Making It Grow is brought to you in part by Certified South Carolina is a cooperative effort among farmers, retailers and the South Carolina Department of Agriculture to help consumers identify foods and agricultural products that are grown, harvested or raised right here in the Palmetto State.

The Boyd Foundation supporting outdoor recreational opportunities, the appreciation of wildlife, educational programs and enhancing the quality of life in Columbia, South Carolina and the Midlands at large.

McLeod Farms in McBee, South Carolina.

Family owned and operated since 1916.

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

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

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

I'm so glad that you could join us tonight.

I'm Amanda McNulty and I'm a Clemson Extension horticulturist and it's my great pleasure to be with you all and also with my co-host Terasa Lott, and Terasa, you are coordinating the Master Gardener program across the state, and I don't think that Extension agents who are in offices could do their job much without the help of master gardeners.

<Terasa> I hope that's the case.

That really is the purpose of the program is to help the local horticulture agents to deliver, meet that consumer demand for research based information, but it's also about staying current and we talk about the continuing education that we receive while we're here on the set of Making It Grow, and our master gardeners do that as well.

They spent over 14,000 hours last year learning.

So taking classes and workshops so that they can stay fresh and current.

<Amanda> Yeah, it's just wonderful.

Isn't it?

<Terasa> It is.

<Amanda> A great group of volunteers.

I'm Philip Carnley.

You are the commercial horticulture agent in Calhoun and Orangeburg.

Those are two very strong agricultural communities.

<Phillip> Very strong, and it's a pleasure to be working in them.

I work with some of the best people in the state and watching the agricultural community grow and come together, whether it be through bad weather or good weather to help get crops in, has been fantastic.

<Amanda> Well, and I hope that when people go to the stores that they look for certified South Carolina, because that way you are supporting our local farmers and also the carbon footprint is so much less and the food is going to be fresher in so many cases.

<Phillip> Absolutely.

It's kind of nice to see that local S.C.

Grown stamp on produce and it is nice to think about the less of a carbon footprint that we are imparting to the state as well.

<Amanda> And thank you for helping our farmers grow those great crops.

I appreciate it.

Stephanie Turner from Greenwood, and you have a wonderful group of master gardeners up there.

<Stephanie> I do.

The Lakelands Master Gardeners are a great group to work with and their passion for learning new things.

Like we talked about continuing education.

It's so much fun to work with people that have shared interests with you and enjoy gardening and helping others.

<Amanda> And I think when people come to South Carolina, a lot of people are moving to the state.

A lot of people find out about the Master Gardener program and say, "Gosh, I think this would be a wonderful way "to learn about", as I say, the challenges of trying to grow crops or grow plants in South Carolina.

<Stephanie> Well, and it's sort of the purpose of the program is more to train those volunteers.

And so, if folks just want to learn some more than we have some other great programs like Carolina Yards and things like that, that they can just kind of learn the basics of gardening in South Carolina.

<Amanda> Thank you for bringing those up.

And then they can always call and talk to a master gardener.

(Amanda laughs) <Stephanie> That's right.

<Amanda> Yeah.

Okay.

Well, thank you so much.

And John Nelson, my former professor at the University of South Carolina, where we said, "Oh, John, you took us on so many wonderful field trips.

"What a glorious day."

So, we're a gardener and learning about plants.

<John> Which was your favorite one?

<Amanda> Oh, I like the one where we walked through the water at Sesqui.

<John> I was just thinking that was probably one of the better ones.

<Amanda> It was just so much fun to, and sometimes John would tell people, Terasa don't wear flip flops, you know, wear socks and shoes, and then sometimes - <John> You can get dirty.

<Amanda> Yeah, yeah, and then sometimes we're going through blackberries and of course I was glad I had on long pants.

<John> But there was always somebody who showed up and they were wearing those stylish whatever they call those Air Jordan kind of shoes.

<Amanda> I don't know.

(laughing) <John> They'd end up getting ruined.

<Amanda> It was...wonderful, and you're still botonizing and always carrying your... <John> Yeah, I've got my plant press, and it's out in the car now, and I'm looking forward to doing that for some considerable, some considerable time, yet.

<Amanda> One time we were talking and you told me that cemeteries were often good places to go to look for certain plants.

<John> That's true.

And one of the kinds of plants that it's that they're known for are evergreens, and since there are a lot of old cemeteries, it's kind of fun to see what evergreen shrubs or trees are growing there that were planted a long, long time ago.

<Amanda> a long time ago.

<John> And that's, to me, kind of interesting.

So I do have a lot of collections made from old graveyards.

<Amanda> That's fun, isn't it?

Yeah.

Okay.

Well, thanks for being with us tonight.

<John> Thanks for having me.

We have some fun segments for you tonight.

We'll go down to Boone Hall and see our old friend, Katie Dickson, and then we have a wonderful memory of Tony Melton, in the early 2000s and then the McGill Rose Garden with Rowland Alston.

This year's 30th anniversary year.

So we're going to show you some things from the past and remind you of those wonderful days that were back in the day when Making It Grow was just beginning.

Terasa, do we have some Gardens of the Week?

<Terasa> We sure do, Amanda.

This has become, oh, one of my favorite parts of the show, because it's the time when we get to see what you are doing in your yard, your garden, or perhaps you've captured a beautiful place in South Carolina or maybe one of the surrounding states.

We're going to begin with Joanna Ellis, who shared our state butterfly, the Eastern Tiger Swallowtail perched atop Stokes Aster.

Bettye Insley from Myrtle Beach shared a photograph of her snake plant that she reports finally bloomed in their native habitat in Africa.

They bloom in the winter, but they rarely bloom as houseplants.

So I can understand why she was so excited.

From Arlene Weeks in Summerville, we have Black-Eyed, Susan and two Coleus varieties that have very different foliage colors.

Such striking contrast.

Donna Whitlock in Greenville shared a landscape bed with some very tall, red flowered bee balm from Marguerite Fourqurean in Fort Mill, some white lilies, and I don't know, there's something about white flowers that just seem so peaceful.

And we wrap up with Laverne Maxime in Ocean Isle Beach, North Carolina, with a focus on a sunflower with those burgundy ray flowers.

So thank you to everybody who shared their photos.

This is just a random sampling.

I think we received close to 100.

So please, visit our Facebook page, see all of the other submissions.

And when we ask for Gardens of the Week, don't be shy.

Post your photos in the comments.

<Amanda> Well, thank you and thank you for all the people who responded to share those wonderful things that they've done with us.

We sure do appreciate it.

Well, I bet there's some people who'd say, "Well, I'd love to be in the Gardens of the Week, "but I'm having a problem."

So let's see if we can help somebody.

<Terasa> Yes.

This one's not really a problem, but more of a question.

It comes from your neighborhood.

Evelyn in Saint Matthews said, "I always plant collards, "but I was out of town for an extended period of time.

"Is it too late to put in transplants now?"

<Amanda> Okay.

Well, Philip, gosh, you know, we want to have them get some frost on them to make them sweeter, but what do you think?

You think she can get them in?

<Phillip> So we are a little bit late in the season for transplants, but it's not quite too late yet.

If you are in the same situation, it's I tend to recommend that you watch your fertilization carefully with your greens throughout the growing season.

They do like nitrogen and some of the trace elements as well, like boron, which helps set good leaves.

So if you want to push them to kind of get them to catch up, you can just make sure that before harvest or before the frost, you back off of that to harden them off and to kind of reduce some of the nitrate nitrogen in the leaves.

<Amanda> Is boron necessary for some things like rutabagas and turnips to fill out completely?

<Phillip> It does affect how well your vegetables set fruit and how will they feel and size.

I know with strawberries, I know it's not technically a vegetable, but it's a fruit with - they're very boron particular, boron dependent.

And if you have a boron deficiency, you get knotted up ugly fruit that's hard to sell.

Taste is kind of a little off because you have these unripe areas at times.

But yes, So I recommend to soil test to at least on a yearly basis.

That way you know exactly what you need for your garden.

<Amanda> You know, I used to think that rutabagas wouldn't be having them fresh out of the garden would be much different because rutabagas are just kind of like rutabagas.

I love rutabagas, but if you can ever get your hands on some fresh rutabagas, aren't they just the bomb?

<Phillip> Now they are fantastic.

A great root vegetable as well as a leafy green.

<Amanda> Yeah.

Yeah.

They are really wonderful.

Something a lot of people don't think about cooking, but I sure like to cook them.

<Terasa> We grow rutabaga every year.

<Amanda> Do you?

<Terasa> Yeah.

I've kind of experimented with using them as a topping for like shepherd's pie or cottage pie instead of using mashed potatoes or you can mix them as well.

So yeah, we really enjoy it and just chunking them up, throwing them in soups.

<Amanda> Yeah, they are delicious, aren't they?

They can be really hard to cut through though.

<Terasa and Phillip> Yeah.

Absolutely.

<Phillip> Very, very tough.

<Stephanie> Getting them to that cooking point can be a little bit strenuous.

<Terasa> It's not as hard if you grow it at home, though, because you're not going to have it waxed right.

like it would come at the store.

<Amanda> Yeah.

Yeah, anyway, and of course the wax is food grade and not going to hurt anybody.

So don't worry about things that are waxed.

Yeah.

Okay.

Well, Terasa whom else can we help.

<Terasa> Lots of our questions are plant related, but sometimes Extension offices get sort of this grab bag of everything, right.

So this falls in that everything category.

It's something that people might fear.

I think spiders and snakes seem to elicit fear.

We fear the things that are maybe unknown.

So Garrett in Belton sent us a photograph and said, (Amanda laughs) <Amanda> Um, well, you know, a lot of people have a fear of spiders.

I really don't, which is good, because our old house has all these wooden moldings and all in it at night, sometimes if you got the light on, you'll see that the spiders have come out.

Then they run back behind the molding.

So what do you think this one is?

<Stephanie> So yeah, spiders could be natural pest control, right?

<Amanda> Yeah.

>> And this one you can tell from the photograph, it's...already deceased.

So I hope they found it, you know, just deceased and didn't decide to squash it first before bringing it in.

But yeah, a lot of times we just have some spiders that, you know, could potentially cause a problem, you know, bite us or whatever, but it's sort of like, I think my philosophy like these, you know, like if you don't bother them, they don't bother you kind of thing, and this spider that they brought in it, you can tell it's kind of got this fun orangey red color to it and it's mouthparts look kind of large and menacing, but again, it's not as interested in you.

If you mess with them, it could possibly bite you, but this one is a and maybe cause some irritation and this one is a woodlouse spider, and so it... <Amanda> Funny name.

<Stephanie> Yeah, it eats wood lice which we call like pill bugs.

Sowbugs, that kind of thing.

<Amanda> Roly pollies <Stephanie> Yeah, yeah.

They're mostly found under rotting logs and that kind of atmosphere when there's lots of little organic material for their prey to be breaking down and consuming, and so it may have just found its way in the house or, you know.

<Amanda> Hitchhiked on something.

You just don't know.

<Stephanie> Yeah, Yeah.

<Amanda> Okay.

So just, you know, go peacefully about.

<Stephanie> Yes.

Don't worry about it.

Yeah.

Don't no need to call the control company.

It's probably a one and done situation.

Yeah.

<Amanda> You know, sometimes we've gotten Roly pollies in the house, when we've had extremely wet weather and I think other people have probably experienced that as well.

<Stephanie> And a lot of times if you get kind of overzealous with the mulch application and you know, it's right up against all of these like doorways, windows, it kind of encourages that they kind of get an entrance.

<Amanda> It's good to keep the mulch away from touching your house.

<Stephanie>...the foundation... <John> Well, you know, Stephanie, I had a little bit here.

I've always been a big fan of spiders.

I mean, even when they're in the house and I know it's a little bit weird, but what you can do, I mean, if you want to get rid of a spider rather than smashing it with something, it's to get an empty glass and just kind of carefully put it over and then slide a piece of cardboard just sort of underneath it.

<Stephanie> Yeah.

<John> You know, carefully and then hold in it, you know, take it outside and fling it out into the bushes.

<Amanda> And if you've just got a, you know, you have a bill you haven't paid yet that's still in the envelope, something stiff.

<John> Right.

<Amanda> I mean that might be more at hand than a piece of cardboard.

<John> Yeah.

<Stephanie> Yeah, yeah, like a stiff piece of paper.

Yeah, We're big fans of that, too.

My husband always catches and releases every insect and not even just spiders in our home, which is funny.

<John> Spiders are our friends.

<Stephanie> Yeah.

<John> Most of the time.

<Amanda> Well, I like that tip on how to get them out.

<John> It works for other critters too.

<Amanda> Yeah.

It sure does.

Okay.

Well, Teresa.

<Terasa> We're going to move to Johnsonville.

Emily sent in a picture and has a question.

She said we have a pond in the back that has a lot of vegetation along the edges near the Lynches River.

One of the plants is this low ground cover and has bluish purple flowers.

<Amanda> Smells like sweet bleach?

<John> Sweet bleach?

(laughing) <Terasa> I'm kind of wondering what sweet bleach smells like.

<Amanda> Well, maybe, maybe one of those oxidizing bleaches instead of a Clorox bleach.

Who knows?

Well, John, regardless of the smell, do you think you can identify this?

<John> I know what it is, and I like the smell.

In fact to me it's a lot like Sprite, or lemony, Sprite, 7-Up I think it smells great, but it is a little bit, has a sort of bleachy overtone, <Amanda> Acid overtone?

>> but this is a native species, and it is called Water hyssop <Amanda> Water hyssop.

My goodness <John> hyssop, water hyssop and as I said, it's native, and it is a coastal plain plant that you'll find in a wet, very wet ground.

Sometimes it's submerged, but sometimes along the river.

It doesn't have to be in like, still water, but the flowers are just unbelievable.

They're so pretty with those petals, five petals and they're bluish purple.

It's just gorgeous stuff, and I guess also this I don't know own an aquarium, but I think this would probably be a good aquarium plant too.

<Amanda> That would be interesting to find out.

Yeah.

<John> Bacopa Caroliniana.

<Amanda> Bacopa Caroliniana.

Lovely name, too.

Yeah, okay.

<Terasa> I think we see some cultivated species of Bacopa that are available for you know, for the home.

<Stephanie> Yes, they're common in the annuals, summer annuals little white flowers.

Sometimes pink.

<Amanda> Okay.

Well, isn't that fun.

So nothing to worry about.

No need for control.

<John> I wouldn't...I would think it - You don't don't need really control.

It just needs to be enjoyed, really.

They don't get tall, of course.

So, I mean, if you had to get rid of it, you might maybe mow it and of course it would smell great.

<Amanda> There you go.

If you like that smell.

Okay.

(laughing) Well, we're now going to go down to Boone Hall where Katie Dixon is always working her magic.

♪ piano music ♪ ♪ <Amanda> I'm talking to Katie Dickson and we are in the magnificent gardens at Boone Hall.

Katie, what a wonderful place to be a gardener.

<Katie> I couldn't agree more.

<Amanda> And, of course, this is a wonderful area that has all kinds of exhibits and things that for people to come to see the garden.

Y'all have something blooming all year long.

We do we consider ourselves a four season garden and we want to entertain our guests year round.

<Amanda> And the backbone in certain ways is the rose of Charleston.

<Katie> That's right.

So we're very proud to feature a historic rose collection, and that includes antique roses, teas, hybrids, floribundas, as well as the famed noisette rose.

So we're very proud of that.

<Amanda> And the gardens are laid out in a beautiful pattern that resembles a butterfly, and I think the house of course, is an original, and was built in the <Katie> That would be the 1930s.

<Amanda> but then tell me about the garden, because I think it's such a fun story.

<Katie> Yeah, so the garden followed the construction of the current house that you see behind us, but the gardens were actually installed by a Georgian nobleman.

His name was Dimitri Djordjadze, say that five times, to make his wife Audrey happy.

He married heiress from Ohio.

So he got himself an American wife, and they loved horses and they housed their horses here, but she really wanted a pleasure garden.

So, that's what we're standing in.

<Amanda> And so let's talk about the layout of the garden and how it reflects what is so happily happening here, which is lots of pollinators and larval food sources and all kinds of things.

<Katie> Pretty cool, right?

So the shape of the two garden halves like you alluded to, form, you know, gossamer wings of a butterfly, and they're bisected down the middle by the mansion driveway.

So, truly from above it looks like this, you know, curvy butterfly.

<Amanda> And the beautiful house is the head.

<Katie> And the house forms the head of the butterfly and like you said, there's also tons of pollinator activity going on, on a microscopic scale.

We've got all kinds of, you know, native bees, honey bees, we'll see in the morning time.

<Amanda> Wasps?

I saw some wasps, daytime moths out.

<Katie> Absolutely.

<Amanda> It's just everything, and I think what is so exciting is that when you group things the way you do, that helps the pollinators because if, different pollinators like different plants and the foods that they provide, and so you have like a wonderful you know, they get like 20 lobsters all at one time, but they don't have to fly all over looking for their favorite foods.

<Katie> Exactly right.

Thank you for that point, that concentrating their favorite foods makes it so much easier to navigate to, and especially it's so fun in the morning to see the hummingbirds you know, dive bombing the plants and they're after the more trumpet shaped flowers, but maybe the butterflies and skippers are after the zinnias and the disc shaped flowers.

<Amanda> And then I saw the fennel was just completely just exactly what we want because that's the larval food source.

<Katie> That's exactly right.

So, you know, you might go by and see some areas that look a little grazed or a little, you know, bitten up, but we do have a certain tolerance for that, because it's part of supporting pollinators.

<Amanda> And one of the things, I think, is that one of the gardens on both sides, you have a moon shaped garden, is that right?

<Katie> That's right.

So we have two beds that are very lunar, they're very crescent shaped, and traditionally, they're kept as a monochromatic white palette, just to make these pure white moons in the garden.

<Amanda> But there's nothing monochromatic.

<Katie> No.

<Amanda> But you kind of have a theme, a little bit of hot colors or cool colors.

Talk to me a little bit about how you go about deciding what you're going to concentrate in each different area.

<Katie> Exactly.

Right.

So I came on about a year ago as the head horticulturist, and I inherited a great base map.

So, it was kind of a great scavenger map to start with, and it gave me ideas of what color families belong in what beds, and I do want to honor that and kind of honor the work of former horticulturists.

So we do concentrate, you know, right now hot, bright red and orange coleus in one bed and then it kind of will transition into a nice bed, of you know, blues and purples and whites that have a more calming effect.

<Amanda> And then I think it's so much fun.

The new things that are coming out, the ornamental peppers, and the colors of the foliage.

<Katie> Yes.

There are some loud peppers.

We have a great tri-color purpley pepper, the you know, Acapulco series has these candy like you know, tri-color peppers.

So, we have a lot of fun with fruits and foliage, and we're not scared to experiment.

<Amanda> And then I have never seen such a [unintelligible] caster bean plant, and it's purple to boot.

<Katie> It is.

it's the maroon foliage strain of castor bean.

We didn't quite expect it to get so big.

<Amanda> It exceeded your expectations.

<Katie> It did and I wonder if some of that is attributed to all the great rain we've had.

We had an unexpectedly really tropical summer and things have just sprung up.

<Amanda> And of course you have, under the ground irrigation.

You don't use overhead sprinklers.

<Katie> That's correct.

So, we do have basically an invisible irrigation system and we're able to be good stewards of water and turn it off if we see a thundercloud in the distance that goes off.

<Amanda> And another thing that I admire so much is that, to encourage the pollinators, you're so careful about the use of pesticides, and when you pull plants out, because you changed, this is a, I mean, it's going to be full of collard greens and mustards and all kinds of wonderful cabbages and things as, as when we finally have fall, and you have a wonderful relationship with the local newspaper, and you put down, instead of having to recycle the newspaper, you can use it here as a weed suppressor.

<Katie> Exactly, we're so grateful for that relationship.

City Paper's long been celebrated in Charleston, and you know, occasionally they'll have stacks of extra paper and we're able to lay that down three or four sheets thick.

We saturate it really well with a hose and then we can punch our annuals in from there, and then that creates this great weed barrier.

<Amanda> Just wonderful.

Tell me some of the things that we that we ought to share some of the fun things that are in bloom right now that we ought to be sure to get pictures of, and share with our viewers <Katie> Certainly, so some of the maybe most commented on flowers of interest would be our Egyptian starflower, the pentas has tons of insect activity on it.

The Gomphrena are those Gumball like flowers and those are just really whimsical and fun.

We've got tons of zinnias, marigolds all those things that are kind of in the Aster family.

<Amanda> And then the purple thing on the vine.

<Yes> <Amanda> -the vining purple.

<Katie> beautiful blue butterfly vine.

Kind of rare, but yeah, that's definitely a show stopper, and of course our roses are doing kind of their early fall flush, if you will.

<Amanda> One of the things is, a lot of the brides walk down this beautiful central area, and instead of recycling tires for a flower bed, you've used something just so magical that is from the house.

Please tell me about that.

<Katie> Yes, so this is a credit to a teammate of mine.

Nina had the idea to make a birdnest flowerbed, out of old recycled shingles, those kind of traditional Spanish Clay roofing shingles, and we just had a pallet of it sitting there doing nothing.

So, we ended up making these pretty marvelous flower beds.

<Amanda> And I can't think of a more beautiful place for a bride to stroll towards a very, very happy future.

I think getting married in this magical place with all the love that's put into it by everyone who works here would certainly be an auspicious beginning to a life together.

Katie, thank you so much.

This has just been a delight.

<Katie> I so appreciate you being here.

Thank you.

♪ ♪ ♪ <Amanda> We so enjoyed our visit down there with Katie Dickson and seeing all the wonderful things that she'd planted, and Boone Hall we like to thank them they're an underwriter for Making it Grow.

Well as always, my friend, Ann Nolte helps with hats and she gave me the Celosia which she reminded me, we had been visiting in the mountains and at Lake Lure for those of you who are in that area that is a beautiful garden bridge that was a bridge there that was decommissioned, and they left it and the local people there have gone.

Terasa, it's one of the prettiest things you've ever seen in your life.

it's just covered, covered, covered with flowers, and the Celosia was in the trash pile and they said if anybody wanted anything, they're in the trash pile.

So Ann took it home and here it is in my hat on Making It Grow.

...and then I had this kind of spiky thing, which is I've lost all of my white ginger lilies.

I just have the pink one left that are spiky, and they don't smell as sweet.

So I'll have to get another white one back, but this is, that's going to be the flower and then I have some mint.

John you thought it might be, what kind of mint?

<John> One called Calamintha.

<Amanda> Calamintha and it's peppery.

<John> It's very pleasant.

<Amanda> Yeah, and then this.

Oh, this is the prize, buttonbush, and, you know, Terasa, we think that you know, flowers that attract, you know, insects might be you know, real showy, but this little button bush I mean, it is just wonderful, and Phillip I guess flowers that have different shapes probably attract different insects sometimes.

Don't you think?

<Phillip> I absolutely do.

Some insects are specific to certain species of flower.

I think a lot of the ones that buttonbush are more general, a lot, a lot of bees and flies, beetles, that sort of thing, but it's a beautiful plant nonetheless found in our area.

<Amanda>...and John, I think, you often find it in places where it's kind of wet.

<John> Right.

It's, so I would think that the wetland ecologist called this one of their indicators of a wetland environment, and of course, it is a native species.

<Amanda> - but it's not hard to grow in your garden once it's established.

<Stephanie> it's good on lake shores as well.

<Amanda> Okay.

Anyway, so I would encourage anybody who wants to, to plant this wonderful plant, and I don't know, you know, Terasa, if maybe I've read somewhere that perhaps before we had botanist people, used them when they hardened to use as buttons.

I don't know, you know, who knows?

You could use a dried up butterbean as a button, I can't say.

You can get a needle through it but anyway, nowadays, mostly we have buttons available if you can find one, right?

Okay.

Well, I bet there's somebody else we can help.

<Terasa> We are going to try to help Daniel in Orangeburg who said <Amanda> Well, I've had purple asparagus and enjoyed them, but they weren't spotty.

Spotty always sounds kind of like measles or something, what do you think, Phillip?

<Phillip> So purple spot on asparagus, it's a fungal infection that affects the spear.

You start to see it more in the fall of the year, and it starts out as a lesion, and this lesion is a tan color with a purple halo, and it's oblong, and then as the lesion advances, it'll have these black spore leg structures in the center that are like polka dots.

it's more of a problem for commercial production as it affects spears in the spring when they emerge.

and one of the unique things about it is anything to do with asparagus, you have to be very mindful of your timeframe, because it is an edible stem crop.

Most of your fungicide applications have to be made within 100 and 106 months, 180 days prior to harvest.

<Amanda> Oh my goodness.

<Phillip> So you have to be very mindful of which fungicides you use and the timing interval prior to harvest goodness, but for the homeowner not as big a deal.

You can usually cut off the effective part of the spear and still have an edible spear.

<Amanda> Oh, good.

Okay, because, um, you know, asparagus were a huge crop in South Carolina at one time, and I know everybody's tired of me saying it, but mama would say and Edward's mother both said they would remember saying, Oh, mama, do we have to add asparagus again, because when they were coming in, you know, that was what they had every night because we shipped so many of them up to New York and places on the railroad and in front of my friend, Ann's place where she and her husband Hank live, Hank Stallworth on Wienges Farm there's a place where the grade of the US inspector would come and review everybody's asparagus before they shipped him every day, up north.

It was a big crop in the south, and um, but now we just did not quite such a big crop now, but boy, it is a wonderful thing when you get good fresh asparagus.

Well, Teresa, I didn't mean to get off on asparagus, but I do love asparagus, and I'm not gonna say, "Oh mama, not asparagus again."

I promise.

I won't say that.

<Terasa> I love asparagus as well.

I'm not sure whether I appreciated it as a child, and I don't know, if I just needed to taste it more frequently, but it is one of my favorites now.

So hopefully we don't have purple spots show up, but we are going to try to help Jeanne in Simpsonville, who shared a photo and said, <Amanda> Oh goodness gracious, because some of them are, you know, red when they come out, and then red in the fall.

Different ones have different colors, but it's not supposed to be this way right now.

Stephanie, what do you think happened to this lovely, what was going to be a lovely maple?

<Stephanie> So yeah, that's a stress response, that turning red prematurely.

So there's a lot of different conditions that can cause a stress response, you know, perhaps, drought or injury, that sort of thing, and if you step back and look at your tree from a distance, as you can tell, you know, is it all over the tree and you know, that maybe might be drought?

Is it just one side of a tree and maybe that might be injury or insect, the disease?

...so in this case, in this photo, you can see that it's localized to kind of one side of the tree and we took a look at the trunk of it as well as on that side of the trees, a large split of the bark, and so unfortunately this past winter, remember we had that really cold snap.

Yeah, and so that is a common thing we'll say, with especially like southern exposure, the bark, being warmed up and cold really, really fast like that, and so yeah, just split that bark open.

<Amanda> Well, what...do you suggest?

<Stephanie> We just need to stay to keep up your care of that tree watering as appropriate and hope that it'll just you know, heal up that wound <Amanda> Sometimes they will.

>> Yes, sometimes it'll come out of it.

So we just kind of, you know, hope and can continue to care for it, and you know, hope that it heals up.

<Amanda> Thank you, thank you.

Well, I hope that you will enjoy nostalgically and with a little bit of love in your heart our next segment which is with Tony Melton.

♪ I'm Tony Melton, county agent in Florence County, with Clemson University Extension Service, and today I want to talk to you about soil sampling and what you want to do to correct a pH and make your soil, a good soil, which is I think the foundation of a good garden is a good soil.

The first thing you want to do is take a good soil sample, you want to take a soil sample, and how you take a soil sample is very important.

You want to take many what we call sub-samples or many areas out through your garden, you want to take a sample in many places instead of just one.

If you take it in just one, you might have set a line bag there a fertilizer bag there, and you might have messed up the information that they're gonna give you.

So what you want to do is take many samples out through the areas, six to eight inches deep in a garden, or in a plant bed or shrub bed, or flower bed, but in a lawn only about three to four inches deep.

The reason is grass roots just don't grow as deep as lot of the other plants.

So you won't...have to go as deep in your lawn as you do out in the garden or in the shrub bed.

So you want to take many sub samples, I usually do an X or an M out through the area, just go out through there and take many sub samples, put them into a bucket, five gallon bucket works fine, mix them up, and then bring us a pint of the soil, a pint of the soil so we can send it off to Clemson and the cost you $5, take you about two weeks to come back.

So you take it to your Clemson University Extension Service, and when it comes back it'll tell you what some of the things you need to do in your garden to make your soil a good soil which will grow your plants a lot better.

One thing I'd probably tell you if you'd need to is to put out limestone, if you got an acid pH or you got a Ph that is not high enough for your plants to grow properly, so you'll want put out limestone and this is limestone This is dolomitic limestone contains both magnesium carbonate and calcium carbonate and it changes pH of the soil and adds both magnesium and calcium to your plants which are very important for your plants to grow properly.

You want to get those plants at the proper pH but you also want to supply that calcium and magnesium so the plants can have those nice green pretty leaves on them and grow rather well.

There are some other things that you might want to do to add to your soil that will make plants grow and not even change the pH and one thing you can do is using gypsum.

Gypsum is calcium sulfate.

Calcium sulfate doesn't change your pH but it has calcium and sulfur for your plant which makes your plants really dark green and gets them to growing.

So your Gypsum is a good way of changing, not changing your pH but adding calcium and sulfur.

Instead with lime, you're going to change your pH.

So most plants that are in the garden and in loan except for committee years and azaleas and rhododendrons and things like that, we'll need a pH of 5865, and you don't want to get too high of a pH because then you can run into minor element problems and hit a, have minor element deficiencies in your plant.

So you want to get your pH right, and then but if you want some more calcium, and on some plants like tomatoes, peppers, eggplant, things that have blossom end rot, especially with calcium with calcium deficiency, which causes blossom end rot, like tomatoes and peppers, you want to add more calcium through the use of gypsum, and then there's another source of calcium I really like to use and that's calcium nitrate.

It is a fertilizer though, because it adds nitrogen to the plants and it gets them growing real fast and get some real lush and growing but it also adds that calcium, which a lot of plants need a lot of, so there's a lot of things you need to do to make your plants grow well, and another thing I like to do is add Epsom salt a lot of times and a lot of people know about using Epsom salts,because Epsom salts is magnesium sulfate.

It adds magnesium and sulfur.

It will keep your plants growing and make them green and get them real lush, but you don't want to use too much of it because you will burn your plant, and it also keeps plants regular.

I'm just kidding.

No, it just adds that magnesium and sulfur.

It doesn't keep the plants regular, but it does get them growing.

It gives them good green leaves, goods, nice really green foliage so they really grow real well.

So I really like for people to use Epsom salts in their garden and it'll give them a nice green beautiful plant and get them to grow, and you can now beat your neighbors and all the plants that you grow and make your yard the best in the neighborhood ♪ ♪ <Amanda> So here Tony is still helping people garden in South Carolina.

What a presence and fine person, our friend Tony was Well, Terasa?

<Terasa> I believe Dr. John has a show and tell, only this one's not in person.

He gave us a video that he wanted us to share.

<Amanda> A video my goodness gracious.

<John> A video.

it's a pretty awful video, but (all laugh) I took it with my cell phone and I halfway know how to use my cell phone.

So I think I got it more or less right, but it's a plant that is actually pretty common in a large part of the state, and it was blooming in my backyard, and this is - it blooms late in the summer, and after it blooms, it makes these kind of neat berries all over it, but what I'm really kind of interested in is how many pollinators come to the flowers when it's opened up, because it's amazing that these you know, we were talking about flowers being generalists as far as attracting pollinators, and these flowers are very small, and they're generalists, but they're held together at so much volume within the inflorescence that they provide a really easy place for pollinators to come and visit.

Plus they provide a lot of nectar rewards.

So that's the reason that I mean the bees and flies go crazy for these flowers and a wasp or two as well.

So it's really wonderful, and the thing about this plant is it gets to be ...12 feet tall.

it's very slender tree.

I think we've had it on the show before, but the stems and the leaves (Amanda laughs) >> The leaves are so guarded <Amanda> Yeah, be careful >> ...covered with prickles, very stout prickles and so you got to be real careful if you're a botanist making - wanting to make a...specimen, but it's a native species and it's wonderful and you know what it is.

<Amanda> Devil's walking stick.

<John> Devil's walking stick.

>> Yeah, yeah, it's just tremendous Aralia spinosa, and that's in the same family that gives us English Ivy.

<Amanda> Is it?

But it's not a problem.

This is a native and just a wonderful thing to have... >>...knowing and cultivation.

I have to say that it gets a little bit happy and can spread a little bit.

<Amanda> I think you've told me you have a good many in your backyard.

(laughing) >> but I love it.

Beautiful stuff.

<Amanda> Philip I think you said this is one that you particularly enjoy too.

<Phillip> I do.

I was introduced to it early on in my career and it's such a unique species with the spines all along the trunk, and...if I'm not mistaken Dr. John it is edible early in the season before the prickles harden.

If the prickles do hard and I do believe that it is technically poisonous.

<John> and I haven't tried the, I haven't tried eating it.

<Stephanie> Edible or delicious?

(laughing) <Amanda> There's a fine line.

<Phillip> That is a good distinct factor and I'm not sure I have yet to try.

<Amanda> I have my problems with dandelions (laughing) edible but not in my book delicious and I love greens for the most part Maybe I just haven't had the right one... <Stephanie> They're pungent.

<Terasa> You need to make wine maybe, dandelion wine <Amanda> That's a better way to enjoy it.

<Terasa> Have it in a different form.

<Amanda> A better way to enjoy it.

So, again this is our 30th anniversary, and so we are showing some things from the past and Rowland Alston went to the McGill Rose Garden up in Charlotte and we'd like to revisit that trip with you.

♪ <Rowland> What do you do with the first coal yard in Charlotte, North Carolina?

Well, you turn it into a rose garden.

We're at McGill Rose Garden in downtown Charlotte.

Henry McGill give us some history of this place.

<Henry> I bought the place in 1951 really to open up distributorship of Exxon, the coal yard, and the wood yard was already here.

This is the oldest coal yard in the city of Charlotte having been opened by Mr. W. Avant back in 1902.

We bought this place in not the best section of Charlotte, but we bought it to be on a railroad siding where we keep our cars of coal in.

Then my wife saw she wanted to beautify the place, and she started with two rose bushes, and this continued putting out rose bushes along the railroad tracks.

Whenever we found it necessary to tear down a building, She placed roses in it.

So that continued as long as she lived.

She really got out here.

That was my first wife Helen Moffat McGill.

While she was out in the garden, taking care of the roses.

I was operating my business, and so it worked pretty good, but she loved roses, and she loved flowers.

and she grew up at home and she grew them here, then I got interested in it, and have taken care of it ever since.

I should be retired, but I'm not, and I still come every day.

<Rowland> Let's talk specifically about some of the roses in your garden, because I understand you have over thousand different varieties.

Mr. Lincoln has got to be a favorite by all Carolina gardeners.

it's been around a long time.

<Henry> Mr. Lincoln is one of the old roses, and it stayed in the catalogs longer than any rose I can remember.

<Rowland> One of my favorites got to be the double delight.

It was the rose of the year in 1977.

<Henry> Double delight is a favorite.

Most everybody likes Double Delight, and we have had Double Delight for I really don't know how many years, but it's one of the older roses and it's still listed in the catalogs.

After... roses grow so many years.

They quit publishing them in the catalog.

So you have to go to an old catalog to get it but that's one rose that's stayed with us.

<Rowland> I know you've added some English roses to your garden and you liked it on account of the disease resistance.

<Henry> Well, I guess about two years ago, people become interested in the English rose, because they didn't have the disease that the others had, and another thing they have a nice aroma.

<Rowland> Miniature roses, how do they fit into a garden?

<Henry> They are more just to kind of fill in.

These are a batch of them right back over here, and we place them in beds, not in hybrid tea beds or other beds, but a lot of people are interested in the small roses and some people just have miniature roses alone.

<Rowland> If Henry McGill could pick out one rose out of McGill Rose Garden, which one would he pick?

<Henry> Well, if you asked me this morning, what my favorite was, and I've told you all of them, we have the distinction of having been awarded the All American Rose Garden by the All American Rose Committee.

<Rowland> Well, it's really admirable that you shared this beautiful part of North Carolina with the public and I know many gardeners would be interested in finding out more about McGill Gardens.

How can they get in touch with you?

<Henry>Well, the garden it's at, in Charlotte, North Carolina, at 940 North Davidson Street.

The garden is not hard to find.

It's about five blocks from Uptown.

Most anybody can tell you where North Davidson Street is.

<Rowland> Thank you for taking the time to be with us today and thank you for providing such a beautiful part of North Carolina.

<Henry> Thank you.

Appreciate you coming.

♪ <Amanda> We hope you enjoyed that glimpse into the past during our 30th anniversary year, and it started on an industrial site, as you saw, and today it's now part of the city of Charlotte's gardening cluster, and it's open to the public when there's not a wedding going on because it's become a very popular place for weddings because it is so beautiful and you can't go and cut the roses and make your own bouquet, but but it would be tempting.

Well, John, I wanted to bring something that was in my front yard this morning.

<John> Oh, good.

<Amanda> I'm so sorry.

(laughing) And this is right by our door, and this is from our state.

Well, this isn't our state Palmetto.

This is Sable minor.

The state one is Sable Palmetto, and that's the great big tree.

And this one, I guess it's about the leaves are so tall, and then this is way out there and it was very attractive to bees, but I wonder if you could tell us a little bit about it, and I was just wondering how far inland Palmettos used to be before we were bringing them inland.

How far north they would go?

<John> Right.

And I guess first thing to say is that what you brought in is the, you know, the Dwarf palmetto and the, as well as the state tree, which is...the Cabbage palm or the state tree of South Carolina.

Both species are true palms.

You know, though, this is a very short one, and you know, the Palm family is lots and lots of species, and these two species, this is Dwarf palmetto, and then our state tree are two of four different palm species that are native to the state.

<Amanda>...and you could tell us what those are.

<John> If I...haven't forgotten, Yes.

So we have our state tree, which is Sable Palmetto, and then our Dwarf palmetto, which is Sable minor, and then our Saw palmetto, which is, which is... <Terasa> Seranoa <John> Seranoa.

Thank you, repens, and then the needle palm, which is the rarest one of all in this state, which is Rhapidophyllum hystrix, <Amanda> And I have some of that in my yard, and I'm hearing that it is getting pretty rare and it's doing beautifully.

I would encourage people, if they ever see one to plant them.

<John> Oh sure.

Needle palm is a really pretty shrub, <Amanda> but this... <John> got needles on it, though down at the bottom.

<Amanda> Yeah, but not - they don't bother me, but this - where, how far?

I always thought maybe it was kind of cold to sensitive, and where was it found originally?

<John> Oh, well, this...is a native species, Sable minor.

The Dwarf Palmetto is primarily a coastal plain species.

Large parts of the coastal plain of I mean, every coastal plain county, but it also gets into the Piedmont.

So you can find it as far inland as Union County, Abbeville, that kind of thing, pretty readily.

In fact, you can see it from we are getting close to Newberry.

You can see it along the side of the road on I-26, if you're... <Amanda> and that's it's original range.

<John> Yeah, it seems to be it's original range.

Now, the state tree, a much more restrictive original range only along the coast.

<Amanda> Oh, well, interesting that this one came in that far and the other one was restricted to the coast.

<John> Right.

<Amanda> We were talking about how this one, if you have it and it seeds down and the state tree as well, Phillip, they're not easy to pull.

<Phillip> No, they're not.

They...form quite a large taproot that goes down very quickly, and can make things problematic.

<Amanda> You got a little one to pull.

It's hard to pull.

<Phillip> It's very difficult and it's very deceptive because you only see the first two leaves or so and it's already put down such a strong root system.

It almost always takes a spade, almost always.

<Amanda> Ahh, well lalala.

So I thought, I wish that I could get up in the tree and cut the flowering on my big ones the state tree and cut the flower off because now I'm back there trying to pull these things up.

Anyway, it is the state tree, and it's the Palmetto State and not the Palmetto State.

It's the Palmetto State.

I'm just going to say that I think that's fair to say.

Would you?

What...?

<John> I say Palmetto.

<Amanda> Okay.

Thank you so much.

Anyway, thank you all so much for being with us tonight.

I hope you enjoyed our show and I hope you'll come back next week and be with us.

We'll see you then.

♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ Making It Grow is brought to you in part by Certified South Carolina is a cooperative effort among farmers, retailers and the South Carolina Department of Agriculture to help consumers identify foods and agricultural products that are grown, harvested or raised right here in the Palmetto State.

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Family owned and operated since 1916.

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

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