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This Week In the Garden - 2022

2016 This Week In the Garden   2017 This Week In the Garden   2018 This Week In the Garden   2019 This Week In the Garden  
2020 This Week In the Garden   2021 This Week In the Garden    2023 This Week in the Garden

Encouraging Tree Feeder Root Growth

This week in the garden certified arborist Wes Hopper shows how to use a trowel or shovel to loosen the soil under a small tree to encourage feeder root growth.

Related Videos:
Planting a Tree
Effects of High Wind on Small Trees
Fertilizing Trees

Related Resources:
Tree Root Systems
Healthy Roots and Healthy Trees

Spring Tree Pruning

This week in the garden University of Memphis Director of Landscape Joellen Dimond shows how to prune a tree. She removes rubbing branches, branches that are growing into the center of the tree, and watershoots.

Related Videos:
How to Prune Shrubs
Tools for Pruning Trees
Disinfecting and Cleaning Garden Tools

Related Resources:
Tree Pruning Essentials
Pruning Landscape Trees

Refreshing Winter Annuals

This week in the Garden Kim Rucker, the greenhouse manager at Dixon Gallery and Gardens shows how to make annuals, in this case dusty miller look better after a long winter. She trims ragged looking branches at the base of the plant revealing new growth underneath.

Related Videos:
Planting the Dusty Millers
Pruning Flowering Annuals

Related Video:
Pruning Herbaceous Plant

Spray Patterns

This week in the garden Extension Agent Celeste Scott talks about spray patterns in home pump-up sprayers. The stream setting is useful for perimeter application or spraying high in trees. The mist setting is good for applying chemicals to plants where good coverage is necessary especially in dense foliage.

Related Videos:
Mixing and Applying Fungicide
Herbicide Basics
Pre-Emergent Herbicides

Related Resources:
Using Your Handheld Lawn and Garden Sprayer
Calibrating Hand-Held and Backpack Sprayers for Applying Pesticides
Calibrating Hand-Held Sprayers

Vole Proofing and Planting Hostas

Hosta expert Jim Crowder from Memphis Botanic Garden shows how plant a hosta and prevent vole damage. After preparing the soil Jim adds soil perfecter (crushed rock) to the planting hole and presses it against the side. He then plants the hosta on the rock bed and puts more perfecter over the root ball. The crushed rock keeps the voles from getting to the hosta pip.

Related Video:
Dividing and Potting Hostas
Hostas
Kinds of Mulch

Related Resources:
Hosta
Voles

Fertilizer Blends

This week in the garden Master Gardener Tom Mashour talks about fertilizer. He talks about which fertilizer to use on which vegetable. Leafy greens require a high nitrogen content fertilizer while root crops require more phosphorus and potassium.

Related Videos:
Fertilizer Basics
Garden Fertilizer Math

Related Resources:
Fertilizers
Fertilizing Your Vegetable Garden
Steps in Fertilizing Your Garden: Vegetables and Annual Flowers

Spraying Dormant Oil

This week in the garden retired UT extension agent Mike Dennison demonstrates how to apply dormant oil to a crape myrtle tree. This procedure is also applicable to other ornamentals and shrubs. Spray to the point of runoff. Dormant oil will tend to separate from the water in the sprayer tank so make sure you shake it regularly to keep it in suspension.  Do not spray less than 48 hours before a hard freeze. The water in the spray may freeze injuring the plant. As always read and follow label instructions for mixing and applying dormant oil.

Related Videos:
Horticulture Oils
Crape Myrtles
Treating Crape Myrtle Bark Scale

Related Resources:
Pest and Disease Control Using Horticultural Oils
Horticultural Oils – What a Gardener Needs to Know

Dividing Ogon

This week in the garden University of Memphis Director of Landscape Joellen Dimond shoes how to divide ogon “sweet flag.” Using a shovel, she digs up half the existing plant and replants it in a different place.

Related Videos:
Planting Shrubs in Wet Heavy Soils

Related Resources:
Discover Ogon shining among sweet flag grasses
Japanese Sweet Flag

How Did the Corn Do?

This week in the garden Retired UT Extension Agent Mike Dennison looks at how the corn did. He notes there was minimal insect damage, mainly from corn borers. Also, there was some pollination problems due to heat.

Related Videos:
Planting Corn
Corn

Related Resources:
Growing Sweet Corn in Home Gardens
Growing Home Garden Sweet Corn

Pruning Greenery For Winter

This week in the garden West Tennessee Research and Education Center Horticulturist Jason Reeves talks about pruning shrubs for use in winter greenery decorations. Prune by the trunk and reach into the plant, don’t just shear the surface.

Related Videos:
Build a Holiday Evergreen Display
Homegrown Greenery for Flower Arranging

Related Resources:
Pruning Shrubs
How To Prune Coniferous Evergreen Trees

Replanting Pansies the Deer Dug Up

This week in the garden UT Extension Agent Celeste Scott shows how to replant pansies that deer tried to eat and pulled out of the ground. As long as there are leaves left you can replant them and they should grow.

Related Videos: 
Nuisance Wildlife: Deer
Planting Pansies for Fall and Winter
How do I care for my winter pansies?
My pansies had blooms when I planted them. Now they don’t. Why?

Related Resources:
Reduce Deer Damage in Your Yard
Growing Pansies

Pruning a Water Sprout

This week in the garden certified arborist Wes Hopper shows how to remove a watersprout from a magnolia tree. Watersprouts grow when the tree is under stress. He shows how to remove the growth over two years or all at once.

Related Videos:
Pruning Tools Overview
Should I prune the Y in my tree

Related Resources:
Pruning Basics
A Guide to Successful Pruning Pruning Deciduous Trees

Moving Volunteer Flowers

This week in the garden UT Extension agent Joellen Dimond shows how to move some flowers that grew from seed from last year’s flowers. She moves them back into the container they came from.

Related Videos:
Notes - Volunteer Plants
Planting Summer Flowers

Related Resources: 
Plants Grown in Containers
Container Gardening
Container Gardens

Planting Garlic

This week in the garden Peter Richards shows how to plant garlic. Garlic is planted in the fall for an early summer harvest.

Related Videos: 
Garlic
Cleaning Garlic

Related Resources:
Growing garlic in home gardens
Garlic
Garlic Production for the Gardener

When to Compost and When to Trash

This week in the garden Peter Richards shows when you can compost plants out of your garden and when you should just throw them away. Healthy plants can be composted, but diseased or insect infested plant debris should be thrown in the trash.

Related Videos: 
Composting
Black Spot on Peppers

Related Resources:
Compost and Composting Resources
Home Composting: A Guide for Home Gardeners

Harvesting Sweet Potatoes

This week in the garden Peter Richards harvests sweet potatoes from the square foot garden. It is best to harvest sweet potatoes before the temperatures get too cold. Freezing temperatures can damage sweet potatoes in the ground. Left the potatoes up from the bottom to avoid damage.

Related Videos: 
Planting Sweet Potatoes
What has been eating my sweet potatoes?

Related Resources:
Growing Sweet Potatoes at Home
Sweet Potato

Protecting the Square Foot Garden from an Early Freeze

This week in the garden Peter Richards shows how he protected the square foot garden from an early freeze. He covered it with drop cloths and plastic. He also used water to release heat overnight. The garden survived the cold temperatures without any problems.

Related Videos: 
Winter Garden Vegetables
Starting a Square Foot Garden

Related Resources:
Protecting Your Garden from Frost   
Brrrr! How to Protect Plants from Frost or Freeze

When to Pick Eggplant

This week in the garden Peter Richards shows when to pick eggplant. Unlike other vegetables you want to pick it when it is still unripe. Once it looses its shine it is too late.

Related Videos: 
Planting Eggplant
Starting a Square Foot Garden

Related Resources:
Growing eggplant in home gardens
Home Garden Eggplant

Cleaning out the Cucumber Bed

This Week in the Garden retired MSU Extension Horticulture Specialist Lelia Kelly shows how to clean out the cucumber plot. She removes all the plants and then rakes the ground to collect all the leaves that have fallen off the plants over the growing season. Getting rid of the plants and leaves removes places for insects and disease to overwinter.

Related Videos: 
Growing Cucumbers
Training Cucumbers: String and Trellis
When to Pick Cucumbers

Related Resources:
Cucumber
Cucumber Production
Cucumbers

Late Season Canna Pruning

This week in the garden University of Memphis Director of Landscape Joellen Dimond shows how to prune cannas to improve their look late in the year. By late summer cannas look bad because the leaves have been growing all year and they have been eaten by bugs.

Related Videos: 
Dividing Cannas
Canna Insect Pests

Related Resources:
Cannas for the Home Landscape
Cannas in the Garden

Protecting Cabbage, Broccoli, and Cauliflower from Hungry Worms

This week in the garden Peter Richards shows how to apply the organic insecticide Bacillus thuringiensis (Bt) on brassicas (cabbage, broccoli, cauliflower) to protect them from the imported cabbage worm and the cabbage looper.

Related Videos: 
BT (Bacillus Thuringiensis)
Should I use BT preventatively or wait until I see caterpillars?

Related Resources:
Imported Cabbageworm
Cabbage Looper on Vegetables
Bacillus Thuringiensis
Home and Garden: Bacillus Thuringiensis

Preparing Blueberry Plants for Winter

This week in the garden Retired UT Extension, Agent Mike Dennison, gives some blueberry plants a fall check-up. To get them ready for winter he prunes off any dead branches. He does not fertilize. Fertilizer encourages new growth that would be killed by winter frosts.

Related Videos: 
Planting Blueberries
Keeping Blueberry Plants Small Enough

Related Resources: 
Blueberries in Home Gardens
Growing Blueberries in Your Home Garden

Cutting a Tree Branch

This week in the garden retired UT Extension Agent Mike Dennison shows how to correctly cut a branch off a tree. He shows how using two cuts at the right location keeps the bark from peeling and helps the tree heal.

Related Videos:
Should I use a pruning sealer
TWIG–Pruning Tools Overview

Related Resources: 
Pruning Trees and Shrubs
Pruning and Care of Tree wounds
Pruning Trees

Collecting Milkweed Seeds

In the fall milkweed seeds are easy to collect to plant for next year. University of Memphis Director of Landscape Joellen Dimond shows how to remove the seeds from the plant and clean them for storage for next year.

Related Videos: 
Aphids on Milkweed
Planting a Butterfly Garden

Related Resources:
Growing Potatoes in Home Gardens
Home Garden Potatoes

Hilling Potatoes

This week in the garden Peter Richards shows how to hill potatoes in the Family Plot square foot garden. It is a simple process where you just cover the small growing plant with soil. The potatoes will grow in the mound. Peter says to continue mounding as the plant grows until the hill is 10-12 inches high.

Related Videos: 
Growing Potatoes
Potatoes
Planting Potatoes

Related Resources:
Growing Potatoes in Home Gardens
Home Garden Potatoes

Pollinating tomatoes with an Electric Toothbrush

This week in the garden Alainia Hagerty, owner of tomatobaby.com, shows how to pollinate a tomato flower with an electric toothbrush. When temperatures get hot tomato pollen is less viable and flowers tend to not get pollinated. The vibration of an electric toothbrush moves the pollen within the flower. Vibrating the flowers every other day will keep your tomatoes loaded with fruit even when it is hot.

When to Pick Cucumbers

This week in the garden Peter Richards shows how cucumbers should be picked based on size. He explains that if you let cucumbers get too large, they will taste bitter had have large seeds. Experiment early in the season to find the ideal size to pick your cucumbers.

Related Videos: 
Cucumbers
Training Cucumbers: String and Trellis – Family Plot

Related Resources:
Harvesting Cucumbers
Growing Cucumbers in the Home Garden

Tomato Hornworms

This week in the garden UT Extension Agent Chris Cooper goes looking for tomato hornworms. He talks about how to find them and how to use BT to kill them.

Related Videos:
Where do tomato hornworms come from?
What are the white growths on hornworms?
Will tomato hornworms infect the soil?

Related Resources:
Tomato hornworms in home gardens
Tobacco/Tomato Hornworm - Vegetables

Identifying Spider Mites

This week in the garden UT Extension Agent Celeste Scott identifies spider mites on a baptisia plant. She shows how to use a piece of paper to identify them. She also talks about treatment options for a large shrub.

Related Videos: 
Systemic Insecticides
Horticultural Oils

Related Resources:
What is a systemic insecticide?
Spider Mites on Ornamentals

Unclogging Oscillating Sprinkler Nozzles

This week in the garden Horticulturist Jason Reeves shows how to unclog the nozzles in an oscillating sprinkler. Better quality sprinklers have a tool included, If your sprinkler does not have a clean out tool, you can use a pin.

Related Videos: 
Summer Lawn Watering
Hoses and Hot Water

Related Resources:
​Watering Lawns
Home Lawn Watering Guide
Summer Lawn Management: Watering the Lawn

Mulching Tomato Plants

This week in the Garden UT Extension Agent Chris Cooper mulches a tomato plant. A few inches of mulch will help to even out soil moisture and even out soil temperatures for the roots. This will help stop tomato cracking.

Related Videos: 
Splitting Tomatoes
Can I use pine needle mulch on tomatoes?
Kinds of Mulch

Related Resources:
Mulches for the Vegetable Garden
Mulches
What Causes Tomatoes to Crack?

Pulling Carrots

This week in the garden UT Extension Agent Chris Cooper shows how to tell if your carrots are ready to pull and shows how to pull them.

Check out our square foot gardening blog to see what is happening to these plants and others: https://www.familyplotgarden.com/square-foot-garden-blog

Related Videos: 
Harvesting Seed Heads from the Carrot Family
Will corn gluten control weeds in carrots?
Starting a Square Foot Garden

Related Resources:
Carrots in the Garden
How to Grow Carrots

Side-Dressing Corn

This week in the garden Retired UT Extension Agent Mike Dennison shows how to side-dress corn with nitrogen fertilizer. Corn requires a lot of nitrogen, but one side-dressing is enough for the growing season.

Related Videos:
Sidedressing Vegetables
What should you consider before starting a vegetable garden?

Related Resource:
Aphids in home yards and gardens
Tomato Insect IPM Guidelines

Spraying Bt on Cauliflower

This week in the garden Peter Richards shows how to spray Bt or bacillus thuringiensis on a cauliflower plant to kill the worms feeding on it. Bt will kill cabbage loopers and imported cabbage worms on cauliflower, cabbage, and broccoli.

Related Videos: 
BT (Bacillus Thuringiensis)
Cabbage

Related Resources:
Bt Basics for Vegetable Integrated Pest Management
Cabbage, Broccoli & Other Cole Crop Insect Pests

Planting Cantaloupe in the Square Foot Garden

This week in the garden UT Assistant Professor of Residential and Consumer Horticulture Natalie Bumgarner shows how to plant cantaloupe in a square foot garden.

Check out our square foot gardening blog to see what is happening to these plants and others: https://www.familyplotgarden.com/square-foot-garden-blog

Related Videos: 
When can I start cantaloupe and watermelons?
Watermelons In Raised Beds

Related Resources:
Cantaloupe (Muskmelon) in the Garden
Cantaloupe & Honeydew Melons

Nutrient-Deficient (Yellowing Leaves)
Pepper Fix

This week in the garden our peppers have yellowing leaves. This is probably caused by a nutrient deficiency of nitrogen. Chris Cooper recommends side dressing with a nitrogen fertilizer. The leaves should green up soon.

Related Videos:
Peppers
Black Spot on Peppers

Related Resources:
Fertilizing Vegetables
Lack of Nutrients - Vegetables
Soil Management and Fertilization

Planting Eggplant

This week in the garden UT Assistant Professor of Residential and Consumer Horticulture Natalie Bumgarner shows how to plant eggplant in the Family Plot square foot garden. Egg plant is planted one plant per square. Natalie plants it at the same depth it was growing in the container.

Check out our square foot gardening blog to see what is happening to these plants and others: https://www.familyplotgarden.com/square-foot-garden-blog

Related Videos: 
Starting a Square Foot Garden
Planting Peppers

Related Resources:
Growing eggplant in home gardens
Home Garden Eggplant

Reducing the Height of a Shrub

This week in the garden University of Memphis Director of Landscape Joellen Dimond shows how she reduces the height of a shrub with pruning. She also talks about how she selects the location of her cuts to encourage the plant to grow in certain directions.

Related Videos: 
How to Prune Shrubs
Apical Dominance

Related Resources:
Pruning Shrubs and Hedges
Basic Principles of Pruning Woody Plants

Planting Bush Beans in the Square Foot Garden

This week in the garden Peter Richards plants two varieties of bush beans in the square foot garden. In square foot gardening bush beans are planted nine plants to a square. He plants two varieties ‘Antigua’ and ‘Dulcina.’ These are part of this year’s University of Tennessee Home Vegetable Trials. At two week intervals he will plant additional squares to space out the harvest.

Check out our square foot gardening blog to see what is happening to these plants and others: https://www.familyplotgarden.com/square-foot-garden-blog

Related Videos: 
Beans
Planting Bush Beans

Related Resources:
Home Garden Green Beans
Beans
Growing Green Beans

Harvesting Radishes in the Square Foot Garden

This week in the garden Peter Richards harvests radishes. Radishes are fast growing and are one of the first vegetables you can pick in the garden.

Check out our square foot gardening blog to see what is happening to these plants and others: https://www.familyplotgarden.com/square-foot-garden-blog

Related Videos: 
When to Harvest Radishes
Thinning Radish in the Square Foot Garden

Related Resources:
Radishes in the Garden
Carrot, Beet, Radish & Parsnip
Vegetable Harvest and Storage

Pinching Coleus

This week in the garden Jill Maybry from Memphis Botanic Garden shows how to pinch off a coleus plant. Pinching coleus will make it bush out and fill in. You can also take the part you have pinched off and root it for another plant.

Related Videos: 
Landscape Flowers for the Heat
How to Prune Shrubs

Related Resources:
Coleus
Coleus

Fertilizing Onions

This week in the garden Peter Richards shows how to fertilize onions. Regular nitrogen fertilizer application will give the plants the nutrients they need to grow large and healthy tops. When it is time to bulb, the plants will pull the nutrients and sugars from the tops down into the bulbs.

Check out our square foot gardening blog to see what is happening to these plants and others: https://www.familyplotgarden.com/square-foot-garden-blog

Related Videos: 
Growing Onions
Starting a Square Foot Garden

Related Resources:
My Ash Tree Didn’t Leaf Out!
Diagnosing Poor Plant Health

How to Tell if a Plant is Dead if There are No Leaves

This week in the garden retired UT Extension Agent Mike Dennison shows how to see if a plant is dead by scraping off a small piece of bark.

Related Videos: 
How to Tell if Your Plant is Dead
Pruning Dead Floricanes from Blackberries

Related Resources:
My Ash Tree Didn’t Leaf Out!
Diagnosing Poor Plant Health

Thinning Radish in the Square Foot Garden

Peter Richards shows how to radishes square foot garden. The plants were planted with 2 seeds in each space so they need to be thinned. peter used scissors so he does not disturb the plan that is being allowed to grow.

Check out our square foot gardening blog to see what is happening to these plants and others: https://www.familyplotgarden.com/square-foot-garden-blog

Related Videos: 
When to Harvest Radishes
Starting a Square Foot Garden

Related Resources:
Radishes in the Home Garden
Growing Radishes

Planting Cauliflower in the Square Foot Garden

UT Extension Agent Chris Cooper shows how to transplant cauliflower in the square foot garden.

Check out our square foot gardening blog to see what is happening to these plants and others: https://www.familyplotgarden.com/square-foot-garden-blog

Related Videos: 
Starting a Square Foot Garden
Planting Cabbage, Broccoli and Cauliflower

Related Resources:
Growing Cauliflower
How to Grow Cauliflower
  2016 This Week In the Garden   2017 This Week In the Garden   2018 This Week In the Garden   2019 This Week In the Garden  
2020 This Week In the Garden   2021 This Week In the Garden   2022 This Week in the Garden
Website Copyright 2025 Family Plot Garden
Content Copyright 2015-2025 Family Plot Garden & Mid-South Public Communications Foundation

  • Home
  • Watch
    • TV Schedule
    • Full Episodes Online
    • How-to and Informational
    • Questions and Answers
    • This Week in the Garden
    • Garden Notes
  • Garden Topic Collections
    • Apple Trees: How-to and Information
    • Peach Trees: How-to and Information
    • Tomatoes: How-to and Information
    • Square Foot Garden Blog
  • Resources
    • Soil Testing
    • Extension Publications
    • Gardening Resources
    • Blogs
    • Organic Gardening
    • Articles
    • Privacy
  • Guests
  • Contact Us
    • Ask a Gardening Gardening Question
  • Search