BRAD FOWLER CHECKS IN 8/12/26

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:00

And joining us live is the one and only Brad Fowler, the Clemson Urban Horticultural Extension Agent.

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Good morning.

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Good morning.

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How are y'all today?

SPEAKER_00 0:10

I'm doing well. How are you?

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Yeah, I'm good.

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Good?

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I saw you fixing a wilted flower out there. I'm proud of you.

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That's what I go around doing is uh just tinker with flowers. Sneak around.

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I can see that. Um so Brad Fowler is here and he's here to answer your questions that you need. Uh even about irrigation. Thank you to Conservative Irrigation for sponsoring this. Uh go to Budge Budget Blind's Text Line 843-798-TALK-798-8255. All right. So we're um on again, off again with this rain.

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Yep.

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Uh still some drought conditions.

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Yep.

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Still sandy soil.

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Right. What do we do? I keep getting questions about, you know, obviously like we have started getting some rain and stuff, but I've gotten a lot of questions about drought tolerant plants because I think of the drought that we experienced and stuff. And so, you know, people are, you know, looking to plant stuff that just doesn't need a ton of water. Now, don't get me wrong, there are going to be times when you still need to water it.

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Of course, especially when you first plant them.

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Exactly. Um, but if we can put in some of those drought tolerant plants, a lot of times the drought tolerant plants also have some other benefits. You know, they're might be a little less uh disease prone, stuff like that. A lot of times they're just a little tougher plants. Um, and so we have a lot of great resources on our Home and Garden Information Center website. We've got uh multiple fact sheets about drought tolerant uh plants. Some some are you know perennials, you know, smaller flowers. We've got uh stuff on there about uh trees and shrubs.

SPEAKER_00 1:38

You know what my favorite thing is? The nonstop begonias. Okay. Do you know them? I don't. What? They're great.

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Surprisingly, I don't know every plant.

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I gotta show you. I know they probably have a uh an official name. But here's the thing even these um plants that usually do well, um, they're suffering.

SPEAKER_02 1:58

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 1:58

I mean because the heat is brutal.

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Right.

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Well, aren't these gorgeous?

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Oh yeah, those are really nice.

SPEAKER_00 2:05

Those are beautiful.

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I'm sorry to the listeners, we're looking at some really nice flowers, right?

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Non-stop begonias. Go find them.

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When you get to work, make sure you check out the flower porn.

SPEAKER_00 2:16

No, it really is. Um, they're really gorgeous. And they they flower nonstop summer through fall, and they're um they're good for um well, they're good for hanging baskets too. But but the thing is with these is like they must be hardy. They are hardy. Why not? Um but the thing is about them is that they bloom multiple times. Yeah. Um, and um uh they don't need a lot of like shade.

SPEAKER_02 2:44

Right, right. Well that's good.

SPEAKER_00 2:45

It's so hot here.

SPEAKER_02 2:46

Yeah, yeah. Yeah, traditionally, like you plant something like an impatient or something throughout, and you were literally standing there with a water hose all day, every day. Like you can't get away from it.

SPEAKER_00 2:57

Yeah, exactly.

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They're the most sensitive little things I've ever seen.

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No, and I think people like that.

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Yeah, just wilty all the time.

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Yeah, wilting, yeah.

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I tried dumping water on them. It didn't work.

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You should you should try it again, just in case. Give them a little fertilizer in the water next.

SPEAKER_00 3:15

When you dump a little water on them, it's amazing how they suddenly just perk up.

SPEAKER_02 3:20

Yeah, it is crazy. It is crazy how fast that plant's uh uh like vascular system works where you give it water and sometimes within a few minutes it's it's you know it's looking good again. So very interesting. Y'all mentioned uh irrigation too, obviously sponsored by Conservative Irrigation. One of the things that I've been wanting to do is do like a uh an irrigation kind of tutorial class for homeowners. Wow. It's something that I'm gonna start working on and putting something together where we have some like demonstration irrigation stuff, just so people can be like a lot of times they're gonna have to have somebody come in and and help them with their irrigation, but if they can be a little more knowledgeable about it, that's pretty that's pretty helpful even to the irrigation tech that might come in. Um, because a lot of times, I mean, when I was doing irrigation work for a living, I don't want to charge you $80 to come out and press one button on your irrigation clock or to change out one little nozzle. You know, that's not that's not helping you, it's really not helping me. And so that's something I'm gonna try to try to start working out is some kind of yeah, like hands-on tutorial, you know, just with the small stuff. Yeah, exactly.

SPEAKER_00 4:27

Yeah, because a a lot of times, um, you know, people don't even realize that their uh sprinkler system is not on something they think is on, right? And it's watering the street more than anything else, or the neighbor's yard, and and you're like, why is this tree not growing?

SPEAKER_02 4:42

Exactly. And if they can adjust that in three minutes rather than having to call somebody out there, I mean, that's pretty that's pretty beneficial. So, you know. Absolutely it's something I'm gonna keep working on, and hopefully we'll have a program at some point.

SPEAKER_00 4:55

All right. Uh what else is on your list?

SPEAKER_02 4:58

Um, speaking of presentations, uh, I just kind of want to shout out, you know, we have a lot of different garden clubs and stuff like that in the area. And so if people are interested in in learning more about plants, Liz and I don't join clubs. Okay. Just letting you know.

SPEAKER_00 5:12

We'll go maybe to a presentation. Okay, we'll do that. You don't have to join the garden club.

SPEAKER_02 5:17

But you're not no, yeah. You don't always have to join the club. There's also presentations at libraries and stuff like that where you know you don't even it's not even club associated.

SPEAKER_01 5:26

So thank you for easing my fears.

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You're welcome.

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So you don't have to join anything, but you can attend.

SPEAKER_02 5:33

Yeah, there's a lot of stuff out there to attend. Just keep an eye. I mean, uh, you know, a lot of the stuff gets uh advertised on Facebook. That's kind of the way things get advertised, but just keep an eye out there. There's a if people are interested in plants, there's a lot of different ways to to go learn about them, a lot of different classes, stuff like that. So, you know, I just want to encourage people to always keep an eye out. And if you see Clemson Extension doing something, we always appreciate the support as well.

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All right.

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Uh next we got fall gardens.

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So even though it's still really hot, people like to do like a seasonal planting around their yard so that every season you see something something's blooming or whatever. Exactly. So what blooms, what's good for fall?

SPEAKER_02 6:15

So what is good for fall? Oh, I'm blanking on like the flowering plants. Um but what you can use, and this is what's something I wanted to to to kind of tell people, is if you've ever seen like those really colorful kale uh, you know purplish ones? The the purplish ones, but then you've got like Swiss chard that's got uh like red and yellow stems on it and stuff like that. You can get you can use a lot of these like like leafy greens or more vegetable plants, you can use them as uh as like annual flowers. So going into the fall when maybe there isn't as much stuff that's blooming, use some of these plants with interesting foliage to to kind of add some color to add some color, exactly, exactly. Use it in use them in pots, and then some of them, some of the the ornamental vegetables, if you will, you can eat them, but they're not great. But then you can also, you know, just plant a lot of vegetables in your you know, in your flower beds and use those as annuals that you can eat. So it's something I don't see a whole lot of.

SPEAKER_00 7:21

I never thought about that. I usually keep them like in a in a pot, tucked away. Yeah, wow. You know, but they could gr they grow so great in the wild. I mean, they they're like the like my basil plant. Yeah. It's like strong. Yeah. And my dill plant.

SPEAKER_02 7:36

Put it out in the flower bed. Use that as your like your use that as like your annual as your annual plantings. You know, scatter, you know, in the springtime, scatter your to your tomatoes, you know, throughout your flower beds. You know, plant you you don't always have to fix up a specific place or you know, do a whole bunch of of raised beds or anything like that. You know, sometimes you just use what you got and you know does it.

SPEAKER_00 7:59

I love ornamental grass. This is my favorite. The pink mullies you made me get. So here's the thing. I'm moving and I want to take some things with me. I can't. I can't.

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You can.

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There it is.

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There it is.

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Finally.

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I want to take my fig tree because it's from Italy.

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How big is it?

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It's not that big.

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Okay.

SPEAKER_01 8:21

How big is not that big?

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Yeah.

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It's as big as you, bro.

SPEAKER_02 8:24

As big as me. Okay. You could you could certainly dig that up and take it. But here's the thing. What? You need to get as much of a root ball on that plant as you can. That's going to be the hard part. Of the plant. I mean, I would wanted it to at least be out to like the edge of the canopy if possible. Yeah. That's that's the problem with moving larger plants, is the root system.

SPEAKER_00 8:45

Can I take a piece of it and grow it?

SPEAKER_02 8:47

Yes. I would I would do a I would do a bunch of pieces though. I would get some pots, do multiple cuttings. That way, if you do 10 cuttings, maybe three, four, or five of them will root.

SPEAKER_00 8:59

So Javi and I planted a tree.

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Okay.

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Um, like a really nice kind of maple tree. And we've been watching it grow, taking pictures of it, and we watched the little birdies on it. And we're so sad we're leaving it. Yeah. But I can't I can't dig it up. But it's not that big. I mean, it's it's bigger than us.

SPEAKER_02 9:16

I just imagine you with these trees strapped to the top of your to the top of your car, just dirt falling falling in group.

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I want to take them all with us because we'll get attached to it.

SPEAKER_01 9:26

I'm so glad I made you two godparents. We have real kids to, you know, love and adore and not sitting in the backyard having a picnic with your dang trees.

SPEAKER_00 9:36

Javi and I are just like perennial nurturers. We can't stop it. Uh we did love our trees.

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Is that okay? Sure. While you, you know, yeah, just have your memories.

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We're gonna think about the maple while we answer these questions.

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Best thing to uh uh Fox Mulder, our secret FBI agent. Ooh. Didn't know he likes to plant it.

SPEAKER_02 9:57

Another super secret agent.

SPEAKER_01 9:58

Yes, yes. Uh best thing to put down on grass in the fall to stop the weeds in the spring.

SPEAKER_02 10:04

Uh, you need a pre-emergent herbicide. There are multiple different pre-emergent herbicides. As y'all know, I cannot tell you a specific one, but we have a fact sheet on our Home and Garden Information Center website that talks all about preventing weeds. And there's a whole list of pre-emergent herbicides, but you need at least one application uh sometime around October, November. That's gonna help with some winter weeds, and then you need to do another application, probably mid-December, and then another application, probably late February, early March. And that's gonna help you kind of prevent weeds throughout the entire uh winter and spring uh season. So pre-emergent herbicide.

SPEAKER_01 10:45

Uh Ruth Liz wants you to send a picture uh information on those plants you were talking about, those flowers.

SPEAKER_00 10:51

Yes, my pleasure.

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Her hanging basket stuff died, and so she would like some information.

SPEAKER_00 10:56

Oh, you need nonstop begonias.

SPEAKER_01 10:58

There you go. My yard uh chemical fertilizer guy says my St. Augustine had cinch bugs, is that right? Cinch bugs. Okay. Uh, and is gonna treat tomorrow our oh my goodness, I can't even read these. I don't even know what these words are. I'm so stupid. Mandevellas? Mandevella, yeah. Oh, okay. Are also sick looking and really struggling. Question Do the those bugs get into and damage those mandivillas?

SPEAKER_02 11:24

That's a really interesting question. I I I guess so mainly chinch bugs are associated with St. Augustine grass. I have seen them in other lawns, you know, or lawn grasses before, but uh I I don't know that I've ever known them to attack like an ornamental plant, uh, like the mandevilla. Um I guess it could, but I don't know. That would that's an interesting one. I I highly doubt that that's the problem there. Um I I suspect that they are more affecting the grass and there may be something else going on with the mandovilla, but uh probably be one of those situations you'd have to send myself or Carmen a picture, and so we could kind of try to start to figure out what it is.

SPEAKER_01 12:02

Uh, what about putting fertilizer in the irrigation system? Is that something that people do?

SPEAKER_02 12:07

It's not normal. So that is very, very common when we're talking about uh growing uh like fruits and vegetables on more of a commercial scale, on a larger scale. You'll have like uh uh fertigation, uh putting it in the drip system. For homeowners, it's really not something I've ever seen much of. I'm not saying you couldn't do it, but I just don't think it's it's probably just not necessary. We're not growing things for the most part that need just this kind of constant fertilizer or very regulated amounts of fertilizer. I would just get some you know, granular slow release fertilizer or something and you know put it out a couple times a year and call it a day, personally.

SPEAKER_01 12:48

All right. A lot of questions today. Yeah, how do dogwood trees fare in South Carolina?

SPEAKER_02 12:53

Poorly, unfortunately. Um, unless they are deep in the woods, they're just not gonna do well. They're not very long-lived, they get some diseases, and people try to plant them in the full sun in their front yard, and they just don't work. You can try Acusa dogwood, which is an Asian uh uh kind of variety of a dogwood. Looks similar to our native dogwood, but a little different, a little tougher.

SPEAKER_01 13:15

Uh, what do I do with crabgrass in my centipede?

SPEAKER_02 13:19

Um, there are chemicals that can kill the crabgrass out of the centipede, but just keep in mind it's hard to kill grass out of grass. And so you have to have the right thing. That's one of those situations where, you know, send me an email and I can send you some more information. The best way to do it is with those pre-emergent herbicides. We want to prevent those weed seeds, those grass seeds, from germinating.

SPEAKER_01 13:42

What are some of those uh good vegetables you were talking about, those plant to plant uh around the fall for around here?

SPEAKER_02 13:49

So a lot of it's gonna be our like our leafy greens, our lettuces, kales, collards, mustard, spinach. You can do some fall, uh, some fall peas. People can also do uh some some fall tomatoes as well. Actually, a lot of times uh the tomatoes do a little bit better in the fall than they do in the in the spring. Um and also we have an entire fact sheet called Planting a Garden that tells you everything we can grow for both the coastal region and kind of the mid to upstate region and when you need to plant it.

SPEAKER_01 14:24

Okay. And then uh Keith had to be a smart allocator. Liz and Nick don't join clubs, but they want us to join the llama club. It's not a club, it's a llama lodge. And we do warm and fuzzy things for the community. Yeah, so suck it.

SPEAKER_00 14:35

What he said. Who do who wanted the non-stop begonia link? I cannot find it anywhere.

SPEAKER_01 14:40

Uh Ruth.

SPEAKER_00 14:42

Okay. I've been looking. Okay, let me put it in there.

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There's Ruth.

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Pace.

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And Julie says we do in the fall winter, we do uh pansies and snapdragons. Nice.

SPEAKER_02 14:51

Yes, gosh. You know, when whenever people ask me, like, what is that, what is a plant that I can use for this, I'm like, what is a plant? Like I don't it's like I it's like I have a complete, like my brain completely melts down. And I'm like, I don't know, I don't even know what horticulture is. Is this what I'm supposed to do for a little bit?

SPEAKER_00 15:10

Exactly.

SPEAKER_01 15:11

And Fox Mulder, a super secret FBI agent, is mad that we told people he likes plants.

SPEAKER_02 15:16

Ah oh no. Yeah, you want to keep that stuff a secret so you don't want people to think you like plants.

SPEAKER_00 15:21

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 15:22

For sure. I don't like plants.

SPEAKER_00 15:24

You love plants.

SPEAKER_02 15:27

You helped me immensely. You love plants. I do love plants.

SPEAKER_00 15:31

Yeah, how do you not love them?

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They don't talk back normally.

SPEAKER_00 15:35

They just sit there and look pretty.

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Exactly. Exactly.

SPEAKER_00 15:38

Exactly. But you know what? Um, yeah, there's a lot of energy in plants.

SPEAKER_02 15:43

There is. There is. It and a lot of people do horticultural therapy and stuff. It's it's great. There is something about being outdoors. Getting away from the door. In a garden.

SPEAKER_00 15:52

Yes, it it makes me sneeze, though. I'm allergic to dirt.

SPEAKER_01 15:56

She's allergic to everything. Don't listen to her.

SPEAKER_02 16:00

Well, you're gonna have a really hard time when you've got those trees hanging off of your car and it's just you know you're throwing dirt all down the road and showing.

SPEAKER_01 16:05

She'll be all the way all the way to the new house.

SPEAKER_00 16:09

That's how I am. I I I'm allergic to dirt. You must be really fun party. What's in the dirt that makes me allergic? It's like like I guess decomposed uh decomposed stuff.

SPEAKER_01 16:21

Worms, bugs, fresh grass, cut grass makes her smell. Oh my gosh. I love the smell of it. I know, but then you sneeze I'm allergic to it. That's stuff.

SPEAKER_02 16:31

I'm sorry.

SPEAKER_01 16:31

You're that weenie kid in school of everybody made fun of. Look, she's allergic to everything.

SPEAKER_02 16:36

There are a lot of days where I would love to just get on a lawnmower and just mow grass all day long.

SPEAKER_01 16:41

I got a yard for you.

SPEAKER_02 16:42

Okay. You have that as a living.

SPEAKER_00 16:44

You have that as a living. You know, I said that to Javi. I said, why don't we get like three acres? And he's like, You just want me on the tractor all day. I'm like, no, I want to ride the tractor. What are you gonna have?

SPEAKER_01 16:54

Like a big giant hazmat suit?

SPEAKER_00 16:56

Yeah. Like a beekeeper suit.

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They're gonna be like, what is she doing over there?

SPEAKER_00 17:01

With my Scott Pack and uh, you know, mask on. That's what I'd be doing. All right, Brad Fowler of the Clemson Extension. How do people uh find out where all these uh garden uh clippings are?

SPEAKER_02 17:15

Yeah, so uh send send me an email, b Fowler, B-F-O-W-L-E-R at Clemson.edu. Uh you can also uh uh email Carmen. I love to shout her out when she doesn't know about it. Uh that is C Ketron C K E T R O N at Clemson.edu. Either one of us, send us an email. We'll send you links to stuff stuff. We'll try to get you the information that you need.

SPEAKER_00 17:38

You can also type in Clemson Extension Um Home and Garden, and uh it'll come up.

SPEAKER_02 17:44

You can go, you can go straight there.

SPEAKER_00 17:46

Straight there.

SPEAKER_02 17:47

Yes, you don't even have to come, you don't have to come through me. You can go straight to the website.

SPEAKER_00 17:51

All right, Brad Fowler. We'll see you next time. All right, thanks, y'all. Love you, bye.