female announcer: Buffalo Toronto Public Media welcomes you to "Now We're Gardening LIVE!

2."

In this episode, you will learn loads of tips and tricks to help you get your garden ready for the fall and prepared for winter.

Visit Northtown Garden Center, and learn how and when to bring your house plants indoors, and, believe it or not, alternatives to planting just mums.

Head over to Lavocat's Family Greenhouse and Nursery to learn when and where to plant those fall bulbs, how to help keep our local pollinators happy in the fall, and how to protect our outdoor plants from the weather and from those pesky critters during our long winter months.

Enjoy "Now We're Gardening LIVE!"

Sylvia Bennett: Welcome to episode two of "Now We're Gardening LIVE!"

I'm Sylvia Bennett, here with Nora Saintz of Gardenette in Orchard Park.

We're visiting, today, with Lavocat's, in East Amherst, and Northtown Garden Center.

So, what do you think, Nora?

Nora Saintz: Yeah, today, we're gonna get into everything that you can do to get your house looking beautiful for the fall, I'm really excited.

Sylvia: That's right, now, tell us a little bit about yourself and your business.

Nora: Okay, so it's Gardenette, it's a landscape design and coaching company, and I help homeowners who aren't afraid of getting their hands dirty.

Sylvia: All right, fantastic, so, let's find out a little bit more about Nora right now.

male announcer: Besides being co-host of this program, Nora Saintz is a Certified Nursery and Landscape Professional, CNLP, a master gardener, and founder of Gardenette, a home garden design and garden coaching based in Orchard Park, New York.

Nora has a certificate in Landscape Design from Cornell University, and founded Gardenette in 2020.

Gardenette's goal is to provide do-it-yourself homeowners with the necessary tools and resources they need to create the garden of their dreams.

You can learn more at MyGardenette.com.

♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ male announcer: Lynn Birkman has been working in the gardening industry for nearly 30 years, she is a graduate of Alfred State College, and holds a degree in Ornamental Horticulture, Landscape Development.

Lynn spent 10 years as a landscape designer before moving to retail garden center management, where she is part-owner of Northtown Garden Center in Tonawanda, New York.

Offering nursery stock, greenhouse plants, and garden decor, Northtown Garden Center has been a local go-to for gardeners for over 30 years.

Nora: Hi, we're here at Northtown Garden Center on Sheridan Drive in Tonawanda, I'm here with one of the owners, Lynn, and she's gonna talk to us about container gardening in the fall.

Lynn Birkman: Hi, everyone, my name is Lynn, and yes, I'm one of the owners here at Northtown Garden Center.

One of my favorite things to do in the fall is to make fall container gardening.

There are so many different things you can do in the fall, there's so many different color blends, there are way more things to plant in the fall than just mums.

Everyone thinks mums when they think fall, I wanna show you that there's a lot more fun you can have than just planting mums.

So, I'm gonna show you some of the really interesting plants that I brought out today.

When you're playing with container gardening, you wanna have an assortment of different types of plants, to have some height for a thriller, a spiller, fillers, so I'm gonna show some different things that you can use in your container garden.

A really great plant for the fall, this is ornamental millet, it's a corn plant, it gets nice and tall, it gets nice little plumes off of it, really fun plant for your planter.

Nora: So this would be the thriller.

Lynn: That would be your thriller, yup, nice and tall.

Nora: Okay, so it gets tall.

Lynn: Really tall.

Lynn: So, yup, and then my spiller, Creeping Jenny is a great spiller, it's got really nice foliage to accent, especially against a dark pot, so that's another nice thing there.

And then I've got a whole bunch of different fillers that you can play with, different colors, textures.

So, one of my favorites for adding a pop of color in your planter is Coleus, and there's lots of different types of coleus.

So, this one, I love that one, with that reddish to it, and this, with the purple accents, great for the fall.

Nora: And we see these in the spring, too.

Lynn: Oh yeah, that you plant them all season, but usually a lot of garden centers do get them in for the fall again, because it is a great color to add into your garden for the fall.

Nora: And good for shadier spots too, right?

Lynn: Yeah, sure, shade, and actually, shade or sun.

There's a lot of coleus varieties, right now, that you can plant in full sun to full shade.

So, if you're doing a sun planter with your mums, you can still use your coleus.

Black-Eyed Susans are another great annual for your container gardens, they bloom all fall, really pretty colors to them.

I love that one.

Nora: I love that, the orange center, the brownish center.

Lynn: Yes, it's very pretty.

A really nice texture you can add to your planter, ornamental kale.

So, kales come in a couple of different colors, this one is kind of a grayish-blue, there are purple varieties too, but it just has a really nice thick foliage to it that adds a lot of texture to your garden.

And then, lastly, besides your mum, of course, I have your mum too, ornamental peppers.

So, ornamental peppers come in lots of different types and they constantly change throughout the season.

So, I'm gonna grab a couple of these out for you.

That one's really fun.

So, I'll start out with this guy here.

So, he is a purple, white and green variegated leaf, and he's got purple peppers, but the peppers actually turn red as it gets larger and as the temperature cools, so those will actually turn to a bright red.

Nora: Bright red.

Lynn: The other types I have here.

Nora: Oh, and the flowers are purple too, that's so pretty.

Lynn: Yes, very, very, it adds a lot of-- Nora: Yeah, little purple flowers, love that.

Lynn: Yeah, nice blooms for your garden.

So, there's lots of different types of peppers, though, there's the tall thin ones, these ones also, they're yellow to start and then they turn to orange and then to a bright red, so it's constantly changing, adding color and texture to your container.

This one here, same concept, just different shape to it.

This guy here is purple, I love him with him, together.

Nora: Oh, the purple, yeah.

Lynn: Very pretty.

Lynn: And I tend to put that with a purple mum or a white mum, gorgeous.

And these also will turn red as the temperature changes.

Nora: Yeah, you can see the orange one in here a little bit.

Lynn: Yes, and then this one here, lastly, these are a little tiny, tiny peppers.

Lynn: And they will turn orange.

Nora: Oh, okay.

Lynn: Yeah, so.

And you can see some in the middle there, and they will turn orange, again adding some contrast to your planter.

So, and then we do have our little mum, and they come in so many different colors, so, no matter what color theme you go with this, you can always find a mum to correspond with it, so.

What I'm going to do is show you how you can build a planter, adding lots of color and variety.

Why don't we just take it and we'll move this right up here?

Nora: So, could we take some?

Some of these plants we see in the spring, in some of our containers, would we, could we pull out some of the old tired stuff and just plug some of these things in?

Lynn: Definitely, yup, and just change it up.

Nora: Okay.

Lynn: Yup.

So, what I have here, I have a nice whiskey barrel planter, great for the fall, looks great in your yard with some pumpkins, corn stalks.

When you are filling your planter, you wanna make sure you leave some room for water, and everything for watering, so you're not over-spilling it too much, I usually put my soil down about an inch down in it.

And what's also very important is make sure you have a good soil.

Nora: So not just the cheap topsoil for three dollars, you want some potting soil.

Lynn: You want a nice good soil that has good aeration and good fertilizer, and everything like that, so.

And then, what I wanna do.

Nora: So we're gonna put one together now, so what do we start with?

Lynn: I'm gonna start with my thriller.

Nora: Okay.

Lynn: So, I'm gonna take out my ornamental millet, and when you are planting, you just want to take it out of the pot, make sure you score up your roots a little bit.

Nora: So you can rip them just like that.

Lynn: Yup, just rip them up a little bit.

Nora: Especially down at the bottom there where it's all?

Okay, don't be afraid to tug?

Lynn: Don't be afraid to tug.

So, one of the things I like to do when I'm filling my planter is I like to figure out where I wanna put my thriller.

If I'm putting my planter against a back wall or something, I'll put my thriller towards the back of the pot.

If my pot is going to be viewed from all sides, I'll put it in the middle.

I'm gonna put in the back of this one just to say I'm putting against my back wall.

Nora: How tall would you say this gets, does this get much taller?

Lynn: Oh yeah, it'll get pretty good, they're usually around like about 2-3 ft. Nora: And it says on the tags, right, how big these things get?

Lynn: So, when I put this in, I just wanna plant it and get some good soil around it, I don't wanna bury it in it, I wanna keep it so that the base of the pot is pretty much right in line with my line of my dirt.

Nora: Okay, so the top of the soil is at the top of the.

Lynn: Of the soil.

Nora: You're not burying it, right.

Lynn: So I'm just gonna plant that one, I'm gonna show you just kind of a layout you can do for the others.

So, I have my thriller, so I'm gonna grab my spiller.

So, I've got my spiller here, you would just put him towards the front, you can put him off the side a little bit, it's whatever you prefer.

So, I'm gonna put him there, and then I wanna add a pop of color in the middle to really draw your attention to the planter.

So I'm gonna go with my coleus, love this color, and that just kind of, you know, it just frames the pot right there, adding a bunch of color.

So, I want some more height in the back, so I'm gonna grab my Black-Eyed Susan.

I'm just gonna add that to the back, that'll grow up, it'll contrast nicely with the grass, and we have our mum.

Nora: Oh, a mum, the trusty mum.

Lynn: So, the mum is gonna get a bigger size too, so I'm gonna put that towards the back.

Nora: Okay.

Lynn: So I'm gonna put that over here, and then I'm going to put my kale in there for some texture, and then I'm gonna add an ornamental pepper.

So, you can play around with it and do either way, I'm gonna go with this guy.

And actually, I'm gonna swap this, I'm gonna put this guy over here, I'm gonna put this guy over here, just so that the colors kind of cross over the planter.

So, by doing that, you have a lot of different height variations, and colors and texture, and a lot of different blooms for the fall.

Put this on a porch, put it by your pumpkins, by your corn stalks, a straw bale, it's just gonna bring attention to your landscape.

Nora: You really packed them in here, how many plants do we have total?

Lynn: I have one, two, three, four, five, six.

Nora: Okay, and they'll all do fine?

Lynn: Yeah, I mean, it's the end of the year, you got a nice, deep plant, you got plenty of room for the root system, and they'll fill in really nice in there and bush out, and there's room for it to bush out and creep over, so.

Nora: Now, what about temperatures for when it gets super cold?

You know, we get into those freezing temperatures in the fall, is this okay to be out on the porch?

Lynn: Most of them are cold-hardy, I mean, you're, you're probably gonna be okay until the end of October, early November.

All right, so, once you're done with your planter, now there's a few other things that you can do, you don't have to just do a planter.

I also have, you can also get creative and do a hanging basket.

So, same concept, and you know, add some color and variety, a lot of hanging baskets this time of year start fizzling out.

Get creative, add some color, variety and texture in your hanging baskets, something different for fall.

Nora: Great.

Well, thank you, Lynn, you've given us a lot of different options besides just going with the traditional mums every year.

I think this is something anyone can do and it's gonna be pretty all through the fall.

Nora: So, thank you.

Lynn: Thank you so much.

Sylvia: Programs like "Now We're Gardening LIVE!"

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♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ male announcer: Meredith Preve is a retail and marketing manager at Lavocat's Family Greenhouse and Nursery in East Amherst, New York, and has worked in the business since 2020.

She's a Conservation Biology student at SUNY ESF, and has trained with the master gardeners of Niagara County.

You can find Meredith collecting tropicals, advocating for pollinators, and whispering to plants of all kinds.

Sylvia: So, I'm here with Meredith Preve, the retail and marketing manager at Lavocat's.

So tell me, what's going on here?

Meredith Preve: Well, I've got some inspiration and some supplies out for us, today, to talk a little bit about spring bulbs.

Sylvia: Oh, nice, okay.

Meredith: So I have them organized by kind of what niche they would fill in your garden, and one of the most common questions we get is, "Which ones aren't the animals going to eat?"

Sylvia: Mm, makes sense.

Meredith: So I would steer you towards, if you're looking for that, the daffodils for one, and there's lots of types beyond just the classic yellow ones that most people are familiar with, so that's an excellent option, and they propagate themselves quite easily.

Sylvia: And when you say, "Animals," you mean the rabbits, and the deer, and the-- Meredith: Yes, yeah, all manner of fauna.

I've also got some Allium out for us, and these are in the onion family, so they're not desirable to the critters.

And beyond just the large purpose ones that a lot of people are familiar with, there are a lot of other colors.

Sylvia: But they're really pretty, so, animals don't like them, but we will.

Meredith: Exactly, yeah.

So, it's got blues and yellows, pinks, whites, more variety than just the classic.

And then I've also got a little Hyacinth here too, which, as a bonus, smell really nice, so that's always good.

If you are invested in doing Crocus or tulips, the best way to keep the animals away is really fencing.

Sylvia: Oh, sure, okay.

Meredith: But if that's not feasible, you can get a olfactory deterrent, so that's something that just doesn't smell good to them.

Sylvia: And I can just get this at any garden nursery or at Lavocat's or wherever?

Okay.

Meredith: Yeah, easy to find, products like it are easy to find, and we always have some in stock.

Sylvia: Got it.

Meredith: And those bulbs that the critters aren't as kind to would be the Crocus, which are adorable, they're very short, and they bloom very early.

So, that's like March, even when there's still snow on the ground.

Sylvia: Oh, great, okay.

Meredith: So it's a fun little pop of color when it's still winter here.

And then, of course, the tulips, which.

Sylvia: Oh, always pretty.

Meredith: A lot of people's favorites, but there's more to explore in tulip world than just the classics, so we have ones with variegated foliage, I have ones that are more, they almost look like peonies, and the green, which is kind of different.

Sylvia: Oh, that's pretty, I've never seen one like that.

Meredith: Yeah, we try to have more unique ones.

And then if you're really on the hunt for unique, we also have heirloom, these are deer-resistant tulips, but only these ones, not just any tulip.

And then I also have some very pretty iris that come up very early.

Sylvia: Oh, great, all right, fantastic.

So, now I know what I'm doing with my bulbs, but you have something there that looks interesting, tell us about that.

Meredith: Yeah, well, once you've picked out which ones you wanna use, you wanna get to planting, and you can add bulbs to your landscape as long as the ground isn't frozen, so up until, you know, sometimes December, like, as long as it's not frozen, you can dig.

And if you have just a couple, might use like a hand tool like this.

Sylvia: Okay, that looks a little scary, but tell us how it works.

Meredith: That's fair, yeah, that one's pretty simple, you kind of just twist it in.

If you have a lot of bulbs, it might be easier to use something more automated, this is basically a giant drill bit.

So you hook it into a drill and you can quickly and easily plant a lot of them.

Sylvia: Oh, makes it easy.

Meredith: And either way, you wanna add just a sprinkle of bulb tone in with each one just to give them a little bit of a start.

Sylvia: All right.

So, this is fantastic, we know about our bulbs, but you have other flowers here, so tell us about those.

Meredith: Yeah, absolutely, just as important as the spring bulbs are for the pollinators by creating a food for them in the early season, the plants that bloom late in the season, they're just as important.

Finding food in the summer is not a big deal, as you can imagine, there's a lot of flowering plants in our landscapes and just in wild landscapes, but at the very beginning, very end of the season, they're kind of in a bind if they can't find enough.

So, that's bees, butterflies, moths, any of them are appreciative of anything you can add to your landscape.

So this first one I've got here is a little daisy.

Sylvia: Always popular.

Meredith: Yeah, there's ones that bloom in the summer and ones that bloom later into the fall, so, excellent mixers, kind of a classic plant.

Sylvia: Okay, and I can plant this anywhere in my yard?

Meredith: Yep, yeah, they like full sun, and pretty hardy plants in general, so it's kind of a classic.

I've also got this Sedum for us here, and this is an excellent perennial, not just for fall, just kind of in general.

It can take a lot of light, it can take a lot of heat, it's a good plant for a hard-to-fill spot.

Sylvia: And will it always be this color or will it be different colors?

Meredith: For the most part they're green all season, up until fall, when they are just like a little blanket of color.

Sylvia: Oh, beautiful.

Meredith: So, yeah, they're really fun, a lot of them are in the pinks and purples, so, gorgeous as we go into fall.

Sylvia: I love it, okay, what next?

Meredith: Also brought kind of a classic native wildflower.

Sylvia: Oh, I love these.

Meredith: This is goldenrod, this is a more petite goldenrod than the ones you see kind of just growing in ditches, but just as effective of a food source for the bees and the butterflies, and really easy to grow, you know, full sun, happy yellow flowers.

Sylvia: Great, all right, beautiful, next?

Meredith: All right, we got this big boy next, this is an Aster, and this is a great one to mix in with mums in your landscape because the purple always looks kind of nice, offsetting those other colors.

Sylvia: Very elegant.

Now, will I need to prune this, how do I take care of this?

Meredith: You shouldn't really have to prune it, you can deadhead it, certainly, but you shouldn't have to like cut it to the ground.

Deadheading will prolong the amount of flowers and like your flowering time.

Other than that, easy.

Sylvia: I love it, all right, thanks.

Meredith: Okay, I've also got this kind of interesting Echinacea, so, if you've seen the classic purple coneflowers, this is just another color of those, but just as effective of a pollinator food source, and also just a good landscape plant.

Sylvia: So if you're looking to bring bees into your yard, this is a good one?

Meredith: Yeah, and this is a native plant also, so, in general, native plants are easier to care for because they're already adapted.

Sylvia: Fantastic, okay, good.

Now we have a couple over here.

Meredith: Yeah, for sure.

So, this one here is a Spurge, and this is kind of like our Sedum in that it's a really good tough-spot plant, it can take a lot of abuse and still keep on kicking.

Sylvia: So if I'm having a problem with something else in my yard, this could go into that space instead.

Meredith: Yeah, it's good for tough-to-fill spots, and it turns a very pretty pink color as it gets colder.

Sylvia: Okay, fantastic.

And then the one in our pot right here, what about this?

Meredith: So, this friend is a little pink Coreopsis, there's lots of other colors and ones that get a little larger than this, there's yellows, reds, even some purples.

Also, great native plants, good pollen food source, and stays small, so easier to tuck in.

Sylvia: So this one isn't so much a ground cover as much as you just kind of place it where you'd like.

Meredith: Yeah, they usually are small mounding plants, so they look really nice like in a row, easy to take care of.

Sylvia: Fantastic, good.

So, you've told us about the bulbs, you told us about the plants, what else at this time of year should I be thinking about to make sure that my yard is gonna be healthy?

Meredith: I think the only other thing that sometimes trips people up is their fertilizer game.

In general, you don't really need to be fertilizing this time of year, because you don't wanna encourage a bunch of new growth to come out just before they get hit with a frost.

Sylvia: Understand, okay.

Meredith: But if you are establishing plants, like, one over here, you could use just a little bit of flower tone, that would be appropriate for the perennials, not a ton, just to get them started.

And the bulb tone is important because they'll use that as soon as they start to come out in the spring, so it gives them a strong start.

But other than that, you shouldn't have to add too much fertilizer to your beds this time of year.

Sylvia: So you just want everything to rest, kind of during this time of the year, and then kind of get ready to come out in the spring and the summer again.

Meredith: Yeah, dormancy is really important for plants that come back every year, they gotta recharge.

Sylvia: All right, fantastic.

So, Meredith, you touched a little bit on pollinators, let's expand on it, tell us a little bit more.

Meredith: Yeah, absolutely.

Well, there are a couple of key things you can do if you wanna support pollinators throughout the year.

So, as we sort of talked about already, planting bulbs, but especially those that open up to have a lot of pollen available.

Some of the ones that are more highly bred don't have pollen at all, so they're not necessarily very useful.

Sylvia: So, what are these?

So, let's see with these, so, this is a Narcissus.

Meredith: Yep, I've got a daffodil in there, an Allium, a old fashioned tulip, and a Crocus, so it's not just limited to one type of bulb, but ones that are more heirloom varieties.

Sylvia: Okay, great.

Meredith: So that's a really important thing in the early spring when they're just emerging and they're trying to find enough to eat.

Throughout the summer, it's really great if you can avoid neonic pesticides, if you can put out a little butterfly puddlers, they need water too.

And native bee houses, there's all kinds of things you can do to help.

Sylvia: Okay, and then, as far as established plants?

Meredith: Yeah.

Sylvia: So what would you suggest?

Meredith: The best thing you can do is to have a lot of natives, because that's what native pollinators are adapted to consume, and typically they have the biggest bang for your buck, with the amount of pollen and nectar.

So, Echinacea is a classic one, there are tons of colors, so that's a good option, and the Asters also.

And these ones that we're highlighting now are late-season plants, so they kind of do double duty, they're native, which is great, but they also help them out at the end of the season when they're looking for food more desperately.

And then I've also got a Coreopsis here for us, this is a different variety, and same idea, it just gives them a lot of bang for their buck.

Anything that has a lot of flowers instead of just like one main showy one, that's really helpful because they typically have higher pollen and nectar loads.

Sylvia: And they can just go right in there and cover the whole plant, so.

Meredith: Yeah, it's very efficient.

Sylvia: Okay, and should we plant them at anywhere in particular in the yard, to kind of move them in certain places?

Meredith: The best thing is to have continuous patches, because if they're kind of fragmented, that's harder for them to find.

They have to expend a lot more energy to get from plant to plant instead of being able to just kind of go down the row.

Sylvia: Great, thank you, that's really interesting.

Meredith: Of course.

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♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ male announcer: Chris Lavocat is part owner and president of greenhouse operations at Lavocat's Family Greenhouse and Nursery in East Amherst, New York.

Chris graduated from UB with a Finance degree and grew up working in the family business since he was a young boy.

He currently oversees the garden center, growing process, nursery, and business expansion.

Lavocat's Family Greenhouse and Nursery is a family-run operation spanning three generations.

Established in 1980 by Don and Terry Lavocat, the full-service garden center and nursery produces top-quality annuals, perennials, vegetable plants, shrubs, and trees.

When not working, Chris enjoys traveling and hiking with his wife and two children.

Nora: We're on-site here at Lavocat's Family Greenhouse and Nursery, I'm here with Chris, one of the owners, and he's gonna talk to us about getting our yards ready for fall.

Chris Lavocat: Yeah, thanks for having me.

Yeah, there's a lot of things that we can start getting ready for in the fall months to get ready for the late fall and also winter.

So, we're gonna talk about a couple of different things.

The first thing I wanna talk about is trimming, trimming your bushes, trimming your perennials, trimming your trees.

When you go, like for the trees, you wanna really focus on taking out any damaged or diseased branches, that's kind of the first thing that I look at, is your trees and shrubs hitting those those branches that are bad.

You can start trimming back like fruit trees, your grasses you can prune back, some people like to leave those, leave the fall color, like the brown for fall, and then after that, you can take those down.

The biggest question we get are how to prune Hydrangeas, so I'm gonna talk a little bit about that.

Over here, we have the Hydrangea macrophylla, those guys you do not want to trim in the fall, other than maybe just taking the dead blooms off, the spent blooms.

Nora: So are these all the ones that would be pink or blue?

Chris: Yup, the pink or blue ones.

Nora: So those are always macrophylla?

Chris: Yup, so, when those are done, they'll turn a little brown, you can keep them for the fall a little bit.

Once they lose their leaves, I recommend taking those off.

But other than that, I really wouldn't take it down much more than that.

On the other hand, here we have a Hydrangea Paniculatas, these are more of the cone-shaped flowers.

These ones here, at the very least, we take the blooms off, but you can go a little farther with the bush, you can take them back down to like a third, and what that does is create a more full bush, or tree, if it's tree form, the following year.

So, that's key.

You can also prune back roses, herbaceous perennials, items like Butterfly bush.

If you're in doubt, I would say if you're, if you're not sure and you can't ask a garden center professional, I would say leave it and deal with it in the spring.

So, things you don't want it to prune are going to be again the Hydrangea macrophyllas, but then other spring bloomers like lilacs, Forsythia, you really wanna avoid taking those down until spring, after they're done blooming.

Nora: So, right after they're done blooming, and is that the thing where you just cut the heads off?

Chris: You can, or you can prune them back a little harder if you can, you just wanna make sure you leave some leaves on there?

Nora: Okay, okay.

Chris: So that's probably the area where I would start.

Another, the next thing I would probably look into is your mulching.

So, here I have some triple-ground hardwood mulch that you can, you know, this, I would put on about 3 to 4 inches on top of your plants, specifically, your newly planted trees and shrubs, and anything that's a little more delicate.

That's the key, what I would key in on.

And then, come spring, you can go through and just spread the mulch everywhere to kind of clean up the beds.

You know, most people want that fresh look in the spring, but this is good to keep the plants protected.

Nora: So, when you're putting this mulch on in the fall, do you wait until the plants have been cut back or died back, or you can put it on before everything?

Chris: I would, yeah, I'd wait for the leaves to kind of fall and then do your mulching.

Nora: And then you're putting it right over the base of the plant--okay, okay.

Chris: Right, yeah, just be sure on, especially trees, trees and shrubs, you don't want to pile up on the bark itself, on the stem, you wanna keep it away a little bit so you don't choke the plant out.

Nora: Okay, so no mulch volcanoes on the trees.

Chris: Exactly, exactly, yeah.

Nora: Great.

Chris: And then, you know, as far as leaf clean up, everyone asks, like, "What do you do with your leaves?"

You know, most people will go in and just take all the leaves out.

It's not a bad idea to keep a little bit of leaves around the base of the plants as another bit of insulation, and like mulch, that protects them from the extreme wind in the winter, the freeze thaw.

So, it protects your roots so you have a healthier plant in the spring.

Nora: And then do you have to chop the leaves up before you put them on your garden beds or can you just leave them flat?

Chris: You can leave them, yeah, just don't do, yeah, you don't want too much there, but yeah, I would leave them as is in the flower beds, and for your lawn and stuff, you can chop it up so it will decompose.

Nora: Chop them up and just leave them in place.

Okay, so, we've got the leaves from the fall, we let them sit over the winter, what do we do in the spring with those leaves?

Chris: So you can leave some mulch or some leaves around the base of the plant which will act as some compost, and you can kind of mulch right over them.

If it's too heavy, you can feel free to pull some of the leaves off.

Nora: Okay, so you could just leave them in place and then re-mulch in the spring, they'll just decompose.

Chris: Exactly.

Nora: Okay, what's next.

Chris: So, protecting your shrubs and trees from deer, weather, etcetera.

So, first thing I'm gonna talk about is the boxwood, the Box tree moth has been devastating, especially in upstate, in Western New York, Upstate New York, and Canada.

So we recommend is this, BT Spray, you wanna apply this from middle of May until middle of September, about every two weeks is what we've been recommending.

And what that does is, there's a Box tree moth that came in from China into Canada, and kind of made its way down to our area, and it'll devastate these boxes within a couple of weeks.

So spraying is the best way to manage the insect infestation.

Nora: So, spraying, is that gonna help prevent the problem or is that going to just deal with it if you already have the pest?

Chris: So, it's more of a curative, but the key, the thing is you, they're gonna be there before you can really see them, so I spray preventatively, it's a pretty inexpensive spray.

And when you hit them, you wanna douse them so that it actually kind of goes into the plant, because it's such a thick canopy here.

Nora: Yeah, it's really dense, so you have to really get in there and really completely coat top and bottom, it's not just misting over the top.

Chris: Exactly, exactly.

Nora: And that'll help.

Chris: Yup, another way, another thing that we found successful with our customers is taking a high-pressure hose and hitting the plant, it'll knock out some brown leaves, but it'll also knock out the caterpillars and you'll be able to tell if you actually have them or not.

The first sign is webbing, but you see caterpillars, and you know, like spraying with a hose will knock them out, and then go through with a spray.

And the BT is organic, so it's pretty safe around pets, animals.

Nora: Okay, and then what would you say to people that don't want to spray anything or they're anti-spray, what would you do?

Chris: So, mechanically remove them, so you gotta just go in there and pluck them off and smush them, which is not the most graceful job, but it's the only option other than spraying.

Nora: Okay, okay, any plants that we can use in place of boxwoods if we want to avoid the problem altogether?

Chris: Absolutely, so you can do some Chamaecyparis, some cypress, that'll replace, some Taxus, although the deer tend to like those a little bit more.

What we found the best is a these Japanese holly.

So, these Japanese holly, they look very similar to the boxwoods.

Nora: Yeah, you see that, they're really similar.

Chris: And they're just a great plant, great form, they come in pure middles, so they can replace the pure middle boxwoods, as well as these, you know, rounded-shaped ones.

We've had really good success with them in our trials that we've done over wintering and have not been having a lot of browning issues.

But that kind of leads into our next area that I wanna talk about, is, how to protect evergreens through the winter.

So, one thing we like is this Wilt-Pruf, what this does is it protects the plant from drying out in the winter.

See, when we get some of that freeze thaw and it freezes, it can't get the moisture to the canopy, so, what this Wilt-Pruf does is it kind of holds the moisture into the plant.

So that's a good option to use, another option is actually burlapping the plant, so I just wanna show this a little bit.

You can do two different ways of burlapping.

One, you can kind of wrap the whole plant loosely, and that'll protect it.

Nora: Okay, that protects it from the wind.

Chris: Absolutely, yep.

So you can do that and then just kind of tie it, wire it, that will protect against wind and as well as deer, which is important, I'll talk about that a little in a little bit.

Another option is taking on the windward side and putting two stakes in the ground, and just creating like a little wall which will help, you know, kind of divert that wind away from the plant and keep it from drying up.

Nora: Chris, you mentioned the damage that the deer do in the fall and winter months, what can we do to protect some of our plants?

Chris: Absolutely, so we already talked about burlapping, which will protect against the deer as well.

You can use just a traditional deer fence, put some posts in the ground, it's pretty labor-intensive, so I know a lot of people don't like that as much.

Nora: And how high does that fence have to be?

Chris: So, I would go probably at least 6 ft, 4 to 6 ft, depending on how the plant is, you just wanna make sure you're covering the branches.

That's fruit trees, evergreens, like Aprodite and stuff like that.

The last thing you can do, that's, I think, the best is deer spray, and that's something that you'd probably have to hire a professional to spray.

It's not the same stuff you would buy at a garden center, this is a fungicide that stays in the plant for the whole winter.

Nora: Okay, and how does that work, how does that keep the deer away?

Chris: So, they don't like the taste of it, it tastes really bad, it's not harmful for pets, but they do not like the taste of it.

And the last thing I've talked about with deer are going to be like adding some tree guards to the trunks of deciduous trees.

Deer like to rub in the fall, so adding this will protect your tree bark from deer rubbing.

Nora: Okay, and that's what you see where it just wraps around the trunk of the tree?

Chris: Yup, exactly, exactly.

Nora: Okay, great.

So, we've got a lot of things here that we can do to get ready for the fall so that our plants have a better chance of surviving our tough Buffalo winters.

Nora: Thanks a lot, Chris.

Chris: Thank you.

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♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ Sylvia: I'm here with Lynn at your Northtown Garden Center, and Lynn, I have a lot of house plants that have been outside during the summer season.

So, tell me, what can I do with them now?

Lynn: Well, with any house plant, you wanna make sure that you are taking the proper precautions you need before bringing in the house.

You don't wanna just take your plant from outside and into the house right away, you wanna check your plants over, make sure that they are insect-free, check for any damage.

I like to go through, check all the nodes on the plants and make sure there's no insects.

If you do see any insects, you wanna make sure you treat your plant.

So, there's a couple of different products you can use, the first is an insecticidal soap.

Sylvia: And where would I buy that?

Lynn: We have them right here at Northtown Garden Center, and it's a great product from Bonide, and we use it, you just spray it right on the foliage of the plant, coat it, just to help with that insect damage on it.

Also, another product you can use is neem oil, neem oil has an added benefit, it takes care of insects but it also takes care of funguses.

So, if you have black spot, if you have powdery mildew on your plants, you can coat it in the neem oil to help take care of that also.

Another thing that is beneficial to your plants, when your plants are outside they're getting direct sunlight, so, when you bring it inside, it's gonna need all the help it can get.

There's a great product called Plant Shine, where you can clean the leaves of your plants.

You spray it on it, wipe it off, and it's just gonna help with letting your plant absorb as much sunlight from in your house as possible.

Sylvia: And tell me, what kind of material can I use to wipe it off?

Lynn: Just something nonabrasive, a paper towel or a washcloth, you just don't wanna damage the leaves of the plant, so something like that works great.

What you do wanna do, you wanna focus your plant on just maintaining itself throughout the winter, so you don't really wanna try and encourage new growth.

So, when I'm bringing this in, I wanna go through and, any bad leaves on my plant that aren't of good quality anymore, I wanna go in and I wanna prune off.

So I'm just gonna use my pruners, I wanna make sure they're nice and clean, nice and sharp, go through and just remove them.

Sylvia: And tell us, where do you cut exactly, what's the best spot?

Lynn: Well, depending on the plant, you always wanna try and cut by a node, which is where a new growth is coming out, or, with something like this, too, sometimes just right at the base where it hits the soil, it's all gonna depend on the type of plant that you have.

So, I'm just gonna go through and find any leaves that might be a little bit damaged, and just give a little snip just to take those off, I don't want to leave leaves on that I don't really want the plant focusing on when it's in the house.

So, something like that.

And then, another thing to look at is your root system on your plant.

So, as I said, you really want your plants to maintain throughout the winter, you're not really trying to encouraging it to grow new growth, so you wanna look at the root system.

So, like with this plant here, you can see the roots are coming up on it, they're very healthy, it's not overgrown, they're not wrapping around, so something like this is fine, you can leave it in its existing pot.

You don't want to try and re-pot a plant in the fall, you would rather do it in the spring, but sometimes you're going to encounter plants that need a little extra.

This here, my Scindapsus, you can kind of see the roots are coming right out of the pot.

When I pull this out.

Sylvia: Wow, really overgrown.

Lynn: It is just all over, yes, and they are all over and they look like spaghetti.

So, with something like this, I would wanna try and upgrade it into a little bit bigger-sized pot, not something huge, just up to an inch larger, no more than two inches larger.

Sylvia: So you're just trying to let it breathe.

Lynn: Yes, I'm just trying to let it breathe, let the roots have something to absorb into for nutrition.

With something like this, this is a handy tool, with any roots, when you're transplanting something, it's always good to score your roots.

So, give it a little cut, score them up so they break up so they can keep rejuvenating in the pot.

So, with something like this, I would just take some new potting soil, put it in there and just re-pot that into there just to give it a little bit more breathing room to grow.

Sylvia: Okay, great.

So, tell us, now, a little bit about other kinds of plants, because I have some that are small like this, but some other ones that are a lot more expansive.

What can you do with those?

Lynn: Well, some of the bigger plants that you have outside during summer, we have some beautiful patio trees that you might want to try and bring in for the winter.

So, with something like this, I want to take and I wanna prune this back.

I don't wanna have to focus all this energy on the blooms and new growth throughout the winter, so I wanna prune it back at the nodes.

And typically, with a plant like this, you wanna prune it back one-third to half the size of what it is.

Sylvia: Oh, okay, so I wanna make it smaller, okay.

Lynn: Yes, so I'm gonna go in and I'm gonna try and cut it at the node, which is right above a leaf area, and just cut that back.

When you're doing this, you can see, like this one here, you would not wanna cut this right here because you're just gonna end up with a stem, that really, it's just a waste of energy, so I'm just gonna cut it right at the base.

Sylvia: So, right at the base of that, okay, great.

Lynn: Right at the base.

So, one-third to a half, you would just kind of prune it to shape it.

When you do bring it in the house, same concept as the other plants, you wanna make sure you're putting them in the right environment.

So, when I bring it in the house, I wanna make sure it's not in the way of a fireplace or in the way of a heat vent, I don't want it touching the windows, I wanna make sure it's in an area where it can thrive.

The light conditions are also something you wanna take into consideration with the plant.

Something like this, it needs a lot of light, so if I can get some light into the area.

If I don't have a big window I can put it in front of, a great product is a grow light, to invest in.

So this is something that you can just put in your house, hang up, put it by your plants and it'll help give it some extra light that it needs just to thrive in your house.

Another plant I have here, Mandevillas, these are a very popular plant, very expensive plant, so you have to keep reinvesting in every year.

Same concept with this, I don't want to encourage it to keep growing throughout the winter, I just want it to maintain, so I'm going to take and I'm going to prune off at a node.

I'm just gonna, you can kind of see there's a trellis here, so all this is extra growth up here.

I want it, it's a very gorgeous, very healthy plant, but I don't wanna bring all this in, it's gonna make it too difficult for it to thrive in the house.

So, I'm gonna take this and I'm going to cut it at a node again, and I'm gonna cut it right above the node, so that that part will be done.

There goes one piece.

So, same with this one here, I'm gonna take it, I'm gonna cut it at a node, now it's a much more manageable plant.

So, this one here, too, I'm gonna cut it right off at that node.

So now we have a plant that is much simpler to bring into the house, it's not gonna take up as much effort to thrive throughout the winter.

Sylvia: And it still looks really pretty.

Lynn: And it's still a beautiful plant.

Sylvia: So, earlier you said that you have to be careful about where you put the plant, so it's not about putting it somewhere pretty in your house, it's about where it can thrive.

Lynn: Yes, you wanna make sure you're always taking into consideration your plants needs.

This is a great product, too, for if you notice your plants aren't thriving in the house, this is a soil monitor, a light tester, pH monitor, sunlight, so it can tell you why your plant is failing.

But same thing with any of these plants, when you bring these in, you just wanna make sure you're putting it in the best possible environment for the plant in the house, keep it away from, you know, drafty areas, fireplaces, don't have it touch the window.

You don't wanna try and damage any leaves.

Sylvia: Okay, and I can bring that, do that with every single one that I have outside that's a house plant and fill the house.

Lynn: Yes, you should be able for most, most all house plants you can bring in, even some annuals you can bring in.

Sylvia: Oh, okay.

Lynn: So, yeah, there's lots of different plants you can bring in, you just need to make sure you know how to maintain them, how to prep them to bring into the house.

Sylvia: Okay, fantastic.

Well, this is a great tip, thank you so much, I really appreciate finding out what I can do, now, with my house plants.

And Lynn, it's fantastic to be here at your garden center, thank you for these fantastic tips.

Lynn: Thank you for having us.

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Sylvia: Wow, we just found out a lot of really great tips.

Nora, what did you think?

Nora: I loved it, I think that there's a lot of things that we can do this fall no matter what kind of house we live in.

Sylvia: That's right, and I'm gonna try some of those tips.

Don't forget that a program like this is only made possible because of member support, your local WNED PBS station.

Nora, what did you think about being at these locations?

Nora: I loved it, that's what I love about gardening, is learning from other experts like those that work at Northtown and Lavocat's.

Sylvia: Fantastic, well, thank you, Nora, for joining us, we wouldn't have had such a great show without your expertise as well, and we thank you, as a viewer, please support us and we hope you enjoyed "Now We're Gardening LIVE!"

episode two.

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