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Winterizing Your Garden and Landscape
150 Plays2 years ago
Winter is coming! In this episode, we'll share some tips and tricks on how to prepare your garden and landscapes for the cold season. Whether you have a vegetable garden, a flower bed, or a lawn, we'll help you winterize it with confidence. Tune in and learn how to make your garden and landscape winter-ready!
Questions/Comments/Feedback/Suggestions for Topics: hortculturepodcast@l.uky.edu
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Transcript
Introduction to the Horticulture Podcast
00:00:02
Speaker
Welcome to Horticulture, where a group of extension professionals and plant people talk about the business, production, and joy of planting seeds and helping them grow. Join us as we explore the culture of horticulture.
Winterizing Tools and Emotions
00:00:16
Speaker
Hey, everybody. We've been chatting actually before hitting record. I think what we've come to the conclusion is that we are all emotionally winterizing. We should maybe, this is a good time to talk about not only how to winterize your tools and make sure your tractor is going to make it through so that in the spring when you need it, it's not a putt-putt sound when you turn the key, but also a little bit of
00:00:42
Speaker
emotional, right? We're getting into our feels today. It makes me very uncomfortable, but that's okay.
Tool Maintenance: Weed Eaters, Tractors, and Batteries
00:00:48
Speaker
So just talking about, you know, what we need to be doing, thinking about so that we're not behind when spring gets here, because there's literally nothing worse than when you're trying to use the weed eater and it won't work because you did not put fuel stabilizer in it. And then you have to go get like replace all this stuff, replace all the filters. And all you want to do is weedy that fence row.
00:01:10
Speaker
You know, I was excited about not having almost no guy. I have one gas engine left and it's in my big garden trailer. Everything else has a battery and I'm like, yes, this is going to be so much easier. But you know, then I read this article about winterizing electric.
00:01:24
Speaker
like all the electric gadgets that you have and all the power tools that are electric based, battery based, because you have to kind of tend those batteries during the winter time and keep them to a certain percentage. And if it's like lithium ion, you're not supposed to let it freeze. So there is still winter rising. I was distraught to find that you even have to kind of winterize and manage
00:01:46
Speaker
like even your battery based tools over the winter now gasoline engines yeah just like you said we know there's some maintenance to do there and i'm sure we'll get into that here in just a little bit but yeah i found out that even with
00:01:59
Speaker
your battery-based tools, you need to manage primarily the batteries. And guess what? My mower didn't think about it. I was very proud of my new electric mower. It does a good job on my lawn, but it still has a blade. And if it has a blade, it has to be sharpened. So even those tools that are maintenance-free have some maintenance to them. Surprise, surprise. And my battery-based chainsaw has a very dull chain right now. So yes, even those things take a little maintenance.
00:02:26
Speaker
I carry the batteries around under my armpits all winter. Yeah, you kind of keep them warm like a momma does. You haven't hatched yet, but I do feel a sense of relaxation when I get into
Winter Routines and Leisure Activities
00:02:37
Speaker
it. I have a question for you all. What is something that like,
00:02:41
Speaker
you do in the winter and it can be something is like. I'll give you my mind as an example which are like my winners things. The one thing I do every winter is I pick a spot. Hopefully multiple but at least one.
00:02:57
Speaker
to organize like i just get everything back in order you know i buy the shelving i need all of the things i said during the year i was like i really need a shelf for this or i really need to figure out a different way to store this or something so i like have a spot in the winter i cleaned it out get it ready and the other thing i do is i
00:03:17
Speaker
get conditioner on all of my leather, my boots, my belts, all my stuff like that. I do a conditioning, try to get it done before the first big snow when I need to wear stuff like that, but I wear them all summer and they are crap by the end of the season. I soap everything up. Those are my
00:03:38
Speaker
What did we call that? Nesting? Those are my winter nesting, like, joys almost. Where is that organizing happening? Is that like in your house or like in... Oh. Okay. No. My barn, the studio, maybe the greenhouse, even the high tunnel, like my workspace. Your functional workspace. Yeah, yeah. I make it...
00:04:02
Speaker
functional hopefully and cleaned it out and just do a deep dive into it like that. As much as I dread starting it, I don't know, some projects you dread starting, then as soon as you start, it's like you can't stop. You need to finish it in a weekend. That's me and I just love to sit and watch Christmas movies and leather, like soap up and condition all my leather things. It's my favorite.
00:04:28
Speaker
Christmas movies like Die Hard or like Hallmark? Traditional Christmas movies like Die Hard, I love that. I'm more of like a Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer kind of gal. It lives soft, if you will. I read more in the wintertime and I don't know, it's not necessarily constructive reading or reading about horticulture topics, but just read more in general, I think. I listen to even more audiobooks. I can do that anytime, but I don't know why I do that more in the wintertime.
00:04:55
Speaker
I guess there's not as much daylight to go outside and play. I don't know. Maybe some of the reading is constructive and informative, but mostly, you know, fiction off sword fighting somewhere is on some coast and a forbidden land, but lots of reading more stuff like that. And yeah, the nesting thing is interesting. I typically do any kind of organizing in the garage or whatnot. I do a lot more of that in the wintertime. Mm-hmm.
00:05:20
Speaker
Yeah, I do that too. Definitely a lot of like organizing and trying to reevaluate what I use spaces for and try to, you know, because you get that sort of break. I'm basically, you're kind of stuck inside. It's so much more pleasant to be inside or you come up with excuses to not have to go outside. Well, I'll be organizing this in the warm today. I guess we'll be like, no, we don't go below 70 in the wintertime. And then I will be, I'll reply with I'm jealous.
00:05:49
Speaker
Well, and you know, then in the summertime, when it's too hot to go outside, you can do these things. It's more organizing. But I don't know, it just seems like a... What about you, Brett? Yeah, all these things.
00:06:00
Speaker
Well, I actually, I grill much more in the wintertime than I probably even do in the summertime. Nice. And like use this, the, I do, it's a smoke, it's a Weber kettle, but I, you know, smoke stuff on it. And let's say that's one big thing. I definitely read more. I think I, I do have some organizational tendencies during those times, but it is more inside my house, I would say. Yeah.
00:06:30
Speaker
Uh, yeah, that's most, I mean, I think, um, I enjoy like, like sharpening tools and like, uh, cleaning them off and kind of putting a little coat of oil on them. Something relaxing about sharpening tools. I mean, I've always thought, so is that weird? Is that a strange thing? I love sharpening tools. Love it. Makes things easier later. Like I just like putting an edge on and you rub that finger along the edge and you're like, yeah.
00:06:54
Speaker
Yeah, you know, good stuff. And not to get into the weeds on sharpening, Brett, but what are we talking about here? Are we talking about a flat file or more like a tungsten sharpener? What are we talking about? What are we sharpening? I got the whole, I got the gamut, you know? I thought that you have some cool stuff. That's why I asked. I knew you would have some cool stuff, so I don't hear about it.
00:07:13
Speaker
Yeah. So for, uh, I have a, just a flat, um, bastard cut file that I use for things like, uh, hose and, um, shovels and stuff like that. And then I also have, uh, I have different, I actually literally really like water stones for sharpening. So, so these are, these are like a little bit higher grit.
00:07:43
Speaker
Come out of like Japanese traditions, but I would say or have thoroughly globalized and so use those for things like chisels and scissors and knives and that kind of stuff. I have some bonsai tools, of course. I try to keep those sharp as well using
00:07:59
Speaker
Yeah, some relatively high grit things. And then I do have some in between, but I tend to use the higher grit for a lot of it and try to keep stuff sharp in the first place. Some of those tools I'm sure are really nice. Do you, are you one of those that tries to put something like a lightweight gear oil or lightweight oil on your tools in the wintertime? I mean, some of those tools, I'm guessing, you know, may have some value to you. Definitely.
Tool Maintenance Techniques and Personal Stories
00:08:25
Speaker
Can I oil those up?
00:08:26
Speaker
A lot of the Japanese tools that I have are carbon steel as well. They kind of inherently need.
00:08:34
Speaker
some sort of lubrication. But yeah, I find in general, I don't know, I find a really high level of satisfaction from well functioning, sharp, ready to go tool. So yeah, definitely. I use, yeah, just whatever kind of oil is available. I actually, back when I was trying to get a little woodworking business off the ground, I bought a gallon of mineral oil for cutting board. So I have, you know, about
00:09:03
Speaker
nine tenths of a gallon of mineral oil. Most of it left. So yeah, I have I use that or I use, yeah, just a variety of the wood portion of these tools, because some of these tools I had to have garden hose from gosh, from my grandparents. And I actually treat those. Do you guys do that with any of your the wooden portions of these tools, like a good linseed on there to keep them from cracking, keep them in good shape?
00:09:30
Speaker
I've just now started to get some high quality tools, so that is good to know. Consider that. Look it up. Lindsey, it is your friend. My dad gave me all of the, he moved into like a duplex from the farm and so I got all the shovels and all that stuff I grew up with and I'm sure he took care of it. That's awesome. Then I broke one the other day.
00:09:52
Speaker
So, um, I need it. Nice. I just fricking snapped that handle right off. I was like, broke it right over your knee. And that's kind of a lost art too is, and my father was so good at making handles for things. You know, now usually when, and, and if you got that from your family, Alexis, I'm sure you're going to try to re handle that. You're going to try to put a handle back into that, aren't you? Yeah. It's the, we, we just pulled out the bad part and stuck cause it was already a short shovel. So now it's just a little bit shorter, which is fine for me.
00:10:22
Speaker
And it's, it's, it's a, you have to go to a little bit of extra effort. Now I've noticed to find a good high quality handle for tools. Um, you know, whatever it be, whether it post old diggers or digging matic or whatever, but there, there's something really nice about the wooden portion of these tools I've always loved. And my father met, used to make a lot of his own handles for things and lots of civic curvatures and.
00:10:46
Speaker
And, uh, it was out of necessity. Like I watched him the first time ever, we had like a five foot layoff plow that we, he plowed with a mule and it had a handle that broke. And then I watched him kind of match up out of a chunk of Hickory match up to the existing handle and make that and crank that out in a couple of hours. And I don't know why I'm so mystified by that, but you know, he made it himself. Ray, who are you? Was this the 1800s? No, no. Sometimes.
00:11:14
Speaker
I just do not understand the timeline that Ray lives in. I'm pretty sure it's a different one than the rest of us. Like, did you hop over in the multiverse from a different timeline? Can you tell you about- This is before he was drafted into World War One. Yes, that's it. Oh, right. Okay. Yeah. How many more have you been in now? I've definitely bridged the gap, but my father, before he would ever let me get on a tractor and
00:11:36
Speaker
you know, learn about the maintenance and all the, you know, the great efficiencies of mechanized pieces of equipment. Before he would ever let me do that, we had to learn to plow with a mule.
00:11:45
Speaker
And he had German trained mules at new voice commands and they were amazing. And the mule taught me how to plow. And it was in tobacco and cultivated, you know, some vegetable crops and things, but, uh, I hated it at the time, but it's some super fond memories of like, you know, when he put the handle on that five foot plow and we had three foot layoff plows or cultivation plows rather. But, uh, I remember all of those tools and they were old when I became familiar with them. They were already very, very, very old.
00:12:14
Speaker
But yeah, I had to learn to plow up the mule before I was ever allowed on the tractor. And I don't know why my father was of that mindset, but it was pretty cool now that I look back on it. Just in case the whole petroleum thing didn't work out. We're going to have to get a very young mule. You have to train him up. Was it a Pertran mule? No, it was a black and tan Tennessee. Okay. Well, no, it was not as big as a Pertran. Under 16 hands. I don't want to drag my feet. I don't know.
00:12:41
Speaker
No, you want something heavy to pull. But yeah, I remember the equipment, all these old tools and stuff. And he cared for those. He was very deliberate and very careful how he cared for those. And he had had them passed down from his father. And there was a couple pieces, the old Sheffield
00:12:59
Speaker
scythe blades made in Sheffield, England, but some of those I still have out in the garage and the handles that he made. And if you guys are familiar with those, I guess in the eastern part of the state, we call those size blades because we sort of took the term scythe and kind of modified it, their own uses.
00:13:17
Speaker
But I have some of these blades and handles my father made that are, and they're curved and very intricate blades. But yeah, I still have that and I always have those, but just love those. Those are old tools and they're well cared for. And I bring them out every year and make sure they're in good shape. Thanks. One thing I think with linseed oil, just for those who may want to use it.
00:13:40
Speaker
It is, in my experience, it really likes to be put on very, very thinly. Almost like you just almost wouldn't feel wet after you put it on and put a little bit on because it's not ultimately like a polyurethane kind of thing where it's going to build up in layers and harden. If you put too much on, it'll just get sticky. And so if you put that on and let it dry, another thing that I've picked up that I really like, and it's, you know, it's not everybody's cup of tea, but
00:14:11
Speaker
to take a little after your linseed oil or whatever your, if you do it with more of a mineral oil or no finish at all, whatever your treatment is. After that's dried pretty well, maybe even for a couple of weeks, take and put a little bit of paste wax on it and work it in with either a three or four odd steel wool.
00:14:32
Speaker
And it makes the surface like feel really nice and kind of like soft, but a little bit grippy. And it's a very pleasant, I do that with a lot of my hand tools. I haven't done it as much with like,
00:14:46
Speaker
Sorry, like my woodworking hand tools. I haven't done it as much like with shovels or with that kind of thing, but I don't know why it wouldn't work, but it adds a little bit of protection because all paste wax is, is a little bit of wax and a little bit of solvent. And then the solvent flashes off and leaves behind a little bit of wax, which gives you that protective feel. But I'm going to have to try that. That sounds awesome. And I know what you mean by conditions, the outer surface of the wood to a certain feel. That's awesome. Yeah. It's like real, almost just. Silky almost.
00:15:15
Speaker
Yeah, like a satin kind of feel to it. That's so cool. How about all the other stuff going on in landscapes now? You know, usually when we think about cooler days and shorter days, we tend to wind down, but what are you guys doing in your own? I know you guys each have things going on. I know we do things and recommend things in our jobs, but what are you guys doing at your own homesteads or at your own homes and your own operations? What do you guys have going on that you're winterizing your place inside and out? Hmm.
00:15:48
Speaker
Change my air filter. Yeah, that has to be done on your power tools too, Alexis. What is it? Do you have a Grillo or BCS? I have a Grillo. Yeah, and that's one of those pieces, very nice pieces of equipment. When do you normally go through that thing, Indian? Air filters, oil, all that?
00:16:08
Speaker
I go through it when I can no longer use it for anything. So I'm still in flail mower time of year and stuff like that. So probably in the next over in the next month, probably by the end of November, we put stabilizer in it. We do the whole whole shebang. And then in the spring, I'll change the oil. And, you know, lubricate all the parts and pieces and all of that jazz.
00:16:36
Speaker
So it did have an air filter change, so we're good. I took it in and I don't know, maybe that's something if you're really good with machinery, you probably can do this, but I can do the basics, but it's nice for me to take it in once every three to five years to someone who like really knows what they're doing because they maybe have tools to get in parts or they can make sure I didn't miss anything.
00:17:03
Speaker
and just give it like a really good once over. So for, you know, pieces of equipment that you really want to keep and maybe are a little bit expensive, that would be my recommendation because and it was in great shape. They just they just changed everything. But it was peace of mind for me to know that I've been doing it right, you know, this whole time that it's still in good shape and I've been taking care of it the way it should be. So that was that was nice. And it's just kind of nice sometimes to just drop something off and come back and it's it's ready to go. Ready to go.
00:17:33
Speaker
Yeah, some of these things that I can do myself, but other things I will not be able to do by myself, especially these larger piece of equipment. It's good to know kind of your own ability there. I was out, what was I doing the other couple days ago in the landscape bed? Because the soil was a little softer. It's whenever we had that last rain in Kentucky, we've had extended periods of dry weather here.
00:17:52
Speaker
And I usually wait to the fall when we have more adequate moisture and then I re-edge all of my beds. I don't know why, but it's something I've always done. I re-edge landscape beds. It's just a chore that I do on the home side of things is I like to go through and sharpen everything up because in the fall is typically when I mulch everything.
00:18:12
Speaker
I'll check the depth and sometimes I have to remove some of the old mulch because it gets to build up too much even though I want fresh mulch. I don't want it to get over three or four inches. So I'm removing mulch and composting that depending on the mulch source.
00:18:27
Speaker
some mulch compost easy, some does not, like the pine bark nuggets that don't break down. But I'm mulching now, removing mulch, putting fresh mulch in, I'm re-edging beds, kind of doing all of that stuff. But we really here in Zone 6 and 7, guys, I guess we should not be doing any more pruning, is that correct?
Plant Care During Winter
00:18:47
Speaker
For most things, we should be already done with that.
00:18:51
Speaker
If we're pruning a lot at this point, I think we run the risk of dehardening plants or causing, not dehardening, they're not, you know, they've not kind of shut down for winter yet, a lot of plants. But if you prune now, you may have a response of growth to that pruning and then that growth is what? It's going to be soft and it's going to go into colder months and then that runs the likelihood of getting killed back and then you have even more cleanup pruning to do.
00:19:16
Speaker
the following year. So most of our pruning should already be done. And if you, if you haven't done it, just go ahead and wait till February or March. Like it's for most things, that's when you're going to prune. So better to wait it out. Other things I'm doing last week, I dug a bunch of peonies. So split, which we've talked about, you know, previous episodes, but still doing that. And that, you know, you can do until the ground's not frozen, essentially, because they're, they're really hardy.
00:19:45
Speaker
And what else? Oh, just like my houseplants. So that's something. Oh gosh, I got to get mine in. So I've been bringing in my houseplants that are further away from like the house that are more tender.
00:20:01
Speaker
They're not going to take anything, but the ones that are right up against the brick of the house are still outside and trying to acclimate them. I just turned on my plant lights inside just trying to get everybody acclimated and not too crazy. Curious here, your plant lots. Before you move on from that, I'm going to have to do something because I've expanded my collection of outdoor plants that I've been very happy this year. That are now indoor plants, yeah. Barbados Lily is massive.
00:20:28
Speaker
Bring that in and the things gonna it looks like death every year when I bring it in because it was like what kind of plant light Any particular kind or style or I got I've kind of had I've had a bunch of different things the ones I like just because of I tried to Display my plants in a better way that like looks nicer in my home versus the you know jungle that I normally form hmm
00:20:52
Speaker
So I have like this tiered stand and so I really needed lights that like could kind of be on this and I got this one that's like it clips on to the rack and then it has three separate lights that are on like bendy.
00:21:07
Speaker
Gotcha, you're like a little goose necky thing. Yeah, and so something that's appropriate for like a big I have a couple really big plants and I'm gonna have to bring in and they need to I mean I can put them next to the patio doors, but I need supplemental lot for them to so yeah It's got red and blue lights too, and I like has a timer so I just like correct room Yeah, you do use a timer on them It has one on it and I can just click with I want it on a six hour twelve hour and it comes on by itself so I
00:21:32
Speaker
That's been nice for the things that need a little extra and transitioning. Oh, and cutting back on water. So if you haven't done that already once you're bringing plants in and everybody always goes, well, how much? And I go, well, it depends on the area that you have it in. But for reference,
00:21:49
Speaker
my the plants we have at my office are in and they stay inside and they're in a I don't want to call it an atrium but an area where we have kind of some floor to ceiling windows and so there's a lot of bright light in there and they are bright light plants and we have cut them back already to only being watered twice a month
00:22:10
Speaker
And I might cut that back again to once a month here, once we start losing more light. And then my plants at home are I think at twice a month now. But again, I might cut that back. There's some that I will water a little bit more just because they're located by a heat vent.
00:22:29
Speaker
And so they dry out a little bit faster, but that's a little tip there. Don't forget stop watering your plants. Smell the soil. Can you just give the 101 physiologically what's going on there? Why is it? Because you know, I would think when it's hot and dry, it's going to dry the plants out. So that's when they need water and when it's cold and wet, they don't need as much. But you're saying light intensity is a part of that. What can you give me?
00:22:54
Speaker
Yeah, so it's kind of like a reminder and it's like once people are reminded of those basic things, they're like, oh yeah, duh, that makes sense. So plants need light, right, to photosynthesize. And when they use light, they also need water. So the more light they have, the more water they're going to take up because they need both of those things to create food, photosynthesize, right? So when the light goes down, we have less, you know, daylight hours, they're going to use up less water because they don't have enough light to support that.
00:23:23
Speaker
fertilizer planted that too, Alexis.
00:23:25
Speaker
Yeah, I don't like to fertilize my plants in the winter time just because there's not enough light to support that. And so it just kind of sits there. It gets salty around the roots. Not ideal. Kind of like me in the winter. I get salty. Unless it's a winter blooming plant. So an amaryllis, a Thanksgiving cactus, an Easter cactus. So rule of thumb is whenever that thing is going to put on growth is what you should be supporting it right before it wants to put on growth.
00:23:54
Speaker
um or right before a bloom period or something like that but But yeah, so less light means uh, it's not going to use up that water So you're going to need to water it less. Otherwise, uh, the soil will get soggy because the water's not being used Um, I usually recommend people not put any plants near a heat vent if they can I know I just said I did but the plants I have are like more succulent plants so they like kind of a drier
00:24:17
Speaker
atmosphere, but 90% of your most people's house plants are a true tropical. They're from a rainforest environment. They are going to want to be misted a lot more regularly. The humidity is up.
00:24:29
Speaker
You know when it's really really cold and we've got that heat cranking every day all night Uh, we will i'll put a humidifier on and i'll cluster my plants together To kind of create a little micro environment and that gets them through the winter So just a little if you got somebody who's extra special to you in there You might need to put a humidifier on it almost sounds like when you bring the goldfish home from
00:24:52
Speaker
From the fair? Wherever you got it from, wherever you got your goldfish, no judgment. You don't pop it right in the tank, you let it get acclimated in the little bag. That's what you're talking about. It sounds like when you're moving your plants, we're going to have to use that. I like that. That's a good way to look at it. Anyways, house plants and then battening down the hatches on all the barn and the greenhouse and the high tunnel and just
00:25:20
Speaker
all of the things I don't want a bunch of cold air and rain getting in. You know, last, one of the, well, in several of the previous episodes, particularly the last episode, we talked about planting trees and shrubs. And one thing I guess it'd be good timing to mention now is one of the biggest problems that I see in the springtime is young, tender bark trees and taking care of those after planting, particularly the first two to three years. Trees, maple is a classic, good example. Cherries.
00:25:49
Speaker
Yeah, the frost cracks that you can get on those and protecting the bark. That's very, very important when you fall plant trees, particularly those within bark. And if in doubt, just wrap the trunks of those trees beginning late fall and then remove that wrap in the spring.
00:26:07
Speaker
and you're going to avoid a tremendous amount of damage potential damage to that young tree. I've seen so many trees that have this type of damage up and down the stem of the tree because it was not wrapped and in the wintertime when you fall plant those and everything goes dormant wherever the sun hits that plant it wakes up or warms up one side of the plant causes uneven growth because most of the plant is
00:26:34
Speaker
not responding to that warmth, but the one section is uneven growth occurs and then what ultimately you have happen is a crack and tree wrap prevents that. And I have seen more damage in large commercial landscapes from that issue than any other, any other problem, any other causes. That's interesting, Ray. I've never heard, I didn't, that is not why I thought, which doesn't, I mean, it makes sense.
00:27:02
Speaker
thought frost cracks occurred. I always have thought it was because the bark, the cells are being warmed and then they're cooled rapidly because the sun goes away and essentially the water in them busts. That's a function of that too from my understanding. There's actually several things going on, but yes, exactly.
00:27:25
Speaker
And what you said is a great point. I was having a discussion with one of our commercial landscapes a couple of days ago, and we were talking about the issue with Western walls in a commercial landscape. And if you have a Western facing wall,
00:27:40
Speaker
that radiates heat. You would think that would be a good thing in the wintertime, but so many boxwoods that were planted against western facing walls, sun rises in the east and radiates that energy against that western facing, let's say a brick wall in the wintertime. And that kind of gives off all of that heat
00:28:00
Speaker
to the plants that are close to that wall, well, that causes that differential, that kind of freestyle cycle or that growth stop cycle. And that in itself will cause damage on boxwoods just like it will trees. So the same thought. And you can pick out the damage every single time on Western facing walls, but it's the same issue with what you just said with landscape trees, Alexis, with the sun, if you have direct exposure on trees. Yeah. Same concept, biological concept. Yeah.
00:28:28
Speaker
Those are supposed to be the hard days are like like I was reading about winter drying and how, you know, you have the clear days where there's lots of sun and it's windy, but the ground is frozen and the plant can't pull up any water to keep things tender and things like that. And it just makes it real hard on the planet. Yeah, we lost pretty much all the boxwoods in Boyle County because of that exact thing right there. No humidity and wind and frozen ground.
00:28:59
Speaker
That was tough. Mulch. Refer back to the mulch episode. And Ray, you can paint trunks, right? Like if you didn't want to, cause like, I don't love wrapping. Yeah. Paint works. Yeah. It's like you want to reflect the sun. You want to, yeah. Okay. It helps. It does a similar function as rap. Yeah. I used to always wonder that, uh, when people would have like, you know, I was, uh, grew up in an,
00:29:24
Speaker
in an area where that was a very common thing for people to do is whitewash the trees up and down. And it became so common that we all forgot why they did it. So they did it when 30, 40 year old trees when it was no longer necessary, but it became kind of just a cultural thing that we did. Yes, yes, exactly. So it was very interesting. And I didn't know till years later, Lexus, that it was because of the reasons that you've mentioned. But yeah, that works as well. Tree wrap, whitewash, it all kind of performs a similar function.
00:29:55
Speaker
One of the, so I mentioned before, I have some bonsai trees and also have some other stuff that occasionally needs water through this fall period and with it as dry as it's been in Kentucky in particular, but I'm always keeping my eye on both the
00:30:12
Speaker
amount of water they need, but I'm also not trying to have a bust pipe or bust hose bib. I'm trying to keep an eye on that. So I have this dubious fall ritual of going out and sort of
00:30:32
Speaker
winterizing my hose and then needing water, hooking it back up, using it, re-winterizing it again. For me, the main things that I use for that is I have a little adapter thing that screws into the hose. It's a male threaded that screws into the female end, which is what hooks onto the hose bib, and it's got a little
00:31:00
Speaker
tire pressure, like a tire adapter. And so I hook it up to my compressor, which is right there and just blast the water out.
00:31:10
Speaker
And so I can unwinterize and re-winterize my hose within about three or four minutes. Fairly quickly. That's awesome. That's good to know because I use my hoses a lot because of the tunnel. Yeah, it's one of those tricky things. The tunnels is a great example. I have memories of that where it does get so cold that you have to think about that a little bit.
00:31:32
Speaker
In some cases, it's leaving things open. In some cases, it's trying to close things as far as valves and things like that. If to give the water a place to expand, but also to try to keep water from getting places in the first place. Yeah. It's like a kind of a give and take there, but that's a part of this time of year for me now is, and I forgot to do it last year, one night when it got cold and it busted this, luckily it busted this filter thing out on the far end of my hose rather than
00:32:02
Speaker
anything closer back that would have required, it just required me to get mad for a minute. Didn't require a plumber to come out or anything like that. You silly goose. I'm sure that's what you called yourself. Darn it. Darn it. I'm such a silly goose. Oh fudge. I think that's one of the things I think about with water is
00:32:22
Speaker
just like in an agricultural, horticultural setting things.
Winterizing Water Systems and Lawn Care
00:32:26
Speaker
So that's a PSA first. If you don't, if you have just left your hoses hooked up to your hose bibs indefinitely in the past, you have gotten lucky to this point. Yes. But try to disconnect and the hose bib is just the little faucet thing that it comes out the side of whatever the building is where you turn it off and on if that's a...
00:32:46
Speaker
jargon from the biz. I'm a bit of an insider. Disconnecting those and if you want to blow out the water or let it drain out from the hose, that's great.
00:32:59
Speaker
But also things like pumps and I now have pumps involved in the pumps have entered the chat for me Now with my rainwater catchment that we talked about a couple transfer pumps And so so getting those Disconnected and drained and in some cases depending on where you're gonna store it if you're gonna store it outside you may consider using a low toxicity antifreeze inside the pump in some cases to keep that from freezing up and or filling up but
00:33:28
Speaker
there there will be every pump that you have should have like a winterizing component or winterizing like you know steps or recommendations or whatever but so things like sprayers whether that be a backpack sprayer or a on the back of a of a tractor or something somewhere in between you know if if there is liquid inside of any of those tiny little plastic and or metal parts and it freezes it will expand
00:33:53
Speaker
and the tiny little plastic and metal pieces will not expand at this rate and will... It does the same thing that a tree's inner and outer woody parts do. So true. They expand and contract at differentials. It can be a bust. Yes. In case I would not recommend painting the sprayer. Those are the multiple reasons you decide to, that would be fine. I would try to get that moisture out and yeah.
00:34:20
Speaker
Now, I know some of you guys, particularly the Metro folks, when I go through Lexington, Kentucky, where I'm nearby here in the central part of Kentucky, I see lots of leaves now. How about dealing with those? Is that part of the winterizing process? I mean, what do people do with all of the leaves? I mean, I know you can, in some cases I see piles of leaves six feet tall and I'm lucky I don't have that many leaves. I have a place where I can compost my own leaves.
00:34:49
Speaker
but can that be an issue? I guess if you have two feet of leaves on your lawn all the way through the winter, what are people doing that have that many leagues where you guys are at? I definitely smell people burning them sometimes, but I don't know if I necessarily recommend that in city limits during the drought conditions that we're currently experiencing. Yeah, that's a good point. That's a good point. Yeah. We do not recommend that.
00:35:12
Speaker
I'm lucky I have just enough leaves. I have a bunch of leaves but I like mulching them up and then I'll kind of top dress the garden with those. I have a cover crop going now so I can't do that so I'll mulch around the edges and I'll also use those on top of I have three or four raised bed gardens
00:35:29
Speaker
You know, because raised bed gardens, you can winterize a raised bed garden. That's that's something to do. But part of the process of winterizing my raised bed gardens is I will take those leaves and put them on top of those and then have plenty of space to compost those kind of in the edge of the woods. That's just sort of pile them up and call it a compost pile. It's not really a compost pile. I haven't used it, but the city will come and pick up a lot of leaves. They'll they have like certain
00:35:53
Speaker
You can order bags. Have you used that ever, Brent? Well, they have, they have a couple of days where they come and run a, the vac along the edge. And so all you have to do is pile up your leaves on the easement between the sidewalk and the road and they'll suck them up and take them, take them all far, far away. I have a request.
00:36:10
Speaker
Go on. If you live anywhere close to central Kentucky, if you live within an hour of Lexington, ish, hour and a half. I do. And you have leaves that you want to get rid of. Please contact me because I want your leaves.
00:36:27
Speaker
I can have a trailer there in an hour and a half or less, and I will take your leaves. Oh, wow. How do you use those electrics? Are you also using that for organic matter, chopping those up? Yeah, so they're great in pathways where, you know, just if you're trying to keep weeds down, they're great for just like you said, putting the garden to bed, just kind of mulching things that are a little bit more tender.
00:36:50
Speaker
And it is painful for me to see people get rid of their leaves because I'm like, those could be my leaves. I want your leaves. Please send me a leave. Don't leave me. I'm trying to hook up things. The county I'm in, Center College is in the county that I am an extension agent in. And they, of course, you know, safety reasons, I guess, pick up most of their leaves and they store them. They have like big piles of them.
00:37:18
Speaker
And, uh, our, the city of Danville has a composting program and every spring for Earth Day, you can come get a, you know, a load of compost for free or whatever. And so I think that they give their leaves to them, but apparently it's been a hassle. So I've been trying to arrange like a setup where someone comes with a trailer, they can get like.
00:37:36
Speaker
leaves from them because they have a bucket that they can use to put leaves down on a trailer. And there are plenty of farms in the area who would love to have leaves. So yeah, I would love to have your leaves. Please call me. Thank you. So why are we pulling up the leaves in the first place?
00:37:57
Speaker
Yeah, that's one of the things. I mean, ideally, you would be in a situation where the balance of leaves don't overwhelm, let's say you're mulching mower if you're a homeowner, and you could just mulch those. That would be ideal. You can recycle the nutrients, put it in the soil where it belongs in place. But if your leaves get too deep, they run the potential of matting down and killing the turf that's under there.
00:38:19
Speaker
Um, so that could be an undesirable situation for a homeowner. So because your lawn, I'll use the turd, the word turf sort of loosely there. Like Moss lawns, you know, if air moss areas, like that's one of the number one ways to kill, to kill Moss. Uh, if you put, you know, put some of that into your landscape is to let leaves sit on it over the winter.
00:38:43
Speaker
It's just not good for like cool season or turf type fescue that most of our home lawns have. They grow all through the winter, not for moss lawns. It's just not a desirable situation. So if you want to winterize your lawn, you want to be very careful about letting leaves pile up in great quantity and then compact down because you're probably going to have some dead spots or thin spots in your lawn and what bread it can just straight up kill, I guess, moss lawn areas.
00:39:09
Speaker
Yeah, yeah. It can cause all those issues, so you're going to have to kind of address that. That's one of my winterizing things I'm doing. There's a big red maple on a section of my lawn as you go down towards a wooded area. And I have to kind of, it overwhelms my mower, so I sort of have to rake those up and move those away from the area.
00:39:25
Speaker
But because that area is already somewhat shaded, so I don't want to shade it any further in the wintertime. So that's one of the things I do. Something else I do that I recommend folks maybe think about is setting their mower down this time of year, beginning mid-October, late October. And you know, we have some research to back it up. But if you set your mower down just a little bit, it can do a real good kind of a lawn cleanup for you. It can let more sunlight into the crown of those plants and
00:39:53
Speaker
It can have some other benefits by mowing just a little lower this time of year. That's another thing that you can do, you know, on top of the regular things you're doing this time of year in Kentucky in Zone 6 and 7, like fertilizing, you can just change the mower. Now, I say that, but don't forget to let your mower back up, raise the deck of that mower back up before you start mowing the next year.
00:40:17
Speaker
because you don't want to do that in the summertime. It just causes undue stress, but it's not a bad thing to lower that just a little bit in the wintertime because it can do a good cleanup on the lawn for you. So that's another winterizing technique we used to do. I've seen, yes, like obviously you don't want to smother your lawn, but I've seen a lot more things on social media of people saying not even to mulch your leaves because of that. It's a
00:40:40
Speaker
You know, it's a home for a lot of the insects that are overwintering. And I feel like there has to be just for people who are like, no, you're not supposed to chop your leaves up. Number one, don't get rid of your leaves, period, unless they're giving them to me because you have to. And then what we're saying here is like in the circumstance that I don't think everybody is in. I think very few people have enough leaves and certainly not most people, not the whole lawn that they're going to be so thick.
00:41:09
Speaker
that they're going to smother the grass underneath. So in that case, you can leave them. You don't need to chop them up. They are good for insects to have an overwintering site or just create those other habitats. If you can rake that into your garden bed, the perennials are not going to be upset about that. And you can put those homes somewhere if you're concerned or if you're one of those people who just don't like to have piles of leaves. If you can create
00:41:36
Speaker
There's, I don't know, I think that we're in this kind of, I go back and forth with this whole like idea of like, we took over this land and like, we need to do something to give back. But then it's like, but we also do live here now. So like, how do we work? How do we? Yeah, it's like these built environments in these places. It's like we, you want to choose what you want the land to reflect or do for you, right? So if you're trying to create,
00:42:05
Speaker
habitat for native insects and native plants, then go that way. If you're trying to have a lawn that looks pretty and that is a place for people to walk around and enjoy and play with, then protect the lawn. It's about choosing what you want. And I think there's ability to have both a little bit. If you're a lawn person,
00:42:26
Speaker
I don't understand you but i respect your voices and i say that in a joking way cuz i know everybody has their thing i just i hate mowing my lawn so whatever rage is hung up he left notice i use the word turf that implies a certain amount of beautiful uniformity.
00:42:47
Speaker
Well, but I think Ray, you're a perfect example of someone who will still take those leaves. Maybe you're putting them in a compost. Maybe you're putting them in your landscape beds. You're still creating a home for some of those native insects. If you have care there, but you're making it work for you in a way.
00:43:03
Speaker
I don't want to kill off all my hellebores, so I'm going to make sure that the leaves are pulled back from there, but I don't care if it kills my lawn, whatever. An interesting article. Part of my winterizing is if you have herbaceous perennials that you need to cut back, I mean like a mum that you've naturalized and
00:43:25
Speaker
plants like that, I'm beginning to rethink when I cut those back and went around my landscape beds because I cut them back higher because the hollow-stemmed herbaceous perennials particularly, there's all these studies now where they're like home for all these insects and native bees. There's also secondary benefits we think of. If you leave stubs instead of cutting them all the way to the ground, they naturally catch leaves and they self-mulch if you're in a leafy area.
00:43:52
Speaker
So not only good for insects, they'll self-mulch because of the structure of that if you leave some sticking above the ground instead of, you know, cutting them flush. You also know there's a plant there in the spring. So that's why I do it. Yes, that's also a great marker. I'm like, is this dead or is it just not come back yet? I just want everything cut to the ground. I've really changed that over the last four or five years is I leave a little stubs now. I leave a little stubs as markers, as a habitat, whatever.
00:44:19
Speaker
Yeah, I don't winterize the same as I did a few years ago in that respect, in this particular instance. So yeah, I was doing it before I even knew why I was doing it, besides knowing that there was a plant there. Well, any last minute thoughts of like, hey, don't forget to think about this as we move into winter.
Preparing Homes for Winter and Pest Prevention
00:44:40
Speaker
I wanted to bring up, I found an article that was written by our own Ray Tackett.
00:44:45
Speaker
winterizing your home. Anybody else find this winterizing your home to prevent all invaders? I have a copy of it on me at all times. It's framed in my office. Some people have a pocket constitution. You don't have a signed copy? It's called the compendium of growing beautiful lawns. We'll link it in the show notes by our very own.
00:45:06
Speaker
But it it points out that, you know, when the days are getting shorter and cooler, there might be some little friends trying to get inside your house. So part of winterizing is making sure that it's a little insects, bugs, spiders and whatnot, you know, plug those guys and ladies like that. And it's good, too, because, you know, as you that will also help you kind of make sure your home is insulated and stuff like that for the wintertime and, you know, make energy efficiency better.
00:45:35
Speaker
But yeah, insects trying to get in is usually one of those sort of fall winterizing things you start noticing. Yeah.
00:45:44
Speaker
or at least according to the sky rate tack. I know it's sketchy guy. Yeah, I mean, weather seals cannot be underestimated. We need those. You need to check those because I had a issue just last year in my basement patio door and come to find out that the seal that was on the bottom of the door was completely gone. I looked under there and saw lots of daylight and ladybugs and box delderbugs where I live along the creek. They both were in mass quantities and little cavities in there. So yeah, yeah, that's a good winterizing for your home as well as your landscape.
00:46:13
Speaker
When you were saying that little creatures get in the house, I thought you were trying to get us to do Elf on a Shelf for you again. Yes, but you have to change him. Every year. Every day for a time period. He really weird if Elf on a Shelf was observing my behavior. Elf on the Shelf, he is a critter. He's a critter. I want my place sealed up. And I think, I always think of it as like an energy standpoint. Like I don't want my heat escaping, right?
00:46:41
Speaker
And no air exchange, you know, air at all. Fresh air is for dead people. I'll breathe when I'm dead. That's how you get murdered at night. I stole that from a podcast. Please don't come after me. I'm not sure if it's T.M. or not. Anyway.
00:47:00
Speaker
This sounds like a busier time of the year. I have a lot of bugs in my house apparently. And they come out once it starts to get warm. A lot of people have been seeing them this week because we had that cold spell and then the warm spell. And so they came back out from where they have snuck into your house over the fall and you didn't know. And then they came out in droves and everyone's like, oh my gosh. I'm like, baby, they've been there for a while.
00:47:23
Speaker
Right, right. Yeah, no, I've been doing a lot of like paint painting lately. And it's like, I want to have the windows open, which it's warmer. So it's, it's fine. But yeah, it's also something to watch for like, Oh, cool. Insect friends are coming into my own. See, that's fine. But murderers on the other hand, Brett, any of any lasting thoughts as to what you're doing? How are you now? How else you're nesting for the winter?
00:47:47
Speaker
No, there's a whole set of protocols for overwintering bonsai because for me at my potted plants in that regard, none of them come
Bonsai Care and Episode Conclusion
00:47:56
Speaker
inside. They stay outside in their pots all winter long. Even though if you're cold, they're cold? Even though the little pads of their feet are extra insulated.
00:48:10
Speaker
They can't, they can't, you know, the, the bonsai originally come from high up in the mountains or it gets pretty cold. So nice. I guess. Yeah. I mean, I guess that makes sense. Whatever. Sure. Well, any, any tree that's any tree, any bonsai tree that's hardy here generally in the ground is also hardy here as a bonsai for what it's worth. That tracks.
00:48:32
Speaker
So yeah, just doing that kind of stuff, cleaning out gutters. That's, that's the other aspect of the leaf fund. Nobody has mentioned soil samples. Are you kidding? We're the extension service. We have like the last three times. If you all aren't doing soil samples by now and you were in the state of Kentucky, we got props. Who are you listening to? I was recently, I was recently talking to a listener who said that she was going to do soil samples as a result of listening to the podcast.
00:49:02
Speaker
Shout out to who we shout out. Savannah. Oh, nice. Yeah, shout out. Good job.
00:49:12
Speaker
All right. Well, I think that I think that pretty much covers our nesting winterizing. If you have questions on, you know, how to winterize or whether or not you need to winterize something, shoot, shoot, shout us a email. Uh, you can email us at hort culture podcast at l.uky.edu. You can also send us a message, a DM on our Instagram.
00:49:41
Speaker
hort culture pod and we'd be more than happy to check that out. And I'm not going to lie, if I don't know the answer, I'm probably going to ask somebody, but I'm sure one of the, one of the bald boys or, or Ray, since he's been around for, you know, 200 years can help us. Um, I don't know. Are you like, how familiar are we? But, uh,
00:50:07
Speaker
We need to know how to get your mule through the winter ray can help you But you can find us find us there. We we'd love if you left us a review That would be great your reviews Please the algorithm and help other people find our podcast and hopefully love our podcast and love us and message us and tell us cool things if you have any ideas
00:50:34
Speaker
Any thoughts on Programs you'd like to hear coming through the winner we've come up with a few we're excited to tell you about all the cool stuff that's coming around and
00:50:45
Speaker
through your winterizing a lot of people gain more knowledge over the winter and so we'll be talking about all the upcoming programs that are available if you're in Kentucky or maybe even if you're not and you want to travel to some of these cool programs that are both in person and online to just gain some new knowledge. We'll have some info for you all on that.
00:51:05
Speaker
how to sign up for them and all that good stuff. But I believe that's all. Thank you guys for joining us this week and come check us out this time next week. And we hope that as we grow this podcast, you will grow with us and we'll see you later. Thanks for being here.