looking.
And so this is why I like to add some other flavors in there.
And the nuts and the celery will add some crunch.
Absolutely!
So you like a little crunch?
I do.
She likes a crunch in her egg salad!
So yeah, everybodys different about their egg salads.
So this is one, you know, we like to get people to try out
some different things.
So we get that nicely mix there.
And people can, you know, you can chop your eggs up however
you want.
But that's just what I did.
And then add on our dressing.
Yeah!
And I encourage people at home when we're looking at,
you know, how much fat we're adding in to things,
sometimes what I'll do is I'll start with just a little bit of
my drerssing.
I don't dump it all in at first.
But I put a little bit in and mix it in.
And then I decide does it need more.
Sometimes things get goopy.
Is that a word?
-- goopy?
You just made it up.
Absolutely.
It's a highly technical term.
More mayonnaise than actual materail.
Right, right.
And so, you know, I actually didn't put it all in here today.
And so, oops!
Kind of got a little over flow there.
That's alright.
There ya go.
There's always a splash zone when we're cooking at Summer
Celebration.
If you use that thick greek yogurt,
it would be more of the texture of mayonnaise.
It would be, yeah.
But then you really could use less if you use the thinner
yogurt.
It makes it moist.
It's easier.
Yeah, it spreads a lot easier because the greek yogurt is a
lot.
It is a lot thicker.
And that adds a lot of protein which is a benefit.
And if you're looking for protein,
absolutely.
So there ya go!
There ya have it!
And we'll be serving this for everybody that comes in to see
the Kitchen Divas.
And you know we'll have a lot of fun things to eat along with
this particular egg dish.
Alright, I'll tell you what.
Can we try this?
Are you sure?
I'm sure.
Absolutely!
I like the idea of the onion because I love.
Actually I love -- it's weird-- but onion and apple together and
curry and onion would be pretty good.
I will.
There ya go.
Now if you're not sure, just make sure you make a good face,
Chris.
(laughter) Just kidding with you!
So what do you think?
That actually tastes pretty good!
You were surprised.
I'm surprised.
I am surprised.
Mmm, I do like it but I love sweet ande savory together.
And I like the crunchy.
Wow, I like this job.
This is pretty good.
(laughter) I like to cook on the job.
Good deal!
We don't have to clean up either here.
Right!
So that makes it better?
Let me ask you this.
Yes?
Okay, so do they have to have tickets when they come in?
Okay, with the cooking demonstration that we do,
we've kind of created a monster.
We have a lot of people that like to come in.
It's cool in there so that kind of helps it as well.
What we're doing this year -- We do our presentation every hour,
on the hour beginning at 10:00 AM until 4:00 PM.
So we do it seven times.
And people do need to get an additional ticket.
There's no cost for the additional ticket.
It's just a slip of paper that reserves you a seat for a
certain hour.
At 9:00 AM, we're going to give out 10:00,
11:00 and noon.
At noon, we'll start giving out 1:00,
2:00, 3:00 and 4:00 PM so people don't form.
At the kitchen or at the registration tent?
We give them out at the kitchen, right outside the door.
So it's one of those things we want to make sure as many people
as possible have the opportunity to get a ticket.
So we're splitting it through the day.
Sure.
And we definitely want people to come in.
Absolutely!
Every year I know people are trying to get in there to see
what you guys are going to be cooking up.
So I know they enjoy it.
They enjoy it.
People like cooking.
They like to sample new things.
And it's cool so yeah.
Yeah, I actually venture out and go to that every year,
too.
So..
Do you?
Yeah, I do.
I never get to go to the cooking class.
It's always packed.
We appreciate you being here.
Good to be here.
Up next, Mr. D is out in the garden to give us an update on
some problem areas.
One of the first problems I see out here is with out snap beans.
If you notice the color of the snap beans,
they're kind of yellow which indicates that they are hungry
for nitrogen.
And I don't think these seeds were inoculated with a Rhizobium
bacteria that legumes require in the soil in order to fix
nitrogen from the soil.
Therefore, to solve this problem next year in a new site,
you must inoculate the seed with the Rhizobium bacteria.
Right now you can probably hit it with a little bit of nitrogen
and help a legume.
Normally you do not have to add nitrogen for legumes.
Okay, got a couple of problems with the tomatoes that we have
here.
Clearly some tomato horn worm damage right here.
You see a stem that's been completely defoliated.
That's where a tomato horn worm has been.
I'm not able to find the tomato horn worm but they're very,
very well camouflaged -- extremely well camouflaged and
hard to find.
Probably need to hit that with B-T,
Bacillus thuringiensis, to take care of that.
We've also got a problem with early blight here.
You see the bottom leaves on this plant turning brown and
dying.
I'm going to snap this one off so that we can see it a little
closer.
But that is a symptom of early blight where the lower limbs
start to die.
It slowly moves up the plant and eventually,
the total plant will be defoliated.
So need to put these on a spray schedule to control early blight
every seven to ten days with a fungicide that contains either
Chlorothalonil, Daconil, Bravo, Maneb about every seven to ten
days will not cure this problem but will stop it from spreading
to the unaffected foliage.
You know one of the main problems I see here is we might
have done too good a job at creating well-drained raised
beds.
The very fact that beds are raised tends to reduce drainage
issues.
And we probably -- I understand we used 50-percent top soil and
50-percent mix that has bark in it.
And this soil is extremely well-drained and it's probably
almost impossible for these plants to get enough water.
In a situation like this, I would probably recommend going
with some top soil.
If you have a good top soil that is what we primarily have in
this Memphis area.
And they are inherently well-drained soils.
If you have a very heavy clay soil.
Then you would probably need to do what we've done here.
The way to solve this problem, you can't obviously -- You can't
replace the soil.
But we could put a sprinkler system in here or a drip tape
that we know exactly how much water is put out.
I would definitely use a rain gauge and measure how much water
you're putting out here.
And you probably need a half inch of water every three days
on this type of raised bed situation.
There are a number of gardening events going on in the next
couple of weeks that might interest you.
Here are just a few in our area.
♪♪♪
Alright, we just had out cooking demonstration.
That was good, by the way, Amy.
We appreciate that.
Okay now let's talk about some other things that are going on
at Summer Celebration, Ms. Carol.
Well our these this year is 'Go Wild!'
'Go Wild!'
We're going to go wild.
You know which is very hard for me to do.
Really?
I love the nature part of it and I'm just excited about the fact
that I think most gardeners are very interested in the other
critters.
But we're going to kind of take it to another level,
you know.
Yeah, we're going to talk about the pretty things,
the butterflies and the bluebirds.
But we're also going to talk about some of the fierce,
toothy critters.
So one of our presentations will be on the predators of
Tennessee.
And there's kind of been a movement where the foxes,
for example, are actually more prevalent now in the suburban
setting than they are in the country because of the pressure
from the coyotes.
So a lot of people are glimpsing foxes now on the golf courses or
even in their own yards.
And I don't know.
Just are they curious?
I mean do foxes mate for life?
How many kits do they have?
Does the father help raise them?
You know people really are curious about these kinds of
things.
So this guy from U-T Martin -- He siad,
"Now if you want me to talk about how to get rid of them,
I'm not your guy."
And I said, "No, we want somebody to talk about the
benefits of predators."
And of course things like the fox and bobcat generally eat a
lot of mice and rodents.
And they are more beneficial.
Now fox do love fruit and have been known to *** tomatoes
out of people's gardens.
So there is a little bit of ying-yang there,
a little balance going on.
But a lot of people don't realize the difference,
say, in the grey and red fox because grey fox for example can
truly climb trees.
They are a canine that can climb a tree.
So I think it's as fun for people to kind of learn about
this and the bob cat.
Along those lines, years ago I heard Alan Houston down at Ames
Plantation do a talk called 'Tennessee Then and Now'.
And it was mesmerizing.
And he basically played a pioneer who has looking around
and stuff in the Tennessee wilderness and the creatures
that he faced at that time as a pioneer which would have been
black bear and cougar and wolf and elk,
you know.
So it was a completely different setting.
And the hawks that we protect now were going to eat his
chickens that he had depended on to get his family through the
winter.
So there was this whole complete different attitude about it that
has kind of reversed now over the years.
Because now we try to realize the benefit of these creatures.
So I lvoe that topic.
He's going to repeat that for us at Summer Celebration.
Okay.
Man, that sounds pretty interesting.
I think this will be a lot of fun.
And along that line, the raptors.
Years ago I found an injured red shouldered hawk in the woods.
And New Year's Day, you know -- What do you do?
I ended up taking it to Dr. James Huggins at Union and he's
a rehabber.
And some of the ones that can not be released in the wild he
takes around and does a show and tell.
So it was really fun to get up clsoe to those giant birds and
see how fierce and strong they are.
And along those lines, we're going to have a guy bring
snakes.
And a lot of people go, "Oh!"
And we joked earlier about putting them in the same tent.
It'd be a good snack for the raptors and chow down on a few
snakes.
But that is Dr. Tom Blanchard who directs the Reelfoot
Environment Center.
And he's going to have a snake hammer who comes with him.
Although Tom is actually going to talk.
It's an indoor talk on the frogs and toads of Tennessee which
most people like.
They'll deliberately run over a snake but they'll dodge the
toad.
So that's kind of good.
So those are just a few of the more fearsome.
For people who want to attract the beneficials,
the butterflies, I'm going to do the 'Walk and Talk' on the best
plant for butterflies.
Some people knwo Dr. Pitts, David Pitts,
the U-T Martin professor who's written a book on Tennessee blue
birds.
And he's done real interesting research like examines their
scat to see what they ear during the winter time.
And he does a real interactive talk.
Our master gardeners have had him and he's a fascinating
speaker.
Okay.
Pauly Rooker from the Tennessee Wildlife is going to have boxes
outside -- plans for boxes for attracting a different bird.
And of course there's lots of good birds you want to attract
to your garden that'll help with the insects.
I guess people are more interested in learning more
about birds.
I find that to be true more and more these days.
There's a huge interest about birds.
I belong to the Tennessee Bird Chat group.
And I know just enough to be dangerous.
But I could learn a whole lot more.
Okay, any other exciting events going to be happening this
Summer Celebration?
Well I think so.
You know one thing when I build my house,
I was really fascinated by the different woods in Tennessee.
And I found a place that sells things like Persimmon and
Sycamore.
And I didn't know they test for pressure on how strong woods is
by seeing how many pounds it takes to mash a steel ball in to
the boards.
So Persimmon is our hardest wood.
We're going to have a speaker come who's going to do an
outdoor presentation on showing you the different woods,
which are the most important woods in Tennessee as far as the
market potential and the different aspects,
the different qualities of each wood which I find fascinating.
Okay, that sounds good.
Now look, let's tell the people again when is it,
where is it, is there a fee.
There is a five-dollar fee.
It is at the Experiment Station in Jackson,
the West Tennessee Research and Education Center.
It starts at 9:00.
The gates open at 9:00.
The programs don't actually start until 10:00 but if you
want to shop at the plant sale which has got some very cool
plants, lots of great plants, then you'll want to come on and
enter early.
But you can shop anytime throughout the day.
The Master Gardeners will be running that booth.
It'll go 'til 5:00.
You can go inside and outside.
So if you hot outside, you can cool off inside and just a ton.
You can access our -- You'll have the website on the thing so
they can look at it there.
And our Facebook page -- UT Gardens Jackson.
We're featuring some of the plants throughout the next
couple of weeks that you might be interested in buying.
And then we'll write snippets about the speakers.
Okay, that'll be real good.
And come by the diagnostic tent.
I'll be there.
Yes!
People forget about that.
Bring a pest, an insect, a disease or a plant to be
identified.
I think that's a great resource, it is,
to fully utilize at this field day.
It's a lot of fun and defintiely enjoy doing it.
I was honored to be asked to do it,
too.
We love having you there, Good deal.
Y'all ready for the Q and A?
Oh, sure.
This is the Q and A session.
Amy, if you've got something to say,
just jump right on in.
I know enough about the plant things to be very dangerous so
maybe I'll just see what I can learn.
Alright, here's the first viewer e-mail from Carmen.
How do you get rid of creeping charlie?
I've tried and tried without success.
It just seems like it comes back each time with a vengeance.
Also how do you go about doing it when there are two huge fig
trees within the area needing treatment or attention?
Well here's creeping charlie as you see on the screen.
It's ground ivy -- okay?
It tells me a couple of things about you site.
One -- poor drainage.
Okay?
Number two -- shady.
Alright?
So what you need to do is get some sunlight in there if you
possibly can or improve your drainage because ground ivy,
and you probably know this, is in the mint family.
Okay?
It has the sqaure stem.
Very difficult to control next to wild violets.
Okay?
It's ahrder than wild violets.
Wild violets are harder.
Then your ground ivy.
So it's pretty tough.
Actually had a beautiful, blue-ish,
purple-ish flower.
So it's a perennial.
If you must use a chemical, make sure it is a broad-leaf weed
killer.
Broad-leaf weed killer and that will control it for you.
It's going to take multiple applications.
But it should get the job done for you.
I think that's what a lot of people think one time should do
it.
With a lot of these weeds, it's going to be the repeat.
Keep watching it.
As soon as you see it, nail it again and nail it again.
Because it starts to grow, of course,
you know, in the spring.
It flourishes during the summer time so you got to get it pretty
quick because it is very difficult to control.
And if you have those huge fig trees there,
be careful.
Okay?
You don't want any drift or anything on those fig trees.
So there you have it.
Okay, here's our next question.
How do I kill squash bugs organically?
Who wants to try that one first?
Just pick 'em off?
Well that is an option, if you just a few squash plants.
That wouldn't be optional if you have a lot.
I like to the two-brick method.
But you got to watch your fingers when you slap the bricks
together because you'll mash your fingers.
But that's also along the same guidelines.
Yeah.
For crop covers won't kill them but you can protect them.
They do a lot of that with the organic farming community.
They cover and keep them from actually getting in there to
start with.
Okay and good sanitation practices help.
Right because they are winter.
They over-winter in the ground.
So yeah, so that's mostly preventative.
They want to kill them though.
They want to kill them.
But when that fails..
When it fails, what happens?
According to the Red Book, bifenthrin,
esfenvalerate or permethrin will take them out.
They have to do it repeatedly because they're strong flowers,
and especially during harvest time which we're in the middle
of wheat harvest right now.
And many times when farmers harvest large fields,
then you'll have those kinds of stink bugs and things like that
will come in from those fields because they've lost their
habitat.
But these pesticides will take care of them.
And of the organic pesticides, the pyrethroid.
Well permethrin is mums?
Pyrethroids, yeah.
The true pyrethroids, not the synthetic pyrethroid.
But the true pyrethroid.
Yes, it is.
Neem, I've heard, doesn't really work on them well.
Okay, okay.
Yeah, I always get a question about that because the Neem more
for the squash bugs.
So there ya have it!
Alright, here's our next question and we're getting this
a lot this time of the year.
Chipmunks are every where in my garden.
What is the best way to get them to leave?
(laughter) We want them to leave!
Get a Jack Russel Terrior.
I've heard that one a couple of times.
Um, Mr. D, anything that you know about?
You know, Jack Russels are the best.
You know you might have some temporary relief using
napthalene, you know, moth crystals.
Moth balls might give you some.
Oh, she cringes.
It can contaminate ground water.
And napthalene -- I don't like people usiong the moth crystals.
And don't contaminate the ground water.
Well it's dangerous for your pets.
Because I'm such a pet-oriented person that I don't want.
There's another route that works pretty well and that's trapping
them.
If you trap them, you use live traps.
If you use correct bait, in a good way,
set the traps where the chipmunks frequent which is you
know where that is.
And for baits, let's see chipmunks.
Nuts, peanut butter, bread, shell corn,
unroasted peanuts, rolled oats.
(laughter) But a good thing a lot of folks don't realize with
these live traps, if you will set the live trap.
Don't set the live trap.
Open the live trap up and put food in it and leave it there
two or three, four days and let the critters get used to going
in there and eating and coming out.
Then you're going to be more successful.
But then you got to decide what you're going to do with them.
I was going to say feed them to your pet king snake.
Actually those snakes are good control for chipmunks.
If you take them down the river and turn them loose,
they'll probably beat you back to the house.
Yeah, they'll find their way back for sure.
The rat snakes and all do take care of them.
Alright, we have a few seconds left.
What is the best way to control scales on my maple tree?
The scales are round and dark red in color.
That's probably lecanium scales.
Yes sir, yes sir!
Hard to control.
Is there any need?
The horticulture oil, if you want to try that organically.
Yes, you can use that between June and August when the
crawlers are out.
Because the mothers have already had their crawlers.
And the crawlers are out there now looking for,
you know, food to eat, leaves.
So this would be a good time to try to control those.
And that's an easy one to use because you put a pot to the
ground and it takes up the plants.
So you don't have to spray.
Seems pretty good.
Alright, thank you.
That's all we have time for today.
Don't forget you can send a letter or an e-mail with your
gardening questions.
I'm Chris Cooper.
Thanks for watching and be sure to join us next time for "The
Family Plot: Gardening in the Mid-South."
Be safe!
♪♪♪
Production funding for 'The Family Plot: Gardening in the
Mid-South' is provided by Good Winds Landscape and Garden
Center in Germantown since 1943 and continuing to offer it's
plants for successful gardening with seven greenhouses and three
acres of plants plus comprehensive landscape
services.
Closed Captioning provided by WKNO - Memphis