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♪ happy music ♪ Amanda: Well good evening and welcome to Making It Grow.

I'm Amanda McNulty, a Clemson Extension agent but tonight for our Halloween show.

I am a cabbage and Terasa Lott, I am venturing a guess that you've put your Master Gardener coordinator duties aside for the for the day and that you are a strawberry?

<Terasa> Why?

Yes, Amanda, what astute identification skills you have.

It's always so much fun trying to decide what costume would be appropriate for a show that's about gardening and landscaping.

So what better than one of my favorite South Carolina crops.

Amanda: And several years ago we started learning about the winter strawberries.

I think they're day neutral or something like that.

And they are sweeter and more fragrant.

They just Aren't they wonderful?

Terasa: Oh, they are our dear friend Tony used to tell us a lot about winter strawberries and I prefer them.

I do think they are sweeter than our summer strawberries.

Amanda: I do too.

If you get a chance to get some I would encourage you to do so if they are from South Carolina.

Adam Gore, who's from Abbeville is I will let him introduce himself.

Adam: Forrest, Forrest Gump.

I thought we were gonna play ping pong.

Amanda: Well, we may find a way to do that.

How about that?

I have to I'll have to chase the balls around though.

I'm not very good.

Thanks for coming.

And then Carmen Kietren.

You are a hort agent for Florence and Darlington.

Butt today, I think you are another public broadcasting star?

Carmen: Yes, I am coming as Wayne from Wayne's World.

The second best public access television host behind yourself, Amanda.

We're not worthy.

We're not worthy.

Thank you for having me on.

Amanda: You're exceptionally worthy.

Thank you for coming.

And then Dr. John Nelson, former curator of the A-C Moore Herbarium is?

Dr. John: I'm Bob Ross.

Amanda: Yes.

And actually, you are a wonderful painter yourself.

Dr. John: But thank you, Amanda.

Amanda: But I think that today, you're a painter who has his own television show.

Dr. John: And I want to just show that I've been painting some happy little clouds today.

Before the show started.

Amanda: All right.

Well, that's what we need happy clouds for Halloween.

Dr. John: We do that a little bit later.

Amanda: All right, that'd be fun.

Thank you so much.

Oh, well, Teresa.

Usually we start off with gardens of the week.

Do we have some this time?

Terasa: We sure do.

Now I'm not sure that they're really Halloween inspired a few are fall inspired though.

We begin today with Barry Strohl who shared a field of fall sunflowers they look like bright smiling faces.

From Bubba and Mary Granade mixed bed of Zinnias marigolds and echinacea.

JANE OCHSENBEIN I hope I got that name, at least semi correct captured her canine companion admiring her flowers.

From Leanne Wood she said she cheated a little.

Leanne is visiting France and said the host has a lovely garden and it remains and she thinks about Making It Grow every day and wanted to be sure to share that photo.

And then we wrap up with Merlene Jeffcoat she shared a native plant Blue Mist flower.

People might see it growing along the roadsides especially loves kind of ditches and moist areas.

And she said it's lovely but invasive and so I wanted I shared with her or the technically, it's a native plant.

And so if we follow the USDA definition, an invasive plant would need to be one that is introduced.

So it non native, and whose introduction is likely to cause harm either to the economy environment or human health.

So we don't want to say that it's invasive, but it does spread readily.

So people would want to think about whether they want to add it to their garden.

Amanda: Somebody sent me asking me to identify a picture and I said, send it to Eric, who's taken stepped into your shoes at the herbarium, Eric Brown.

And the person wrote back and said that he was going to collect some seeds.

And when you've run across it in nature, have you felt like it was taking over or what has been your experience John?

Dr. John: In nature?

I find it's most of the time.

I'm confined to ditches, as she said, and it doesn't spread all that much.

But now in gardens for whatever reason, and I don't know anything about gardening.

But these things can get in like in my backyard, that kind of crazy right now.

Amanda: Oh, okay.

Dr. John: They're beautiful.

Amanda: Yeah, it did look like a beautiful flower.

Terasa: I think that's one that had a botanical name change somewhat recently, Dr. John: At least one or two.

Amanda: I know they sound like people who've been writing bad checks.

All these name changes.

They want us to learn.

Well does somebody have a question that we might be able to help them with?

Terasa: Yes.

And maybe a Halloween sort of theme question.

This one comes from Charlotte, in Lownsville, South Carolina.

Charlotte said, I've got mushrooms popping up in a circle.

What should I do?

Amanda: Popping up in a circle?

Well, first of all, do not harvest mushrooms.

Because it's very difficult.

Sometimes even some of them that look but you think so we don't encourage people to do that.

But in a circle in imagining it's in her yard.

What do you think's going on?

Adam: Well, that sounds like fairy ring, because we've had dry spells followed by a little bit of moisture.

And those go together like peas and carrots when it comes to mushroom formation.

So what she's dealing with is fairy ring.

So in Celtic culture, it used to be thought that fairies would dance round in a circle.

And if a person came and joined them, the fairies would torture them, causing them to dance until they passed out from exhaustion.

Oh, so fortunately, you're not gonna pass out unless you eat some of these mushrooms.

But, you know, they're just naturally decaying some of the dead material that's underneath the surface.

You know, it's there multiple types of fairy ring.

As long as you don't see dead parts of your grass, you're dealing with a type that's non toxic to it.

So just pick your mushrooms, put them in a bag and take them away and they'll disappear with the weather.

Amanda: Is it?

I mean, sometimes there's been a piece of wood or something in the ground, is that what is that what they're working on generally?

Adam: Different parts of the of the dead material.

In turf, we see a lot with just the thatch layer.

As decomposing.

Fungus is going to naturally start decay, natural lifecycle.

So if you've got if you're seeing a heavy presence of these all over your yard, you're probably over fertilizing or you need to do other types of some thatch control in your yard.

Amanda: Okay, well, that's so that might be a good sign that you need to reconsider your turf.

Adam: Just your management practices.

Amanda: Okay, well, thanks a lot.

Okay, well, Teresa, Terasa: Let's see if we can help Heather in Latta.

Heather said I decided to grow my own ranunculus this year but didn't realize what I was getting myself into.

I received what look like dried up claws in the mail.

What do I do with them?

Amanda: Mercy.

You and I both love cut flowers and working with them.

And that is a beautiful, beautiful one to have.

And how what do you think is are there some tips on planning what you get if you order some.

How should you go about it Carmen?

Carmen: Yes, I actually brought some ranunculus forms with me so that we could kind of take a look and learn how to pre sprout them.

So one of my tricks is I love a pretty ranunculus.

<They are lovely.> But in the store you can only get every so many colors.

Usually those pinks and blues and whites.

But I went and I was growing some last year that I loved and I re-did them as all orange and purple.

So we went and started growing those orange and purple ones to have and they're so early that it's a great plant to have early early in the spring.

Amanda: And also if you are doing them in arrangements they do Have a really long shelf life.

And so if you get them fresh out of your yard, they can last so much longer.

Carmen: Exactly.

And so they just make for a really great experience that not everyone else is going to have from the store.

Now, these are probably the claws that Miss Heather saw when she got them from the store, and they are the funkiest, weirdest looking things.

And they're all dried and shriveled up.

And that's what you want.

You want them to be nice and dry when you get them.

But the trick is, you want to first pre soak them.

Three to four hours only.

<Really?> More than that it gets a little bit hairy and you want to, and you might actually end up Amanda: Having them rot, Carmen: Exactly.

Amanda: But don't do it overnight.

Carmen: Don't do it overnight.

We started doing them this morning, around 5am.

So we could be ready to go.

But you can actually see the difference in the size.

Just from a couple minutes.

Amanda: Let's get real good still picture please.

So they are they want to be hydrated.

Carmen: Exactly.

And that just plumping them up really makes them a little bit ready to go.

Now I just took them and put them in a little cloth baggie and let them sit in a jar.

But after you've pre soaked them, you want to go ahead and you can actually start to pre-sprout them.

<Oh, you pre-sprout?> Yep, we're in a presp... Can you help me Forest?

Amanda: Oh, Carmen: Thank you party on Forest.

All right.

So we usually take some type of potting medium, I use vermiculite today, but you can use any type of really great seed starting mix potting soil.

Amanda: Something preferably that light and not very heavy, though.

<Yeah.> That's what I'm hearing from you.

Carmen: Exactly.

And something that will hold moisture, all right, and, but have a nice little airy feel to them.

And then what we're going to do is claws or sometimes they say carrots down and just placed them right into your potting medium.

And the trick is we want to keep them cold 50 degrees is ideal.

Now in the upstate where Forest is from, you could probably have no problem doing that in a basement or dark basement.

But we're here it's a little bit harder, especially in the Pee Dee where I'm at.

Amanda: I'm let's I'm gonna stop, you just want, you're not pushing them all the way down.

you're putting about a half or a third of them into the medium?

Carmen: Exactly, we're just letting it touch that ground and just kind of have contact little seed to soil or corn to soil contact.

And what we'll end up doing is we're not, we aren't going to use this to pot in or plant them up, we're just going to wait until teeny tiny little white roots start popping out in a couple of weeks.

And then we're going to take those up, and we're going to plant them in their final resting spot.

So we don't have to bury them.

Well, now the refrigerator would be too cold.

So I guess you just have to do the best you can.

I can do a mini fridge and set it to 50 degrees.

Most mini fridges or a lot of people, if you're doing it on a larger scale, they'll take a deep freezer and put a tiny little cool bot motor in there to turn it down.

But I always but you can do it in the in the refrigerator, get it right at about 40 degrees, as long as it's not 32 or below in the freezer, you're good to go.

Okay, ideal being 50.

You can get it down as low as 32 just not lower.

Amanda: So then you come in.

It sounds like you would probably wait a couple of weeks.

And then you come and lift one out to see if you had those little roots beginning to emerge.

Carmen: Exactly.

So what I ended up doing is I like to actually cover it to keep it dark so that they don't start to green up on me.

But what you can end up doing is just keep on checking.

Now what you want.

We don't want to look for it.

What you want to look and make sure is that nothing is rotting.

It's not getting mushy, because these corms they actually have they're pretty tough right now, even though they're plump.

They're still pretty taut.

<All right.> yeah.

And then after that, you'll start to see them green up and we can actually pull them out from there.

When you see just a couple white little roots start to show out.

Amanda: Do they like full sun and what they do they work fine and your cutting garden generally.

Carmen: Yes, you can put them right out into your cutting garden.

Full sun does work well.

But the glory of these is you can pull them out at the end of November.

And you can overwinter them they'll start sprouting up early early.

And so you'll start to see some really great success Around January, February.

Amanda: Ooh, that would be fun wouldn't it?

now do they persist for a couple of years or what have you run into.

Carmen: Now, I don't know, normally what I end up having to do, because it gets so hot and they do not like the heat, I actually pull them up and you can save the corms afterwards.

And in that case, you definitely want to make sure that you are keeping them dry over the over the summer season.

And then if you want to try and re sprout them next year, this is a great technique.

So you don't waste space in case some of them didn't make it.

Amanda: So it's not as easy as just a wonderful southern daffodil.

Carmen: No, but I applaud Miss Heather for trying this out.

Because it really is, once you get it going and get comfortable with it is a great plant to have.

Amanda: Thank you.

That's gotten me kind of inspired.

I think I may look and see if I can get some.

Okay, party on.

Carmen: Party on Amanda.

Amanda: Okay.

Okay, John, I think you've got some show.

And, Bob, I think you've got a show and tell.

Besides your wonderful painting, Dr. John: Y'all, we got something here today.

We've actually seen this before.

And I remember I actually offering the public Yes.

If they wanted to have seeds of this thing.

That all I needed to do is send me a self addressed stampped.

Yeah, an envelope to me, and I'll send them some seeds.

But this is probably remember, this is lightning rod plant.

It's in the mint family, which is one of my favorite families.

And it's kind of a Halloweeny plant too, because it's got these these globe, like places where the flowers are, they're like, spiky <Yes, they are.> prickly.

And that's sort of Halloweeny I think a little bit kind of scary.

And, but they're beautiful.

And what's going on now is that they've been blooming all through late summer, and they're declining now, but the few hummingbirds that are still around, are still attracted to these things.

Great humming bird plant.

Amanda: That's a real that's another reason to have it in your garden.

Dr. John: I think so and now it isn't.

It is a non native and a lot of people are concerned about that.

But it's an annual and although it seeds come up pretty readily they're easy to pull up if you don't want you don't want them.

Amanda: Let me take some down to my friend Anne Nulty no to who's kind of go to hat person.

Dr. John: But I think I'm gonna let Carmen use these later in the show.

Amanda: But um, Anne's come back and she loves having them.

Dr. John: Yeah, you know, these originally came from Orangeburg County.

No, didn't so far from from y'all.

So your original pet batch?

Yeah.

Well, this and they came from the farm of John Ferry.

Oh, and I was very long time ago.

Amanda: Yeah.

I was a student of his too.

And he was from Roseville, Roseville in Orangeburg County.

Yeah, yeah, I want a famous botanist who was at Clemson for years and years, and years and years.

Dr. John: And, and I need to tell everybody the name of it.

Because we haven't talked about that.

So other than lightning rod, you know, we'd like to use the scientific name, which is Leonotis nepetifolia, and like I said, if you want to send me an envelope, I don't mind.

I'll send you some seeds.

I got gobs of them.

And I guess I could my address, you know, it's easy to find out, but I'll just give it over the TV.

Can I do that?

<Sure.> It would be 3801 Duncan Street, in Columbia, and the zip is 29205.

Okay, let the mail begin.

Amanda: Well, thank you so much, but I'm gonna get you to get now when will it be time to harvest the seeds?

Dr. John: Right now because they're falling out of the calyx, now.

Amanda: Okay.

Well, thank you so much.

Dr John: You're very welcome.

Amanda: Katie Collins is a water resources agent.

And she often comes down with her dear sister Bridget and they do show and tell's and fun things with us.

And they're going to do something that I think is perfect for this time of the year.

♪ Katie: I have a very special guest with me today.

My sister Bridget.

Bridget: Hey,everybody.

Katie: Bridget, our favorite time of year is Halloween, right?

<Yep> that's right.

What's your favorite thing about Halloween?

Bridget: Dressing up.

Katie: What are we dressed up as this year?

Bridget: Winnie the Pooh and Piglet?

Katie: Piglet.

From the 100 Acre Woods.

<Yep.> So every year we dress up right and where do we like to go?

Bridget: Trick or treating on the marsh walk?

Katie: Yeah, a lot of local communities of course have their own Local flair and activities they do around Halloween.

We're from Murrells Inlet, South Carolina.

So we always like to go down to the marshwalk where a lot of the restaurants hand out candy and other people dress up.

<Yeah.

Oh, all kinds of people.> Yeah, there's adults and kids and everybody dressed up.

And then we also like to visit our favorite park.

<Huntington Beach.> That's right.

We go to Huntington Beach State Park.

And what do they do there?

<Have a haunted castle?> Oh, yeah, that's a lot.

There's crafts and trick or treating.

But today, we're here to cook some Halloween goodies.

Right?

<Yeah.> And what's our main ingredient today, Bridget?

<Sweet potato.> Yeah, so we really like Buckeyes.

Yeah.

And peanut butter cups.

Anything with peanut butter and chocolate makes us happy.

But they have a lot of sugar and butter and peanut butter in them.

So we wanted to make something a little bit healthier.

Yeah, right.

Yeah.

Okay, so we've got our blender ready to go.

And we're going to start adding some ingredients to blend up and we're going to start with our first ingredient in the bowl here.

And we've got some canned sweet potatoes.

And they're canned in syrup.

So they got a little sugar added.

But they're it's a little bit healthier than just pure peanut butter.

And they're very convenient.

We picked them up right at the store.

And now we're going to scoop them into our blender.

Right.

And then we're going to add our next ingredient, which is our favorite sweetener.

I think we were in Piglet, honey, Yum.

Ask if that put that infor me me.

All right, that should be good.

And we just want to take a minute to blend this up a little bit before we add the peanut butter so that it doesn't get too thick all at once and we can kind of smooth them out before adding the peanut butter.

That shouldn't be good.

We just want to break up some of those pieces before we add in our peanut butter.

And we had about a 15 ounce can of yams and then about two tablespoons of honey and now we're gonna put in a half a cup of peanut butter.

Scoop it in.

It's messy, so these are still gonna have a really good peanut butter flavor even though the main ingredient is sweet potatoes or some people call them yams.

But the peanut butter has such a strong flavor that it's still going to have a really good peanut butter flavor.

a little bit.

And then we've got about half tablespoon of pure vanilla extract.

And just a little bit of salt to bring out the flavor.

I should be good.

All right.

We're gonna put our lid back on and go back to blending.

So we're gonna blend this up.

And then once it's blended, we're actually going to put it in the freezer for about 90 minutes so that it's cold but still pliable, so that we can start scooping them into ball shapes, and then make them into a fun decoration and push that down blended up Bridgette.

I'm gonna pull out some pre prepared mix that I've already made.

And Bridget is gonna scoop it out of the jar.

And we're gonna form it into let me fix the top a little bit.

We just want to kind of flatten out the top.

And we've got a cookie scooper here to make them really nice, round ball shapes, because we're going to make them into pumpkin shapes later.

So we just want to give it a few good squeezes.

There we go.

And we've lined the pan with wax paper so that they don't stick too bad, they're easy to get out.

Once we pull them out of the freezer and give it a few good squeezes.

Sometimes it takes squeezing it a few times to get it out of the cookie scoop.

And if you don't have a cookie scoop at home, you don't necessarily have to go out and buy one, you can use your hands to just kind of form the balls, it's just going to be a little bit messier, but that just means you can lick your fingers afterwards, right?

<Yep.> So these are going to be pumpkins later when it dipped them in some white chocolate with orange food coloring in them, but they need a stem and that Stem is going to help us dip them in that chocolate too.

So we've got some pretzel pieces here.

So we want to take our pretzel pieces and kind of twist them and push them down into your peanut butter sweet potato ball so you don't just smash it flat.

We want pumpkin shapes and not patty pan shapes.

So we'll just twist that right down into her little A pumpkin balls.

Perfect.

So we're gonna put these in the freezer, you want to freeze them for 90 minutes, like I said, not totally frozen solid, still pliable.

And then we're gonna melt the chocolate while we're waiting and we'll start dipping them in chocolate.

All right, so we just pulled our little pumpkin balls out of the freezer, I put them in there for about 30 minutes so that they could harden up that way our melted chocolate wouldn't make them kind of fall off our pretzel stick bridges over here, stirring some orange food coloring into our melted white chocolate.

And let me see this bridge.

So we're gonna dip our little pumpkin balls in here so that they're bright orange, and they look like pumpkins, we just kind of stick it down in our chocolate and twirl it around.

This looks like it's gonna be really good.

So we'll stop this for now because we already have some pre prepared.

We've got bright orange, they're starting to look like pumpkins, aren't they?

Alright, so we've got some green icing and any decorating icing.

We'll do for this.

And we're just gonna add some little leaves and vines, so they look even more like pumpkins.

So I'm going to put a little swirl on this one.

So it looks like a little green vine this one over here will add looks like a little pumpkin leaf.

We'll just keep switching that up between little vines and little leaves.

What do you think bridge?

Are they starting to look good?

You want to do a couple.

All right, we're gonna keep working on this.

And then when we're all done, we'll show you the finished product and we'll give them a taste test.

♪ All right, we've got our finished PCB and sweet potato truffles, but they look like little pumpkins and our pumpkin patch.

Right.

I think it's time to try them.

All right, let's try a couple of them.

Thats one for you.

For me, and cheers.

Cheers.

Get a bite.

<Good.> Well, thank you for coming on today.

Bridgy you dressing as Pooh Bear with me.

It was a great time wasn't it?

♪ Amanda: Sweet potatoes are wonderfully healthy.

So that kind of swages the gift of the chocolate the going goes on with them.

Thank you so much, Bridget, we all want to say hi to you.

We're looking forward to having you come back and visiting us here on Making It Grow.

Terasa, is there somebody else that we can help?

Terasa: And there is Dan in Donald, South Carolina.

Sort of has a mystery since I was hiking with my wife and found these white mushroom like things popping up from the base of a tree.

What are they?

Amanda: Ah, well, Adam, what do you think's going on?

Adam: Oh, mama always said nature's like a box of chocolates.

You never know what you're gonna get.

So in this case, these are not mushrooms.

These are ghosts pipe or Indian pipe?

Most people think they're more mushroom because they are solid white for the most part because these are plants that don't have chlorophyll and chlorophyll is what gives plants this green color.

Amanda: So where are they getting their nutrients?

Adam: Yeah, see, these are sneaky little plants.

They require the micro Raizel fungi that are surrounding the tree roots and they harvest the energy that these root that these fungi will produce.

So it's almost like a parasitic plant because they are stealing energy from the mycorrhizal fungi.

At least for the Indian pipe.

They normally only have one flower but droops over you also have two other similar plants.

One of its most common out here is Dutchman's pipe, orange or reddish color but a lot of people like to try to take these plants home, because they're not taking these fungi, fungi have nothing to you know feed off of their plants either fail to germinate entirely or they die very quickly.

Amanda: They often associated with the mycorrhizal fungi, fungi of certain specific trees?

<Adam> You see them a lot with oak trees.

<Oak trees> Yes ma'am.

<Dr.

John> And <Certainly> Forrest, you know, I've seen these things frequently while I've been out painting in the woods.

And I remember learning that these plants, these Indian pipes, are actually related to rhododendrons.

<Amanda> To rhododendrons?

<Dr.

John> Yeah, they're in the blueberry <Come on> the root they've been in the blueberry family, but now they're placed in a family that's very close to it.

A very specialized family.

<Amanda> How fascinating.

Huh.

<Dr.

John> Pretty crazy.

<Amanda> Yeah.

So I wonder if they're prefer a more acidic soil like you might have up in the mountains.

It seems like sometimes I see them when I'm hiking that part of the world.

I don't know.

That's fun.

Okay, thanks for that adding that.

Who would have thunk it?

Wayne, I think you've got a top 10 List for us?

<Carmen> I do.

Hort agents is what?

<Amanda> What?

<Carmen> Hort agents is what?

<Amanda> What?

<Carmen> Ah, excellent.

Let's go.

I've got the top 10 bands that you should rock out to in the garden today.

< laughs > Number 10 Guns and Roses.

Number nine Smashing Pumpkins.

< laughs > Number eight we're gonna get crazy with some Red Hot Chili Peppers.

Number seven the collective works of Mr. Chuck Berry.

< laughs > Number six I love the Wallflowers.

< laughs > Number five, anything out of Robert Plant's solo career.

Number four, The Gin Blossoms.

Number three, The Black Eyed Peas.

Number two, Korn, my husband's personal favorite.

And then number one, The Cranberries.

<Amanda> The Cranberries.

Oh, that was fun, fun, fun, fun, fun.

< laughs > Oh, that was delightful and actually they would be pretty good names for bands and not too far from what you hear.

Thanks so much.

I think you've got something else to show us, John.

<Dr.

John> In the, in this crate, I do.

I think we, we might have pictures on the screen sometime, but here's one.

This is also a repeat.

And this one is a little bit dangerous.

Oop!

<Whoo> Better watch what I say, Amanda.

< whistling > <Gosh> So this is very Halloweeny because it's got this scary stem.

Everybody look at the scary stem.

And those leaves are scary, too.

In fact, this plant that was growing in my yard this morning, has compound leaves that are the largest compound leaves of any plant in North America.

<Come on> Oh yeah.

And what's even more cool about, well cooler, I guess, <Amanda> Before you do that show people what, what a leaf, <Dr.

John> Oh yeah.

<Amanda> A single leaf is actually <Dr.

John> bleeding to death.

Here, I'll try to like, extract this.

Oop!

Aww!

<Ooh> And you see this whole thing is one leaf.

<Okay> So this is one leaf.

<Alright> And so the divisions are the leaflets that have divisions themselves.

<Okay> Now back to this scary thing.

So the stem is replete with these naturally occurring prickles and they're really kind of wonderful.

Bad thing is this makes a terrible treehouse plant.

But otherwise, it's very interesting.

It's a native species.

And of course, it makes gorgeous flowers, thousands and thousands of flowers and the inflorescence that it produces at the top.

<Amanda> It is very beautiful when in bloom.

<Dr.

John> And it attract again, it attracts hummingbirds, not hummingbirds, but pollinators like, crazy and... <Amanda> It doesn't get to be too large.

It's so small, <Dr.

John> It's it's sometimes tall.

It can be taller than you might expect.

If it's happy.

<Okay> I mean, it gets to be you know, 12 or so feet high.

<Amanda> Yeah, but not 40 feet like an oak tree.

<Dr.

John> No, no, no, no, it doesn't get that big.

But it, if you have room, you know, some vertical room for it.

There's got to be a nice thing just because it has, you know, this interest as well as wildlife value.

<Yes> And we got to say the name, too.

So this is Devils walkingstick.

< laughs > <Amanda> Very appropriately named.

<Dr.

John> And it's easy to grow.

<Amanda> So you're not going to lose the one in your yard just because you cut the top off?

<Dr.

John> It made a couple of babies.

So I've got, I've got two or more there.

<Amanda> Wonderful.

Okay.

<Amanda> If you had an area that you had somebody's coming through your yard and you didn't want them to, you could plant one there and that would probably take care of the problem.

<I think so> Thank you very much.

Okay.

<Adam> That looks like the type of plant that jump up and bite you on the buttocks.

< laughs > <Amanda> Yes, indeed it does.

< laughs > Okay < laughs > Terasa, while John is trying to get that back in there without bleeding.

<Bob, Bob> Excuse me, excuse me, excuse me.

< laughs > Strawberry, Do we have a spotlight garden?

<Terasa> We do have a spotlight garden.

This one is coming from Jessica Hudson and Jessica shared photos from a children's event at the Charleston Farms Community Garden.

And that event was held in collaboration with Keep North Charleston Beautiful and the Charleston County Public Library.

To celebrate the opening of the children's pollinator garden and their little library, they read books about gardening and pledged not to litter.

And then they made a craft, a seed bombs using native wildflower seeds, including things like Coreopsis, Purple Coneflower, Blanket Flower and Black Eyed Susan.

So thanks, Jessica, so much for sharing those photographs.

It's wonderful to see our young people learning about how to take care of the world around them.

<Amanda> Thank you so much.

And it's nice that they introduced the anti litter concept as well, because we know that everything goes downstream.

And so, with litter, <Terasa> You are right.

It's not just a matter of being an eyesore.

There are environmental health concerns as well.

<Amanda> You remember when Katie came on and told us about the sea turtles who eat so much plastic then that they can't digest their food and have to go to the, if sometimes they can go to the aquarium and be cared for.

They have to remove the plastic and then we did that and had a release of one.

<That's right> Yes, that was that was a very happy thing to see happen, wasn't it?

<It was> okay.

All right.

Um, is there a question?

<Terasa> Yes, we do have a question.

This one comes in from Gloria in Pickens.

Another sort of mystery.

Gloria said I found this slimy looking blob in our mulch.

It looks like vomit.

Is it harmful?

<Amanda> Well, Forrest, since you have walked the world, practically, is this is something that you've seen, <Adam> Well, on my occasional running, I have encountered such things.

And in this case, she's close with her description.

In this particular case, this is Dog Vomit Slime Mold.

And that is probably the most unattractive name, you can give anything in, in nature.

But all it's doing is, it's a another type of fungal type of organism.

In this case, it's a slime mold.

And it is just feeding on this decaying mulch.

There, they're not going to cause any type of damage.

If it's unsightly, all you have to do is take a shovel and scoop it up.

And you know, just displace it.

If it's very light, if you take a high pressure water hose, you can wash them away.

Or you know, since it's Halloween, and it does look a little blob ish and dis-colored, leave it.

And that's all I got to say about that.

< laughs > <Amanda> If you don't want to, if it, now that we know what it is, and it's not harmful, can you just leave it <You can> if you want to?

<Adam> It's one of those temperature related organisms.

It will eventually start to turn black and dissipate over time.

<Okay> <Dr.

John> You know, I've seen those things in the forest, and also in my garden, pretty often.

And I have to say that some, I'll go to bat for them a little bit.

Sometimes they're kind of attractively colored, I think while they're still healthy <Yeah> and bright yellow.

And sometimes you find them that are kind of pink or orange.

<Amanda> It's fascinating organism isn't it?

<Dr.

John> I think that if you have them in your mulch, you're probably going to have him again and your mulch.

<Amanda> Now are you speaking as Dr. John or is the painter?

< laughs > <Dr.

John> Well, the painter sometimes gets out into his garden as well.

<Amanda> Okay.

Alright.

< laughs > So, um, so we could come back and add a little slime mold at the bottom of this lovely picture that you started.

Okay.

<Dr.

John> Well sure.

We can do anything we want with it?

<Terasa> Well, Mitch in Hemingway has a little bit of a mystery as well.

Mitch wrote to us and said what are these creepy creatures on my Holly?

I thought they were just little bumps.

They looked like ghosts.

But now little mini ghosts seem to have exploded on my plant.

They are everywhere.

Help.

<Amanda> Help.

Well, Wayne help.

< laughs > <Carmen> This one looks like Florida Wax Scale.

<Okay> And it is really common on Hollies.

So it makes sense.

The little mini ones are their crawlers.

Those are the little progeny that are coming out.

The problem is they aren't good.

They're actually sucking a lot of the plant juices from the tissue.

And it can lead to leaf die back and it can lead to branch die back.

And if the tree if the holly bush is sufficiently stressed enough, it will probably it can possibly kill it.

<Amanda> What do you think this person should do?

<Carmen> So there's a couple different things that they can do.

And it really depends on of course, the size of the bush or your tree.

<Amanda> Or how much, how easy they are to treat.

<Carmen> Exactly.

Now, ideally, this tree is probably already stressed from something else.

The wax scale, they don't come in just on their own to healthy trees.

So you want to take a good look and see what's going on with the tree.

Is it planted too deep?

Is it is it stressed from some type of drought?

So it's probably best to right that first.

But additionally, you can use a number of insecticides because it is an insect.

It's not a fungus or any or ghost.

And so a lot of people will use some type of systemic that they can use as a granular.

If it's a big tree, you can either sprinkle around the base or water it in is a liquid.

Dinotefuran is probably the favorite for that.

Now, if you wanted a smaller bush, you can always use a contact insecticide.

But because the if it's a holly like this person's what ends up happening, waxy leaves.

So you want some type of a sticker spreader or a horticultural oil mixed in.

And what that will do is it will stick and it will suffocate the scale.

Hollies, they are, they're evergreen, so you can do this application anytime.

When they're crawling is probably the most ideal best.

<Yep> But if it is something like a deciduous tree, you kinda want wait until spring when first whenever your tree starts to leaf out.

That's probably the best way.

<Alright> <Terasa> That was really good information, we might also want to just mention that it, different scales are treated differently.

There's armored scales and other types.

So sometimes we might be able to identify from a photo, but we may need to send them off to our plant clinic and, so we have special collection guidelines.

But that's a great service, because identification is always key to whatever we're trying to control.

<Amanda> And thank you because different scales require different treatments.

<Yes> yeah.

Thank you very much for bringing that up.

Okay.

Well, John, I think you've got something else for us, don't you?

<Dr.

John> Let's see what's in the magic container.

<Amanda> A Zombie palm?

<Dr.

John> Zombie, we have pictures of the Zombie palm.

And I've never been there, but Hispaniola is a big island in the Caribbean.

<Uh huh> And that's where Haiti and the Dominican Republic are.

And you know, they've got a fantastic assortment of plants.

And one of them is this palm that's been named the Zombie palm.

And so that's the Halloween, the Halloweeney palm is the zombie palm.

And it's the most bizarre looking palm tree you've ever seen.

It's not a particularly big, and it makes pretty much regular looking fan palm leaves <Yes> as opposed to feather palms.

<Yes> And people can remember that as our state tree as a fan palm.

the branches of its leaves go out on a fan.

As in a coconut palm has its leaves sort of put together like a feather, a feather palm.

<Alright> Anyway, the Zombie palm is a favorite to grow in tropical places and in South Florida, it's a really cool thing to have in people's yards.

And what that does that I find pretty weird, is that it's leaf sheaths <Yes> stay on the tree, and it keeps making these spirals of leaves.

And these leaf sheaths are sharp like knives.

<Amanda> So they're kind of like the boots that sometimes stay on our palms?

<Dr.

John> Right.

These are a lot more slender and frayed out and they look kind of wicked.

And I don't know that that really has anything to do with zombies.

Although I think I heard someplace that the fruits that this palm makes used to be used, now this is probably just craziness, <Yeah> to make a tea and that would wake zombies out of their slumber.

<Amanda> Why in the world would you want to do that?

Unless you're gonna just serve it to your to your next door neighbor whom you didn't care for.

<Dr.

John> I needed some for some of my students.

< laughs > <Amanda> Oh goodness.

Who seem like a zombie like state when they're suppose to be studying and paying attention in class.

< laughs > Alrighty.

Well that was fun.

Well Wayne, I think that you are a great list maker.

Have you got another list for us?

<Carmen> I do.

Amanda.

I have the top 10 diseases that should be bands < laughs > today.

Number 10, Staghead Dieback.

< laughs > You never want you to experience that.

But it'd be great for metal.

Number nine, Fire Blight.

<Amanda> Fire Blight.

that would be a hot one, wouldn't it.

< laughs > <Carmen> Number eight, Heart Rot.

You never want to see it but it's great.

I'd see 'em in concert.

< laughs > Then, Nematode Damage < laughs > Number six, White Rust <Amanda> White Rust.

Very good.

Yeah, yeah.

<Carmen> Number five, Leaf Scorch.

<Amanda> Maybe we could get Nematode Damage to come and play at the Okra Strut.

< laughs > <Carmen> They'd be perfect.

< laughs > Alright, Number four, Take All Root Rot.

Forrest over here knows all about it.

<Adam> Sounds like a killer.

< laughs > <Carmen> Alright.

Number three, Anthracnose Everyone knows them.

Everyone loves them.

Number two, Pine Canker.

< laughs > <Amanda> A great southern band.

<Carmen> And then number one, the best Scab Of Cucurbits.

<Amanda> Oooh!

< laughs > Oh goodness.

<Dr.

John> That's a gourd one.

< laughs > <Amanda> You'll have to explain why cucurbits and gourds or in the same family.

Okay.

Whatever.

There's a connection there.

Alright, lots of fun.

Thank you.

When the children were little, we really had a lot of fun at Halloween, and my husband got into it big time.

And so you're gonna get to see a pumpkin that he carved and what he likes to wear at Halloween.

I went to the farmer's market and got this and I think you've done part of the hard work already.

Yeah, everybody knows what a mess it is.

I've already pulled all the seeds out of it.

So you cut, a hole in the top.

Okay, so that part is done.

That part is done.

I'm gonna save the seeds because I like to toast them, don't you?

Yes, yeah you've always done that.

One of the benefits but we usually don't make pie.

One of the delights of pumpkin.

Anyway, well I'm gonna move these out of the way and then we're gonna let you start working your magic on this jack-o-lantern.

Alright.

Well.

I've got a nice little knife here and that's what you need to carve a pumpkin with, a nice little knife with a kind of narrow blade because that way you can make curves.

I'm not a fancy pumpkin carver.

I'm a traditionalist, you know, so this is just gonna be a jack-o-lantern with eyes and a nose and stuff like that.

So on the other hand I'm interested in, always have taken a clue from the Japanese Noh theater because they have such interesting and extreme expressions on their masks.

So I'm gonna give it a little bit of a turn like that.

And then I'm going to cut the eyes and the nose.

Eyebrows.

This is where having a knife with a narrow blade in it comes in handy because you can cut little circles like that.

I'm going to give this pumpkin a tongue and I'm making the tongue out of this dobby squash here.

There we go.

One time when we had our first house in St. Matthews I had great success with pumpkin like this with the tongue.

Amanda would take our children trick-or-treating and I was left at home.

I had a pumpkin and...

I had an old pumpkin that had grown up in the side yard but it was way before Thanksgiving, I mean before Halloween and it rotted, well that is to say it got a big rotten spot in it.

So I had a pumpkin to carve and I had this half of a pumpkin that was... so I decided that I would take half of the pumpkin and make ears and a tongue.

And I did that and when I couldn't get through when I was finishing up, I couldn't get the tongue to stay on the pumpkin.

I put the pumpkin down the porch so I took the knife that I was carving with, and stuck it through the tongue into the porch floor to hold the tongue in place and the little children who came trick-or- treating around were very impressed, let me tell you.

It was one of the most successful pumpkins I ever did.

The Japanese are always emphasizing the corners of the mouth to make it look like the characters are under great stress so... Alright, what do you think of that?

<Amanda> I think it'd be fun if we showed everybody what you do to try to look scary too.

Would you be willing to put your costume on for us?

Sure.

♪ suspenseful music ♪ The final touch!

♪ Boo!

<Amanda> Carmen, I love to see the things that you do in arrangements and often they're quite beautiful.

But from the beginnings of what you've done, I don't think this is going to be one of the beautiful ones.

What's going on here?

<Carmen> It's gonna be one of the haunted ones.

<Amanda> Okay.

<Carmen> Sometimes at Halloween, we just don't feel like doing any of the flowers.

The mums, the marigolds, we're kinda over it.

So I wanted to bring in some of the fun stuff that you can pull out in nature.

And so it's kinda, we went around and we were just enjoying some of the the natural forms and functions and nature.

I found our beautiful sticks.

I love this because they all look kind of haunted already.

And you can spray paint 'em if you like.

<Amanda> We need more than just sticks.

<Carmen> The other ones that I love is some of our okra pods, any of our dried pods that we have.

I went ahead and dried some of the ones, left them on the stem to dry with the idea that I'm going to use it in an arrangement.

Yeah, I liked the sparkle.

You can do just gold if you wanted to.

Or you can go with all, all black.

Then of course I wanted to use some of these amazing dried seed pods.

It just makes for a really fun whimsical centerpiece.

Yeah, and that's where, yeah, throw it in there.

And then do you have, can I see your fire bush?

<Oh yeah.> Oh yeah.

<Dr.

John> Gotta have some fire bush.

< laughs > <Carmen> Oh, look at that.

So it doesn't have to be all dark and gloomy.

It can be wild and exciting.

But we always like to dress it up a little bit with some, we always like to dress it up of course with a little bit of Spanish Moss, kind of give it that cobwebby feel.

Or you can do it with the storebought cobwebs if you wanted to.

<Amanda> Okay.

That was just delightful.

Thank you all so much and put your head around and wave at the camera.

Let's say goodbye to everybody at home.

<Dr.

John> Party on the Wayne.

< laughs > ♪ closing music ♪ ♪ ♪ 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.