On this week’s “Gardening in
Georgia,” host Walter Reeves will sing “Goober Peas.” And
once you’ve heard it, you’ll be thankful this is a gardening
show. The show’s season finale airs Wednesday, Oct. 31, at 7:30
p.m. on Georgia Public
Television. It will be rebroadcast Saturday, Nov. 3, at
noon.

Reeves bursts into song at the thought of peanuts. David
Chambers, garden manager at Callaway Gardens,
shows Reeves the odd way peanuts reproduce: The yellow flowers
produce a peg-like stem which buries itself underground. The end
of the peg swells to form a peanut.

‘Steamed’ Weeds

Getting rid of weeds is a never-ending job. But Reeves shows how
to do it by using the sun to heat the soil. He tills the soil,
then waters it thoroughly. Placing a cinder block in the center
of the area, he covers it with clear plastic. Stones and soil
anchor the plastic at the edges. After eight weeks during hot,
sunny weather, the plastic covers a weedless expanse of soil,
ready for planting.

Kerry Smith, garden educator at Callaway Gardens, shows Reeves
two ways to make those ugly plastic window boxes more attractive.
For one, she uses sheet moss, hot-glued to the plastic. Then she
covers her second box with lengths of thin bamboo, once again
hot-glued to the plastic. For winter color (and edible plants
part as well) she plants the box with viola, calendula, lettuce
and licorice-scented acorus.

Plants to Wear, Eat, Admire

What plant family can you wear, eat and admire, all in the same
day? Reeves introduces some members of the hibiscus family:
cotton, okra, rose of Sharon, tropical hibiscus, scarlet hibiscus
and Confederate rose. He points out a new, compact variety of
red-pod okra “Little Lucy,” which is half the size of the more
common “Burgundy.”

Most flowering plants have foliage when they produce flowers. Not
the surprise lily! Reeves describes how Lycoris radiata, also
known as hurricane lily and red spider lily, produces leaves in
the spring from an underground bulb. The foliage dies away in
summer. Then in September, when you least expect it, strong stems
topped by, red spider-like flowers pop up in your garden.

“Gardening in Georgia” airs every Wednesday at 7:30 p.m. A Web site
provides further information. The show is produced especially for
Georgia gardeners by the UGA College of
Agricultural and Environmental Sciences and GPTV.