(gentle music) Last summer, Tom had a really good Father's Day.

Our kids called and we had wonderful visits.

Then we got a call from the father of "Prairie Yard & Garden."

He had a landscape project in the works and offered to have us come and see it.

When you are the father of this show and have been involved with hundreds of shows, it is a great opportunity for all of us to learn.

I'm Mary Holm, host of "Prairie Yard & Garden," and let's go see what this landscape project is all about.

(lighthearted music) - [Narrator] Funding for "Prairie Yard & Garden" is provided by: Heartland Motor Company, providing service to Minnesota and the Dakotas for over 30 years in the heart of truck country.

Heartland Motor Company, we have your best interest at heart.

Farmers Mutual Telephone Company and Federated Telephone Cooperative, proud to be powering ACIRA, pioneers in bringing state-of-the-art technology to our rural communities.

Mark and Margaret Yackel-Juleen, in honor of Shalom Hill Farm, a nonprofit rural education retreat center in a beautiful prairie setting near Windom, Minnesota.

And by Friends of "Prairie Yard & Garden," a community of supporters like you who engage in the long-term growth of this series.

To become a Friend of "Prairie Yard & Garden," visit pioneer.org/PYG.

(bright music) In 1987, Pioneer Public TV wanted to have a horticulture show on their lineup.

They approached Roger Boleman from the University of Minnesota Morris to produce and direct the new show called "Prairie Yard & Garden."

Roger was involved with about 400 shows until he retired a few years ago.

He contacted us and said he was doing a landscape project at his home and offered to let us come watch.

I had been planning to do a show on landscaping, so this was a perfect opportunity.

Welcome, Roger.

- Well, thanks, Mary, for visiting our home.

- How long have you lived here at this home?

- Well, we moved to the Taylors Falls area in fall of 2016 so that's four and a half years ago.

- [Mary] What was the landscaping like when you bought your house?

- Well, when we moved here, it was pretty much a blank slate.

There was a small perennial garden by the front entrance.

They had some shrubs, they had a few perennials, but outside of that, it was pretty bare.

We have a shade garden now, and that at the time was pretty much weeds, some rock edging, a few small trees.

And so over a period of four years, we developed that and we sort of did it in stages, you know, and sort of that's our landscaping experience.

We didn't do big projects.

And we decided we wanted to do something with the front of our house to make it more appealing.

And there was a small deck on the front of our house.

We took that off and I built the deck that you see now.

And I put a curve on the corner, provides a nice, soft line for walking around it into our perennial garden.

So we did a lot of work, but it was over time.

And we decided that we would do a bigger plan.

We would try and landscape a much bigger area.

And we both realized soon that we just don't have the expertise to do that.

We don't have sort of the insight in the understanding of how you do landscape design on that scale.

And that's why we contacted a landscape designer.

- How did you go about finding somebody, or how did you, what steps did you follow?

- We looked locally on the internet to see what landscapers there were.

And of course, a lot of people are listed as landscapers but they're not landscape designers.

You know, they have a Bobcat and can move a lot of dirt around, but we really wanted somebody that understood design.

And we found that Abrahamson Nurseries had a designer, actually have two designers on staff, and we thought let's give them a call.

We met with Andy Carlson, and he came out and he looked at our site and took a lot of photos and measurements.

And then we went from there.

- When did you start the process?

- We started probably in February or March of this past year.

And our original thoughts were quite modest compared to what we ended up with, what Andy gave us.

And we would have had pretty sad-looking, I think, landscape (both chuckles) if we would've followed through with what our plans were going to be.

- What did he advise different than what you had in mind?

- My first reaction was, wait a minute, this isn't what we wanted.

But the more I looked at that design, the more I really liked it.

It was just such a broad scope compared to what we had come up with in our minds.

- Did you have input into the plants that were used?

Did you pick some of them?

- [Roger] Well, we did, but I think more along the lines of, we wanted some, we wanted perennials, but we also wanted some shrubs, but we also wanted some evergreen for winter interest.

So that was important.

And well, we let Andy kind of decide what would work best in our conditions with a sunshade and we have some very sandy soil here, and so that was an issue for maintenance.

And so Andy came up with some plants that should do very well in this environment we have here.

- Roger, what were some of the elements for the landscape design?

- Well, the deck really was sort of our focal point.

You know, we put that in before we did much else.

I didn't give a lot of thought to what we would want around the deck.

And then that came later, and so we thought, well, what can we do to make this better?

But the deck was the key, and so we had a new sidewalk put in that leads into the deck, and that has a, it's stained a light gray, or colored a light gray, to match the gray of the deck.

And the other element that we didn't consider were the boulders that Andy suggested.

Now, I just have to tell you, my dad being a farmer, he's probably rolling over in his grave right now, understanding that we paid to have boulders brought to our yard, but they look nice, and Andy picked them so that they complement the colors in the deck and the sidewalk.

- With the plants that were used, did you specify that you wanted color throughout the seasons also?

- I don't know if that was explicit in our conversations, but I think that came out as we talked about what we're looking for, and we did want some color.

There are some perennials that he incorporated.

We have cornflowers, there are some sedum that will turn a beautiful mauve color late in summer.

There is some catmint and it has the nice blue flowers.

It's always kind of a nice dusty look to that type of plant.

But we also wanted something that had winter interest, and then we have some evergreens.

There's some spruce in there, there's a Globe, a blue spruce that's a beautiful specimen.

And we have some spirea that will bloom in the summer.

So yes, it gives us a little color, and even in the winter, we'll have some interest in it.

- If you have some advice for anybody that's considering a landscape job, what would it be?

- Well, I think you have to understand what your limitations are (chuckles) and trying to determine if you can really pull this off, if you have sort of the creative side of you that can do that.

We didn't, we understood that.

It was a limitation.

Even though we had gardened for many years and we were able to do small plots and sort of tie them together, this was a little beyond what we were able to really get our head around.

So if that's the case, I would highly recommend getting a professional person, a designer, to take a look at your property.

I don't believe they charge you for a consult so I think that would be a wonderful way to start.

- Well, Roger, thank you so very much for letting us come out and see.

It is really, I think it's beautiful!

- Well, thanks, Mary.

We've really enjoyed the way the design came together.

(soft guitar music) - After the berry harvest, the time arrives to make delicious jellies and jams in Minnesota.

You can save these treats to enjoy over the winter months or share them with friends.

There is nothing better to sweeten up your toast, your waffle, or mixed with yogurt for a delightful treat.

Today we are with seasoned jam professional, Carole Johnson, who's going to show us how to make our very own strawberry jam.

Carole, I think that sometimes making jam takes too much time and energy.

Is there another option?

- There is, it's called freezer jam or no-cook jam.

You do have to cook the pectin and the water together, but other than that, it's mixed in with the berries and the sugar, and it turns out very well.

You'll enjoy making it.

- Carole, let's get started.

- [Carole] What you're going to need is some fresh strawberries, or you can use frozen strawberries too.

We're gonna take these strawberries, take off their green heads, put 'em in this bowl, and we're gonna mash them with a potato masher.

So we get them with their juice out and their flesh coming to the surface so this will be good.

- [Mary] What are the advantages of using fresh, local-grown strawberries?

- For one thing, they have better flavor because you're buying them fresh and when the day they ripen.

After you have crushed the berries, you add the sugar.

Two cups of berries, you add four cups of sugar.

You stir that until the sugar is dissolved.

You're going to make your pectin as the directions tell you.

You then add it to the berries and you will stir it for the designated time.

And then you will pour it into the containers.

The containers must be able to have boiling water put into them.

This is one that you can freeze in also.

This is not.

It does not have a tight enough seal.

But it can be kept in your refrigerator for a long period of time.

This can be kept in your freezer for up to a year.

- This easy and delicious recipe is courtesy of thepioneerwoman.com.

For this and other great recipes, or to find a local berry patch near you, visit minnesotagrown.com.

Andy, you're a landscape designer.

Can you tell us a little bit about your background?

- Yeah, so I went to school for landscape design at Hennepin Technical College in Brooklyn Park.

I grew up in Minneapolis, so that was close to home.

A little bit of schooling at the University of Minnesota in landscape architecture.

I've been doing this for about 27 years, 13 years with Abrahamson Nurseries.

It's an interesting job.

It makes for some long hours during the summer.

- How do you start helping a customer when they come in and say, "I wanna do a project."

- Well, at first, we kind of quiz them a little bit about what they're interested in having done.

You know, if it's gonna be a front yard renovation, like we did here, or a patio area, or retaining walls, just kind of get some general information.

Then I'll set up a time to meet with them and go over the site and talk about specifics at that point.

- How do you determine what the customer really wants or, like, what the size of the scope of the project's gonna be?

- Well, that's again, kind of just going through the details as we're walking around the site.

You know, I might have ideas that I see when I come to a site and suggest things and show them kind of where I think a wall might be nice or needed, a patio area, maybe even take out a tape measure and just kind of show them the scale of what I'm thinking.

That kind of gets the ball rolling.

And if they agree with some of my ideas or thinking, then I'll put it on paper and present it to them and see what they think.

And sometimes I'll even come out after I present the plan and go over the scope and scale of the project on the site before we start so they feel comfortable with everything.

- Do you have to be concerned about the type of soil that's there too?

- Yes, we do.

Very much so.

So on this site, this is all sand, which makes a big difference on what we pick.

You wanna pick plants that can take dryer conditions.

A lot of sites that we work on are heavy clay.

So we have to take that into consideration too.

So yes, that's an important part of it.

- [Mary] How do you come up with a game plan as to what you wanna plant and where, or do you work with the homeowner to decide on that?

- [Andy] Well, I can.

You know, sometimes most homeowners come up to me and they have no idea what will grow well or what plants are gonna do well in their site.

So I generally come up with a scheme and it'll be based on my initial visit with the homeowners that, say, if they like certain colors or certain plants or don't like certain plants, but generally it's kind of up to me to come up with a scheme and I'll just pull together plants I think are gonna look good with the house, with the architecture of the house, kind of with the scale of the house too, that's important.

- What happens if the homeowner says, "Oh, I can't really afford to do the whole yard at one time."

How do you handle that?

- Well, then we talk about maybe phasing it in if that's something that they wanna do.

And we'll talk about logical points where we can start and stop our work as for phase one, and then maybe work on phase two, and then, you know, talk to them about that budget, what that might involve and see if they wanna go that route.

- That's a great idea.

Do you incorporate both trees, shrubs, and perennials into your plantings usually?

- If there's enough room for trees, trees are sometimes tricky because some sites, there's not enough room to put a tree and so it just doesn't fit, but certainly perennials are important 'cause we get a lot of flower color from perennials, and then shrubs are good plant to have as a base but also add some flower color as well.

- What are some of the priorities or things that you have to take into consideration for coming up with a planting?

- Well, so I'll take into account.

If I'm looking at the house, I'll take an account window heights.

You know, I don't wanna have a plant that's gonna be too tall in front of a window.

Again, the architecture of the house.

You know, sometimes a house will lend itself to having a tree off the corner.

So that would be a good place to put a taller feature, maybe.

Sunlight is always a consideration.

If it's shady, I gotta be concerned about that, but generally it's what the house has for existing elements, I'll kind of use that as my cue for heights of plants.

- Andy, how do you draw out the edging line?

- Well, it's sort of a creative process where I'll maybe, like with this situation here, I have a deck, a curved deck that they had installed.

So that helped me with sort of creating a nice bold line, I'll kind of mimic that or follow that line.

And they also had some existing plantings that I used to work around there, but generally I try to have it so it's a nice, easy line that has some nice definition to it so that makes it stand out in the landscape.

Bold lines are always, always the best in landscaping.

- [Mary] Then do you use fabric underneath the mulch too?

- [Andy] We don't, we find that when we put down three to four inches of mulch, that's adequate to suppress any weed seeds.

If you do fabric and mulch, it's kind of redundant.

So we find that we just have good luck with just the mulch.

Something like with the dry creek area, we did put fabric under that just to keep weeds from coming up into the rock because that gets to be a little messy if we don't have anything under rock.

- [Mary] What kind of mulch did you use here?

- [Andy] So this is a stained mulch.

It's called dark brown, and that's our most popular munch that we put in 'cause the plant colors tend to pop against it.

It looks nice with almost any house so I find it to be a nice color to use.

- Did you use any existing plantings for this job or are they all new plants?

- No, we did use some.

So when I talked with Roger and Joan, there was a grouping of plants that were out front here, what's grouped right behind me here, we left that in place.

We did take out a few evergreens that were in place just because they weren't best for the site.

They were gonna get too big.

They're actually more shade-tolerant plants and this is a sunny site so we did keep some of the plants in place and then worked with that.

- [Mary] So you just incorporated around that.

- [Andy] Yeah, just work with that and left space for them to add some more plants in the future too so they can add their own touch to things.

- This really looks nice.

Would it be okay if we kind of take a little closer look at some of the plants that you used?

- Sure, that's a good idea.

(bright music) My neighbor was telling me about some jumping worms they have in their yard.

Should I be concerned?

- I would definitely worry a little bit about it, but don't worry, it's not the end of the world.

We are just at the beginning stages of learning about jumping worms and their impact in Minnesota.

So jumping worms are originally from Asian countries.

They were brought here by people on accident.

But here's the thing.

Worms are not native to Minnesota at all.

In fact, our native plants and the woodland wildflowers, they've evolved without worms interfering for 10,000 years.

And people brought over European nightcrawlers as well.

What we need to worry about jumping worms for is that as opposed to nightcrawlers, all it takes is one worm to potentially create up to 200 per year because they lay one cocoon per day as soon as they are reproductively capable of doing so.

So they will hatch from their cocoons, they do not overwinter as adults, they only overwinter as eggs.

Their cocoons will hatch, usually in May.

And by the end of July, they are laying their own cocoons for next year.

The reason that we worry about jumping worms is that not only are they kind of gross with their violent thrashing, but they eat leaf litter layer from forest floors.

So we're in a maple-dominant forest right now.

This leaf litter layer on the forest floor should be about eight to 10 inches deep because nothing should be eating these leaves.

Unfortunately, the worms have been eating them so we're lucky if our leaf litter layer is about one or two inches, and it's only that thick right now because we're in a drought.

Now, worms can't eat dry leaves, they need to be wet.

So once these are wet from rainfall, they eat them up and they turn it from a slow decomposing organic matter to quick-release nitrogen in their castings, or droppings.

And as soon as the rain comes, it washes away.

So, I'd say for your neighbor, make sure that if you're sharing plants with anybody else in your neighborhood, that maybe it's not a good idea to share plants at all.

Buy your plants from an approved, certified pest-free nursery or garden center.

Or what you can also do is wash your plants down to the bare root.

So if you can see anything on your plants that looks like soil, go back and wash it again.

And when I say wash it, wash it right on the spot that you got the plant from because you don't wanna take any worms with you.

So once you have a bare root plant, you can pot it up in some nice, clean potting mix and overwinter it, or you can plant it right in your garden as long as it's nice and clean.

This plant right here, I would not transplant it anywhere else.

It's dirty, it's got lots of jumping worm cocoons in it, I promise you.

- [Narrator] "Ask the Arboretum Experts" has been brought to you by the Minnesota Landscape Arboretum in Chaska, dedicated to enriching lives through the appreciation and knowledge of plants.

- So, Mary, this is the front part of the landscaping here.

And I broke it up deliberately into two different types of planting areas because there's full sun in this section in front of us, and back behind us, there's a little more shade back here so I went with some astilbes and some hostas and some plants that can tolerate some of the light conditions that are back here.

And part of what the solution was for this project was put a planting area in front of the deck to soften the underside of the deck view.

So we're kind of screening the fencing under there and the posts that support it.

So just to soften the view a little bit.

- [Mary] When you use the shade plants, I would bet that that maybe ties in then to the shade area behind.

- It does, yeah.

That was part of it.

So when I saw this site, this was in probably April that I saw things so there was really nothing growing.

But then Roger and Joan explained to me that this was a shade garden back here.

And I could see from the trees, obviously, that it was a shady area.

So that helped to determine what I would use for plant material.

- Then what is this one here?

- So this is a hydrangea.

It's a paniculata type.

It's called Bobo hydrangea.

I picked that because it stays small.

I believe it's a newer variety and only gets to about three, 3 1/2 feet tall.

So it'll be a little bit taller than the deck height, but that'll be fine.

It's just gonna be a nice look, a nice way to anchor the two planting areas.

I have one here and then one closer to the steps over there as well so it's just a nice end point for the plantings.

- [Mary] And then what are the ones that are just starting to flower up here?

- [Andy] So these are Little Princess spireas.

I use these because they're easy to grow, easy to maintain.

They are kind of common, but it's a nice plant, nice soft pink flower, a decent fall color.

And they'll grow to be about just about deck height.

And this group will eventually grow together, so it'll offer that screening of the underside of the deck.

- And it looks like you've got some things that are starting to flower here too.

- Right, yeah, so what I like to do is incorporate some perennials in my plantings, just for extra flower color.

So I've got two groupings of white coneflowers, and then I have a grouping of Autumn Joy sedum here.

This'll be a nice full planting in probably two or three seasons with lots of flowers come mid-summer.

- [Mary] Looks like you've got an evergreen over there too.

- [Andy] Right, yeah, so that's a dwarf Norway spruce.

That's one of my favorite plants to use 'cause it stays relatively small.

It's a nice mounded evergreen.

Maybe it gets four feet wide and about two and a half to three feet tall.

Very tough plants, nice feature to add, I think, to add some evergreen color.

- [Mary] What is the rock there for?

- [Andy] So Roger has a little catch basin there for water that comes out of his gutter downspout there.

So part of the problem they had initially was that there's so much water coming out that it was spattering everywhere and making a mess of the soil.

So I thought, well, this would be a nice feature to have, is to have that river rock and then have it as a sort of a dry creek bed just to kind of define that area.

It won't necessarily work as a creek bed, but it's a nice, interesting element in the landscape, I think, and it helps to kind of break up the flow of the landscaping here a little bit so it's not just all plantings and mulch, to have a little bit of a focal point in there.

- [Mary] And then it almost looks like you put in a walkway there.

- We did.

Flagstone, it's called Chilton flagstone.

That's a hard limestone that we use for a lot of pathways and a lot of walkways.

And I just saw that it'd be nice to have as a way to get through the landscape instead of having to walk all the way around to the, almost the end of the driveway or step through the landscaping.

I find that to be a nice feature to have.

- So now here we come to some of the meat of the issue.

How much do you water after the planting?

- Right, so initially, our guys will water everything before we leave.

And what I would recommend to Roger is to water this probably in another two days, just because it's such light soil here, everything's gonna drain fast.

So the shrubs would probably get soaked for maybe five minutes a piece, the perennials maybe a minute or two, just to moisten the soil around each plant and to moisten the root ball.

The tree that we planted, that needs a little more water, probably about 15 minutes of water every three or four days.

- [Mary] So when you water, do you lay a hose there and let it run in?

Or can you use just a regular soaker hose or- - [Andy] You can do, yeah, you can do either way.

I think a lot of people what they end up doing is just taking a hose and just holding the water on the plant for a few minutes and then kind of walking back and forth to get good coverage on a plant.

But you can use the black soaker hoses that weep water.

That's a nice, efficient way to put water on plants and it's easy.

You just hook the hose up and let it run for 45 minutes to an hour.

- Should they fertilize at all this fall or not?

- No, I wouldn't say you need to fertilize this fall.

But next spring, they could start mid-May, putting down a slow-release fertilizer, a granular fertilizer, and then maybe some liquid fertilizer as an added fertilizer every three weeks or so.

That helps.

- I noticed there aren't tags on the plants, but sometimes I've seen jobs where there's tags left on the plants.

Should you leave them on so you know what's there or should you pull those tags off?

- Well, we generally like to pull it off 'cause it looks neater in the landscape.

They have all the tags on.

The landscape plan will have all of the plants labeled and listed so the homeowner can, they can just refer to the plan and pick out what plant is, maybe they have a question about, or has not survived, which sometimes happens.

- Do they have to do anything special for fall to prepare the plants to overwinter?

- The only ones that would need a little extra care would be some of the evergreens, so the Dwarf Norway Spruce, and then behind us, we have a Globe Blue Spruce, they need a little extra water before winter just because they store that water in their needles and they lose that moisture throughout the winter.

So if they get a little extra water, that helps them survive the winter.

I say late September is when I start to do heavier watering for evergreens.

It doesn't have to be every day, but if it's just more frequent, say three or four days, but on a regular basis to make sure it's maintained going into, say, the end of October.

- Then what do you do next year?

Do you recommend anything for weed control on top of the mulch or do you have to add more mulch?

- [Andy] Typically, you don't have to add more mulch.

You might have some spots that are a little thin where you could just top dress a few spots.

Weed Control Preen is a good product to use.

Also, a corn gluten meal you can put on to help prevent weed seeds from germinating that might blow into the mulched areas.

So those are two good products to use.

Add a few boulders in here just for visual interest and sort of as an ending point for edging.

So behind us in the shady area, because Roger and Joan have a shade garden and they have a path that kind of cuts through there, I needed to have a good ending point for the edging that we used.

So I used boulders as sort of a feature but also as a practical means as an end point.

These two boulders are just for visual interest.

You know, everything's gonna die back come fall, and boulders just add a nice extra texture to the landscape.

And then we have two other shrubs that we used, they're called My Monet Weigela.

I like those because they have variegated foliage.

The foliage has a little more interest than just green and white.

It has some purple tinges to it as well.

And then nice pink flowers in June.

So the My Monet will get maybe 15 to 18 inches tall and maybe two to 2 1/2 feet wide.

So it's a relatively small plant.

So what I've done is tried to create a little bit of a layered look to the landscaping where there's some taller stuff behind and a little bit shorter material in front.

- [Mary] I think that Roger and Joan are going to really enjoy the landscape job that you've done.

I think it's great.

And thank you so much for letting us come out and see it.

- Well, thank you, I appreciate that.

(gentle music) - [Narrator] Funding for "Prairie Yard & Garden" is provided by: Heartland Motor Company, providing service to Minnesota and the Dakotas for over 30 years in the heart of truck country.

Heartland Motor Company, we have your best interest at heart.

Farmers Mutual Telephone Company and Federated Telephone Cooperative, proud to be powering ACIRA, pioneers in bringing state-of-the-art technology to our rural communities.

Mark and Margaret Yackel-Juleen, in honor of Shalom Hill Farm, a nonprofit rural education retreat center in a beautiful prairie setting near Windom, Minnesota.

And by Friends of "Prairie Yard & Garden," a community of supporters like you who engage in the long-term growth of this series.

To become a Friend of "Prairie Yard & Garden," visit pioneer.org/PYG.

(gentle music)