Ep. 170 Gardening at night: Creating gardens to enjoy at night | #GoodGrowing
Welcome to the Good Growing podcast. I am Chris Enroth, horticulture educator with University of Illinois Extension coming at you from Macomb, Illinois, and we have got a great show for you today. We're gonna be talking about plants that bloom at night or creating an evening garden. That will be a lot of fun. You know, I'm not doing this by myself.
Chris Enroth:I'm joined as always every single week by horticulture educator Ken Johnson in Jacksonville. Hey, Ken.
Ken Johnson:Hello, Chris. You enjoying these unseasonably warm, gross days?
Chris Enroth:I have my my sweat cloth right here. I'm batting away the the droplets of sweat down my face as we speak. Yeah. It's been pretty warm. We've we've refused to turn on the air conditioning yet.
Ken Johnson:Yes. It's getting a little uncomfortable inside. Although by the time people listen to this, it's gonna be down in the thirties again for the last. So
Chris Enroth:Perfect. Yes. So if you have seasonal allergies, enjoy this roller coaster of a ride here.
Ken Johnson:Yes. And, hopefully, you didn't go buy tomatoes this weekend this past weekend when it was 85.
Chris Enroth:Yep. Because It 90.
Ken Johnson:It was 90 when you put them outside.
Chris Enroth:Yes. So if you are feeling the itch to get out your warm season veggies, the thing I tell folks is you have to wait until your lows at night are reliably in the fifties. And they're not if you look at the extended forecast, that's definitely not the case yet. Still April. Actually, we're dead in the April.
Chris Enroth:So even though it feels like it's June right now.
Ken Johnson:Yes. This weekend, was panicking because I thought I was so far behind. But then when you look at the calendar, not far behind. I got potatoes planted and lettuce and carrots and
Chris Enroth:Mhmm.
Ken Johnson:So it's about where we should be
Chris Enroth:as
Ken Johnson:far
Chris Enroth:as planting goes. I got my potatoes. We do fabric bags for our potatoes. And, of course, last night, I I got up this morning, and I found that the raccoons had come out and spilled out, dug up all of my potatoes out of the bags. It was it was great to plant them a second time today.
Ken Johnson:Put some wire cages over them.
Chris Enroth:Oh, something.
Ken Johnson:Cinder block in the bottom so they can't tip it over.
Chris Enroth:Yeah. They'll they'll still figure out a way. They're too smart crafty critters. I'll have to employ my my radio trick. The radio thing doesn't usually get pulled out until, like, summertime, though.
Chris Enroth:That's usually when they become a problem in the garden when they start pulling up plants out of the ground, but it's it's already started. So can't wait. Yeah. But, you know, maybe they're this year with the cicadas coming up, maybe they're just gonna leave everything alone, and they'll be so fat happy off of bugs. We don't have to worry about them.
Ken Johnson:But For a few weeks, anyway.
Chris Enroth:A few weeks. Yeah.
Ken Johnson:Few week respite from the raccoons.
Chris Enroth:Alright. Well, that's another show. So well, anyway, Ken, today, we're gonna be talking about night blooming plants, insects that that do stuff at night, and creating gardens for the nighttime. And so I I guess, you know, the thing that comes to mind as we were talking before the show starts and you asked me, hey, Chris. Do you know anything about this lunar gardening?
Chris Enroth:And I'm like, what? What what what are you talking about? So can you can you enlighten us? Because we're all in the dark here, or at least I am, when it comes to gardening by the moon.
Ken Johnson:Yes. Gardening by the moon or gardening by the phases of the moon. So it's kind of a, I guess, somewhat traditional way. Maybe traditional. I don't know.
Ken Johnson:Folktale. That way. I don't I don't know how to describe it. Way of looking Mythical. Old time.
Ken Johnson:Yeah. Back in the day. Way of of looking at gardening. I'll read this. This is from University of Arkansas.
Ken Johnson:So planting by phases of the moon is a relatively straightforward is relatively straightforward. Crops that grow below ground, potatoes, onions, carrots, radishes, turnips, etcetera, are planted in the dark of the moon. That is the period from full moon until the moon disappears and is called the waning phase. Crops grown for above ground consumption, broccoli, lettuce, spinach, beans, tomatoes, etcetera, are planted in the light of the moon, that period from the new moon, when the moon is completely in our shadow, until full moon and is called the waxing phase. The true practitioners of planting by the signs overlay the 12 signs of the zodiac onto the moon phases and create a more complicated planting protocol.
Ken Johnson:Doesn't zodiac symbols are divided into four groups, water, earth, air, and fire. Zodiac symbols associated with the water and earth are considered fertile signs and good for planting, while those associated with air and fire are considered barren and not good times to plant. So based on where the moon is and where all the zodiac signs, the constellations, and all that are in the sky is how you're you're planting stuff. And I've seen stuff on, you know, with the was it full moon, new moon, your tides and stuff, you know. Those times, it's gonna pull the water to the surface of the soil, so you don't wanna till or anything like that because it'll make it more difficult.
Ken Johnson:And I've gotten asked about this a few times for people, and everything I have read, there's no scientific research, I guess, based to any of this. It's all I'll say made up because I'm gonna make people angry. But
Chris Enroth:I'll say it sounds sounds made up, Ken.
Ken Johnson:There's no basis in in research that that I have come across. We'll put it that way. So Okay. I guess it's something fun to do, but it's you know, I guess from our extensive extension research perspective, research based information, there's no no truth to any of it. I would pay more attention to your your frost dates and things like that.
Chris Enroth:I I can barely get things on the ground at all, so having to wait till a particular phase of the moon is not gonna sit well with my schedule. So but, you know, I'm
Ken Johnson:on track.
Chris Enroth:It will it would keep, you know, it would keep me on track. You know? I guess I'm the typical Capricorn, as you would say. So no. Anyway yeah.
Chris Enroth:People call me that. I'm like, I don't know what you're talking about. I do everything just perfectly. Anyway, so lunar lunar planting, yeah, not do it if you want, I guess.
Ken Johnson:But there's no no no research backing it up that we have been able to find.
Chris Enroth:Okay. Well, that that's good to know. You know, if that question ever comes my way, I can tell folks, again, do what you want. No research. So very good.
Chris Enroth:Well, but there are things that we can put out into the the landscape, to help maybe emphasize a particular lunar phase. Normally, it's the full moon, where you see that that light that's reflecting off the moon's surface is striking the Earth. And there are some full moon nights where it's it's almost like you can see, you know, for distances because of the light that it provides. And then how it illuminates certain flowers and foliage, that I think is is very striking in a in a nighttime garden. And so, Ken, I I suppose, do we have any, plants?
Chris Enroth:You know, from a landscaping perspective, I'm I'm trying to think of what plants could we recommend that would show off at nighttime in in the moonlight filled garden. Do you have do you have any in your landscape or any favorites of yours?
Ken Johnson:Yeah. So there's a lot you know, a lot of times, these are gonna be white white flowers. So a couple that we have grown in our yard is flowering tobacco. So and this this flowering tobacco comes in several different colors. We did a white and a pinkish color.
Ken Johnson:Those white flowers kinda reflect the moonlight, make them glow in the dark kinda sort of, not really. But they reflect that moonlight, it makes them a little more noticeable because of that white coloring. And with flowering tobacco, that's that's one. We can get into this more in a little bit. It also releases its fragrance at night.
Ken Johnson:So it becomes more fragrant during the night as well. So it's kind of an added bonus if you're gonna be doing this night garden, moon garden, some people refer to them as. Another one we have is dragon fruit or pitaya. So if you've ever gone to the grocery store and gotten with the weird pink looking scaly fruits, this is a cactus type plant. It's a binding type plant.
Ken Johnson:So we actually have one of these that we move in and outside. It's a tropical plant. So once temperatures are getting down into the fifties, we look it inside. But it's got a really big white flower that opens up at night. It's only open for a day or one night.
Ken Johnson:So you miss it, you're out of luck and can pop in a picture here of it. A pretty big flower. It smells it's got it's fragrant as well. And if you're maybe more familiar with that, like a night blooming cirrus, which is another kind of cactus like that's related. They have similar looking flowers and opening at night, releasing their fragrance as at night as well.
Ken Johnson:And that's another one that's also tropical, so you're bringing that in when they get school, but they can live outside during the summer and stuff.
Chris Enroth:Mentioned ceruleus plants and a lot of them have tubular shaped flowers. So when we're looking at tubular shaped flowers, we see those as typically pollinated by insects that have a long hibiscus. They have a tongue. Maybe they're small enough to to wiggle their way down in there. So when we we think about nighttime flowering plants, who's visiting those types of flowers?
Ken Johnson:So a lot of time, it's gonna be moths. Some moths are out at night. So I guess if you're if you're a plant and you want moths to pollinate you, makes sense to have your flowers open at night, be most fragrant at night. So you're gonna spend this energy to attract them. You might as well do it when they're out.
Ken Johnson:So a lot times, it's gonna be moths and stuff, especially if things are opening up at night and they're releasing their scent at night. Here in in the Midwest anyway, moths, you know, down in desert and tropical areas could be bats, could be thrown into there as well. But for Illinois, we're looking at moths stuff. For, like, our our dragon fruit so we were down in South Florida, and we were at a dragon fruit farm and saw some flowers at night, and they had a lot of beetles and stuff on there. So it won't be it won't only be moths that visited, but primarily or or night blooming stuff.
Ken Johnson:A lot of times, it's gonna be moth pollinated.
Chris Enroth:Okay. Well, so I have an angel's trumpet, and I have been bringing that thing in and out over the last couple years. And, unfortunately, this winter, it got hammered by spider mites. A lot of my indoor plants actually got hit pretty hard by spider mites. It killed my lemon tree.
Chris Enroth:It it it got a lot of stuff in my house. And so my angel's trumpet, it has, like, one leaf left on it. So I I desperately need to get that thing outside and maybe get it exposed to more of the natural elements to help take care of some of those, problems. The spider mites are gone, but I think the damage has been done, for the for that plant. But the angel's trumpet, this has a massive bloom on it.
Chris Enroth:But, again, it's it's tropical. So what it I'm I'm guessing it's it's attracting maybe a larger insect. Some of our, you know, around our neck of the woods, we still have big moths, luna moths, hawk moths, and they're pretty big. So are those particular moths coming in and pollinating some of the larger flowers?
Ken Johnson:Yeah. Probably. So and some moths, I mean, they can have really long tongues. Not necessarily in the Midwest, like in the tropics. They can have tongues that are, like, foot long.
Ken Johnson:Mhmm. And so so they have these really long tongues or proboscis, so they'll they'll like butterflies, they'll be curled up. But when they're not using it, they'll unfurl it to feed. I think of it like a party blower. You have a birthday party, so you blow on it.
Ken Johnson:It extends and then curl up so it doesn't take up as much space.
Chris Enroth:Well, I I recommend angel's trumpet. I think it's a really neat performing, well, kinda tree. Ours is like a tree. So, just kinda painful to lose it, but I we're we're gonna get it outside here pretty soon and see if we can maybe bring it back from from the brink and maybe repot it. It's in a pretty small pot, so maybe if we can help it out.
Chris Enroth:Is pot poisonous, so angel's trumpet's poisonous. So it's one of those. We usually get people that say, yeah. But that one's gonna kill you if you eat it. Like, yeah.
Chris Enroth:A lot of plants that we talk about will. So don't eat them. Yeah. Unless they're in the vegetable garden.
Ken Johnson:The detoura.
Chris Enroth:Yeah. Mm-mm. Yeah. So don't eat it. It it can be fragrant.
Chris Enroth:Ours I never really got much of a fragrance from ours, but we would always have it. So in our house, we have a this little back raised deck right off the ground, and so we would have our our containers of stuff around the deck. And angel's trumpet is always by where we sit, so it, you know, it's it's colorful. It's it's bright even at nighttime, but I've never pricked up picked up a fragrance from this particular paint even though I know people have said that theirs are fragrant.
Ken Johnson:Few flowers this year. Stick your nose inside one and
Chris Enroth:If it survives. Yeah. Yeah. I I hope it survives. I do I do like this plant.
Chris Enroth:The lemon tree, I'm I'm kinda happy it's no longer with us anymore because it was covered in thorns. So RIP, lemon tree.
Ken Johnson:Yeah. So I wonder if, like, angel trump are there different species or cultivars? Maybe just have one that's not as fragrant as others.
Chris Enroth:I I might. Yeah. It it was, you you can get, like, starts that come off of the base and out of the, the soil or the pot container that it's in. And I think mine is just a division from one from my parents' house. And so I'm I'm not sure where and they've had that thing since I was little.
Chris Enroth:So I it's it's an older, older, angel's trumpet tree. So another one, I I a night blooming plant. It's actually I see it blooming also a little bit during the day, but there's several different species of this. Now the genus is onythera. That's what I call it.
Chris Enroth:And I the first onythera that I learned was Missouri primrose and, another common name. And I think sometimes the common names get a little bit confused with, actual, like, different species. And so a lot of times people call these evening primrose, even though a lot of them are actually separate species of onythera. So but but, you know, the general generally accepted common name evening primrose, That is often a a a night blooming plant. Now I know the Missouri primrose as being yellow flowered.
Chris Enroth:We often called it the mailbox plant. It's the one thing that you could plant at the base of the mailbox, and it would come back reliably year after year despite abuse from, like, you know, drought, pavement, road salt, all that stuff that happens by the mailbox. And so this is a bit smaller of a yellow flower, Again, tubular shaped, probably pollinated by, knife flying moths, or or maybe even smaller insects. Something that might be able to access that pollen deep inside of it or that nectar reward deep inside of it. But, yep, evening primrose or I I know Onythera macrocarpa, but evening primrose is actually Onythera speciosa.
Chris Enroth:So there's there's several different types out there. And I think before you go out there saying, oh, this is my night blooming perennial that I'm gonna put out here, make sure that you read specifically that scientific name because I think there's a lot of confusion with common name and scientific name. I'm confusing myself a little bit even right now. So, but but, yeah, onythera, genus level, outstanding grouping of of plants.
Ken Johnson:Yeah. Another one I've heard of, I've never well, we've talked about growing in our yard. I think we've even gotten seeds for it, but never gotten around to planting it, is 04:00. It's another one that's commonly grown kind of for night gardens. I think this is one that fragrance, again, is a stronger at night as well.
Ken Johnson:Flowers opening up later in the day and and at night and then kinda closing up a little bit during the day. During, like, cloudy days, a lot of these, if they open at night, sometimes they may stay open if it's cloudy, but a lot of these night blooming ones may kinda close-up a little bit at night as well. It's a little bit of a a smaller plant, about 15 inches tall, and it can recede. So keep that in mind if you if you do grow it.
Chris Enroth:I I I have not grown this one myself either. And in reading the description and everything about it, I I don't wanna grow it. I I do like the idea of a of a nighttime fragrance. So I I this would be one that I would really like to try growing. So, yeah, 04:00.
Chris Enroth:And, also, you know, we talk about, like, oh, these are kind of bright flowers, and 04:00 does have bright flowers. It has a white flowered variety, but there's also, like, pink, red, kinda darker flowers. And so, doesn't necessarily mean that they need to be a a bright white flower to be a a night blooming plan. So there's lots of different flower colors in the 04:00 group.
Ken Johnson:And then if, you know, we kinda veer away from flowers a little bit, I've seen, like, recommendations for, like, palladium, some of the white palladiums. Again, you know, that white leaves are predominantly white with some green in them, and then, again, that will help reflect that moonlight, make them pop a little bit Yeah. At night as well.
Chris Enroth:I I agree. I love palladium at night, especially if you maybe have a grouping of that somewhere, farther back in the landscape. So if, you know, if you're sitting on a patio area and you're looking out into the landscape area, having a grouping of palladium out there that just pops like a a bright, color out there in the in the evening. Another one that I see pop a lot is, jackfrost, which is Siberian bug loss. I think I learned it as Brunera, but, yeah, but the cultivar name is Jack Frost.
Chris Enroth:It has this, like, deep green interlacing color, but the majority of that leaf is like a silvery white. And it just I I remember walking by this plant in the evening, and and even on a kind of a darker night, you could still see it. It's a good waypoint to have in the in the yard if it's, like, dark out, you're like, oh, I can still see the reflective light off of my Jack Frost Branero.
Ken Johnson:Say, Dusty Miller would be another one. You want that silvery, foliage, as well. That would be another, option.
Chris Enroth:Yeah.
Ken Johnson:And that's what about a foot tall, maybe a little less. It's a shorter plant.
Chris Enroth:That's a good that's another good container one too. You know, if you can site that even around your landscape in a couple good containers, you could put it in the ground as well, but I I often wind up throwing them in the container. It's usually part of my taller plant that what are they called? Your thrillers? Thriller filler spiller.
Chris Enroth:Yeah. Taller, spikier. It's not really spiky, but taller plant. I guess we we probably should mention the one flower that a lot of people talk about at night, the moonflower. A bit more in-depth here.
Chris Enroth:So that's one that I've grown from seed. I've done it a few years now. I did I I I wish I'd done it last year, but it's one that the seed comes out. I mean, that's, like, bigger than a piece of corn. Like, it's a big seed that you have to, like, jam, you know, two and a half inches into that that pot and get that thing to sprout.
Chris Enroth:But moonflower vine is it's an annual. At least in my neck of the woods, it's an annual. And, we have a little little metal trellis. It's nothing substantial, but we plant that, and we have that trellis up, up along our our our, you know, really short deck area there. And when you're, like, sitting in a chair in this, like, moonflower vine flower just sort of, like, pops up out of nowhere over your shoulder, and it it opens at night.
Chris Enroth:It's this bright white, this kind of twisted star pattern in the flower. It's a beautiful flower. It's like the size of a teacup or like a, you know, teacup plate. You know? Saucer.
Chris Enroth:Saucer. There you go. I'll figure I'll learn words eventually. I I absolutely love moonflower. It it is a favorite of mine, and I I I look forward to growing it every year.
Chris Enroth:I didn't grow it last year, and I don't have any seed left. Like, because you can save seed from that plant, and you can grow it every single year. I did not save seed. That's why I didn't grow it last year.
Ken Johnson:I have to add that to my list. I've never grown that one.
Chris Enroth:It's a good one. It's an Eipomia, which I believe is related to sweet potato. The sweet potato is Eipomia botatas. Is that what that is?
Ken Johnson:Morning glories.
Chris Enroth:That's morning glory. Yeah. Oh, what a sweet potato.
Ken Johnson:Yeah. If
Chris Enroth:I don't know, I bet the Internet knows.
Ken Johnson:Siphomia.
Chris Enroth:Okay.
Ken Johnson:Whatever you say.
Chris Enroth:Yes. Yes. Yeah.
Ken Johnson:Those are all morning glories, though.
Chris Enroth:Okay. So they're all morning glories. Yeah. Yes.
Ken Johnson:So is it I guess, the moonflower, is that as problematic as some of the other morning glories as far as reseeding?
Chris Enroth:It it might be. We've never had an issue with any of our moonflower seed sprouting back the next year, even if we don't get the pod harvested, we still yeah. We we've never had an issue with it coming I mean but it is a vine, and it grows prolifically during the growing season. And so, you know, this is one you wanna give it some room to grow or something to grow on. It it it it it will cover some ground.
Chris Enroth:That's for sure. Yeah. Aphomia alba, that's the moonflower vine.
Ken Johnson:Needs space.
Chris Enroth:Needs give it some give it some room. Put it somewhere where you're gonna be sitting. I think it has a sweet fragrance. It's it's something that it will kind of waft over you as you're sitting there, not constantly throughout the night, but you'll just get just every so often this pleasing scents coming off of this plant. So I I yeah.
Chris Enroth:It's a favorite. I really like it. Again, highly recommend it.
Ken Johnson:Alright. It's on the list. Excellent. Maybe for next year. Mhmm.
Ken Johnson:I think you're you're already full for this year.
Chris Enroth:Well, Ken, I guess another way that we can look at our our evening landscapes is also the idea of incorporating some landscape lighting. Now we we probably won't go into too much detail on this in the in during this show, and maybe we'll have a future show where we we we talk a bit more about the site. There was once a time when I knew all about this stuff, and that was a long time ago, and that was right when some of that low voltage lighting was just starting to come on the market. So LED lighting was just starting to be like like, hey. This is an option for people willing to pay a lot of money to try a system that's not that great.
Chris Enroth:We're still trying to fix the bugs with it. So, but when it comes to landscape lighting, that was something that, you know, we would create design plans for, some of our landscapes, and we would work in foot candles. We would, like, have, like, you know, overhead lighting or we'd have, like, up lighting and, you know, these different types of accent lighting, path lighting, and we would just work in in foot candles. And that's what a lot of the specifications were when we're looking at, like, individual fixtures. And to us, a fixture is the thing that contains the bulb, and it's usually decorative and ornamental.
Chris Enroth:And and so we the we that's how we worked, in in designing lighting plans. And I I don't really have much to say about it other than the biggest mistake that a lot of people make is is making their landscapes too bright. They wash it all out. You can do some pretty evocative night lighting with just some really subtle low level lighting, and just not not trying to overdo it. So I I think some of the most dramatic landscapes, you know, as I think back, you know, oh, yeah.
Chris Enroth:Like, you know, you're walking up to a a restaurant in the in the city or something, and they have their planters all lit up. They're usually not bright, blinding light. It's very low, subtle lighting, and it it sets a mood. Creates a nice atmosphere. And so, you know, I'd suggest to folks, you know, don't don't overdo it with landscape lighting.
Chris Enroth:And maybe one day, I'll I'll review my old notes, and we'll we'll talk about this a bit more in-depth. But today, I I guess I I'd have to relearn everything because LEDs are it's a it's a whole new world. You get these systems installed in your yard, and you can control everything with your phone. You know? Before, I used to have this, like, control panel that controlled your landscape lighting.
Chris Enroth:Now it's all just it's an app on your phone, and you can you can create brighter light, warmer light, cooler light. It it's really just all kinda customizable to the user. It's it's pretty neat. There's a lot of stuff that I I have to learn now.
Ken Johnson:Back to school.
Chris Enroth:Exactly. I mean, that is life. Right? We're just one big classroom that we're in here.
Ken Johnson:Yeah. And I would say, well, you know, your night lighting isn't without problems. So
Chris Enroth:Mhmm.
Ken Johnson:I think more and more last several years, you see a lot of stuff on well, with the decline of insects, you know, with with night lighting being an issue. For insects, you've seen a lot of cities go with, like, the LED lights that are much brighter, more blue color. Mhmm. Put more of them in because they're cheaper and stuff, which, you know, if we're talking from a wildlife perspective or even really a human perspective, it's really not that good. You know, that yellow light, I think, studies have shown is better for, like, humans and stuff for your night vision where that blue, you know, looking at a phone screen at night, you know, that messes up with your the brain waves and makes it harder to sleep and and all of that stuff.
Ken Johnson:So but with, like, lighting at nights, you've got things coming out at night in the malls and stuff that are so so I think people kinda think they're attracted to the the light and for for whatever reason. But, actually, they're they kinda use, you know, the moon to orient themselves. So, you know, they get close to these lights. These lights are brighter than the moon. That's why they circle them.
Ken Johnson:They're they're kinda facing their back because that's how they orient themselves. The moon's in the sky, so they know that way is up. So now you've got this light that's brighter, and that's why they're constantly circling it and stuff trying to orient themselves to this bright light. You got things like fireflies, lightning bugs, depending on where you're from. You know, they're they're signaling each other with lights.
Ken Johnson:So if you got too much light, they can't attract mates and stuff, which isn't gonna cause problems. So, you know, there are night lighting is not without its problems. If you're doing night lighting, you wanna air go towards that yellow range. You don't want the really blue or white lights that will, again, like a pension, cause problems. Thinking about putting things on timers so they're not on all night or using, like, motion detectors.
Ken Johnson:That's gonna be more for, like, house or garage lighting. So they're not on on not on constantly. They're only going on when when they, in theory, would need to be on and stuff like that.
Chris Enroth:Yeah. I I completely agree. And, you know, even though I think landscape lighting is an important feature in in in a lot of effective designs, like you said, Ken, put them on a motion activated system. And that's fortunately, a lot of the new technology is, like, leading us towards that. You know?
Chris Enroth:Whether you're more more on the track of, like, you know, insect, conservation or energy, reducing your energy use, You know? Both of those things play into each other. You know? So if you we can reduce the amount of lighting that we have at night, that would just be leaps and bounds. I mean, I I I you know, we're sitting out there at night.
Chris Enroth:We're enjoying the flowers. We're enjoying the scents. We're enjoying that that evening atmosphere. We wanna see the stars. You know?
Chris Enroth:We wanna be able to look up and see, you know, the the sky above us. And when we have the streetlight on, when we have all of these other neighbor neighborhood lighting that are just always on. You can't see the stars. You know, we're I I recall a couple years ago when we moved into our new house, fireflies were they were everywhere. And the next year, they came in and they all of the street lights were broken, and then they fixed them.
Chris Enroth:I we don't we barely see any fireflies anymore. And so it is an an incredible deal, I think. Yes. Turn them off, or if you can at least slide them over to that yellow spectrum, do that. We, you know, we try to convince people and, you know, kinda locally here.
Chris Enroth:You know, where I live, you know, we have this always on light at the park. So at a meeting, we're just like, can we just put this on a timer? Like, we understand there's a safety issue. We understand all that, but, like, turn it off at midnight or turn it off at 10PM. They just at least turn it off sometime at night so that we can give our insects a break and they don't exhaust themselves circling this thing.
Ken Johnson:Yeah. That's something we could talk about too. It's just insects at night. There's a whole different world of insects that are coming out at night that maybe not people that listen to this, but I think most people in general are just unaware of the insects around them. But at night, that I mean, that's a whole different group or world of insects.
Ken Johnson:You got your moths. You've got other insects that only come out at night. You know, going back into to grad school and still do some today, you know, setting up black lights at night or other types of lights to attract insects, and you can find a whole whole different spectrum of things coming out at night. So if if that's your thing, like insects, set up a black light, get a sheet white sheet, hang your black light on that, and insects will land on there, and you can find a whole whole different groups that you've probably never seen before if you've never really looked for them at night. So if you're doing a insect collection, you're in four h, you got school, it's a good way to find stuff that you wouldn't normally find.
Chris Enroth:Oh, yeah. Really stumped the the judge on your at your four h show. Yeah. That would be a good one. Alright.
Chris Enroth:Last summer, we were doing we're with our doctor Joy O'Keefe. She was on the show. She was talking about bats. So we brought her out to do a BioBlitz, and we, misnetted some bats. And this is all done at night, and we were out in the the bottomlands of the Illinois River.
Chris Enroth:And every time we clicked on our headlamp, we just got a mouthful of insects. They just, like, came at us, but we'd have to have the headlamp on so we could, you know, take measurements on the bats and everything and do that. Well, I didn't do that. You have to be licensed to handle bats here in Illinois, but I watched and took notes. But, but it just goes to show, like, those insects, they're drawn to that light.
Chris Enroth:So it was pitch black where we were, and as soon as we click on our headlamp, they were in our face. So we had to turn off our headlamps every so often so we could have a little bit of a break, and we could, like, breathe through our mouth, you know, every so often. But it I yeah. Can't stress enough. You know, if you can if you can turn off the light at night, do that.
Chris Enroth:And as Ken said, night lighting, it's fun. Somewhat colleague, of ours, Angela Morehouse, she's with the Illinois Nature Preserves Commission. She'll go out and she'll do night lighting for insects, try to document insects in, like, prairie and woodland, wetland type areas and different ecosystems, and it is it is a blast to to see when she hangs up her white, you know, bed sheet on a line, you see just the most colorful insects. I think so, like, Fred Baxendale, he was an entomologist at University of Nebraska, and I think he sums it up perfectly when it talks about insects. He calls it, nature's wondrous pageantry.
Chris Enroth:You know? And I that that's, like, I think sums it up really nicely, the the different types of colors that you can find of insects at nighttime. So, yeah, Ken, you did it again. We went to talk about landscaping at night, and it devolved into bugs at night. So you did it again.
Ken Johnson:Don't squish them. Just look at them.
Chris Enroth:That's right. Yep. And you know what? Sometimes eat them, but that's Sometimes eat on another show. Yeah.
Chris Enroth:Alright. Well, that was a lot of great information about landscaping at night and then, well, sort of forgetting about that topic and just talking about bugs at night. So the Good Growing podcast is a production of University of Illinois Extension, edited this week by Ken Johnson. And a special thank you to Ken for hanging out with me as always every single week chatting about landscaping at night, aka bugs at night. So thanks, Ken.
Chris Enroth:Appreciate it.
Ken Johnson:Yes. Yes. Thank you. Thank you for indulging my my sidetrack there.
Chris Enroth:You're you're like just kind of you're reeling me in farther and farther on this whole bug journey here.
Ken Johnson:Soon you'll be too deep and you won't be able to get out.
Chris Enroth:I know. I I think I'm already there. I think I'm already there. I'm quoting entomologists. I'm doing all this stuff.
Chris Enroth:What have you done to me? And
Ken Johnson:let's do this again next week.
Chris Enroth:Oh, we shall do this again next week. Guess what we're talking about? More bugs. This is kind of a big deal, like, periodical cicada emergence that's coming up. So next week, we are gonna be talking about the cicadas, periodical cicadas that are emerging and what to do about protecting some of our landscape trees and shrubs.
Chris Enroth:And so you won't wanna miss that show. It's gonna be kind of a big one because there's gonna be a lot of cicadas, billions if not trillions of cicadas out and out and about. So I'm looking forward to that. Well, listeners, thank you for doing what you do best and that is listening or if you're watching this on YouTube watching. And as always, keep on growing.
Chris Enroth:Boy, good luck editing this part, Ken.
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