The Garden Thyme Podcast

A monthly podcast where we help you get down and dirty in your garden, with timely gardening tips, information about native plants, and more! The Garden Thyme Podcast is brought to you by the University of Maryland Extension. https://extension.umd.edu/. This institution is an equal opportunity provider.

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The Garden Thyme Podcast

S3:E03 Spring Weeds

March 04, 2022 • Garden Thyme Podcast • Season 3 • Episode 3

Hello Listener,

How do I control weeds is probably one of the most common questions we get. So in this month's episode, we are chatting all about spring weeds. What is a Weed? Which ones are our favorites? What's the difference between a typical weed, an invasive plant, and a Noxious Weed?

We also have our:

Native Plant of the Month ( Golden Ragwort) at 49:00
Garden Tips of the Month at 33:00
Bug of the Month (Carpenter Bees) at 33:10

To learn more about Maryland Noxious Weeds, check out the Maryland Noxious Weed I.D. guide.

Plant Invaders of the Mid-Atlantic is a great guide and resource for helping understand invasive plant biology and control methods. Some extension offices have these available in print.

If you have any garden-related questions, please email us at UMEGardenPodcast@gmail.com or look us up on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/GardenThymePodcas. For more information about UME and these topics, please check out the UME Home and Garden Information Center and Maryland Grows Blog at https://marylandgrows.umd.edu/.

The Garden Thyme Podcast is brought to you by the University of Maryland Extension. Hosts are Mikaela Boley- Senior Agent Associate (Talbot County) for Horticulture, Rachel Rhodes- Agent Associate for Horticulture (Queen Anne's County), and Emily Zobel-Senior Agent Associate for Agriculture (Dorchester County).

Theme Song: By Jason Inc

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The Garden Thyme Podcast is brought to you by the University of Maryland Extension. Hosts are Mikaela Boley- Principal Agent Associate (Talbot County) for Horticulture; Rachel Rhodes- Senior Agent Associate for Horticulture (Queen Anne's County); and Emily Zobel- Senior Agent Associate for Agriculture (Dorchester County).

Theme Song: By Jason Inc,

Garden Thyme Podcast Transcript: S3:E03 Spring Weeds

Note: The Garden Thyme Podcast is produced for the ear and is designed to be heard. If you are able, we strongly encourage you to listen to the audio, which includes emotion and emphasis that's not on the page. Transcripts are generated using a combination of speech recognition software and human transcribers, and may contain errors.

:Up Beat Music:

Rachel

Hello, listener. Welcome to the University of Maryland Extension Present, the Garden Thyme podcast, where we talk about getting down and dirty in your garden. We're your host. I'm Rachel.

Mikaela

I'm Mikaela.

Emily

And I'm Emily.

Mikaela

And this month we are talking about spring weeds and invasive plants.

:Up beat music:

Mikaela

Probably our number one question would involve weeds in general, I'd say across the entire year, wouldn't you guys say?

Rachel

Oh, 100%. And it starts as soon as chickweed starts to take over along.

Mikaela

And now that we're getting more mild winters, I feel like there is no off season anymore. So there's even winter weeds, but I think they're kind of now bleeding into the spring weed list as well.

Rachel

I completely agree with that. Yeah. There are just some that just never go away anymore.

Mikaela

That's right. So one of the questions I think people should ask themselves is what is a weed? And I ask this because it's kind of a philosophical question. It depends on who you are and your different thresholds for tolerance when it comes to plants growing in the wrong place. So weed is not in reference to marijuana. It is a term that is loosely used to describe plants growing in areas where they are unwanted. So it's kind of an open ended definition. But this could mean the weed is native, non native, invasive, non invasive. It could be anything. So what are some common species that you would find in a spring lawn area? And I say lawn because that's mostly where people worry about controlling weeds. But of course they also can be in garden beds as well,

Emily

or containers.I have a whole container that my tulips are in that's like dandelions and tulips together.And I love it, it's so cute.

Mikaela

Or the cracks in your sidewalk. That's where all my chickweed resides. Groundsel is mostly a common winter weed, and it's kind of dying out by the time spring comes around. But you will see evidence still of it in spring. Dead nettle is another really common one, and I'll let Rachel talk about that in a little bit because I know she loves dead nettle. It's her favorite spring weed. And by the way, we do have favorite spring weeds. So hold on, it's going to get exciting.

Rachel

You know, one of my favorite thing to do is to take pictures of spring weeds.

Mikaela

Yes, because they're like the first things kind of growing and blooming come out. And so there's another species that's very similar to dead nettle called henbit. Chickweed is a very common one, which is actually an edible type of weed. A lot of people use it in salads.

Emily

I did not know that.

Mikaela

Yeah, but I say that with a caveat. Of course you don't want to harvest anything you're going to eat in areas where you have applied a lot of fertilizers or fertilizers not rated for food consumption or herbicides or anything like that. So you want to make sure it's a fresh source. Annual bluegrass is another really common one. This is a grass that is very deceiving because it looks like turf grass, but it greens up a lot more quickly in the spring. And it usually beats out tall fescue and Kentucky bluegrass. So it makes you think that your turf is starting to grow. But it's actually an annual weed that is not a desirable species of grass. There's hairy bittercress, which is one of my favorites. Speedwell or Veronica is another name for it, wild onions or wild garlic. And of course, most people can identify that easily because the first mowing of the season, you'll be able to smell them very clearly. And then, of course, dandelions, which I'll let Emily talk more about. It's her favorite spring weed.

Rachel

One of the weeds that I absolutely love to pull out that you didn't mention here is nutsedge. I love to get it right after it rains and try to get that little bulb out because I have a nut sedge problem in one of my flower beds, and it's one of those that I'm just like. It's so satisfying to get it out of the ground.

Mikaela

It is satisfying because it's easy to pull. So that's the good news. Although it is a very annoying weed, especially in wet areas. So Nutsedge is going to be in wetter spots. You will not find that in dry shade.

Rachel

No.

Mikaela

So, Rachel, what is it that you like about dead nettle?

Rachel

Oh, my God. What is it that I don't like about dead nettle? I mean, I find this spring weed just so beautiful, especially in areas like rural areas where it's a no till field and you just see a whole field that's just purple. I love how beautiful it is, especially in the golden hour of morning or the golden hour of night. There's just something about this weed where I'm just like, this is so beautiful. But purple dead nettle, it is considered a weed, and it does originate from Europe and Asia. It's really low growing, but it is a great wildlife plant for our bees, our early spring bees. And if you look at the little tiny purple flower under a hand lens, you can almost see like a runway or landing pad for bees. And I think that's just so incredible that a plant has developed in this way to be a pollinator plant, to say, hey, bee, look, come land here. I got some good stuff for you.

Emily

I love watching bumblebees try to feed on these, because these are one that bumblebees like, but they're just so, like, big, and the flower is so small.

Rachel

So it's like, yes, I can't get in there.

Emily

Yeah, I sort of love it. Yeah, I'll go out and sit in the springtime and just sit and watch the bumblebees on these guys. But if I could get rid of all my turf rats and replace it with this stuff, I probably would. So this would not be a weed for me in any way, shape or form because I love that purple tinfetti.

Rachel

Gift in the springtime. And it's not too high of a growing plant. It's pretty low, probably like that four to six inch range. And I love how the very top leaves are that deep purple and it slowly, gradually goes to green. Now most people think that when you see a weed, the soil isn't really fertile, it's poor soil, but purple dead nettle really prefers to be in fertile soil. So that's one of those things where, hey, it's not really completely true that weeds only like poor soil. And it really loves that really cool spring weather. So this is going to be one of the first weeds that you see in the spring. And that's why I love it.

Mikaela

Well, back in the day when I kept honeybees, I could always tell that they were harvesting pollen from dead nettle because they would come back and the pollen on their back legs would be like red. It would be like bright red or purplish. And I'm pretty sure it's coming from dead nettle because I don't know what else would have been in bloom at that time.

Emily

Purple pollen.

Mikaela

Yeah, it's really pretty. And both dead nettle and henbit, they both belong to the family, the mint family. So Lamiaceae is kind of the family name, but they're both going to have those square stems that are characteristic of being a Mint. So that's kind of one way to identify them if the color doesn't absolutely give them away, which I think it will. And the time of year.

Rachel

Yeah. And henbit leaves are different than purple dead nettle. Purple dead nettle has more of a triangular leaf, and hen bent usually has more of a rounded leaf. And henbit usually doesn't get that dark purple top either. The flower will be purple, but the leaves are not going to be purple.

Mikaela

Harry bittercrest is my favorite. And this is a member of the mustard family. And it's a weed that germinates usually, or starts to germinate in the fall. So it is both a winter weed, but it really starts to come into its own when we have the warmer spring temperatures coming. So they start with these basil leaves, and it's called a basil weed because they all start growing. All those leaves start growing from one point at the ground. And the leaves are very heavily lobed, and that's usually an easy way to tell what they are. But the leaves will start to change shape as the plant starts to bolt. So as it starts to develop its flower and its seed, it puts less energy into the leaves and so they can look really, really different. So that's why weeds can be really confusing to identify, because they do that change. And our habits of mowing the weeds can kind of delay that process because we're usually cutting off the flower or the seed head, so it might continue to have more of that vegetative growth. But the Hairy bittercress flowers will have the four flower petals that belong to the mustard family.

Mikaela

They're very tiny white flowers. I think it's also called like, salt and pepper weed or something, just because it does look like salt and pepper. But when those seed pods mature, this is my favorite part, they will explode if you touch them. So the idea is that you want to get these weeds out before you get to that seed point, because not only does it fling seeds everywhere, and it kind of negates pulling the weed out of the ground, but it also will smack you right in the eye. Those seeds are really tiny, and they explode. And I inevitably get a seed in my eye every year. So wear glasses or some kind of protective eyewear when weeding. But that's probably why Hairy bittercress is my favorite, is because it has projectile seed pods. It's really a great evolutionary trait if you think about it, like flinging yourself or your progeny as far as you can to ensure that your genetic line continues. We don't recommend that for humans.

Rachel

No. So, Emily, what is your favorite spring weed?

Emily

So, my favorite spring weed is the dandelion. I just love that little pop of yellow in the springtime. My front yard is really gross wiregrass, so it doesn't start to green up until end of spring. So for me, dandelions are that first pop of color that I really get in my yard, and they are an amazing actual food source for a lot of our early season pollinators as well. And again, it's a lot of those tiny, small bees. So it's those sweat bees, the cuckoo bees, it's the flower flies and all those tiny little ones that can get in there for that nectar source. And then, of course, they make that token little, like, poof ball that you get to blow. So there's an activity involved with them, and I actually recently found out, or I've known for a while that they've been edible, but I actually found recipes on how to actually use the greens and everything else. And last year, I actually fried dandelion flowers up, and they were actually pretty good.

Rachel

Oh, my God. When I was growing up, my grandfather used to make dandelion wine.

Emily

Yeah, that's a really common thing that I've heard of a lot of people making. I haven't tried that yet. Maybe this year I'll try to scalvage up some dandelions. I think of it like after the case. So last year, I just happened to still have some dandelions out.

Mikaela

Theres a lot of people who love using the leaves for salads. I actually had one person, this is the only call ever that I've had about dandelions, where he was complaining that the leaves were not big enough. And what was it about the weather this year that was affecting the growth of the dandelions. He was very upset that he was only getting puny leaves for his salads, and I just did not know what to say. I really don't.

Rachel

Oh, wow.

Mikaela

Usually it's the opposite. People are trying to get rid of their dandelions, so I don't know.

Emily

So some fun facts about dandelions is they also just like dead nettle are not native to North America. They are native to eurasia. But you can find them all across North America up to about zone three. And one of the reasons why it's so hard to kill them is that they have that really deep tap root. These are perennial, and that tap root can go two or 3ft down into the ground. So even if you pull off the flower or you pull off the leaves, that tap root can store enough stuff to put up some more shoots later on.

Rachel

Yeah, that's where that weed tool with this looks like the snake tongue comes really into play after rains. Just pop it out if you don't like.

Emily

Yeah. And they're a great example of a plant that likes to live in loss of habitats. Like, they like moist, full sun areas, but they're more than happy to live in the shade and in dry conditions.

Rachel

Very true.

Mikaela

Super tough. Again, you don't want to harvest from areas that are like waste sites or roadsides or anything that could have contaminants in them.

Rachel

If you don't know how it's been grown, then don't harvest it.

Emily

Yeah. Also, if you're allergic to latex, skip on dandelion, because their sap does contain latex in it as well.

Rachel

Oh, that's a fun fact.

Mikaela

I like that little fact. Keep that in my backpack. So, in comparison, weeds can be very loosely defined as a plant. But in comparison, we also have what are called noxious weeds. And Rachel, do you want to tell us a little bit more of what makes a weed noxious and what makes it so different than all the weeds we just talked about?

Rachel

Oh, yeah, I like some noxious weeds.

Mikaela

I knew you would.

Rachel

All right. So a noxious weed is a legal term, and that has been designated by either federal, state, or county government as being injurious to public health, agriculture, recreation, wildlife, and or property. So these weeds are really competitive, incredibly persistent, and pernicious. Legally, they must be removed or eliminated from property, according to your state department of agriculture. And you can also check USDA. That's United States Department of Agriculture website. And for landowners, these weeds need to be eradicated by either controlled and mowing, cultivating or the use of herbicides. And they are very specific in the state of Maryland. And we have eight. We have Johnson grass, shattercane, Palmer amaranth, common waterhemp, Canada thistle, musk thistle, plumeless thistle, and bull thistle. So these weeds are really noxious and invasive. They're nasty, and they're not good to have on your property. And they really do have a very strong urge for competitiveness in our environment.

Mikaela

Now, I don't think any on those lists are necessarily considered injurious to public health, but one example of something that would be is a few years ago, giant hogweed was in the news about because it has this very noxious sap. I mean, if you get it on your skin, it causes severe burns. It can cause blindness if you get it in your eyes. So that is considered a federally noxious weed. And that is something that is categorized by those really intense symptoms that you get when you contact the sap. So that's why it's considered injurious to public health. So that's why it's made the list. All of these are mostly detrimental to the agricultural industry, but you wouldn't want these on your property anyways just because of their intense habits. I was going to say. So there's a third definition of types of weeds, or a third definition we're going to cover, which is actually invasive plants. So those are also different from both noxious weeds and sort of regular weeds. And I don't know if Emily wants to take this or if you want me to talk about it.

Emily

Yeah, I can do it. So invasive plants are non native species that are introduced into the environment where they did not evolve, and they cause significant and sometimes damaging changes to the vegetation composition, structure and ecosystem of those environments. So we recommend checking your state's Department of AG or Department of the Environment or Natural Resources website to see if there's a list for your state. We also have a list for Maryland, the University of Maryland's Home and Garden Information Center, which is pretty comprehensive about invasive species in the area.

Mikaela

And Maryland also has a Maryland Invasive Species Council, which is very helpful in providing some updates, news and resources. Now, they cover not only terrestrial plants, but aquatic invasive plants, insects and vertebrates as well.

Emily

There's also a really good book called Plant Invaders of the Mid Atlantic, which has a lot of information and pictures of species that would be considered invasive plants for the Mid Atlantic region. And I think there are so many invasive plants, we could probably do a whole episode on them, and we probably will at some point, so stay tuned for that. But I think the more important thing is once you know something's invasive is how do you effectively control it?

Rachel

That's a great question, and it's probably.

Mikaela

The question people are most concerned about. They're not asking us what our favorite weeds are. They're probably asking, I have this weed now, how do I get rid of it?

Rachel

Yes, completely.

Mikaela

Emily can probably talk a little bit more about using IPM as a method of kind of different steps of control, but there are different options. There's a lot of different methods for herbaceous weeds. There's pre emergence, which are pretty common, usually under the trade name preen, or it's in a turf mix or a turf seeding mix, a weed and feed, so to speak. But those pre emergence take a little bit of planning. It takes understanding of when you know the weed is going to be germinating. You have to make sure that it's not going to inhibit the growth of any grass seed that you're also throwing down or seed of other kinds. And there's a very common method, the post immersion herbicides, so that's when you have the weed already growing and you're using some kind of herbicide to control its growth, to kill it, and then of course, there's always good old fashioned manual removal like pulling. I don't know a single person on this planet who hasn't had to pull a weed of some kind. So there are a lot of different methods and I'll let you guys talk a little bit more about those.

Emily

So I think it's important to remember that if you are using an herbicide, whether it's a pre emergence, a post emergence, a conventional one, or an organic one, you always should read the label. The label is the law and that label is going to tell you what you can use it on, how to use it, what quantities to use it, does it need to be mixed with water, do you need to have gloves on when you're applying it, do you need to have eyewear on when you're applying it? And I know that the labels are really small. So what we recommend doing is going to your good friend Google and typing in that name right into your Google search engine and put Label. And you will find a PDF of that label that is legible. And you can read all this information so that you know how to properly use this chemical in a way that makes it safe for you, your family, your pets and the environment.

Rachel

That's very, very important, especially when you're applying a herbicide or a pesticide in general.

Mikaela

And not that we want to make this episode entirely about pesticides, but another good reminder is that this time of year, March, we can still get some cold weather and that really makes those herbicides ineffective if the temperatures are in a certain range. So if night temperatures still fall below 40 degrees, or when you're applying during the day, if the temperature isn't 53 or above, we don't recommend using them and certainly don't use them in your flip flops or shorts or inadequate PPE.

Rachel

I think it's really important to mention as well, like you mentioned, the temperature our weather is. So iffy in the mid Atlantic for March and April, I mean, you could apply a herbicide on a 50 deg day, the next day it could be snowing and you could have runoff from that herbicide into our local waterways or just in areas that you really don't want it to be. So you really have to be cognizant of what your week looks like environmentally.

Emily

But again, you would just want to read that label because there are some of these herbicides that once they're dry, they don't become any effective and their ability to run off is basically nil. So that's where reading that label really comes in handy. You can also do the good old fashioned pulling, cutting, hacking, weeding. There's lots of cool tools that you can help to do this with. I personally, particularly if you have large areas of weeds, in my case like wiregrass, I'm smothering that stuff. I'm smothering it with some cardboard and some mulch. You can put a giant tarp over it, particularly this works better when it gets into the summertime, but you can tarp stuff and kill weeds out using what we call solarization.

Mikaela

So with woody plants, your control methods are a little bit different or they're a little bit more specific. So even though we may recommend an herbicide, it isn't mass spring like it would be for something else like more of the herbaceous material. So cut stump treatment is one thing you can do, which is where you're cutting a woody plant off at the base. Now this could be a vine like English ivy or Japanese honeysuckle or it could be something larger, more shrub like. And so once you cut that item back, you want to use an herbicide directly on the base of that plant that is rated for use on that species. Now I've in the past used like a blue dye so that I can identify what stumps I've already painted with herbicides, so I don't have to keep going back and questioning it. But it's usually easy to do them both at the same time. So you're doing your cut and then you're painting over the stump right away and then you move on to the next thing.

Rachel

I was going to mention that when you're doing the cut stump treatment that you want to make sure that you leave a pretty big gap in between where you cut and where the other part of the plant is so they don't have that chance to try to grow back together.

Mikaela

And since you reminded me of that, like if you're cutting English ivy vine off of a tree trunk that you're trying to save, try not to cut into the tree trunk itself. Try to cut just the vine and paint just the vine because you can damage the trees that way. But there are a lot of other methods like hack and squirt, which is a good method for invasive trees that you may not necessarily be able to cut down but you still want to kill. So it sort of girdles the tree by using a hatchet. Literally. You hack into the bark at the base of the tree and then you squirt herbicide into those hack marks that will actually kill the cambium inside. So this is a great method if you have Tree of Heaven, which I know has been in the news a lot because of the spotted lantern fly so this is a great time of year for using cut stump treatment, hack and squirt or even just a physical puller. So you're using a lever in good old fashioned physics to pull those small trees out of the ground and trying to get as much of the root as possible.

Rachel

Those are really great methods.

Mikaela

Mikaela yeah, I spent a lot of time with the National Park Service doing this for invasive trees, so unfortunately I know a lot about it I like.

Rachel

The cut stump trees, I do.

Mikaela

And it's really handy because at least the cut stump and hack and squirt, they don't take a lot of time. They're pretty easy and pretty quick. And so I'm not going to mention all the invasive plant species because, like Emily said we could spend a whole day on this topic, but some invasive plant species that are really great to control in March or to look for and spot treat is English Ivy, and that is because it is. Evergreen. So even though you can do foliar sprays with English Ivy, it is less recommended because Ivy it has such a waxy leaf surface and it's really hard to penetrate that leaf surface to actually kill the leaf or kill the chlorophyll inside. So instead, we're recommending that Cut Stump treatment. Or that Cut Vine treatment. You cut and then you spray or paint. I actually recommend painting because it's more located with herbicide. You can also pull and dig it up. But I don't know if I really recommend that, because, number one, it's super labor intensive. Those pieces of root are really intense. They're very woody, very stuck in, and any pieces left in the soil can just generate more ivy growth.

Mikaela

So it's not my generally recommended technique. Now, on the other hand, so we also have another invasive vine called Japanese honeysuckle. Now, this is much, much more common than native honeysuckle. In fact, you're less likely to find native honeysuckle in the landscape. So this has a variable leaf shape and they're semi evergreen, so they will hold on to many of their leaves in the winter. It's a very light colored vine and it is smooth, it doesn't have any hairs on it like the English ivy does. And the younger leaves can have a heavily toothed margin. So it can be very confusing because the older leaves are simple in shape and they don't have any tooth margin. But all the leaves are in opposite leaf arrangement so that can help you identify them. And again, this is a species that I would use cut vine treatment. Or you could resort to pulling it's a little bit more effective for Japanese honeysuckle rather than English ivy. But cut vine treatment is really helpful. If you have a super thick vine or a vine that is going up into a tree canopy, you don't want to pull those vines out of the tree canopy or off the tree bark because it can actually damage the tree itself.

Mikaela

And then the last species I'm going to mention for control this time of year is Amur or Bush honeysuckle. And this is pretty widespread on the Eastern Shore and in other kind of wettered areas. This is a very common multistemmed kind of shrub. Again, it has very light colored bark, it has kind of an exfoliating bark in the older trunks, but the leaves emerge really early. They actually almost start in March and it's one of the few shrubs that are emerging that early. And they are also opposite leaf arrangement. And now you can't tell this time of year, but they do get very fragrant white flowers that look just like honeysuckle flowers and then they get a red berry later in the year. So that might be worth investigating and make sure that you identify properly your amer honeysuckle and then market for treatment next year or actually any time of year. You can cut invasive plants any time of year, but this is something you can also use the cut stump treatment or the hack and squirt method depending on how big it is. And those are just some of the methods that I recommend for controlling invasives.

Mikaela

This is a nice time of year because you don't have the bugs quite yet, you don't have the ticks quite yet and temperatures aren't super hot. So I like to do my invasive plant work this time of year so I don't get so tired out. It's the native plant of the month with Mikaela. So my native plant of the month is Packera aurea, or also known as golden ragwort, and it also goes by the name Groundsel. But since we're on the topic of invasive plants, although I don't classify many native plants as invasive, I usually refer to them as aggressive. People have argued with me that this plant is sort of invasive, but when you're battling invasive plants and trying to replace them with more native desirable vegetation, you might need an aggressive native plant to fight fire with fire. So this is a particularly good option when battling areas overtaken by other invasive plants such as Japanese stiltgrass. And this is an example I use in particular because they both are in the same kind of habitat, so moist to wet woodland areas. So golden ragwort is one of those types of plant. It's an extremely versatile plant.

Mikaela

So that kind of puts it into the category of invasive because it's very adaptable and very voracious in its growth habits. So it really favors those moist, shady areas with rich soils. Although it can grow in many different kind of soil types. Great in woodland gardens, along streams and ponds, kind of in naturalized garden beds, native plant gardens, rain gardens, bordering fences, walkways. It has a lot of versatility. It's not a very tall plant. In fact, it. Acts as kind of a great ground cover that spreads easily and quickly in areas with medium to wet soils. It only reaches about two and a half feet tall, but half of that height is actually the flower stems, so the leaves themselves are a little bit more basil is what we call them. So they grow from the base, and it can grow in full sun to full shade. And it has kind of these roundish leaves with tooth margins, and the undersides actually have kind of a purple color to them. It's really pretty. And the foliage is semi evergreen in areas with mild winters. So I have parts of my property where the foliage is still there.

Mikaela

It doesn't seem to be affected by the snow or the ice that we've had. And it's kind of in a sheltered area, though, so that might be the difference. So starting in march and going into april, the yellow flowers will bloom. And this is a flower that's in the asteraceae family. So it attracts a lot of pollinators as an early season nutrient source. And that's things we like to have because when the insects start waking up with all of this warmer temperatures and weather, we want to make sure that there's something there for them to eat and to forage from because they're coming out of diapause, they're going to be really hungry. It's really essential for them to have an early season nutrient source. So primarily spreads by seeds, although it does spread vegetatively by roots. To help control the population. You can cut down the flower stalks before they go to seed. So these are seed heads that get a very fluffy seed to them. They have what's called a pappus, and that's just a characteristic of things in the astor family. And that pappus is really good at carrying seeds long distances. So cut them down before they go to seed if you don't want them to spread.

Mikaela

So while it's a great plant, don't say I didn't warn you about the enthusiastic growth. I don't want anybody coming back and being like, Mikaela told me to plant this, and now I'm super upset because it's everywhere.

Emily

That is a really neat native plant.

Mikaela

It is. I do like it in the right areas, but I can see why people might not.

Rachel

I think it's a beautiful plant. I think so, too, but what plant don't? I think it's beautiful.

Mikaela

Besides boxwood, it actually looks a little bit like a lot of dandelion flowers altogether, just smaller.

Rachel

It's a really, really pretty native plant of the month. Get your tip of the month here with Rachel. All right, so it's time for our tip of the month, and I feel like I say this every month, and Emily probably cuts it out, but I love march because it's nice and cool, and I can really start working in my vegetable garden. Sowing those spring seeds of spinach, lettuce, arugula, and other salad greens in my cold frame or directly in the garden beds under some floating row covers. And if you haven't had a chance to make some floating row cover hoops, it's a really good time to do that as well. I usually get some wire and some PVC pipe and some pool noodles. So I like to take some PVC, like little tiny pieces of PVC, and then put some flexible wire in one end and put another piece of PVC on the other end and make a little mini hoop house. But then on top of the wire I put a pool noodle just to give a little mini hoop house for my floating row cover for my spring cold weather crops. And floating row covers are great material for letting in air, light and water, but they offer some protection from frost and exclude some insects and bigger critters.

Rachel

So, like we were talking earlier, our weather in the MidAtlantic can be kind of iffy. So we might have a really warm day that's going to encourage growth, and we might have some really cold days. So floating row covers are great for protecting on those days when the weather is not so optimal. It's a great time to start your eggplant and pepper seeds. If you didn't start those in February, you want to start them now. Broccoli and cabbage should be started as well, indoors, under grow lights if you have them. And they need to be ready to be planted outdoors in six to eight weeks. So that means you're aiming for the end of April to have those outside and in the ground. If you haven't put up your trellises and teepees for your peas and your pole beans or your other climbers, the end of March is a great time to do that. I like to put them up before I plant because I want to make sure that I'm not damaging the roots of tender plants if I put them up too late and the plants have already started growing.

Mikaela

Okay, Rachel, so I have a specific question for you. So I read that there are some species of peppers that should be started earlier than others. Is there a reasoning for that?

Rachel

I feel like peppers are one of those things that if you can buy them as a transplant, you probably should if you are not an expert, but as a beginner gardener. Peppers are one of those seeds that can be discouraging because they take so long to germinate. And that's because usually our houses aren't the optimal grow environment for starting pepper seeds. They really do need the heat mat, they really do need grow lights, and they need ventilation, so they need a fan on them to make sure they're not leggy. So if you have that set up, then you're going to be fine. If not, then you're going to have a hard time. And one of my favorite varieties of peppers to grow is the Jimmy Nardello. They're a sweet pepper, but they're long and skinny. They kind of look like a banana pepper. They have this really deep red color with green streaks. They're a beautiful pepper, but they take an extremely long time to germinate the reasoning behind why some take longer? It could be environment number one, or it could be maybe this is an heirloom variety versus not an heirloom variety. I'm not really sure.

Mikaela

Well, no, thanks for that because Fletcher and I are doing a trial garden for peppers this year.

Rachel

Oh, fun.

Mikaela

Well, she looked through the catalogs and she kept saying she wanted all the pretty peppers. So we're doing a trial garden, and for some reason it said to start the hot pepper, like super hot peppers earlier than the non hot peppers. I'm not sure why. So I was just wondering why that would be.

Rachel

And I think it's really pertinent to say that. If you want to start seeds, check with your local library to see if they have a seed library started. Check with your local master gardener program to see if they're having any seed swaps. And also go to your stores now and get them because seeds are increasingly hard to find, especially if you're looking for unique varieties. If you're really interested in learning how to start seeds, Mikaela, Emily and I did a really good episode in March 2020 on starting seeds, so check that out.

Mikaela

Thanks, Rachel. Those are good tips. I know it sometimes feels like you repeat tips, but honestly, I need reminding all the time, so even when you repeat them, I feel like it's extremely useful for me. What buzzing is the bug of the month with Emily.

Emily

So this month's bug of the month is carpenter bees. And I know this is a native species that we tend to get a few calls about, particularly in the springtime, late March, early April, when people start to notice them coming out, because they have this weird habit of building nests in deadwood, particularly those that are found in railings. For the most part, they are not aggressive, but due to their large size, people often do notice them. The male bees also have this habit of nest gardening, so sometimes they kind of like buzz around your head. But since they're males, they don't have a stinger, so they're fairly harmless in that respect. So these guys are important pollinators and they do not eat wood, but rather they feed on the nectar and pollen of flowers. So the process of boring the holes is not for food, but rather to make a nest for the young. The eastern carpenter bee is the most common one people encounter, and it's again, a fairly large bee at about three, four to one inch long, and it's going to have a thorax that's going to be yellow and fuzzy, and the abdomen is going to be shiny black.

Emily

They oftentimes get mistaken for bumblebees, which are very similar in size, except the bumblebees are completely hairy. So if you look at it and its butt is hairy, you're looking at a bumblebee. If the butt is smooth and shiny, it is a carpenter bee. Unlike bumblebees, which are a social species, carpenter bees are solitary. Each female will build her own nest by tunneling into wood, and she will do this by chewing a perfect circular hole about half an inch diameter, and she will chew this hole and extend it about one to two inches in the wood. And then she's going to do this weird technique where she turns it at a right angle and then proceeds to build the nest following the grain of the wood. And her nest can go anywhere from about six to twelve inches down. So once a nest is complete, the female carpenter bee will stock the end of the tunnel with bee bread, which is a combination of flower pollen and nectar. She then will lay a single egg on the food mass and seal the cavity up using a mixture of wood pulp and her saliva. She repeats this process until she fills the tunnel.

Emily

So food source egg seal. Food source egg seal. During this phase, the male carpenter bees will oftentimes patrol outside of it, in part waiting for the female to come out, so they may potentially be able to mate as well as defending the territory in their own manner. Now remember, male bees don't have a stinger, but they can buzz and dart around your head, which again, due to the large size, a lot of times particularly small kids may find this frightening. The females, why they do have a stinger, are pretty docile and have only been known to sting when handled or touched. So for the most part, control is not necessary unless the tunnel itself is damaging the wood structure. And oftentimes one nest alone isn't enough to do this, so you'd have to have a rail or something that had multiple nests. So the best method for controlling carpenter bees is prevention. You can do this by avoiding using pine and cedar for deck railings, as well as you can place plain chunks of pine and cedar in your backyard farther away from your home. This will entice the bees to go build their nest there, because again, these are important pollinators, particularly for native plants.

Emily

If you can't do that, some other options you have is to paint the surface of the wood because this makes it unattractive to bees. For those of you who prefer a more natural woodlike finish every springtime you can make an application of almond oil on your wood. This gives the wood a bad smell and a bad taste for bees and works as a deterrent. Also, now is the time to check for any nail holes or cracks that can be filled in with cocker putty. This will deter the bees as well, because these work as great starting places for carpenter bees. Carpenter bees are not going to build nests in anything that is not wood, so switching over railings to things like vinyl or aluminum may also be an option if you do have some established nests that need to be eradicated. If it's an option, you can replace that piece of wood with a painted or again, a non wood option. If the tunnels are persistent and you do need to treat them, there are some insecticidal options and we would recommend treating them with an insecticide before sealing the tunnel, because if you don't, the bees will just tunnel their way back out.

Emily

Please and remember, whenever using any kind of insecticide to read and follow the labels as they will tell you the most effective and safest ways to use them.

Rachel

Well, that's all we have for this episode listener. We hope you enjoy it and we'll tune in next month for more gardening tips. If you have any garden related questions, please email us at umegardenpodcast@gmail.com or look us up on Facebook at gardenthymepodcast that's garden T-H-Y-M-E for more information about the University of Maryland Extension and these topics, please check out the University of Maryland Extension Home and Garden Information Center website at go.Umd.edu/HGIC. Thanks for listening and have fun getting down and dirty in your garden. Goodbye.

Mikaela

Emily