KTRH GardenLine | 4-22-23

Skip Richter answers gardening questions while continuing Garden Line.

Episode Transcript

(00:00):
KATRH Garden Line does not necessarily endorseany of the products or services advertised on
this program. Welcome to KATRH GardenLine with Skip Rictor. Just watch him

(00:20):
as well. Good Saturday morning,on a good day for gardening. You're
listening to garden Line. I'm yourhost, Skip Rictor, and we are
going to be here until ten amtoday. Be back tomorrow also same time.

(00:45):
So look over next door. Ifthe lights aren't on, go over
and knock on the door until theneighbors are missing Garden Line. They will
thank you later, probably not today, but eventually, we hope. Oh
gosh. We're here to answer yourguard questions. You feel free to give
us a call on garden Line.I'm gonna give you number just a second
here. But first thing I wantedto mention is when you're thinking about calling

(01:08):
into garden Line, if there isi don't know, some hesitancy on your
part. You know, maybe it'slike I've never been on the radio before.
I don't don't want my voice outthere like that. I don't be
afraid that I might mess up orask a stupid question or anything like that.
Well, I'm here to tell youdon't worry about it. We will

(01:29):
handle that. The way I liketo look at it is, don't worry
about the stupid questions. I'll worryabout the stupid answers, and then I
think we'll be all good. Howdoes that sound? Is that a good
deal? Well, let's let's getto the calls here as soon as you
are ready to go seven one three, two, one two five eight seven
four seven one three two one twofifty eight seventy four or two one two

(01:57):
ktrh. Just spell it out likethat will also work. You know,
I was working out in the yardthis past week and just noticing the fact
that our winter weeds are they areloaded with seeds. They are on their
way out. And as I andwhen I have a situation like you know,

(02:20):
there's some weeds over in this area, and they've already hit reproductive stage.
In other words, they've got bloomsor they got seeds even worse already
on them. The best thing youcan do is get them out of there
by hand or mechanically, meaning runa lawn mower over it as low as
you can, set them more andcapture ever weed seeds you can. It's
even better to just hand pull themat that stage. If the soul's moist,

(02:44):
it's not too hard enough. Ifyou've got an acre of lawn and
it's solid weeds, okay, forgetthat. We're gonna have to go with
a different strategy. But just somehere and there. You know, if
you think about it, a lotof our weeds can make one hundred thousand
seeds per per plan, and sojust that one plant not getting out of
there when it's already too late tospray them is a significant consequence. It

(03:07):
sentences you. The way I liketo put it is it sentences you to
twenty years of weeding. Now thatmay be an exaggeration in some situations,
but I guarantee you though not toomuch. So do what you can to
get them out of there. Whenwe want to prevent weeds, we have
products it'll do that. And whenwe want to kill existing broad leaf weeds
in the lawn, there are productsthat can do that. But those things

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that came out of winter and arenow about to die, they're doing their
last two raw and throwing seed everywhere, those are the ones that are the
concern right now. Now. NextSeptember October, we'll be talking about a
pre emergent to stop next year's coolseason weeds from coming. But for right
now, we are in the bigmiddle of dealing of course with our warm

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season weeds. And everybody has adifferent tolerance for weeds. There are some
people who if that lawn does notlook like to go back in time AstroTurf,
I mean, if it's not justperfect, nothing uneven, nothing unusual,
all of these things are like theother, then they want to get

(04:14):
rid. They want to spray andget rid of the weed. There are
other people whose tolerance is really high, and it's like, look, weeds
are green, crasses green. I'mwilling to mow, water and fertilize and
get myself into a situation where Idon't have as many weeds to deal with,
And you can take that approach toit's up to you. We have
a wide range of folks listeners,your abilities to get out and do things,

(04:38):
your willingness to use chemical products onyour plants. I understand there's a
range out there, But that's somethingyou might want to think about and something
that we are going to be dealingwith here all right. Our phone number
again is seven one three two onetwo fifty eight seventy four and We're going
to start by going to Alvin andtalking to Danny Well. Good morning,

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Danny Well, Good morning, Skip, Good morning Nikki. Of first,
I'd like to thank you for helpingme make the change in plans on selection
of the grass. I'm going toswitch from my plan to use Coastermanuta by
springing it and just go to BermudaGraphs, which I think would be better
to smother what I'm wanting to do. And I'm wanting to smother some of

(05:25):
these things, mainly the three poisons. So today I'm asking your opinion to
help me perfect my dreamed up techniqueof eradication of the three poisons, you
know. And so I've got thisidea if I would dig a hole with
a postal bigger right next to oneof these fresh stems coming up with the

(05:47):
leaves on it, which would bea good time, I think, to
try to poison and just try tobend it over and call it up and
pack it down there in that hole. That about maybe ten or where events
with a post o there and thenpossibly put some rocks soft in there,
and maybe something else that you mightknow would be good to add to it.

(06:10):
Then here you're talking about poison ivy. Oh yes, poison ivy,
poison oak and poisons in max.Okay, Well, there's a lot.
There's a lot of it here,and it's just it's just unbelievable how much
I've tried, uh to do itabove the ground. I'm thinking if I
would get this below the ground bendedover where it's stay stay alive instead of

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trying to shear it off, shaveit off, uh and put it down
in a little hole and then fillthat hole up with some some clay and
then also mixed like I do mypost holes, uh p's post hole with
uh. Okay, I got Ithink, you know, I get,
I get the idea. I thinkyou're making it much harder than it needs
to be. And I don't Idon't think that is necessarily a tribe chuse.

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It's just it just seems like it'sit's impossible. Here. Here's here's
what I do, and here's whata lot of people have had success with,
and that is to get a productthat has the ingredient triclopier tri I
clo p y R. And it'sin a lot of different things on the
home, you know, garden market. It may be called poison ivy or

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poison oak. If the plants aresmall, you can spram with it.
If they're larger, you cut thestem and you paint the cut surface,
meaning just dab some of the triclopierproduct on there and it'll translocate down and
that will do the best job youcan. And I hope that's help.
I'm gonna have to take a breakhere, Danny and go to go to

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commercial. But yeah, I havealways had success with that approach to it.
I hope I hope that you youwould too. You're listening to garden
Line. I'm your host, SkipRichter, and if you'd like to get
on the boards seven one three twoone two fifty eight seventy four, then

(08:07):
to see you and walk away fromme. All right, good Saturday morning.
You are listening to garden Line.I'm your host, Skip Richter,
and our phone number is seven onethree two one two five eight seven four.

(08:30):
Let's head on out to sugar Landand we're gonna talk to Carl this
morning. Good morning, Carl,Good morning. How can I help today?
Well, I've got a prob Wejust moved into a house I've got
I think was called flat iron plantit's your brown and oak tree, okay,
and apparently you're in the winter,it had some damage. If it's

(08:52):
look very green when we moved in, it's looks all ragged. Now I
got a bunch of LEAs or wiltonand brown and whatever. I don't know
if it's better to cut it alldown and let it go back. Well,
that's a good question. Yeah,that's a very good question, because
a lot of people have That planis called cast iron, by the way,
because it is as tough as castiron. And you got two options.

(09:13):
You can go in on your handsand knees and just prune out the
bad leaves and the new growth willis probably already coming up well, is
already coming up through it, andyou can kind of selectively take out the
bad that way, or if youneeded to, you could cut the whole
thing off at the ground and itwould come right back up again. Now
that if it were a late winter, I would say do the second one.

(09:35):
Make it simple and easy. Rightnow, you got a lot of
good new growth in there already,So I kind of hate to cut the
whole thing back, but that isan option if you don't want to.
If it's a little too tedious tocut out just the ugly ones. Yeah,
it would be if it's one.I've got so much debt in it.
Okay, Yeah, well then youknow, cut it, cut it

(09:56):
back down and get all that debrisout of there. And it's a tough
plan. It'll be back fantastic.That's what I was thinking about, confirmation.
Well, I'm glad you called,Thank you, and you have a
good rest of your day. Youare listening to Garden Line. I'm your
host, Skip Richter Our number sevenone three two one two fifty eight seventy

(10:18):
four seven one three two one twofive eight seven four. By the way,
I'm going to be out next Saturdayat k and m Ace Hardburn,
Kingwood. I'll be there from eleventhirty to one thirty. I hope you'll
come out. All of the folksliving up you know, Porter New Knee,
Kingwood, anywhere up north in eastand by the way, if you
live anywhere in the listening here andyou want to come over there, please

(10:39):
do. I want to see you. We love to visit with the folks
that are listening to the show,and it gives you a chance to have
some one on one time with me. You can bring in a plant sample
and a bag. You can bringin pictures on your phone, and we
can just kind of have the timeto sit down and figure out what's going
on, identify things, diagnose things, or even make some suggestions for improving

(11:01):
on your landscape. That's next Saturday. K and m Ason Kingwood by the
way, that's forty five forty KingwoodDrive. Look forward to seeing you.
I hope you can. You willjoin us there. Let's head out now
to talk to Mark and Willis.Hello, Mark, Hey, good morning
Skip. I have a question aboutmy yard. I have a zois ey

(11:22):
yard. Okay, and do someTwo summers ago, I've been fighting Virginia
button week for two years and Isprayed the right chemicals on it. That's
the wrong time of year, okay, and I think I didn't the heat
of the summer skill Okay, twosummers ago. So I got dead grass
in my yard. And last yearI thought, maybe it's not dead,

(11:46):
it just needs to green up.It's not greening up. What do I
do in a small areas maybe atwelve but twelve area? Okay? Well,
Mark, do you do you happento know what variety of Zoisia you
have? Okay, I think wethink, Mark, we've lost your audio.

(12:07):
So I'm just going to keep goinghere. Basically, you can cut
zosia back to almost the ground andit'll come back out again. So all
the dead material, you know,use a bagger, use a rake afterwards,
and get that up out of there, kind of clean it up a
little bit so that it doesn't justget even more thatchy, and cut it

(12:28):
back. And then if you've gotsome zoisia that's living, that's not too
far apart, Like maybe you've gota ten foot area where there's a problem,
but there's living zoisia through it,it should fill back in. If
not, you may need to takesome plugs from your lawn to put over
there, or to go buy somemore zoysia. And if you know,
if you don't know the name ofthe variety of you got, it's gonna

(12:48):
be a little hard to match itup. There's a narrow leaf type and
there is a also a it's abroad leaf type and it's not broad at
Saint Augustine, but it's the broaderleaf type of that. All right,
Mark, I think we got yourback. Okay, Yes, I'm sort
okay. So you said to cutit down to the dirt, cut it

(13:09):
down to the ground. Well wellI thought about that, yeah, but
low, not to the dirt,but but low, Okay, got the
dinner is down. A little bitof newl over that area, or just
let the over, No, Ijust I would let it grow over.
And if it's too big of agap, you know, once you get

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past about you know, a footor so, it's gonna be bar so
long that it's probably worth just puttingnew grass into those spots. Uh.
And you can do it by ifyou know your variety, buying that variety
and getting some side pieces to fillin. Or you can take plugs from
your lawn and plug them in.That's a lot more tedious, a lot
more work, but it saves youa little bit of money. Not a

(13:52):
whole lot, but a little bit. All right. I appreciate it,
all right, I appreciate I appreciateyour call. Uh. Yeah. You
know, when we're dealing with problemsthat are grass killing problems, and we
don't have a lot of things thatkill grass. We can in Saint Augustine,

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We've about to take all root rotand that that is significant. Others
things like chinch bugs and grubs thatcan do some damage, but take all
the biggie when it comes to otherthings. Every grass has its diseases,
Bermuda grass, the asio grass,they all have diseases that can affect them.
Where we get in trouble is,you know, with the broad leaf

(14:35):
weed killer applications when temperatures get warm. Now I'm painting with a big brush
when I say all broad leaf weedkiller applications right, because there's a lot
of different products and there's a fewthat are a little less harmful. When
the temperature, let's say, getsup about ninety two right in there,

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that most of the ones that wewould have used are no longer recommended because
in the heat. And when Isay heat, and I'm talking about herbicides
on turf, broad leaf post emergentherbicides that is mid eighties, certainly upper
eighties, that's where we start gettinginto problems. And the thing you're putting

(15:16):
out to kill the weeds is makingthe patient pretty sick too, And so
that's why we avoid those at thattime. And just keep that in mind.
We're still in a pretty good timeto get broad leaf post emergent weed
control done. So if you needto spray to kill broad leaf weeds.
Our temperatures are pretty moderate still rightnow, and again mid to opera eighties

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is where we start saying, yes, it's time to stop. But the
earlier you get it done, thebetter. So the warm season weeds,
some of them are perennial. They'vebeen around. They just popped back up
and kept going. Summer annuals.They pop up and they start to grow
when the weather warms up in thespring, and when they're young, it's
easy to get rid of them.As they get older, sometimes it gets

(16:00):
a little more difficult, but there'sa way to do it. We just
need to know what the weed isand we can direct you to some options
for managing that. You know,I was talking about being out in the
lawns and looking at weeds, andI've got some areas in my lawn that
do have weeds. By the way, that's true confessions right here on the
air for everybody to hear. Myexcuse for it is they say the cobbler's

(16:23):
kids go barefoot. So if I'mif I'm running around doing every kind of
thing in the world connected to theradio show or agrilive extension, things like
that, it's kind of hard toget home and take care of the grass.
But we're working on it. ButI was noticing I just put some
fertilizer out this past week on thelawn. In fact, I was trying

(16:45):
a couple of different things. Forme, it seems like everything's an experiment,
you know, I'll try a littleof this fertilizer over here, a
little of that one over there,and see how they do, and you
know, just make notes of thedifference, and they all perform well.
The ones we talk about here ongarden Line definitely all perform well, and
it's because they've been tested and we'veevaluated them. But its just have to

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realize that some things are a littleslower release than others. Some things or
of course faster release than others,and trying to get the right nutrients down
at the right time is a bigpart of the key. So what's going
to happen is you're going to getthese nutrients down now when you fertilize.
And some of the products, likeI was talking a moment ago, I
mentioned Nitrofoss's Superturf nineteen four ten thatis going to give you a slower gradual

(17:36):
release. A lot of the organicproducts because they're biologically broken down in the
soil, they have an extended releasefeature to them as well naturally, and
when you do that, it spreadsthat feeding out over a little period of
time. And so that is whatwe would rather do. You if you
dump all of a fast release andexpect the whole year's supply to be put

(18:00):
down at one time, you're goingto get a big peak of growth and
then it's gonna wane off. Andso we'd rather split that up into at
least two applications to gradually release,or even better yet get something that's going
to gradually over time feed that lawn, and that way you don't have the
severe mowing pressure it seems like therunout every day because it's grown in another

(18:22):
six inches while you slept overnight.We'd like to spread that out a little
bit. It sounds like, doI sound like someone who is speaking from
experience, You go, indeed,don't do that. Yeah, I mean,
you know, if from an environmentalstandpoint, you overdo it, it
washes off and bodies of water andit's gonna volatilize away when it rains and

(18:42):
stuff. So there's just a lotof reasons to either fertilize gradually over time,
or to get a product that'll dothat for you. Well, good

(19:11):
Saturday morning. You are listening togarden Line and I'm your host, Skip
Richter. We are here to answeryour gardening questions. Our phone number.
Write it down, and by theway, I always listen to garden Line
with a pen and a piece ofpaper in hand, because we give out
URLs, we give our product names, we talk about all kinds of resources,
and you don't want to be like, oh my gosh, I missed

(19:33):
it. What did he say earlier? Well, that's that's the way to
avoid it. And so write thisdown our phone number seven one three two
one two five eight seven four.Let's head out to Seabrook and we're going
to visit with Sarah. Good morning, Sarah, Good morning, Skip,
Thank you for taking my call.Sure, I wanted to just plug our

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Earth Day fair at Unity Spirit Centertoday from ten to two. It's on
nineteen eleven Highway three South. Allright, and the public is welcome and
the free food. All right.Well, I appreciate that. Any gardening
questions to go with that, orare we just talking about the fair?

(20:18):
Well, we're going to plant atree, And I wanted to ask you
what's a good native tree that wouldbe hardy and not die back when we
have a little freeze. Oh boy, Yeah, we have a bunch of
them that do well. You know, I like them, some of the

(20:38):
red oaks, specifically the nutall nutta l I believe maybe too many teas
or too many few els or anyway, nuttall is a good red oak for
area, and it's tolerant of wetsites. And so when I'm just speaking
to the general area around Houston,nutall is probably one of your better choices.

(21:02):
All right, all right, okay, Well, we have a pond,
and so we'll plant it close tothe pond. Well, and if
you got a pond, cypress isgood. You need to get one that
doesn't produce knees unless you just wantthat effect around your pond. But when
it comes to planting in the yard, I've got us some cypress in the
house. We bought that we're therealready, and oh my gosh, I

(21:25):
can tell you each one produces tenthousand knees. And I'm not a big
fan of that. I didn't knowyou could you could find them without the
knees. Yeah, there are ifif you check out you know where you
purchase your plants. There's one calledMontezuma cypress that is that is doesn't produce
the knee, so but there maythey may have some other lines depending on

(21:45):
where you purchase your trees. Alrighty, all right, thank thank you so
much. I appreciate you. Alrighty, let's head out to Lakeside Estates and
we're going to talk to Maureen.Hello, Marine, good morning. I
had great success with your suggestion onmy Okra seeds, and so now I

(22:08):
have thirty eight little plants ready togo, and I'm thinking, oh,
what would you suggest? I havelarge metal trellises which I can move anywhere
in the yard, So about howmany should I plant? Thirty eight seems

(22:30):
to be a lot. Now Ido have some pots so I can get
some started, but I wanted toget a rough idea since I've never planted
Okrah before. I do like Okra. I'd be happy. And I do
know some people if I get overwhelmedwith my harvest. Okay, so what

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is your thought in terms of itwill get bulls on. It isn't a
rose soil mix, so it's gota little bit of three things. So
I think I'm off to a goodstart except for the heavy quantity that may
come in. Okay, well,I'll tell you I would. I would
plant more rather than less. Andhere's why. Let's say I'll make an

(23:14):
extreme. You have three ochre plantsand two of them, well, I'm
saying, let's say you just plantedyea. My example is planting eight.
Right. My example is if youdon't plant enough. Here's here. If
you have three plants, you're goingto get about two okra a day out
of those three plants. And ochredoesn't keep well in the fridge. So
if you're trying to get enough tohave a batch. If you love okra

(23:37):
and you like fried okra or gumboor whatever, you may do more plants.
You can always drop pods on theground. If you can't, I
mean, that's fine, just keepthem picked or give them to your friends.
So I would look at your spaceand go with more. You won't
need a trellis It sounds like withthe soil and the sun you've got,
they should do well. So Idon't really need it to trell. Not
for okra. No, Okrah isjust like a little tree. Yep.

(24:02):
All right, all right, thankyou for your aformation. Well, good
luck. I hear about how itdoes. You're listening to garden Line.
I'm your host, Skip Richter,and we are available if you call nine
excuse me seven one three two onetwo fifty eight seventy four seven one three
two one two five eight seven fourscome out around no. No, But

(24:33):
as this wild to see, well, good Saturday morning. I see a
glow in the eastern horizon and Idon't see a cloud in the sky.
That means this is a good dayfor gardening. It's also a good day
to visit garden centers. I wasout and about yesterday, went to a

(24:56):
bunch of different garden centers. Youknow, we talk about a garden center
for that part of town. Well, when you become a plant attic like
me, every garden center within ahundred mile one hundred miles is when you
got to check out and see.But there we guysh we are just we
are filthy rich with garden centers aroundthe Houston area. I'm telling you,

(25:17):
I've lived in lived in Austin,lived in the San Antonio area, been
up to Dallas, a lot ofdifferent spots. There's good garden centers in
every town, no question about that. In fact, I do garden center
tourism' when I'm traveling, just seeingsome of the cool places that are out
there. But Houston, no matterwhere you live in town, north,

(25:37):
northeast, northwest, southwest, southeast, a central town, that there's an
awesome garden center. And if afriend called me up and said, hey,
I'm coming to Houston, and whatare some good garden centers, I
would say, well, well,get out a long piece of paper.
But no matter where they're where they'regoing to be staying, there are some
places they absolutely have to visit.And I'm telling you this, this isn't

(26:00):
like an ad for a garden center. I'm just saying we've got a lot
of them, and we talk abouta lot of them here on Garden Line.
But it is that it is amazingthe quality of plants, the knowledge
of the staff in these places.You know, you can you can always
go someplace to try to find acheap plant somewhere. But I want to

(26:21):
tell you something. When you goand all you're thinking about is what's the
cheapest plant I can find, I'mgoing to say you're wasting money and here's
why. I've seen the way thata lot of the big chains, national
chains and whatnot take care of theirplants, and basically they don't. The

(26:42):
plant comes off the truck looking good. Two days later it's wilted. They're
not getting it. It's not gettingwatered. The selection isn't good. You
know, the stuff that they carryoften shouldn't be grown here. And I'm
going to avoid using specific names,but I bet you can think of three
or four or and when you havethat kind of situation, like, for

(27:03):
example, a red raspberry for salefor Houston. In Houston, a concord
grape. Everybody knows Welch's grape.Use that's conquered grapes, Mogen David wine
if you want, if you will, conquered grapes here. They don't do
well, prone to diseases like crazy. The berries ripen in a cluster about
one at a time practically, andit's it's they shouldn't sell that here.

(27:26):
When you go to an independent guardI know I'm on a soapbox, but
bear with me a minute, becauseI feel really strong about this. When
you go an independent garden center.Oh, the last thing is they don't
some of these places. If youcan even find somebody to help you,
they don't know what they're talking about. And I've tested it out several times.
One time I was in one ofthese, not to mention the name

(27:47):
places, national places, and Iwas going to do a training for the
staff, because trust me, anytraining, and the guy who I raised
it with, by the time Igot there, a different guard center manager
was there and it was a guywho was managing the jewelry counter the day
before. So how much is thatguy going to know about gardening. I've

(28:08):
been to a place like this andstanding there looking at the wall of products
best besides herbicides, all that stuff, and a person came up and said
can I help you? And webegan talking and I found out well,
they were new, they'd just beenthis was our first week, and before
this their job was working in abeauty shop cutting hair. Now is that

(28:30):
the person you want to point youto the best herbicide, to tell you
which herbicide you need to tell youhow to apply it? Of course not
when you go to an independent gardencenter ours here in the Houston area.
I've been to them. I knowthe families that run them, I know
a lot of the people that workthere, and they're trained, they know

(28:51):
what they're talking about. Number One, they greet you at the door and
they will walk through with you,helping you select plants. You know,
say, man, I don't know, really, I want a beautiful flower
bed, but I don't know which, And they go follow me and they
take you to the products that willbest meet your needs and they tell you
how to plant them. If youbuy products, they tell you how to

(29:12):
use them. They will tell youif you don't need a product. You
know, you think I need aweed. I've got all these winter weeds,
and they'll say, no, don't. Now is not the time.
It's too late. Let's focus onsummer. And they avoid that. And
I'm telling you when I started offtalking about saving money, it saves money

(29:32):
to buy a quality product. Itmay cost a little more, but you
have expert advice. And when youcome back in and you've got a problem
with it, you have expert adviceversus a plant that hasn't been taken care
of, that is probably not theright plant for your area, and that
you're going to be replacing anyway.Along with the disappointment of watching it not
perform. Do you see what I'msaying. Do you see why this is

(29:53):
a soapbox for me. We're fortunateto have these garden centers here, talk
about a lot of them on gardenLine, and you need to take advantage
of that, so that whole mindsetof I bet I can get a cheaper
whatever over here, it costs youmoney. It's like cheap pruners you may
have. I could fill a fivegallon bucket with the worthless pruners over my

(30:15):
lifetime that I have had, havegotten given to me or something. A
quality set of pruners last year,almost your whole life, replaceable, blade
sharpenable. That's just a poster exampleof what I'm talking about when I talk
about our independent garden centers. Whenyou think about how do I save money,

(30:36):
think about quality plants, quality advice, and enjoying those for years and
years to come. That's what we'retalking about here. We are here to
steer you toward that. You're listeningto garden Line by the way, as
I rant this morning, but that'sokay. Seven one three two one two
five eight seven four KTRH. GardenLine does not necessarily endorse any of the

(30:59):
products services advertised on this program.Welcome to KTRH Garden Line with Skip Rictords.
Just watching a good Saturday morning,on a good day for gardening,

(31:26):
as ever day is. I seethe sun shining through hitting some tree tops
over here at the station. Ohmy gosh, what a day. What
a day to be outside, Whata day to visit a garden center,
to get some stuff done in theyard. Oh man, I can't wait.
So but we got to stay heretill ten ten am and talk to
you about your gardening questions. Isay, got to. We get to.

(31:48):
Actually, my two happy places aresitting out in the garden doing anything
in the garden, landscape and gardenso on, and talking to gardeners.
I love talking to people who areinterested in gardening. It's what I've done
my whole career, and I justI just find number one, I always
learned something. I mean, thereare folks that know things that I hadn't

(32:10):
even heard before that often come outas you as your garden visiting with a
gardener. I love being able tohelp people with their gardening questions. There's
a satisfaction in that and steering somebodyin the right way. I wanted to
mention something this morning yesterday was AggieMuster. An Aggie Muster is something's been

(32:31):
done at A and M for overone hundred years, and it is a
remembrance of the students, former studentsat Texas and M that have passed away
in the last year. And thesenames are read. Aggie Musters are held
now all over the world. Thereyou know, back you go back to

(32:52):
World War two times. There wasa nineteen forty two a Carregador must where
a bunch of Aggie's on the islandof Gador and the Philippines got together during
during the time they were being undera shelling attack. That's just an example.
But the reason I bring it uptoday, Number one, it was
yesterday, But yesterday Randy's name wasread, and that, you know,

(33:15):
every time we think about that,it's a it's a sad, sad thought
about losing Randy and just all thathe meant to not only the listeners,
but for the many many years thathe was host here of Garden Line.
And at the same time, Ijust know that Randy would be very,
very proud to know that his nameis being remembered in some special ways.

(33:38):
One way is a scholarship and I'vetalked about this before, but Dan Nelson
helped set up through the A andM hort Department, a scholarship on Randy's
name for a horticulture student. Theseare the folks like myself that keep gardening
going in a modern world. It'scalled the Randy Lemon Class eighty four Memorial

(34:00):
Scholarship, and it'll be used toprovide support for future horticulture students. Now
you can go online to give andlet me. Let me give you the
I'm gonna give you a website injust a minute, so time to grab
a pen and paper. But Iask you at least write this down and
consider it. And that's give dotam slash Randy Lemon with two ms.

(34:22):
By the way, give dot amslash Randy Lemon, Ellie M M O
N. I know Randy would bethrilled at the thought of his legacy continuing
to educate horticulture students at the university, and that is just I guess that's

(34:42):
one of the simplest ways to honorhis memory in terms of all the help
that he's provided to all of youin this listening area over the many many
years. By the way, Imentioned I was talking about Bruce's Brew,
the eighteen forty nine that Nelson's produces. If you get a bag this weekend,

(35:02):
we're about to come. I thinkthe first May is about the time
of this wind's up, so youneed to not delay get it done right
now. But if you get abag of Bruce's Brew this weekend, two
dollars for each bag purchased will bedonated by Turf Star to Camp Hope in
the name of Randy Lemon. ACamp Hope is it was a cause that

(35:24):
was near and dear to Randy,and it just a wonderful resource for veterans.
But if you're thinking about buying aBruce's Brew, go ahead and get
that done this weekend, because inaddition to getting a good fertilizer, you're
gonna be providing two dollars toward adonation to a good cause and Camp Hope,
and that is in the name ofRandy Lemon. Let's go to the

(35:49):
phones now. Our number is sevenone three two one two fifty eight seventy
four, and we're going to headout to northwest Houston and talk to Ralph.
Hello, Ralph, well, goodmorning, they're good. Just have
you home. Stir you do agood job. Oh, yes, I'm
my vital would north Maine. Hedoesn't. Yeah, I can't find me

(36:15):
any butter beans. I've got abig bored I talked to you before,
well big garden, and I needI need some butter bean. They did
for some reason. Okay, Soyou're looking for where to get seeds,
yes, man, Yes, ifyou're if you're in northwest Houston, you

(36:36):
ought to be able to find seedsat a place like Plants for All Seasons
or harbor Gate. There ought tobe some seeds available there. Uh,
it's a little bit of a driveinto town. But I know that UM
Quality Feed, for example, doescarry seeds, and they I believe they're
they're um Old seed rack where youjust buy them by the scoop. They

(36:57):
probably have got butterbeans in there.You might want to give him a call
to be sure. But they're they'repretty available. Oh, I've been around.
But of nor North Maine, theymove that place. Do you know
what they moved off of Nord Maine. Yes, and I'm gonna I'll tell
you what. I'm gonna have tograb that address. I don't have it
in my head, but I will. I will announce that on the air.

(37:19):
Yeah sometimes this morning. Well,Ralph, I appreciate that call.
I also appreciate that you know howto say butterbeans. Butterbeans. Yeah,
well they better than what they're tryingto sell me. Okay, oh,
I appreciate it. Thank you,hey, good, thank you so much
for the call of the kind words. You know. I uh, you
can tell where someone is from byby how they say. And I'm gonna

(37:44):
sound it out. Butter bean.Uh. If they're from the North,
they're called lima beans. If they'refrom the South, they're called butterbeans.
If they're from the Deep South,they're butterbeans instead of two teas two d's
butterbeans. And if you've ever hadfresh grown quality butter beans, there are
a few things like it. Iyou know, some of the black eyed

(38:05):
pea, purple whole things that theycome close. But when you cook up
a fresh batch of that, thelittle bacon, little onions in there,
oh my gosh, that's a wholemeal. And really I could just sit
down and eat a bowl of butterbeans, and oh my gosh, go
into a butterbean coma from enjoying thewonderful, wonderful flavors of that well,

(38:27):
you're listening to garden Line and ourphone number if you'd like to give us
a call seven one three two onetwo five eight seven four. I just
want to remind you next Saturday,I'll be at k and m Ace Hardware
and Kingwood that's on Kingwood Drive fromeleven thirty to one thirty PM. I
hope you'll come out and see us. I believe that Josh is feeling soulful

(39:08):
this morning. We are getting somesmooth stuff for our Saturday in the garden.
By gosh, look at the weather. Look outside. You need to
not be indoors all day to day, that's for sure. My gosh,
it's a good time to get outin garden. I love you know.
There is something therapeutic about just beingoutside in the garden. And I've talked

(39:31):
about this before, but they're literallya scientific research on the benefits of just
being in nature around plants, andit's significant. It's you know, it's
not just exercise and fresh air.It's it's the mental benefits that occur if
you're young, if you're old,if you're dealing with add if you're dealing
with depression, plants or your medicineand I encourage those of you who are

(39:55):
listening, who maybe aren't gardeners,but you just love to listen the garden
line, or maybe you tune inbecause you don't know what crazy song or
stupid thing I'm gonna say the nexttime, But seriously, give it a
try for your own sake. Andif you've got kiddos, get them involved
in the garden. That this isa lifetime benefit for them. When they

(40:16):
grow things and they learn to eatfresh vegetables because they grow in themselves,
they're more willing to It could changetheir health for the rest of their life,
because we all know that our mainhealth problem is what we put in
our mouths, right, And soI would encourage that it's a wonderful hobby
too, just an absolute wonderful hobby. I obviously am biased, but I'm

(40:38):
telling you I'm pointing to research youcould make. In fact, one time,
I start printing out research on thebenefits of gardening, the many different
types of benefits, and on andon, and the stack just kept getting
hired. Here. I bet,I bet you could make a foot high
stack of just the stuff that hasbeen studied in a replicated trial established as

(41:00):
a fact that these are ways thatgardening helped you. So congratulations for listening
to Garden Line. If you arein any way interested in gardening, you
are on the right path for manymany reasons. Hey, our phone number
if you'd like to give us acall is seven to one three two one
two fifty eight seventy four seven onethree two one two fifty eight seventy four.

(41:23):
I was mentioning heirloom soils a littlebit earlier, and I have had
in over the years. I havehad I purchased soil by bags. I
have had a dump truck dump soilin my driveway. I have gone in
a flatbed trailer to pick up abig bucket full of soil to bring home,
try to strap it down and keepit from all blowing out and going

(41:44):
down the highway. But then theinnovation that I think is just remarkable are
the large super sacks. We're talkingabout a one cubic yard supersac, and
Heirloom Soil provides those. They havea lot of the products, so some
of their select products, not everythingthey sell, but a lot of them

(42:05):
are available in bulk and in theone yard supersack. So you can go
to the porter location and by theway, go to Airloom Soils of Texas
dot com Airlooms Soils of Texas dotcom and you can find out where they're
located. You can drive up therewith your big your big trailer and have
them set some supersacks on it foryou, or you can have them deliver

(42:27):
it. You just need to call. And you know there's a delivery fee
to get them out. Of course, that's that's always the case when you're
hauling things around town. But theycan deliver it to you, so give
them a call. Check out thatwebsite and if you've not tried supersacks before,
you should. It is neat andclean. You're not sweeping and blowing
off and washing off your driveway afterwards. Supersacks, I think are the way

(42:52):
to go. Well, you're listeningto Gardenline. I'm your host, Skip
Wrecter, and we are here toanswer your gardening questions. We you know,
try to be as as informative aswe can. We try to give
you the options that you have.I always have to balance between going nerdy

(43:14):
and giving all the facts about aquestion versus the caller who wants to know
just tell me what to get andwhere to get it. Just tell me
how to kill it. Just tellme you know what to do. And
so we try to walk between thatline here because I think there's a benefit
in knowing some of the why,some of the why would you do this?

(43:35):
Behind the how do you do this? And when you when you learn
that, it helps you make moreinformed, informed decisions and helps you understand
why what you're doing is helpful andwhy it's going to be successful. Well,
let's take a moment and go backto the phones. And by the
way, the number seven one threetwo one two five eight seven four.
We're going to Lisa in Seabrook.Hello, Lisa, warning. I have

(44:00):
a question about thornless blackberries. Canthey be grown in containers? And do
they produce well? Because I'm justused to the one, the wow one.
Yeah, thornless blackberries will do wellif the container is large enough.
So I'm thinking, oh, picturea half whiskey barrel. You know,
you may want to get a plasticor a pottery version of it. So,

(44:22):
because the whiskey barrels rot out overtime, they're not treated wood.
And but about that volume of soil, I grew some blackberries and I grew
one called punk up Eo NCA.It probably can find. It's a little
hard to find, but there area couple of one called Traveler Arkansas Traveler,

(44:44):
and then let's see what's the otherone. The couple of their thornless
and they're newer varieties from Arkansas.Think of it in just a moment,
but they're they're prime primo cane bearing. Now the blackberries you've been used to
picking, Lisa, they grow aone year, or grow a cane upwards
one year, and then the nextyear, after it's gone through winter,

(45:06):
that's when it blooms in fruits andthen it dies. So you've got a
cycle going on. Eat at anypoint in time, like right now,
if you had a BlackBerry patch,you would have blackberries that were setting on
last year's growth, and then youwould have new shoots coming way up for
next year. And with the primacane bearers, they bear the first year
as well as the second year.So that's a really unique thing, and

(45:29):
i'd encourage you if you're looking fora thornless a couple of names. There
are other good varieties out there,but two that come to mind. The
one I was trying to think ofis prime Arc pr I m r K
like Prima Cane Bearing from Arkansas.Primark Freedom and Primark Traveler are two good

(45:49):
ones and where depending on where youshop, you're going to find some other
good options. But if you goto a good quality nursery, they won't
steer your Can you use road soil? I would use rose soil. You
can use a lot of different soils. But this is a long term planting.
So you know a lot of timeswith potting soil you got something really
fine textured and it it just oxidizesaway. You want something that's going to

(46:14):
hold up in that container for aperiod of time, so something a little
bit chunkier can be helpful. NowI'm not talking about you know, big
wood junks that like mulch, butfor a longer term like that, I
think that would be a good choice. And rose soil certainly would would be
fine for that. Thank you,all right, good luck. I love

(46:34):
thornless blackberries. They are super.Hey. Let's run out to Richmond now
and we're going to talk to Betty. Hello, Betty, good morning.
How are you this morning? Well? I'm doing absolutely wonderful, and it's
because I keep looking outside thinking aboutwhat all I'm going to enjoy outdoors after
ten am me too. All right, I'm calling this morning because I have

(46:58):
been overcome with nails. They're brown, they're sticky, They're everywhere. I've
put soap on and I've tried salton them. They just keep eating everything
in my garden. I've tried coffeegrounds, which I've seen on the internet,
and I just I'm inundated with them. I don't know where they come
from and how to get rid ofthem. Help me, Betty, I'm

(47:19):
gonna tell you how to do it. You need to go and buy what's
called a snail bait, and there'sseveral brands in the market, so I'm
not going to get into specific brandsagain. A good garden center will take
you to the one they sell,and they will sell the ones at work.
But it's it's the snail killer ingredientthat's mixed into a bait that they
want to eat. You want touse it when it's fresh. Don't store

(47:40):
it in a garage or in abuilding all summer outside because if it doesn't
if it's not appealing for the snailsto eat, they're not going to eat
it. And so you want toput them out. Don't just dribble a
little here and there, follow thelabel because you want them to eat it,
get sick and die, and snailbait is probably the simplest, least
toxic way to get that done.So we can go around my vegetables,

(48:05):
no problem. Yes, what Ido is I'll put it out in a
little flat trays on the ground andthe snails will find it. Put it
near the plants that they're going up. Okay, okay, thank you,
so you bad good luck with that. And I guess another option would be,
you know they say, when lifegives you lemons, make an Maybe
we just need an s cargo recipe, Oh, garlic, a little butter.

(48:30):
I don't want to infer you caneat all the snails out there.
So this is a disclaimer. Itwas a joke. It was those are
not the ones that you want tohave when life gives you snails, make
s cargo. Indeed, it's notIt's not unusual to see, well,

(48:58):
good morning on a good day forgardening, as I always say, because
every day is a good day forgardening. If you're wondering, well,
how can you say that? Whatif it's freezing outside? What if it's
raining outside and a hurricane is blowingthrough. It's a good day for gardening
because you have houseplants, you haveseeds to start indoors. You've got catalogs
to peruse or things to check outonline that will make you a better gardener.

(49:21):
Every day is a good day forgardening. And you're listening to garden
Line, I'm your host, SkipRichter our phone number. Write this down
seven one three two one two fiveeight seven four seven one three two one
two fifty eight seventy four. Iwas mentioning earlier talking about lawns and different

(49:42):
things in the vegetable garden. Inmy vegetable garden, I've got some vegetables
that I haven't grown before, andI do that all the time. I
just my policy when I plant agarden is to start with the species and
varieties that I know will do wellhere. So something just an example,
celebrity tomato. It's an old timetomato, been around a long time,

(50:06):
resistance and nematodes, which is rarein tomatoes, and it's just a good
one. But then I always addtwo or three others to just try out.
That's how you end up finding yourfavorites just by exploring a little bit.
This past two winters, I've trieda vegetable called chi jim assai and
that is what one seed company callsit. I believe it's Baker Creek calls

(50:29):
there. There's chie jim Assi.There are other companies that offer this same
cross between tutsi and another Asian vegetablethat's not coming to me right now.
But chi jim assi hi ji mi s Ai, I believe, and
that are spelling. It has darkgreen leaves and it's mild. It's in

(50:51):
that Cabot family of vegetables that somethings can be very mild and then when
you get over on the mustard endit gets it gets pretty strong flavored.
This one is a mild flavored,so I can eat it fresh. I
don't you know. I don't needto cook it or mix it with other
things. You can use it ina stir fry or whatnot. But it's
just an unusual one, and Idon't know. I'm not here to promote
chi Gennosia. I'm just saying thatthat's a new one that I tried.

(51:14):
And if you haven't tried it before, and you're a vegetable gardener. You
ought to give that a try.I think you'll find it interesting. But
most of all, when you plantyour garden, maybe it's time for a
summer garden. There's some greens thatare for warm season, and let me
talk about those a little bit morein a moment. Right now, I'm
going to go to the phones andwe're heading to Cyprus and we're going to

(51:35):
talk to John. Good morning,John, Hey, Skip, how are
you going? I'm well, thankyou, good hey. I've been usually
trying to follow Randy's fertilizer schedule,but this year I'm a little late.
I put the fifteen five ten downlast weekend. Okay, I know I
should be putting what's that? Ijust said? Okay, I'm sorry in

(51:59):
a rust, And then I wantto put the nineteen four ten down.
But would it be all right toput that down this weekend? I would
not do that. Go ahead andget it and have it, but give
that give that fifteen five ten aboutsix weeks or so and then come back.
Otherwise you're just really loading the lawnup with nitrogen, because the fifteen

(52:20):
five ten is going to be aquick release and the other will be a
slower release over time, so I'dgive them a little space. Both good
fertile. Yeah, so about sixweeks then you say about six weeks.
Yeah, I watch your lawn andit'll tell you. I mean, if
you're if it's growing so fast youcan't keep up mowing it, hold off,
give it a little more time.There's nothing wrong with fertilizing at other

(52:42):
times, but we fertilize to buildlawn density and good lawn color. And
so look at your lawn and ifit's like I'm not, really it's not
what I want it to be,well, then it's probably time to go
ahead and fertilize again as well asequent mowing, and just don't overdo the
watering and you can have a beautifullawn. Okay, great now. My

(53:07):
other question I had was, forsome reason we have a problem with moss
in my yard. Is there anythingthat attracts those things more than anything else.
Well, people in the Greater Houstonarea are very skittish because of the
side web worm that was so bada few years ago. In fact,
it's been bad more than one year, but it's a very hit and miss.

(53:29):
And if you're seeing moths now,I do not think you're seeing sideweb
worms. That's going to come laterin the summer. So there are a
million types of moths flying around.And just because we've become moths skittish since
the side web worm, Now everymoth is a concern, but you don't
have to worry about that. Iwould not worry about the moths at all.

(53:50):
Right now, okay, all right, all right, hey John,
I appreciate that call. We're goingto go to break, Linda. We
will come to you first thing afterbreak. You were listening to garden Line.
I'm your host, skip Rictor.Give us a call seven one three
two one two fifty eight seventy fourpocket. Well, good Saturday morning on

(54:29):
a good day for gardening. I'myour host, skip Rictor. This is
garden Line, and if you wouldlike to give us a call, our
number is seven one three two onetwo five eight seven four. And let's
head right back out. We've gotsome calls on the board here. We're
gonna talk to Linda out in Dickinson. Hello, Linda, Hi, thank
you for taking a call. Ireplaced someone cors with regulars about two months

(54:55):
ago. The plants look very healthy. I have new growth this week.
I know this yellow leaves appearing home, and it's really odd because I have
some dwarf once planted in front ofthem and two regulars behind them, and
they don't have any yellow leaves.Okay, flow row. How long ago

(55:17):
were they planted? About two months? Two months? And are the yellow
leaves the new growth out at theend of the shoot or is it some
of the bigger leaves further back onthe shoot? Do you know, some
further back to further back. Okay, that that is going to be some

(55:37):
sort of a root water or damagekind of situation. If they've been in
the ground two months, I'm surethey're rooting in pretty well. But the
whole plant root system is in thatlittle cylinder you pulled out of the pod.
So any plant that's been in theground a while has an extensive root
system and it gets a little dry, and it's okay because it can it

(55:59):
can reach out into more soil toget moisture from. But a new plant
for really the first six months oryear is still developing that root system,
and I think that's what's happened.I think they got a little bit dry
and so they just need a littlebit more regular water, especially in that
area where the cylinder of soil wentinto the ground, because the soil around

(56:21):
it may be moist, but theroot system pumps that little cylinder of soil
dry, and until it gets rootsestablished, you just need to give it
a little more pamprike. Okay,thank you so much. All right,
thank you, Linda. I appreciatethat. And hey, by the way,
when you're when you're out and aboutdown there, you are fortunate that
you have a league League City Feedbecause they're going to carry the products.

(56:45):
They're going to carry stuff for zaleas, that's for acid loving plant. They're
going to have if you need aniron key late, which on yours right
now it doesn't sound like it.They're gonna have stuff like that. And
they're so close by that you're reallyfortunate to not have to go far.
Yes, I do go there.Oh good good. We'll say hi.
Tell them folks that garden line saidHi. I thank you for the calling.

(57:08):
You look forward to talking to youagain. Sometime in the meantime.
We're gonna go to Andy up inNorth Shore. Hey, Andy, good
morning, good morning, and thankyou for taking my call. I wanted
to talk to you about my myfriend yard my lawn. I have somewhat
of a situation happening where my lawnhas you know, historically been uh,

(57:31):
Saint Augustine. But when we hadthe freeze a couple of years ago,
and then somewhat of a drought wehad last year, we're dried things up
pretty much. Uh. Now inthe wintertime, I have winter rized and
in early early March, I putthe fertilizer down on the grass and it

(57:51):
brings it up nice and pretty.But however, there's a new grass that
has has kind of infiltrated in thelawn and it's I don't know what kind
of the grass it is, butit's very thin, very spring like,
very light. It's bluffy, butit's not Saint Augustine. So I have
someone of a battle going on inmy front yard. Okay, I wanted

(58:14):
to see what could that possible be? How can I really? All Right,
Well, Andy, we've got areal rough connection with you. So
I'm gone, I'm gonna do that'sokay. I'm gonna close down and I'm
gonna just answer your question then offoff the conversation with you. So what

(58:34):
I would like to see is asample a picture of that grass, and
if you can get up close toit, maybe pull one up the kind
of grass you're talking about that's invadingand put it down on a table or
sidewalk where we can get good qualityclose up photos. I'd like to look
at it and see what it is. I think you're looking at a winter

(58:54):
grass that's left over and like rye. One of the types of rye,
for example, is a possibility.You said it was fine textured, so
it may be annual bluegrass that you'relooking at. But depending on which of
those two you have, what I'mgonna recommend it's gonna be a little bit
different. And so I'm going toput you on hold. It looks like
we lost him there, so ifyou want to call back, and when

(59:17):
you talk to Josh, he willget you information on how to get that
picture to me and be glad totake a look at it. I suspect,
based on what you're describing, thatthis is a grass that's going to
go away as it gets warm,but I want to be sure about that.
Well, you're listening to garden Line. I'm your host skip rictor,
and we're here to answer your gardeningquestions. It's a good day for gardening,

(59:39):
and there ought to be a lotof different activities that you can do
when you're out and about in thegarden. Our phone number, if you'd
like to give us a call isseven one three two one two five eight
seven four seven one three two onetwo fifty eight seventy four. I was

(01:00:00):
talking about some new vegetables that Iwas trying out a little bit earlier.
There is there is just an unbelievableamount of new varieties every year, and
in some cases new species that comein. I mentioned a few of the
Asian vegetables that and I've been workingmy way through a bunch of different Asian

(01:00:21):
vegetables which are predominantly cool season,but not all. There's some that can
go in the heat too. Butone of the interests that I've had lately
is is summer gardening options. Youknow, if I were to tell you
name five greens for the garden,I bet all five you name. If
you can think of five would becool season greens. You might think about

(01:00:42):
collars or kale, or lettuce,or spinach or arugula. You get the
idea. There are summer greens thatalso do well. If you've not tried
malibar before. People call it malibarspinach. It's not spinach, but malibar
is a good one for that.There's one that's called mulochia, and it
is very popular in throughout the MiddleEastern region, but other areas as well.

(01:01:07):
It's absolutely summer proof. There issummer amaranth, the vegetable amaranth.
It's wild version is the pigweed thatgrows in the farmer's fields. But this
is a type with big green,succulent leaves. It's good and it can
take the summer. And I canname others. There's a lot of good,
warm season greens to keep you producinggood, healthy food all through the

(01:01:29):
summertime. When you might think,well, if it's not oak or black
eyed peas or sweep potatoes, there'snothing to grow. Well, there is,
and so get out there and tryout some new things this year.
We'll be right back seven one three, two, one two fifty eight seventy
four KTRH Garden Line. It's notnecessarily endorse any of the products or services
advertised on this program. Welcome toKTRH Garden Line with skin Ricord. Just

(01:02:05):
watch you well. Good Saturday morningon a good day for gardening, not
necessarily a good day for my throat. I tell you, I don't know
what's going on back there, butwe're gonna we're gonna try to keep it
going long enough. We got anothertwo hours of garden line this morning,

(01:02:28):
so give us a call. Let'stalk about what you're interested in. That
would be seven one three two onetwo five eight seven four seven one three
two one two. Katrh and Joshwill get you on the board and we
can talk gardening with the topics thatare of interest to you. I have

(01:02:49):
been mentioning some things I'm doing outin the lawn, in the landscape and
in the garden. This time ofyear, we know, with the passing
of leaf season. A leaf seasonsone my favorite seasons of the year because
it's when I can get lots ofgood material for mulching and composting and making
all weather pathways through my garden bedsand things like that. But it's about

(01:03:12):
gone, so I've got my stuffstockpiled now. Generally when I will gather
leaves, well, first of all, I let my neighbors gather leaves.
Typically mine, I either just youknow, use a mower to kind of
gather them in a bag and thengo put them immediately in a garden,
in a garden bed, a shrubbed, or some of the place where
I'm using them, or just witha multing more multim right back into the

(01:03:35):
lawn. I mean, you cando that too. But my neighbors they
are so kind, and yours aretoo. You may have noticed this,
but when you drive out of yourdriveway and you're heading to work or someplace
out there on the curb, theyhave been thinking about you, and they
put their bags and leaves they gatherit. You don't even have to rake
them. They raked them for you. They put them on a bag at
the curb for you to enjoy.Now that's being a little facetious, but

(01:04:00):
it's it's a point to be madethat the leaves that fall off your trees,
the leaves that you clip off yourlawn, are stocked with nutrients.
About seventy percent of the nutrients thata tree takes up during the year or
in its leaves. Now the wood, you know, it's got a lot
of carbon in it, and it'sgot some mineral and nutrient in it.

(01:04:21):
But most of the nutrients in atree or in the new growth, the
twigs and the leaves of the greenstuff basically, and it's packed with that.
So when that falls to the ground, here's what's happened. Your soil
has given the tree nutrients, thetree has grown leaves with those nutrients,
and now the tree is dropping organicfree slow release mulchion fertilizer in your lawn.

(01:04:46):
And I've talked about this back,you know, during leaf season,
a little bit more toward the endof it, but I just want to
stress that don't let that go,don't let that get away, don't pay
somebody to haul it away. Andnow we're in mowings season. So what's
going on there. You put qualityfertilizers down on the ground to grow a
deep green, beautiful, dense lawn, and then you mow those leaves off.

(01:05:14):
You could collect them in a baggerand put the bag at the curb,
but then you're renting fertilizer. You'vebought a quality fertilizer product, You've
watched the grass plant move those nutrientsinto grass blades, and now you're going
to clip off free organics low releasefertilizer and put it in a bag and
pay somebody to haul it off.Don't do that. Return your grass clippings

(01:05:38):
to the lawn. Now, ifit's rained for eight days and you haven't
been able to get out there andthe grasses near high, of course,
no, you gotta bag that andget it out of there. But when
you mow regularly and you're only cuttingoff about one third of the leaf blade,
that can easily drop down in yourlawn and they decompose fast. And
if you're worried about thatch, here, don't worry about that. Here is

(01:06:00):
what causes that. That is causedby excessive amounts of nitrogen that cause a
lot of runner growth. And therunners break down slowly and not fast enough
for us. That's why we docorroboration and compost top dressings. But the
leaves they break down fast. Sowe'll come back to that maybe a little
bit later. Right now, Iwant to head out and we're gonna talk.

(01:06:24):
Let's see who do we got it. We're gonna talk to Charlie out
in spring. Hello Charlie, goodmorning. He can we help my wife?
I had bought her a lemon treeand it had fruit the size of
grapefruits. Okay, many people cameto the house and thought we had a

(01:06:48):
grapefruit tree. Now it was destroyedin the flood of Harvey. It died,
and I'd like to replace it.I don't know watch it particular tree
I had, and I was hopingyou could tell me. You call the

(01:07:08):
right place. And thanks for thatquestion, because other people may have it
too. That is a ponderosa lemon. Ponderosa lemons are grapefruit size. They're
huge, and they're not the heartiestof trees. They have some decent heartiness,
but not with the kind of weatherwe can have. But you just

(01:07:30):
need to go looking for a ponderrosa lemon tree, and you are up
in the Cleveland area, would Iwould call Kingwood Garden Center or Warren Southern
Gardens in Kingwood, that's pretty closeto you and see if they have a
ponderosa that is not a variety thatis normally just carried widespread, but it
can be found locally. But that'sthe one you're looking for, if you

(01:07:54):
want that kind of lemon. Okay, I will follow up then. Thank
you all right, Bruce, thankyou or Steven me Charlie, thank you
very much for the call. Bruce. Let's see we've got just a little
bit of time here, and ifyou want to start the question, we

(01:08:14):
may have to finish it after break. That's okay. My question is about
aeroponics. There's a couple of companiesaround that make these hydroponics and aeroponic grow
towers, one of which is Eden. What are you te knew much about
about the aeroponics and you know ittends to grow tubers better because it won't
rods well. Like any system,there are quality products and they're not quality

(01:08:40):
products. And I haven't studied allthe different systems of aeroponics, but if
it's if they did it right,you can grow things that way. You
just need to make sure you've gotlots of light and a quality light.
Okay, if you'd like to followup with any questions on that, Bruce,
just hang on. We're about togo to break. Our number seven
one three, two one two fiftyeight seventy four. One of those two

(01:09:18):
six and two is eight Come home, Josh. I don't know who that
is, but when I hear thatmusic, I picture, and it's not
Chuck Berry, but a picture likeChuck Berry bent over with his knees bent
kind of skipping across the stage,jamming on a guitar. It just sort
of has that that feel and ohthe Blues Brothers, Man, how did

(01:09:40):
okay? I'm gonna have to handin my man music card because if I
don't know the Blues Brothers when Ihear it, oh gosh, we take
you back in time. Sometimes you'reon Garden Line our phone number if you'd
like to give us a call andbe on the air. Seven one three
two one two five eight seven fourseven one three two one two fifty eight

(01:10:02):
seventy four. We were what wasI talking about a minute ago? Returning
your clippings to the lawn and takingcare of your lawn, and I just
just know this. I wanted toadd some more information to that. They
did a study up at Texas andResearch Center in Dallas many years ago and
they looked at the content of grassclippings. So, in other words,

(01:10:27):
you mow a lawn, you sendthose clippings to the lab and say what's
in this? And number one,you find out that they're about a three
one two or four one two ratioof nutrients. That's that's the ratio that
the grass needs and takes it upin it's a little more nitrogen and nitrogen
a little more often. But whenthey totaled it, When you think of
how many times you mow your lawnover the course of the year, and

(01:10:50):
you add up the content of theclippings the weight of the clippings for the
whole year, you put more nutrienton with your lawn more than you do
your fertilizer spreader. So can youbag clippings, Absolutely, you can bag
clippings. You can do it allday. We did it for years.
But when you do that, you'regiven away free nutrients and you have to

(01:11:12):
up your fertilization to make up forit. Also, the clippings, when
they fall to the surface and theystart to decompose, they're blocking a little
bit of light from the surface,and whenever sunlight hits the surface, nature
plants of weeds. So I'm notsaying you return your clippings and you don't
have weeds by any means, butit does help. It does help,
and so it just makes sense toreturn those clippings. And now returning clippings

(01:11:36):
does not mean you don't need tofertilize. You still do need to fertilize,
but at least you're stopping a lotof the nutrient from leaving your property
when you do so, don't bagit. I remember years ago when Aggerlife
Extension created the Don't Bag it lawncare plan and a guy named doctor Noop

(01:11:57):
Canoop in Dallas area. He designedthat plan along. I believe Bob Whitney
was part of that problem. Hewas a kind of extension agent at the
time that designed that plan for notbagging the clippings. And after that we
created a don't bag at composting anda don't bag at leaf management plan.
I helped. I helped with theDon't bag it leaf management plan to design

(01:12:18):
that. But as you know,I'm really into returning leaves, so think
of it as a way of recyclinglike nature does. Well, let's head
out to clear Lake. We're goingto talk to Mark this morning. Hello
Mark, good morning, Sir.Said to hear that your throat is given
you trouble. Thank you. Doyou having to have any manua lossenges?

(01:12:41):
They're really good for that. Idon't. I have some lukewarm coffee that's
getting me by, but I'll haveto try your maluca idea. It's manuka
and uka Manuka okay, yeah,Manuka honey is some real expensive honey.
And they formed him minute. Somelossenges. I'm calling on behalf of my
sign if it canother. She doesn'tusually like to call on things. She's

(01:13:03):
got some tomatoes where the new growthleaves are curling. About an hour ago,
I sent you a picture. Idon't expect that you've seen it yet,
but it's there. Okay, I'mseeing if I can find the photo
as we talk here. Is itprimarily on the new growth or is it

(01:13:23):
These are determinants and it's on newgrowth. Okay. So when new growth
starts twisting up, okay, curlingand curling, okay. When you see
that, it usually is related.Oh yeah, see the picture. It's
related to either a herbicide contamination ora virus. And this is definitely one

(01:13:44):
of those two. It's it's difficultfrom a photo to be able to tell
if it is one or the other. But well, I can tell you
it's not herbicide. So you havestrictly organic Okay, So nothing was used
in the lawn nearby? Let meknow, law, And it's her back
hard. It's small, it's thetownhouse and lush with growth. All right.

(01:14:04):
I don't think there's a blade ofgrass. Let me keep playing Sherlock
Holmes share with you. Did youmulch them with any hay or straw?
Neither of the above mulches. ButI think she tries us the hardwood.
All right, final question, anycow or horse based manure on them?

(01:14:26):
She used the black cow. Idon't know exactly what's in there. I
don't think it's horse based, allright, I'm gonna eliminate. I'm gonna
eliminate the herbicide. Then, andthis is a virus, and so what
happens is the virus goes to thenew growth and as it develops, it
doesn't let it develop normally. That'swhy your old leaves look good because they're
already developed. The new growth iswhere you see the virus, and you

(01:14:48):
need to You don't want to hearthis, but grab him and pull them
out because there is no curing it. It will not get better. And
if an insect feeds on that affectedplant, it will get the virus.
Just like a mosquito that carries malariafrom one person to another, it will
carry the virus to the next tomato. And so you need to rogue it
out, get rid of the onesthat are affected as soon as you can.

(01:15:10):
Well are you talking about cutting theleaves that are bad or pulling the
whole plant out. I'm sorry tosay pulling the whole plant. It's a
man that's going to hurt because I'vealready got some tomatoes on them, I
know, I mean, you know, and if ever plants affected, I
guess you could leave them and justsee if you can get some tomatoes out
of it. But this is goingto shut down all the new bloom development,
the new growth and everything. AndI hate to be the bearer of

(01:15:34):
bad news, but I have tobe the bearer of truth and that that
is exactly what's happening with those tomatoplants. Well, you know, it's
a good thing that they've out laugedshooting the messenger, because I think she'd
can find you. Yeah, ohmy gosh, I would have a lot
of bullet holes if that was overthe shirts or something. Yeah, there's

(01:15:58):
there's nothing you can spray on them. I mean, you know, it's
a viruses. Uh. Viruses area problem because they they typically exist with
a living host. Uh. Theyseem to understand that it behooves them not
to kill. To kill the host, the virus has to be in that
host. But it just it justruins things, and there's there's no cure

(01:16:21):
in it. We get viruses ona lot of other kinds of plants.
All right, Mark, Well it'snot all right, but I mean I
appreciate you're being honest with us.Well, I don't know if you,
being the secondary messenger is also freefrom bullets, but you might want to
bear that news out a little bitcarefully as you go. Yeah, I
think we're gonna communication today will bevia text and phone. There, there

(01:16:44):
you go, there you go.Well, as a married man, I
can tell you that is a wiseapproach. Thank you very much for the
call. Oh my gosh, you'relistening to garden Line and I'm your host,
Skip Richter and our phone number.Write this down, put it on
the refrigerator door. Maybe put itin speed dial on your phone. How
about that in case you have aplan emergency between six am and ten am

(01:17:08):
on Saturday and Sunday mornings seven onethree two one two five eight seven four
seven one three two one two fiftyeight seventy four. You know, that's
a nice thing about occasionally seeing photosof things, because you know, had
Mark just called and described it tome and I'm sitting here trying to picture

(01:17:29):
what he's saying. But well,when I saw the photo, it's like,
oh yeah, I got it.I got it just right. By
the way. Another way that youcan get me a photo is to come
next Saturday, Kay and m AceHardware and Kingwood. I'll be there from
one thirty or excuse me, fromeleven thirty. I'll head out right after
the show to one thirty PM,and I'll be there at a table.

(01:17:54):
You can bring me stamples of plantsand bags. You can bring me photos
on the phone, maybe just aphoto of the landscape. You don't talk
about. Hey, what kind offlower might go good here? That K
and m Ace Hardware in Kingwood.That is the place to be next Saturday.
So I hope you'll come out.We're really looking forward to being out
there. I have not been.It's been a while since I was back

(01:18:15):
out in the Kingwood area. Iwas out We're in Southern Gardens a good
while back. But I'm looking forwardto getting out and seeing K and m
Ace out in the Kingwood area.This is a I like to say that
this way, but you know,a on a garden day, a garden
line morning You've got me for fourhours, but a lot of other people

(01:18:36):
are calling. When you come outto a live appearance, we're eye to
eye and we can talk and goback and forth, and I have all
kinds of fun out there a liveappearance. Well, you're listening to Garden
Line. I am your host,Skip Richter. We're going to come back
from break, Jonathan, I seeyou, and I see some other people
hopping up on the boards, Sowe will get to you after break.

(01:18:59):
And Nick, I don't know youhave a fan club. You want to
have T shirts made. I hadanother call today, hello Nikki, and
it's like Nikki just comes in withbad news and the traffic and stuff.
Why not you know, I'm kidding, No, not everybody. I have
to tell you that what I did. We were talking last week. What

(01:19:20):
was it called soak and cycle?Yes, so I took a bath and
first um BEV from arbor Gate hadgiven me a candle. There you go.
So then I soaked and I cycled, took another bask had some green
tea and I soaked an I cycled. Boy, I'm in a good mood

(01:19:42):
today. I'm happy to hear that, and I'm sorry about telling you you
bring bad news. It is thatseems to be what makes the news right.
It's so often does That's what Isit down. Well, good morning

(01:20:10):
on a good Saturday morning for gardening. You are listening to garden Line.
Garden Line is a show that's here, so you can call in and we
can talk about gardening. Seven onethree two one two five eight seven four
if you want Josh to get youon the boards. Right now, we
are going to go out here andstart taking some calls, beginning with Jonathan

(01:20:30):
in Cyprus. Hello Jonathan, goodmorning, Good morning Skip, thanks for
taking my call. Yes, sir, um, I'm calling about uh freshly
laid sod M. We have toreplace a couple of patches in our backyard,
had a tree removed and just someother things that have happened that's killed

(01:20:53):
off all the grass. Not police, the witches, two large puppies.
Um, so I gotta blocked off. We got the grass laid in nicely.
My question is when is it?When do you mow it? I
mean it's starting to get pretty,it looks pretty thick, nice and green
and plush. When do you mowit? When is it okay to mow

(01:21:14):
it? And fertilize it. Now. Now is a good time. Yes,
Now if once when you lay newside, I'm saying, now is
it time to mow the lawn?When you lay new side, I would
give it at least two or threeweeks before you would mow it, because
you want it to get some rootsdown. So those pieces, you know,
are sticking to the ground good,and you need to give it a

(01:21:36):
little bit of time for that.So don't worry about that thing. I
say, where a mow you know, every week, cut off a third
of the blade initially. Let's justlet that side get some roots down.
And depending on the season when youlay the side, you know, that
could be pretty quickly, or itcould if you do it in a cool
season, it can take quite awhile to get those roots down in the
ground. Right. Well, yeah, we just laid it about three weeks

(01:21:59):
ago. Yeah, well you probablyare okay to mow it. You know,
if you want to check, youcould go out and kind of put
a little bit on one of thepieces and just see it is it pegged
down real good or not? Okay? All right, thanks, thank you,
all right, appreciate it, youbet, thank you. I appreciate
the call. We're gonna now headout to Baytown and talk to Misty.

(01:22:19):
Hello Misty, Hey, guys,thanks for having me, you beat.
How can we help? Well?I planned a rose bush in my backyard
years ago now, and it's beengiving me these velvety, beautiful red aromatic
roses just like long stem like.They're beautiful, all right, And the

(01:22:41):
other dick came out here and mylittle rosebush has produced some pink roses with
white that are like barrigaated, Ithink it is. I've never seen those
before ever. They are coming straightoff the stock of one of the red
ones, okay, And I'm like, where are these and what's happening?
All right? So, based onwhat you've said, assuming that is one

(01:23:04):
plant and not another one coming upbeside it, there's a thing called sports
spoort, and that's when a plantgenetically changes and that new shoot is genetically
different than the other one, Andso I think that's what you're seeing.
We have varieties. There's an oldantique rows called Marie Pavier, and fellow

(01:23:27):
named Greg Grant found a sport that'svery pink compared to Marie Pavier, and
he named it Marie Daily. Andthat happens a lot on roses, and
I think that's what you see.I'm going to put you on hold,
though, Misty, I would likeyou to talk to Josh and let me
see he'll tell you how to getsome pictures to me, because I would
like to see that, just tomake sure what I'm telling you is what
is correct. Well, let's see, we've got Tommy out there and Jim

(01:23:50):
out there. Guys. I'm gonnahave to take a break, but I
will put you guys first up.When I come back, we'll talk to
you Tommy and then Jim. Let'ssee you're talking. You're talking this Prictor
and you're listening to Garden Line.Here's a number. Write it down.
Seven one three two one two fiftyeight seventy four. We look forward to

(01:24:10):
talking to you. We got onemore segment left in this hour and we're
gonna be here till ten am today. But we're looking forward to visiting with
you about your questions. Maybe crazy, but it's just baby y'all shown down

(01:24:32):
the line, good Saturday morning,on a good morning for gardening. We
are looking forward to talking to acouple of collars we got on the board.
If you would like to get onthe board seven one three, two
one two fifty eight seventy four.Well, let's start off. We're gonna
go out to northwest Houston and we'regonna talk to Tommy. Good morning,

(01:24:56):
Tommy, good morning, thank you. My first question, I've got two
of them. My first one iswe've got what I'm calling a rather big
front yard area and the past twofreezes did its damage on it, and
it wasn't great as far as theSaint Augustine before that, I don't have

(01:25:18):
a lot of money to spend onit. It would there be a good
weed and feed that we could applyto that. There is grass throughout the
area, but it's not very thick. It's it's very low in spots.
Okay, well, I tell youin your situation there, I'm gonna say,

(01:25:42):
do not do the weed and feedcombo. I would What I would
suggest is do a good quality fertilizer. And we talk about a lot of
them. Here. Do it atthe right rate, which is about up
one pound of nitrogen per thousand squarefeet. And here's how you know how
much to apply. Whatever fertilizer youbuy, take the first number on the
bag and divide it into one hundred, and that's how many pounds you apply

(01:26:06):
per thousand square feet. So here'sjust an example that's easy. If the
first number was twenty, twenty goesinto one hundred five times. So for
a twenty percent nitrogen product, youput on five pounds per thousand square feet.
And you can do that with thedifferent you know, different types of
fertilizers. Take that first number.As far as weed control, I'd say,

(01:26:28):
let's find out what the weeds areand go after them. If it's
a broad leaf weed, then youcan use a post emergent broad leaf product
separately. And there's a number ofgood products out there. But rather than
trying to combine these two and getthe timing right for feeding and the timing
right and the right product and theweed and feed for weeding. Some are
pre emergent, some are post emergent, let's separate those two out and buy

(01:26:51):
the two different products. And Ithink that will work. Now, if
you want to save some money andyou're trying to get your loan back going,
you can just do good mowing,watering, and fertilizing. Let the
weeds be in there for a while. Let's get your lawn good and downs.
Most of the weeds are going toget choked out by that over the
course of the season. With goodmow water fertilized, and then the persistent

(01:27:13):
weeds we could go in later andkind of take those out individually based on
what the weed is. Yes,sir, okay, thank you very much.
I appreciate that. Now. Mysecond question is we've got a really
good garden going. We went toarbur Gate and got a ton of their
compost. But anyway we're having aproblem with I'm thinking it's birds pecking holes

(01:27:41):
in our tomatoes and they've gotten tothem before we can grab them off the
bush. And also they've been flyingaround the bean of plants. What can
we do. I don't know whatto think about the beans and the birds
there, but the tomato pecking.The thing I would suggest is you need
to go online and buy something calledan Organza draw string bag. These are

(01:28:08):
used, as you know, brideswill buy them as little favors for the
bridesmaids at the party or whatever.But it's it's a it's a mesh type
bag Organza or ga n Za andit has a draw string. You buy
them in different sizes. Get asize for your tomatoes. Slip them over
the new tomatoes and pull them tight, and that will keep the birds from
pecking on them. Now, ifyou have eight hundred acres of tomatoes,

(01:28:31):
it's not practical. But for ahome garden, I think you can get
you a bunch of good tomatoes andkeep those dead gum mocking birds, our
state bird and whoever else is doingit from doing that damage. Tommy,
I appreciate that question. Let's seeJim out in Montgomery. Let's see what's
going on. I've got just littletime here, but we'll see if we
can get you done before break.Okay, soil, I do a lot

(01:28:56):
of cuttings and seed germination and findreally decent soil. It's real smooth,
didn't have wood chips in and allthat kind of stuff. Yeah, and
I use it just to germinate andonce they develop a good root system and
I transplant them into a road soil. But I was wondering where I could
get something. I live in Montgomery, but I'm kind of closer to magnolia,

(01:29:18):
the old magnolia. All right.Well, there's a number of good
products out there, but I wouldsuggest you consider jungle land. Jungle Land
is made by Nitrofoss. They havequality soil for out on the patio,
but they also have the type withcrystals inside that you can use on your
houseplants. It's got the micro rhizalfungi in it and aged organic matter in

(01:29:40):
it. It would be a goodplace to start. And you're going to
find jungle land pretty much everywhere becausenitrofoss is everywhere. Okay, tract and
a regular oil for your throat thatworks real well. Hey, thank you,
I appreciate that. Man. I'mgetting a lot of good advice here
in addition to hopefully giving out somegood advice myself. Paula, we see
you on the board and when wecome back from break, I will put

(01:30:02):
you as first in line for therest of you. Seven one three two
one two five eight seven four.Just another reminder, I'm going to be
a K and MS Hardware in Kingwood. That is forty five forty Kingwood Drive
next Saturday. Next Saturday, eleventhirty in the morning to one thirty.
Come out and see me. I'dlove to meet you. And if you've

(01:30:24):
got plans to bring, if you'vegot photos of the yard and you want
to ask questions about it just goodquality focused photos. We'll have some time
to talk and have a good time. And while you're there, they're gonna
have every product you might need.KTRH Garden Line does not necessarily endorse any

(01:30:45):
of the products or services advertised onthis program. Welcome to KTRH Garden Line
with Skip rictor just watch Good Morningon a good morning for gardening. There,

(01:31:10):
good Saturday morning, great weather outthere. For now, it's a
good time to be inside. Wegot an hour left to garden Line today.
That means we have an hour wecan take your gardening questions if you
will write down our number seven onethree two one two fifty eight seventy four.
Do you have a little piece ofproperty that maybe an acre or even

(01:31:31):
more a lot more if you wantwhere you just need some power equipment to
be able to get things done well, I would suggest you go check out
the folks at lands Down Muty Moody. Lansdown Moody has the Caboda line of
tractors and there are some really goodspring deals available. You can perhaps consider

(01:31:54):
the Caboda L twenty five O onewith hydrostatic transmission. That's that means no
more mind in your gears. Tryingto go from one gear to another.
You can throw a front end loaderon it, perhaps a rotary cutter behind
it, a box blade in frontof it. You see what I'm talking
about. I mean, you know, when you order malt, you got
to be able to move that stuffaround, right, You got to mow

(01:32:15):
a big area, bigger than yourlawn. There you go the Caboda products
or quality in their their design forhard working Texans. Now you can also
get this zero down, zero percentAPR for seventy two months. In fact,
you know what, they have increasedthat to eighty months. I've never
heard of such a thing. Zerodown zero APR for eighty months. All

(01:32:38):
you gotta do LM tractor dot comat Lansdown Moody folks, and this is
going to go on through June thirtieth, but don't delay. You can also
go to Cuboda USA dot com toget more information Lansdown Moody, Caboda Tractors.
I used to have a little farmup in the Willis area, and

(01:33:00):
I loved getting out and messing aroundon the tractor. You know when I
say farm, it's small farm,right, But my old tractor I can
relate to the grinding years this year, and I can relate to having to
squirt stuff up in there trying toget the thing to start, you know.
And and it's so nice to havea quality new product. And those

(01:33:20):
cabodas come in all sizes. Imean, there is all the way down
to you know, just a biggerand a lawnmower size, to all the
way up to you name it.And so there's a caboda for you.
And it is a lot of funto get out there and to get your
work done. Plus it saves youa lot of time and money. You're
listening to garden Line. I'm yourhost, Skip Richter, and we are

(01:33:43):
here to talk to you. Ournumber is seven one three two one two
five eight seven four and we're goingto start off by going to Charlie in
Friendswood. Hello, Charlie, goodmorning. Question for you here. Okay,
we have a little right escape areain the front yard, maybe four
or five hundred square feet, abouta half dozen tall trees, primarily pines,

(01:34:05):
and its kind of what my wifecalls English ivy, which is thick
and full and it's growing up thetrees. Is that detrimental to them and
shall I get rid of it?And if so, householo. Okay.
So it's detrimental when it gets upin the tree and the ivy covers over

(01:34:28):
the foliage of the tree, meaningit's like putting an umbrella shade cover over
your tree. That will kill trees, okay, because they can't get light
and the ivy grows at such afast rate. If you just that it's
on the tree is no problem.And I know some people that will come
up, you know, head higheror whatever and just trim off the ivy
and kind of keep it as agreen tree trunk covering down low, or

(01:34:50):
you can just get rid of thewhole thing, keep it off the trunk.
But those are your options. Okay, Well that sounds pretty good because
it's no where near the trees aretall, probably fifty seven to seventy five.
They're pine trees. Yeah, totally. Well that that English ivy has
great aspirations and so probably better todeal with it before it starts to become

(01:35:13):
a problem. You know, keepit whatever level you want, whether it's
not on the trunk at all,or whether it's let's have a green trunk
up six feet high and it stopsthere. That's your call. Just just
cutting its mottom or just pull itoff as where you can reach it.
You can cut it off at thebottom and then you know, pull it
off special. You can just gonedry and leave. You're gonna fall off
anyway. But again that aesthetically thatthat's a call for you to make.

(01:35:35):
I appreciate, appreciate that gig.I'm charting good, Thanks so much for
the call. Let's now go toJohn in southwest Houston. Hello, John,
Hey, how are you. I'ma longtime listener, first time caller.
Good. Hey, I've got aproblem. I'm so tired of my

(01:35:56):
trees freezing. And so what Idid is, I've decided that you know,
put for simmons in some things thatwon't freeze. But one tree that
I'd like to have some help withis on a papia tree. Okay,
I've kind of you know, I'vedone really well with self pollinating dwarf papayas,
and I usually would get them froma nursery from that brought them in

(01:36:18):
from you know, somewhere's in Asia, and they were phenomenal. I can't
seem find anybody that might have agood tree that I could purchase. You
know, I wanted a dwarf selfpollinating small fruit, okay, and could
you give me a suggestion on whereI can purchase one ant? And second
of all, you know this,I think I had probably about forty fruit

(01:36:41):
on mine before the last freeze camein and I tried to save the tree,
and uh, you know, inthis year, I'm going to build
a temporary greenhouse around it and tryto eat it. But I got to
find a tree first. All right, Well, you're in Southwest I would
suggest you consider enchanted gardens or enchantedforest. Call the folks out there towards
Richard Rosenberg. They carry a widevariety of things, and I would start

(01:37:02):
with a phone call out there.I mean, you could drive out.
It's always worth coming out and seeingwhat they have, but make sure that
they have it you might find.And this is a little bit of a
drive for you, but arbour Gatedoes a pretty good job of carrying a
lot of different fruit trees through theseason. I was out there recently.
I didn't see papaya, but it'sworth calling them to see if they have
it. If that strikes out again. Not exactly your area, but Moss

(01:37:28):
Nursery down south has always carried agood variety of fruit as well, and
so moss moss in Seabrook. Sothe other thing is if you start a
papaya seed inside, let's say inthe late wintertime, and you start it
in a four inch pot. Thisis a seed that came out of a
papaya you bought at the store.You can grow those and by the end

(01:37:51):
of the season you probably will havea papaya that's fruiting. So you can
grow your own trees. Now withthat, you've got some papayas or male,
some papayas or female, and somepapayas have both male and female,
and you just don't know until itstarts to flour what you got, right.
And see that was my problem lastyear. My kid came back from

(01:38:13):
Hawaii and had some great seeds.I grew them, the plants for about
four or five foot tall, andto find out, they never, never,
you know, brewed any fruit.So I would assume that they were,
you know, a male or female, and I couldn't figure it out.
There you go, all right.Now, one last thing is that
I have a papaya that I broughtin the spring and because of the water
that we had earlier because whatever theyit just didn't take. Okay, if

(01:38:36):
a papaya right now, I'm lookingat it and it's a stem which just
maybe a little growth on the top. Is it possible as long as it's
still, you know, looking alive, Is it still possible that I could
stimulate it enough to come back?All right, I'm going to have to
go to break, Tom, Butthe answer is yes, give it some
time, don't give up on itjust yet, and it may well sprouting.

(01:39:00):
So thank you for that call.I'm going to head to break.
You're listening to garden line seven onethree two one two five eight seven four
speak you see dance for me?Maybe? Don't you know? I love

(01:39:21):
you? So you feel it whenwe touch? Well. Good morning on
a good Saturday morning for gardenings.It's a good Saturday morning to talk about
gardening. Two. And we're gonnabe doing that for the next forty minutes.
We've got a little bit of anhour left, a little less than
an hour left, and the firstthing we're gonna do. And by the

(01:39:41):
way, the phone number seven onethree two one two five eight seven four
seven one three two one two fiftyeight seventy four. We're gonna go out
to Cyprus and talk to Tom.Tom, thanks for patiently hanging on.
How can we help? Hey,it's a good morning. So we've had
this above ground pool for about fifteenyears. We took it down last year

(01:40:02):
and it's decomposed granted underneath. NowI want to throw some Saint Augustine sade
over it. Um, what wouldyou recommend I do on top of that
decomposed grantit. Well, if there'sany way to get that granite out,
I know that's probably some work,but that stuff can really pack down and

(01:40:24):
be basically at concrete underneath there,and you don't your side. If you
put it right on that, itis going to have a very hard time
rooting in. In my opinion,you could put enough soil over it to
bring the level up to get agood, uh you know, root zone
for your side. If there's away to either do it or have someone
do it, or come in andyou know, listen it up and get

(01:40:46):
it out of there, I woulddo that first. That would be my
suggestion. Okay, So number onewould be removed it. Number two would
be maybe to put two or threeinches some some top soil on top of
it. Now, I'm thinking aboutsix inches or so or more. Yeah,
and six inches would be minimum grassroots. You know, we think
about grass me and shallow root,isn't it is? But I mean you're

(01:41:09):
gonna find Saint Augustine roots, youknow, a foot down or more.
I mean, in a good qualitysoil, they will be so yeah,
all right, all right. Iwould rather not see you set yourself up
for ongoing issues, you know,with that turf area, so that that's
hate to be the bear of badnews. I've been doing that a little
bit today. But yeah, wellI was afraid of that, but I'm
glad. I'm glad I heard itfrom you. So that's what's going to

(01:41:30):
have to happen. I'll just stealit up and shovel it up. Now.
As an alternative, you could buildan arbor over that area and have
a nice place to put your lawnchairs and sit out and enjoy the landscape.
Maybe just throw some stamp concrete onit. All right, Thank you
appreciate your time. Thank you,sir. I appreciate that call very much.
Oh my goodness, you know,I was I was talking earlier about

(01:41:54):
jungle land and jungle Land is thekind of product that you and put in
your containers and believe that you're goingto have good growth, good plant growth.
If you on a beautiful patio outdoorpotted plants jungle lound specifically blended Canadian
blonde peete with four sources of agedorganic material and micro rhizal fungi, you

(01:42:15):
will have beautiful color all year long. If you water those containers, give
me a little extra fertilizer as wego. This is the quality substrate for
success on indoors. They've got thejungle land with water saving crystals make it's
a little easier to water indoors.Now everywhere that you find nitro FoST you're
gonna find things like jungle Land,such as a Taska Ceda Ace hardware,

(01:42:38):
Lake Hardware and Anglet or Gym's hardware. Out in Montgomery, you are listening
to garden Line. We are hereto answer your gardening questions and so if
you would like to call in,we got about half an hour left or
so seven one three two one twofive eight seven four seven one three two
one two five eight seven four andJosh will get you on the boards and

(01:43:03):
you will be able to talk aboutwhatever you're interested in with me. We're
going to go out to Spring Branchthough right now, and we're going to
visit with Hurta. Good morning,Hurta. Oh I think I lost Hurta
there. Well, if we can'tget her back up, hurt To,
please call in. We give usa call back and we will we will

(01:43:23):
get you on the air. Thisis the kind of weather where our plants
start growing like crazy. And whenplants are growing like crazy, you need
to be able to supply them withwhat they need. And one of the
things that plants need, especially ifit's a lawn, would be high quality

(01:43:45):
nutrients and something like Nitrofoss Super Turfnineteen four ten. That's one that I've
talked about before and you will hearme talk about it again. It is
a quality product, and here's somethings I like about it. First of
all, it's the premium grass fertilizerthat's triple guaranteed. That means a they
guarantee that it will keep it greenerlonger, that it will require less mowing.

(01:44:05):
Now, why would a fertilizer requireless mowing? Because it spreads and
nutrients out over time. You don'tget that peak of growth of immediate release
and then a valley following it.You get a gradual feed over time,
which is how grass eats, ifyou will, and how your fertilizer should
feed. And Nitrofoss superturf nineteen fourten does that also reduced brown patch in

(01:44:27):
the Saint Augustine. Again, agood part of that is due to the
spreading hour spreading out of the growthover time. You know, nitro Fosh
products are sold all over town.I mean, you can't find a place
here where there's not Nitrofoss near you. But maybe you're up I have forty
five North and you're looking at ourcworplants for all seasons, or hide and
feed and supply out on Stubner Airline, or K and m ace down in

(01:44:51):
Kingwood, and on and on thelist goes Nitrofoss Super ten nineteen four ten.
You're listening to garden Line. I'myour host, Skip Richter, and
we're here to talk about gardening.So let's do that. Our number seven
one three, two, one twofive eight seven four. We're going to

(01:45:12):
go to West University and talk toMark. Hello, Mark, say good
morning, good Morning's doing well?I'm doing well today, what's happening in
your neck of the woods. Thekind of questions I got, Well,
I've noticed that the Italian cypress treeswherever I go seem to be dying.

(01:45:32):
And about my neighbor one last yearand I noticed that it's almost gone.
So they're turning brown, you know, from the top down and really patches
a brown. So it's just tryingto figure out what's going on. Well,
you're an observant person, and yes, it's true that's happening, and
that is why I do not recommendItalian cypress. They create that beautiful Mediterranean

(01:45:56):
villa. Look, these long,tall, skinny trees. Inevitably, what's
going to happen is disease, colddamage, spider mites, bagworms one of
those. And in this case wehad damage from the December freeze. They
were not ready for it and itreally burned a bunch of them back.
Also, a lot of them arebeing infected by a foliage blight and that's

(01:46:18):
causing big brown areas also that yousee in those. So it's gonna be
one of those two things. Butyou know, nobody is going to get
out there in spray an Italian cypressevery week to keep with a fun decide
to try to keep the blight off, so I just go with something else.
Go to a good quality of nursery. They can give you a thin
upright plant that's an alternative, butno plant those Okay, that makes sense.

(01:46:43):
Appreciate it. And then just aquick comment. I was heading over
to Tom Bass Park to try andpick up a tree. You know,
they're given away a free tree whoevercomes up there today. And there is
a lot of gridlock, looks likeabout a couple of miles of traffic just
standstill. So planning, I'm gettinggetting a tree today. It just you

(01:47:03):
want to plan your your day out, all right, all right, appreciate
I appreciate that. I appreciate thatvery much. Mark, thanks for the
information there. Let's head now outto Spring Branch and we're gonna talk to
Hurta. Hello, Hurta, I'mglad to have you back. Oh,
good morning. Thank you for beingthere. You're doing a great job.

(01:47:29):
My question is, um I havea call them sport. I have about
two foot or three foot a dayis who have grown out of the roots
of the parent plant. They're aboutfour feet away from the parent plant.
Now I want to transplant them,but I want to divide them. I

(01:47:55):
don't want the whole plump at onetime would hurt them. The stands are
maybe four inches apart. One isabout six inches away. Early you can
dig those. Now you got tobe extra careful to keep them extra moist.

(01:48:15):
I don't think they're sports from theroots. I don't think in azalea
can do that way out from theplant. So I don't know how to
describe how they got there, butthey're there, and so I would dig
them. If you can wait untilNovember and do it, then you'll have
a much better chance of success.And I'm sorry we're just flat running out
of time today, but I hopethat is helpful for you. Just remember

(01:48:36):
if you move them, water themin really, really well, and then
small amounts of water regularly until theyhave a chance to really get established.
Because we're fixing to get hot aroundhere and it's gonna put a lot of
demands on those plants. So hopefullythat'll help. You're listening to garden Line.
I'm your host, Skip Richter sevenone three two one two fifty eight

(01:48:58):
seventy four. When we come backout break, we will talk to Doug
and Kevin and whoever else calls inin the meantime. My well, good

(01:49:26):
morning on a good Saturday morning forgardening. You're listening to garden Line.
I'm your host, Skip Richter,and we are entering our last segment of
the morning. By the way,I'll be back tomorrow morning six am to
ten pm. Every Saturday and Sundaysix am to ten pm. You want
to listen to garden Line, Tellyour friends and family about it. That
neighbor that won't take care of theiryard, just give them a huddle,

(01:49:47):
subtle hint that maybe garden Line wouldbe a fun thing to listen to.
How's that well, let's go outto the phones now, the number seven
one three, two one two fiveeight seven four, and we're gonna go
out to Brenham and talk to Doug. Good morning, Doug, eld Skip.
How can we help it? Skip? Uh? When's the best time

(01:50:12):
to plant petunias? April or May? April would be better? Uh.
Petunias are some of our new varietiesof petunias are pretty summer hardy. Some
of the old types. We thoughtof them as a spring flower and once
it heats up in June, certainlyin July, they're going to be whimping
out. Some of the new typesare pretty good. If you if you

(01:50:35):
are up, you know, andshopping for petunias, if you can find
one called bubble gum, it's apink flowered one and it makes bubble gum,
just like remember the old super bubblebubble gum. That's the that's the
color of the flowers and it willbloom and bloom and keep going. For
you, what common color is It'sit's pink, right, bright pink.

(01:51:02):
Thanks Skip, you bet, thankyou for the call, Doug. I
appreciate that very much. Let's nowgo to Pearland and we're gonna talk to
Kevin. Hello, Kevin, Kay, good morning, Skip. So I've
got a tree. It's an oaktree I'm gonna established for probably about ten
years, Keith sprouting off the rootsystem, you know, little trees.

(01:51:30):
Had my guide take everything down,scraped everything down, scrape the roots down.
We re saw it or not saughtit, but putting new h compost
down and then remulched it. Threeweeks later they're sprouting up again. I've
deep water root fed it. Imean, I just don't know what else
I can do. The other treeis not doing anything like that, and

(01:51:53):
they're fifteen feet apart. Any ideasyou know, you say it was a
live oak, yes, sir,okay, live oaks they come from different
let's just say natural genetic lines.The ones along the Gulf coast tend to
not create clumps or root sprout.Is bad. When you get over in

(01:52:16):
the hill country, the live oaksover that direction they form mots. When
you drive through the hill country,you'll see just a whole bunch of tree
trunks coming out of the pasture inone place, and that's a mot of
live oaks. If your source isgenetically from that area, then you're going
to just have problems with the rootsprouting period. But the other thing that

(01:52:36):
makes root sprout is disturbing the soil. You go around a live oak,
there aren't he really root sprouts.You start rototilling, putting in a flower
bed, watering it a lot,and now you've got an ongoing battle.
And having them dig down like theydid and cut them as close to the
root as they can is in yourcontrol. Other than that, there is
there's not a lot you can do. And now there are things you can

(01:52:58):
spray on them. There's a productI think it's called sucker stopper, and
those when those suckers come out,it's a growth hormone that causes them to
shut down. You need to catchthem real early, but you're gonna have
to do that on and on throughtime. To keep them down. You
can put a really dense, highquality landscape fabric, not a cheapo type,
but one that is going to lastand do well, and that will

(01:53:21):
also work for you. But ontop of that, you're gonna want to
set something with a little weight,like maybe some river rocks or something like
that, as as sort of amulture on the base of the tree because
the sprouts you're going to come up, but that'll just keep them from pushing
up too high. But you gottahave a weight on it to work that
way. All right, appreciate it, all right, thank you, Kevin.

(01:53:43):
Appreciate the call. You are listeningto garden Line. I'm your host,
Skip Rector. We will be backafter the break if you'd like to
be on the board. Seven onethree, two, one two five eight
seven four got any base any rollersfans out there? You're listening to one.

(01:54:15):
You're listening to garden Line and weare going to get right to the
calls. We've got a little timeleft in the segment, and I'm gonna
see how many we can get offthe board here and help with the gardening
questions. Let's start by going toJay in Chambers County. Hello, Jay,
Yes, sir, how can wehave a question? What? What?
What herbicide would I use to sprayon ornamental fruit trees to kill liking?

(01:54:40):
You wouldn't use a herbicide and youreally don't need to spray it.
If you've got liking on a fruittree, it's a sign that they're not
growing really actively. The liking doesn'thurt the tree, but it's a sign
that the tree is not doing well, and so I would I would go
that approach. There are some mosstype killers that will work on lichen.

(01:55:02):
Off the top of my head,I won't say. I'm not gonna say
it online because I'm not certain,but we go to a good garden center
and tell them you need something that'llthat will kill lichens and mosses, and
that probably is going to be theway to deal with it. But again,
the problem is not to kill thelichen. The problem is to get
the tree growing better and I thinkI think that'll be fine. I've got

(01:55:24):
lichens on some of my trees andI just ignore them. It just means
it's just a humid place or gettingpretty decent sunlight in there. Yes,
so we live close to the coastand this tree is completely covered with it
and it just barely started blooming,okay, and it looks like the likings
like choking it to death. Soyou're saying that I need to fertilize the
tree. Yeah, fertilized tree,get good growth, get those lichens shaded

(01:55:46):
where they're not going to be gettingas much sunlight, and they'll decline from
that. But again, you knowa good garden center, i'd in you
know, the Chambers County area there. You've got some good folks that you
don't have to go over far,you know, to get to a good
good gardens there, like a qualityfeed places like that. Yes, sorry,
all right, good luck with that. Appreciate the call. Now let's

(01:56:11):
go to the woodlands and talk toTim. Good morning, Tim, good
morning, thanks for taking my call. I put it. I replaced my
lawn about months ago. My SaintAugustine grass that dies last year, and
so I piled it up and I'mended the soil with some composts and put

(01:56:35):
down some Empire zoysia thoughts okay,And I wandered it pretty heavily for the
first three weeks and then kind ofcut back a little bit after that.
And it's a bit about four weeksnow, and I've noticed that some of
the there are a number of spotsthat are turning brown. So a lot

(01:56:56):
of it is doing well, butsome spots of turning brown. I want
to see if you have any advicefor that. Well, you know,
the generic brown areas here and thereis kind of hard to diagnose. The
empires are good. It's a goodchoice. It'll do well for you.
It probably is disease related, soI would minimize the watering. I know
it's fairly new side, but youcan still give it us soaking and then

(01:57:18):
let it dry out really well.And I think it's going to crawl back
in and get established, especially asthe weather heats up a little bit.
Provide adequate fertilizer, don't overdo thenitrogen that can predispose plants to problems.
To have way too much nitrogen,but an adequate amount to keep it healthy.
I think I'd wait and watch onthat. If you'd like to send

(01:57:40):
me some pictures of it, Ican put you on hold, but I'm
telling you from a picture, I'mprobably not going to be able to diagnose
that very well. Okay, Well, I think you may be right about
the overwatering. I think I thinkI did too much. So look,
how often would you recommend watering atthis point? At this point once a
week with a decent king, ifyou can apply about a half inch to

(01:58:01):
an inch once a week when itheats up, definitely an inch, but
it's it's a good deep soaking andfrequently so if you have to have it
come on for a while in water, and if it's going to start to
run off your lawn, which it'shard to put an inch down at one
time and most soils, then youmay have to have it go off for
like forty five minutes to an hourand then cycle back on again and get
that one inch down. So yousoak it deep and then let it dry

(01:58:25):
out, let it bring oxygen backinto the soil, don't constantly keep that
surface soggy. And I think you'regoing to grow your way out of this
one, Tim. I appreciate yourcall very much. We're going to run
now over to Kingwood and talk toKenneth. Hello, Kenneth, good morning.
How are you doing. I'm well, what's up today? Okay?

(01:58:45):
I just got a question too.Oh we lost our za is on a
little cold snap. We head goingthrough here, okay, and all my
question is between the rebloom versus theencore a Ziah. What's the big difference
between the two or what is therea more difference? All right, I'm
gonna be honest with you, Kenneth. I don't I wouldn't plan an encore

(01:59:09):
azalia And I realize they have thatpromise of blooming again, you know,
on them, but over time I'mjust not seeing good performance on them here
in the greater Houston area. Now, maybe there's some people out there listening.
God, I've had mine five yearsand they're great. Well, good
for you, you did well,But in general I would go as standard
types of azaleas, and I thinklong term you're going to be happiest with

(01:59:31):
that. Now you might talk toyou know, wherever you do your shopping.
You're in Kingwood, so you're superlucky. You've got Kingwood Garden Center
and Warren's right there. Down thestreet and they won't steer you wrong,
but go in and tell them you'vehad some problems or you're trying to get
an Azalia established and you want themto direct you to the good varieties that
they carry. And I think that'llbe the best you can do. But

(01:59:55):
then they need to replant about tenof them. Okay, yeah, that's
right. Well, zilies are normallyhardy, but December through them for a
curve, and there may be somethingelse going on out there with them.
But I think I think that whatI've advised you on there is probably the
best, the best way forward.By the way, I'm gonna be at

(02:00:15):
Kingwood Ace K and m Ace Hardwarein Kingwood on forty ft Kingwood Drive.
If you've got some that are stillalive but they're not dead, dig them
up, put them in a trashbag and bring them. Let me take
a look at them. I maysee something else on them. I'd be
happy to take a look. That'snext Saturday from eleven thirty to one thirty

(02:00:36):
eleven thirty to one thirty k andm acety Kingwood Drive. And I'd love
to meet you anyway, But ifyou've got some other questions, you want
to bring them in. Maybe somephotos on the phone. Let's bring them
and look at them. You takecare. I appreciate the call, Kenneth,
and I wish a really good weekof gardening between now and next Saturday.

(02:00:58):
You've been listening to garden Line.We are here to answer your gardening
questions and guess what. We're goingto be back tomorrow morning at six a
m. By the way, justa little tip. Six am on Sunday
is a good time to call.The boards are not full. First thing,
I can't imagine, why can you. Anyway, that's a good time
to call and get on the boardsand we can visit with you. Of
course, when I say that,and tomorrow i'll be one of those Sundays

(02:01:21):
where you know it's all lit up. First thing, but in general,
that's good advice. I appreciate youlistening to garden Line. I hope you're
enjoying it. We are certainly havinga good time here doing it. We
got a great day for gardening.Hey, get out there, visit a
garden center, get out on thelawn and garden. Take care of your
place. We're setting you up fora great boubtable beautiful summer.