The Garden Guys are on WHJJ (920 AM) every Sunday morning from 8 am to 10 am. The Garden Guys are Sam Jeffries and Frank ? (I've got his name somewhere on another note, but can't find at the moment). I listen whenever I possibly can, and I'm listening right now. Lots of first-time callers, and Dee from Scituate, who calls in a lot, whose daughter oversees a plantation in Hawaii. You can call in and ask your gardening questions, and their advice is well grounded, so to speak, because of their training and long experience. Their website is www.garden-guys.com.
Especially note their Garden Talk link, where you can submit your own question.
At the moment someone had submitted some junk message which is on the top of the questions, but they'll probably delete it, I hope. Things like that happen, and it's annoying - but ignore that kind of thing. I'm experimenting with the Garden Talk page now, and I think this is how it works. I'll revise this posting if I'm wrong.
- Type in your question, and once you send it, it will get a number. Right now the latest posting is #254. Your question will be answered in another posting.
- To find something you want to know on the Garden Talk page, hit the CONTROL and F keys simultaneously (or go up to the top of your browser to EDIT, FIND [on this page]), type in a word (e.g., hydrangea), then hit RETURN to see what's there on hydrangeas.
Today's questions are about pruning hydrangeas; getting lilies to bloom better; a bad year for powdery mildew ~ on phlox (cut it back, spray the plant after you remove the stems ... THROW OUT what you cut out, don't put in your compost); harvesting oregano at this time of year (go ahead and harvest it ~ no problem), what to plant near the road, full sun, about 2 feet high, perennial ~ (answer: shorter echinacia [sp?!], new St John's Wort, beautiful beebalm that's red, milkweeds, a shorter ornamental grass (they rattled off several Latin names that left me in the dust); pruning flowering quince ~ get a good pair of gloves, prune out the older canes with long handled loppers at the base, which will promote heavier fruiting, and maybe spray it in the spring with Neem because of spotting and scabbing on the leaves and fruit possibly); can you graft an apple tree to a maple or some other kind of tree (No), but you can graft an apple to another kind of apple tree, even a crabapple tree, and so on), there are different types of grafting methods, and do in early spring when the bark is "slipping," they say); harvesting cabbages - leave them in for a while still, even though planted late? 6" in diameter - harvest one now, see how it is, can probably leave in for a couple of frosts, cool temperatures may enhance the flavor ~ experiment!).
It would be great if they wrote up the questions and answers and posted them on the website, especially when it comes to answers with lots of Latin names! Or maybe recommend some books or links to further info... But it's an informative and entertaining show, and a good way to spend part of Sunday morning.
TO DO TODAY, according to The Garden Guys: Now's the time to aerate the lawn to loosen up the soil, throw down some new grass seed, plant perennials and divide them, excellent time to plant trees and shrubs, watch out for yellow jackets especially on warm days, create a grass free buffer zone around trees, examine house plants for insects and mites, plan your fall bulb planting, spray the bulbs with Neem before planting, also "Anti-Pesto" to keep the critters from eating them, plant winter rye, dig begonias before the frost, cut back flower stems from spent perennials, turn the compost, and weed the garden to keep the seeding down, whew! better get out there....! They do push organic products they sell, but you'll love to listen to them talk about smelly sneakers and their odor control stuff.
The trivia Q of the day was: If an average man had a metabolism comparable to a humming bird, how much hamburger would he have to eat each day to maintain his weight? 285, 37, 8, 207 pounds. It's 285 pounds per day. [How do scientists calculate this?] The earlier Q was about praying mantis, who actually can catch a humming bird and eat it.
Last week's trivia Q was about an outstanding blooming shrub in May, a great shrub for nesting birds, that in the summer has fruit the birds love: Double-file viburnum Viburnum tomatosum (sp?).
You can see I'm challenged in the Latin and even common-name spelling department, but so may you be as well. Another thing I like about the Garden Guys is that many of their callers say they are first-time gardeners. Everybody's welcome and there are no dumb questions.
Check them out!
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