Singing the Praises of Okra

Skip rejoices in Okra planting season and takes listener phone calls all morning.

Episode Transcript

(00:00):
Katie r h. Garden Line doesnot necessarily endorse any of the products or
services advertised on this program. Welcometo Katie r H Garden Line with Skip
Richter's crazy Just watch him as manyteas the spotsy not a sign. Good

(00:40):
morning, s good morning on agood day for gardening. It's always a
good day for gardening. And we'reglad you're listening to garden Line this morning.
I'm your host, Skip Richter,and we're here to answer gardening questions.
So what are we going to talkabout today? Well, I'm gonna
talk about a number of different things. By the way, I I uh,
somehow faulted on my host duties anddid not wish you last week a

(01:03):
happy weed Appreciation Day? Did youknow there was actually a weed appreciation Day?
A day to hug your weeds?Perhaps they say, well, we'll
really talk about that in a littlebit, but I want to tell you
something. Weeds or the bane ofour gardening existence, and at the same
time they serve a purpose because doyou know, the designation weed is just

(01:25):
something we come up with. Thedefinition I like most is a plant out
of place. That's a good definition. Therefore, Saint Augustine growing in your
rose bed is a weed. Rosesgrowing in your vegetable garden, I guess
could be called a weed. Idon't know. That's kind of unfair,
but we just as a plan outof place, and they serve a lot

(01:47):
of purposes. Now I realize whenyou want this beautiful lawn or landscape or
garden bed, you don't want weedsin it because you have a goal for
that, and that's our goal.You know. In gardening and horticulture,
we create the palette of we usethe different plants that we have to paint
the picture that we want painted,and weeds get in the way of that.

(02:07):
But don't forget weeds serve purposes.Many weeds are excellent pollinators. Excellent
pollinators, by the way, Otherweeds are edible. Do you know there
are weeds that are edible? Yep? I would like to put it this
way. If you can't beat them, eat them. Maybe we'll talk about
weeds a little bit more. Butnow, why don't we get to the
real stuff. We're going to goout to Parland and talk to Don this

(02:28):
morning. Hello, Don, OldSkip, how you doing it? I'm
good, sir? What's up?I have roses and I have black spots
on them. And so what Idid? I use the broad Advance or
insect disease in my control and I'veadded raystick or too, and I sprayed

(02:51):
them wround by four o'clock. DidI do the right procedure? Do you
have that bottle in front of you? Oh? Okay, okay, it's
fine to spray them. You justwant to get good coverage when you do
that particular product for disease control,if you have to get it thoroughly covering

(03:15):
over the leaves so that it canmove into the tissue there and be present
to fight the disease in this caseblack spot that you might have just as
a thought done. It's convenient tohave a product that has many things in
one. I generally prefer to geta product that's just disease control or just
insect control, just because every timeyou spray, you don't need to be

(03:38):
applying all of those kinds of activities, you know what I'm saying. The
fungicide, the insect side side,you know, on and on on and
so when we use fungicides and wedon't need to. In your case,
you needed to. That was theproduct you needed but when you just use
it. Let's say there's a fungicideand a product, and you use it
every time you're fighting a f orspider, mites or something else. We

(04:01):
can build up resistances by spraying unnecessarily, and so just going forward, I
would aim for separating those products outto the best thing for mites. In
the case of roses, maybe somethingfor cappillar or something for for a fits
too great. I have some followup questions about the roses. Okay,
I staked them because the wind andthe rain that we had helped would push

(04:27):
them and lean them over. SoI staked them. And I was wondering,
should I put some more rose sawsaround the rose stem, the strengthen
it where it won't be bending overand such? How long have they been
in the ground. I put themin the ground less year. You shouldn't
have them leaning over. They shouldhave a root system that holds themselves.

(04:49):
I don't think propping the stem withsome soil would would be helpful, but
you can just give them a littlemore time to root in. I am
curious though, as to why theyhave and already established enough strength to where
a wind doesn't doesn't bother them.Yeah, so am I because they do
have a good root system. Yeah, you can't they won't be old.

(05:14):
You can't pull them up. Yeah, And I just went with the rain
and everything. It seemed like thewater get in and make it soften it
being well, that's true, andI've got roses. I have an old
blush that leaned over like that,and it'll just turn grow the canes up
upward. You know, after itleans you new growth will come up.
You really won't know you have aleaning bush, so that you can kind

(05:36):
of not worry too much about that. All right, all right, all
right, Donald, thank you sir. Good luck with those with those roses,
and thank you for the call.If you are wanting to prevent weeds,
prevent weeds in your lawn, barricadeby nitrophossis product, it'll do that.
What barricade does is it's a preemergent herbicide, meaning before the weeds

(05:59):
come up. You put it downbefore the seeds have sprouted, prevents them
from sprouting. Got a watered inabout a half inch of water, and
when you do that, it formsthat barricade over the soil. So if
you've got broad leaf weeds or grassyweeds or things like that that are going
to sprout from seed. Well itstops it. You're it's a night fuss
product. That means it's widely available. And you're going to be able to
find barricade in places like Bearings Hardwareon Missing It and down on West Timer

(06:23):
as well. You're going to finda plantation ace out there and Katie,
they carry it hiding and feed carriesin on Stuben or Airline. Easy to
find barricade and other night or fossproducts. I want, you know,
I want to head out. Let'sgo to northwest Houston. We're going to
talk to Ralph. Hello, Ralph, good morning there. I got a

(06:44):
problem with some kind of animal that'sbored a hole in my plain or the
thing went down and we got anothertunne will come out of it? Yeah,
I won't know something that didn't getit in my guard knocking all my
new cliet there. Now, whatdid I do about that? How big
is a hole? Ralph? That'sthe mount of it is about six inches

(07:10):
around. Oh a big hole?Yeah? I did six inches? Yeah,
I mean then you got it.I did this the other day.
I know that it's totally coming aroundand another about three feet away. Another
thing, and I don't know whatworld that is. Yeah, I don't
know what would do that. Armadillaswill dig a big hole when they're making

(07:30):
their down, but they're not poppingup in other places from the same tunnel.
No, this is Yeah, it'snot a big hole around Yeah,
well, I don't know other thansend me a picture of it. Uh.
If it's six inches about the onlything that can be is maybe an
armadillo trying to dig down in there. No, not that big, not

(07:53):
big big of it, like aroutin. My son walked by there and
he sat to shoot across the sidVery strange. I don't know. You
got me on that one. Yougot me on that one. Try to
maybe put a live trap around thereand bait it with some things I didn't
couldn't catch anything. I would fillit in and see see if it tries

(08:18):
to redig it. I kind ofdoubt that it will. But yeah,
okay, it so strange to me. It is. It's strange to me
too. Sorry I couldn't help youwith that one today, but I appreciate
appreciate you giving us a call.Thank you, sir. You've got a
great program. Thank you for beingI'm gonna have to run to break here.
If you'd like to give us callseven one three two one two fifty
eight seventy four let the back ofthe garden line. Good to have you

(08:41):
with us today. What are wegoing to talk about on gardening? I
got a few things. Start offtalking about weeds, I thought was exciting,
Right, you want to know allabout weeds? You know, weeds
again are just a perspective, uh, from from our part. You know,
is something a weed? Is itnot a weed? Is it growing
where you want it to grow?If not, it's probably a weed,
or that least that's what we're goingto designate it. So the finest plants

(09:05):
on earth can be a weed whenthey're growing where we don't want them to
grow. And then they're the noxiousweeds, the ones you can't get rid
of, the ones that invade andtake over and just cause you to say
things that expand the children's vocabulary inways you don't want them to expand.
So they are those kinds of thingstoo. And we deal with weeds we

(09:26):
all kinds of ways and proaches andproducts and stuff to it. But I
think the thing to remember is naturehas a way of dealing with unwanted plants
in certain places. Take a forest, for example. Trees hate grass.
They hate grass. When we tryto make them get along in the landscape,
well, they cooperate, but theydon't like it. They don't like

(09:46):
it at all. Grass hates treestoo. Trees take all the sunlight away.
But what does a tree do toprevent competition weeds? If you will
around it, it drops leaves onthem a year after year after year,
and the forest floor becomes this thickmat of fallen leaves and decomposing organic matter
That makes the soil awesome for treegrowth, but it also makes it difficult

(10:11):
for plants because it is essentially mulchingitself. Over time, we learned from
that and we bring that practice intoour gardens. With mulching nature's way of
controlling weeds one of the ways.Let's go out to Beaumont and talk to
Will. Hello. Will, Hello, how you doing, sir? I'm
good, sir. How can wehelp today? I am saying those choice

(10:33):
words that those young children do notwant to hear. Okay, I have
a sticker problem. Now. Idon't mind some weeds in the York,
but when they become painful. Ihave a problem there now. Drought from
last year really really didn't help thingsaround here, especially if I didn't water

(10:54):
like I just I just couldn't watereverything. But the sticker where the bare
ground is is just taking over.Now I missed the opportunity for the predomain
the barricade product. Yeah I did. Now I heard you advertising the nitrophos
A great product. Great product,but you have to catch that ground stole

(11:18):
temperature below fifty seven degrees here insoutheast Texas or that product will not work.
It's designed to catch the weed beforeit germinates. Well, I wouldn't
say the product doesn't work. Whathappens is it at each weed has soil

(11:39):
temperatures at which that weed can beginto germinate the seeds, and you know
for crabgrass it's about fifty five degrees. We start wanting, we want to
get that pre emergent down ahead oftime. It'll work. I mean if
you could go out, not thatyou're gonna be able to do this,
but if you could go out andhoe out all the stickers and then put
that barricade down watered in any moresticker seeds would not be able to get

(12:01):
established. But but you you haveto get ahead of them. And that's
the thing about soul Tampa is onceit starts warming up, a lot of
the seeds have germinated. What whatproduct? What product do you suggest without
just destroying the bermuda and the SaintAugustine mixed throughout three acres of yard here?

(12:22):
Well, what product you suggest toto kill them? Right now?
They haven't they haven't flowered, andthey haven't made the sticker yet, right
and they're very very very green rightnow. So they're really young. But
uh, yeah, that root baseis tough, Yeah it is. I've
been shoveling them out, you know, the best I can, but it's

(12:43):
just it's just almost impossible. Howbig How big are the grassperd plants right
now? Oh? They're just scatteredeverywhere across the back of the yard.
I mean, but are we talkingabout one inch high plants or two inches
high? Oh? Yeah, they'reabout they're out one, one, one
and a half. Yeah, someof the some of the pre merged have

(13:05):
a little bit of post kickback activity. I don't know on those grass burds.
At that point, if it wouldwork, you know, it might
be worth a try. There's somestuff I don't like to to suggest because
of secondary damages and things like thatthat it can cause. You might talk
to your local you've got some icehardware out there, talk to them and

(13:28):
say, what do you carry asa pre emergent that has what we call
kickback activity? What do they haveon the shelf. In other words,
you didn't catch them before they emerged, but you caught them pretty much right
after, and that you might getif they're not too far along, you
may get some benefit from that.Generally, the problem is killing a grass,

(13:50):
and a grass is hard I meanwithout killing. Try a product called
celsius and then yeah, Celsia shouldn'twork on them. Yeah, and I'll
tell you what, round up,don't hardly work on them. Well,

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you know, other than if they'revery thick, you're up a creek.
If you got them here and there, you could really carefully do some spot
spraying or dab the grass plants withsomething that translocates down and you have some
little brown spots in your lawn.But at least you have to have your
lawn and you've you've gotten ahead ofthem, and then next year, just
know that you've got to get inthere and get after them. Yeah.

(14:33):
When do you suggest in Southeast Texasto get that that bear take down?
I would get yep, I'd getit down in mid February. Yeah,
I'm almost I've been monitoring that groundtemperature because there's a couple of websites you
can go to, and of courseI have the thermometers here. Yeah,
but that ground temperature, you know, it heats up. You know maybe

(14:58):
in January. Well can but it'sa matter of how much and how long
if you get your pre emergency downif you can get them to if you
need to go to early February,you can. That's fine. Those products
are going to last about forty fivedays working really well, maybe sixty.

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But you could go a little earlierif you're having trouble with stuff sprouting earlier.
Graspbur is not the first thing tosprout in the spring. So but
I would say if you if youfeel like mid February is too late for
where you are, then go alittle earlier. It just means you're going
to have to redo it because theywill continue to sprout on through the summer.

(15:39):
Yeah, because we were it needsthat, it needs like you said,
it needs the half inch to aninch of rain. Yeah, the
product does. Yeah, got tomove down. That was far and few
between, you know last year inthe fall, right you know, yeah
they will. I'm gonna have toI'm gonna have to run though. Good
luck with that for your Hell,yes, sir, I appreciate it.

(16:00):
I appreciate your call very much.For those of you up in Montgomery,
you know your hometown garden center,right, it's A and A Plants and
produce Ana Plants has been around formany years now and they always have.
They do a couple things that youneed to go by there. For a
number one, the plants, ofcourse, awesome, awesome selection, whether

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it's roses or gardena's or whatever you'relooking for. I mean, they're going
to have all kinds of wonderful plantsfor you. They also have wonderful bling
for the landscape, really cool stuffto decorate the landscape, just to make
it fun, make it more enjoyable, you know. I talk about their
chimeneas and things like that you wouldenjoy out on a patiodor in the cooler
weather. They have things for allyear round that you can enjoy. They

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carry the fertilizers I talk about onGuardline, you're going to find the nitrofoss
and the Nelson and the microlife.You're going to find airloom souls in Nature's
Way leaf mo Com They're going tohave all that there. They got a
landscape crew that can come out.You live out there by the lake,
somewhere around Lake Conrad, they've hada landscape crew. They'll come out and
do some cleanup of the beds andstuff, kind of turn your place into

(17:04):
a really beautiful little spot. Anaplants and produce on the east side of
Montgomery on one oh five, easyto find. They are one of those
places where it's kind of hard tocatch them when they're not open. I
mean, Anna plants and produce sevendays a week from nine to five.
And then of course you get theknowledgeable staff that makes it worthwhile because you

(17:26):
know the information you're getting is goingto work in your home landscape. I
mentioned that they had the Microlife productsmicrolaf It is time now to get your
Microlife sixty four out there. Ifyou're fertilizing your lawn. Actually I use
sixty four on a lot of things, not just lawn fertilizing, because it

(17:47):
works well it's a green bag.That's Microlife's green bag. If you're one
to build your lawn soil over time, as you add the sixty four,
as you grow a healthy grass plant, the soil gets better and better and
you can take get up a notchby putting what they call their com concentrated
compost in a bag that's Microlife Humatesplus. That's the purple bag. So

(18:08):
imagine compost that's been taken to itskind of final state. UH. That
is a product that is excellent forbuilding soil structure. It's also excellent UH
in support of beneficial UH critters,the microbes, the bacteria to my seat
specifically, to the fungi and allthe things that are down there in the
soil helping that soil. If youwill come alive and and make it an

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ideal place for plant roots. Goto Microlife Fertilizer dot com. That's where
you're going to find a lot ofinformation and where to find those products because
you want to be able to locatethem. Microlife is widely available to it's
easy, easy, easy to find. But don't delay. It's time to
get that done. It's time tostart our spring fertilizations. That's for sure.

(18:53):
I had a good time at Cienamalts Uh. We were out there
for us Saturday event. They're springFling, and I want to thank the
folks at Senna for having us out. Had a good times out there with
a number of different product reps fromthe companies. A lot of the companies
you hear us talk about here onGuarden Line. Jay from Texas Gardner Magazine

(19:15):
was out there as well. Itwas just a good time to visit,
So thank you. If you haven'tbeen to Sienna and you live down south
of Houston, Ciena Maltch is aplace you need to know about now.
They they're the name says Multch,but it's it's also Sienna bed mixed,
Sienna composts, Sienna rock and landscapestone. It's Sienna everything. They have

(19:37):
stuff bulk, they have stuff bythe bags. They'll deliver within about all
twenty miles or so of Cienamultch fora small delivery fee. They are located
near six and two eighty eight,just north of Row Sharon, specifically on
FM five point twenty one. Dothis go to the website Cienamultch dot com
Ciena Multch dot com. There You'regoing to everything. And you always hear

(20:02):
me on Guardline say brown stuff beforegreen stuff. Brown stuff. Fix the
soil, make the soil a wonderfulplace for plant roots, and you will
have wonderful plants. You have productivegardens, you have beautiful landscapes. Things
will be bountiful everywhere from blooms toproduce. Fix the soil first. Ciena
Moltch is the place where you getall the brown stuff. They have every

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fertilizer I talk about on Garden Line. They have quality soil products. When
you put the quality products they haveinto your soil, they mix it in.
You add the nutrients that plants need. You are set up for success
and Ciena Molts is a place togo to get all of that accomplished.
You're fortunate if you live down inthat road sharing area and not too four

(20:47):
ways Sienna Ciena Molts roads sharing thatwhole area, ris Is Spends Day Park.
You get the idea. I waslike going to Hey by the way.
Speaking of going out today. Latertoday, I'm going to be at
the Ace Hardware, M and dAce and clear Lake. That's where I'll
be M and d Ace and clearLake. When we get through it the

(21:07):
show, I'll head over there.I'll probably get there about little before eleven
thirty, and I'll be there tillone thirty. I'm going to be giving
away some Nitrofoss superturf. About everythirty minutes, We're gonna give away a
bag of Nitrofoss super turf. Socome on by. It love to meet
you. You got pictures, yougot samples of plants you want to identified
or diagnosed, bring them by.It's always good to visit with folks that

(21:29):
listen to garden Line, So comeon over and stop you on again.
M and D clear Lake on Aprilthe sixth, which is today today today,
that's it be there or be square, Nikki. So we've got the
eclipse, and I was reading somethingin a news story that plants when everything
goes dark in the middle of theirday and they go what they do.

(21:52):
I've actually said, if you're quiet, you can hear them. That's actually
each other. They actually have morewords than just what that That's pretty much
what they're saying. Okay, thenlet's all go outside and listen to the
plant, sir. That's what wesay too, is like wait what what?
Oh? Well, here we turnit over to Nikki in the news.
We'll be right back seven one threetwo one two fifty eight seventy four.

(22:17):
Welcome back to the garden line.Hey, good to have you.
We're taking care of business today.I think as bto is that Bachman Turner
overdrive. I'll plan that. I'mnot a I'm not a music expert,
but I have heard songs before,and I slept at a holiday in last
night, so that that that rightthere qualifies me. Hey, if you
live out in Richmond, you're fortunatebecause you've got in Chenna Gardens, I

(22:37):
mean right there in your backyard.You know, if you're if you're in
Richmond, head up toward Katie direction. Katie foolsher way, and you're going
to get right there too. InChenni Gardens on three fifty nine, three
fifty nine. They have pretty mucheverything you can imagine that you might want
for your gardens. I mean,number one, the most important thing at
a garden center is knowledgeable staff.That's right. They have that. Second,

(23:02):
plants that want to grow where youlive, they have that for sure
too. Like for example, summer, here comes summer heat. Now I
know right now we're enjoying it,but anybody who's lived here more than a
year knows that it's going to beinfernally hot when summer arrives. Why not
plant things that laugh at the summersun, like vinka. They have excellent,

(23:23):
excellent supply of venka on hand,just got a whole bunch in not
too long ago. They've got theupright irregular types of inca, the trailing
types. If you want something comingover a pod or a hanging basket,
it never gets too hot for vinca. And they carry the types and the
colors that just will really provide ashowplace for you. And that's just an

(23:44):
example of the many things that theycarry there in China Gardens in Richmond.
You're gonna be able to get yoursoil products. You're going to be able
to get the fertilizers that I recommendon garden line. You're going to be
able to get inspiration and advice.For example, I just watched a video
while where they were creating a beautifulgiant hanging basket for shade areas in an

(24:06):
a little wire container where burlap andeverything. Oh my gosh, it was
gorgeous. See you watch something likethat, or you go talk to the
staff there and they can tell youhow to make one of those for your
house, or I mean they haveones they built you can you can go
buy a hanging basket. You canbuy combo planners from them in Chenna Gardens
Richmond dot com. Enchented Gardens Richmonddot com Monday through Saturday eight to five

(24:30):
on Sundays ten am to four pm. Easy, easy to find again on
the Katie Fullshire side of Richmond FMthree fifty nine. I was working finishing
up some projects at the house thisweek and the big elephant in the room
has been putting in turf areas.I've I've kind of got an experiment going

(24:52):
on four different kinds of turf andor it's going to watch how they do
under certain kinds of conditions and things. And I just find to finish that
up. And next is a flagstonepatio that I'm doing. I'm really looking
forward to having that because we loveto be outside as much as possible,
and so we're we're getting all thatset up. Plus I love building stuff
and playing in the garden. Ofcourse, my vegetable garden is screaming for

(25:15):
help. It's doing fine, butthere are a couple of beds that I
just haven't gotten into reworking the soiland getting them planted. And we are
now entering Okra's season. That's right, Okra season. There ought to be
a parade in town just because it'sOkra season, because it's one of the
best vegetables areas. Now, Iknow what some of you are thinking,
Oh yeah, I grew up eatingokre. I love Okra. And then

(25:37):
most of you, though, arethinking that stuff is slimy. Well,
shame on you for talking like that. It is not slimy. The term
we use is mucilaginous. Okra's mucilaginous, but so are a lot of things
that we enjoy. And then weput things like thickener into soups and dishes.
Well, okra does that for you. It absolutely does that for it.
In fact, why don't I singthe praises of Okra today that we'll

(26:00):
talk about okra for a little bit. Okra is an incredibly heat and humidity
tolerant plant. If you get intothe brutal heat of a Houston area summer
and it's hot and it's humid andeverything's sweltering, people are running screaming for
an air conditioned room. Okre's outthere laughing, just having the time of

(26:22):
its life. That's a good plantfor summer. Okra has two different kinds
of fibers. It has the nonsoluble fibers that help with your digestive system,
keep everything going right in there.You know, fibers healthy in our
diet. And it also has asoluble type of fiber that helps with a
lot of our heart heart issues andthings like that. Ocre's good for that.

(26:45):
You can cook it a million ways. I mean, everybody knows about
gumbo. Most Southerners know about friedokra. Not the healthiest way to cook
okra, but a delicious way tocook cocra. And I like to grill
it. If you've never done this, try it. Trust me on this
one gets you a grill when you'reout cooking a burger whatever this year.
Take okra and brush brush the podswith a little olive oil, sprinkle a

(27:10):
little sea salt on them, andthen just put them on the grill two
minutes on one side, flip themover two minutes on that side. You're
ready to go. And that willbe very non mucilaginous if you will that.
When okra comes into contact with water. That's when we start to get
that mucilage and stuff. We loveit. Every time we cook, we're
going to use a grill. Yougotta have some ochre on it and it

(27:33):
works really well. You can pickleokra, you can lack no ferment okra.
They're just a lot of ways touse it. Have I convinced you
yet, Well, I'm trying.I'm trying. But it is okra season
and that's what's going to get plantedat my house over the next couple of
weeks out in the vegetable garden usingsome of those additional beds. If you

(27:53):
live done in League City area,League City feed is your hometown feed store.
They're really easy to get to.They're on Highway three, just a
few blocks south of Highway ninety sixin League City. Just head south.
They'll be on the left hand sidethere going south. If you're in Santa
Fe or elkam Into Reale, ClearLake City, Webster Bay, Cliff,

(28:14):
San Leone, Lamark, all ofthose communities and more, League City Feeds
your hometown feed store. They carrythe fertilizers I recommend on garden Line.
You're going to find those brands you'regoing to find things like nitrofoss. You're
going to find things like Nelson plantfood. You're going to find airloom soils,
in microlife and azemite for example.They're all there. Premium pet food,

(28:36):
quality food. I mean, theyare a feed store. If you
got backyard chickens, they got youcovered for that too. One of those
old time feed stores that carries thingsout for you to the car. I
just love going in there. Andthen all the things you need to control
pests and weeds and diseases all thereat League City feed Monday through Saturday.
That would be today nine am tosix pm. Closed on Sunday, but

(28:56):
nine to six. Just swing bythere after work two eight one three three
two sixteen twelve two eight one threethree two sixteen twelve. There at League
City. You need to get treesplanted if you're going to get them done.
The sooner you get a tree planted, the more time it has to

(29:17):
get some roots down before the mostbrutal heat of summer arrives. Now,
you can plant a tree in themiddle of the hottest summer day, but
you got to really take care ofit carefully. It's more touch and go.
The sooner you get it done,the better. And when you plant
a tree, you definitely need tostabilize it so that it doesn't wiggle around
in the wind and bend over andwallow out that root ball which it hadn't

(29:40):
gotten roots in yet. So youstabilize it for a few months just to
let it get some roots out there. And tree stabilizer, the three sixty
tree stabilizer works great for that.It is like just think of it as
a stiff arm that grabs a postand grabs your tree. You got a
soft rubber strap around the tree thatyou can leave a little loose. You

(30:00):
should leave a little loose to allowa little bit of movement that helps strengthen
the trunk. Where do you getthem. Southwest Fertilizer has them. Go
down south of Houston to Jorges Gardens, Hidden Gardens in Alvin. They've got
them there, Arborgate, RCW,Buchanans plants for all seasons. These are
all places where you can get yourthree sixty tree stabilizer. They last a
long time, so it's an investmentthat will just you just use it for

(30:25):
a long time. Loan it toyour neighbor when they plant a tree.
You can use one to hold atree. You can put two on at
right angles to each other, andthat way north south, east west,
no matter where the wind blows.Tree stabilizer is stabilizing that tree. And
when you plant it right and youuse a tree stabilizer, within about six
months, you probably do not needto leave that on any longer. Definitely

(30:45):
not more than a year, becausethey do the job right. We're going
to go now over to northwest Houstonand we're going to talk to Ralph.
Hello, Ralph, Hello Orgain.Okay, I got trouble with my finding
my butter bean seeds. Why isthat? Uh they're not coming up?

(31:07):
Yeah, well I told you Ihad that roading out. There's something that
would be a stelf up. Butno, they they they're not coming up.
No, I don't know. Idon't know, Ralph. It they
ought to be coming up. Everything'sperfect. Water beans right now, Take
ten seeds, Take ten extra seeds, put them in a in a in
a. I did that. Icalled you the other day. That's what

(31:30):
I did. Where do where thebest place about my old or seeds?
Uh? You're over there in northwestHouston. Uh, yeah, I don't
know how Northwest. Here you gota bunch of great garden centers. There's
uh, but they don't they don'thave them. So what kind of seeds
they like? Butter bean seeds?Yeah, just playing old butter beans A

(31:52):
one years always kinded well. Plantsfor all seasons. On Louetta and Tomball
Parkway. See if they have them, they should have them there. Oh
see if you go, you're notclose to it, but I know Southwest
Fertilizer definitely has butter beans there.Down on Bissinett and Runwick, Southwest Houston,

(32:13):
they've got an old time feed cabinetwith lots of stuff in it.
It kind of depends on exactly whereyou are. You're up tom Ball Away,
there's some places that'll have But that'sabout the best suggestion I can have
for you. I've hit another hardbreak, but thank you, sir.
I do appreciate your call. Ourphone number is seven one three two one
two fifty eight seventy four. Welcomeback to the garden Line. Good to

(32:36):
have you with us today. Hey, it's still dark outside, but that
doesn't mean we can't be talking aboutgardening. Because it is going to be
a good day. We need tobe doing our gardening exercise this morning.
We could go through that stand up, touch your toes, turn, twist,
you know, get ready to go. You don't want to pull a
muscle out there working in the garden. We you know. I was talking
to Ralph a minute ago about findingseeds for things, and Dandi Feed up

(33:00):
and Tomballs probably not too far awayfrom Ralph up there. They have a
good selection of seeds. They havethe little bulk seeds too, and the
old time garden seeds, you know, stuff that like butter beans that are
real common parts of the country wherethey don't know what a butter bean is,
but down here it's very popular,very popular. They might call them
what lima beans or something, Well, we'll call them butter beans. Dandy

(33:24):
Feed's got feed of every kind forevery kind of animal you want, and
quality feeds, quality feed for yourpets, quality feed for your livestock and
whatnot. They have plants, havethe nice plant selection. One of the
amazing things about D and D isthe select the amount of pullets that they
get in young, young baby chicksand things. That includes geese that too,

(33:46):
and ducks and turkeys. Just yesterdaythey got in I don't know.
I know it was over a dozendifferent kinds of chicken and it's everything.
And if you were a backyard inperson or want to be, you got
to go by D and d F. Don't wait because they do sell out.
People know that's where you go toget that stuff and they I love

(34:09):
going in there and just seeing whatthe lace chicks that have come in.
It's just kind of cool. WESTEhave chickens at our house. If you
want to get McCall two eight,one, three five, one seventy one
forty four. They are on twentynine to twenty just west of Tumbul,
just a little west of tumble stopby there. Check out the plants they
have out front too. That ispretty cool. If you're trying to stop

(34:31):
your weeds from coming up, youdon't have the seeds up yet, but
they're going to be coming up onthe well. One way to do that
is Nelson's turf Star Weedonator now.Nelson turf Star is a line of quality
fertilizers for your lawn. Weedinator specificallyhas ingredients in it that helped prevent the
weeds from establishing from coming up.It is a slow release fertilizer so if

(34:55):
you're going to fertilize, now's agood time to start your summer fertilization.
And Nelson Weedenator is that kind offertilizer. It gradually releases over time.
Not all the nitrogen is available.It's going to take it two or three
months to get all that nitrogen releasedand out of there. Weedenator is a
quality product because it has the preemergent in it. What you're going to

(35:17):
want to do is put it downand watered in about a half inch of
water. That moves both the nutrientsand the actual preventative pre emergent weed preventative
product down into the soil so youcan have success with that. Lots of
good quality products from the folks atNelson Fertilizer. In my garden, I

(35:40):
was talking about doing some things inthe vegetable patch. I just finished up
with the lawn activities. Next comesplanting of flowers. I've got a bunch
of flowers, you know. Igo see these plants at a garden center,
I grab my brig them home andthey sit in the pot while I
run around doing the radio and otherthings and trying to get back home to
get them planted. And I haveseveral things I'm gonna do. Be bomb.

(36:04):
I have some b bomb this yearthat we're putting in. Boy is
that ever attract for pollinators? Butwhen you look when you think about pollinators,
do you think about Buchanan's native plants, because they absolutely have outstanding selections
for pollinators. Do you want nativepollinators? Maybe you want to put in
turk's cap or purple cone flower orfrog fruit, which is an excellent groundcover.

(36:28):
By the way, Pink skull capa brass is penstemen. That's a
plant I ought to talk about moreand on and on down the line.
Maybe it's a non native pollinator.Do you know Cosmos makes an excellent pollinator?
Pentus is another good one pollinator plant, bulban and salvias and whatnot.
They have all of that. They'vegot the herbs that attract pollinators, and
that is one of the best waysto attract pollinators as herbs. I mean

(36:52):
it really is. I've sat inlittle herb patches before, just taking pictures
of the pollinators and the beneficial insectsin general, the ones that help us
with our pasts that come by.Buchanans is in the heights. It's on
Eleventh Street there. You've probably beenthere before. Bucanonsplants dot Com. That's
the website. When you go there, check out some of the educational material

(37:13):
they have on the website. Andalso when you go to Buchanans Plants,
make sure and subscribe to their newsletter. It is a wealth of information,
very helpful. You're going to findall the fertilizers I talk about here on
Guardline there at Buchanans Native Plants,as well as other things to get that
brown stuff right to make the plantshappy. That would include things like Nature's

(37:35):
Way and airloom, soil Landscaper's Prideresources to create a beautiful, beautiful soil
so your plants will be very veryhappy. If you build it, they
will be happy, and they willgrow, they will produce, and they
will give you the bounty that you'relooking for out there. Speaking of pollinators,
you know, honeybees are perhaps oneof the more famous pollinators that we

(37:59):
have. Have you ever thought aboutbee keeping in your backyard? You know
you can do that, Yes youcan. It is you are allowed to
do that. A beehive in yourbackyard. Number one, the bees don't
come flying out of the hive afteryou. They want to leave you alone.
They want to be left alone.Don't mess, you know, swatting
at them and things. They'll befine. I used to have bees at
my place, just very docile,you know. I think that one of

(38:23):
the cool thing about bees is learningabout them. And the bees supply out
in Dayton, thebes Supply, bythe way, the website is thebesupply dot
com. They have classes out therewhere you can learn about them. They
have something called a honey tour forpeople that don't want to keep bees,
they just want to learn about it. And it's really trust me on this,

(38:43):
take my word on this. Itis well worth the trip out to
be part of one of their honeytours. It's all around you. They
teach you inside, they take yououtside, you get to taste honey.
Really cool. But they have classesfor bee keepers also, lots of really
good quality classes. Talked to alot of b supply places, be supply
tight places, not necessarily that brand. And I've talked to a lot of

(39:06):
bee keepers and I've never known anyonethat's as knowledgeable and as helpful as the
b Supply. They take. Timeyou go home, you have a question,
something they said, and you didn'tremember it. Call them back.
Let them help you have success.That's what makes them happy. They love
to help you have success. Nowthere are classes going on April thirteenth,

(39:28):
and April twenty seventh, and Mayeleventh and May twenty fifth. There's only
a few more of the spring classdates there, but these are beginning bee
keeper classes. And even if youdon't decide to keep bees, you will
be fascinated. But I'll tell youthis, once you learn about how cool
it is and you get to handson work with them a little bit,
you'll definitely want to do that.Vbsupply dot com. Vbsupply dot com.

(39:53):
So this past week, you knowI mentioned the lawns and stuff. I
also got some containers out and we'redoing some repotting of things at the house.
I've got some patio containers that arewaiting on me now. They had
stuff in them last year, andthe soil is kind of sunk down.
I need to spruce it up alittle bit. And whether you're starting with

(40:15):
an empty container wanting to fill itwith a quality soil, or if you're
doing like I'm going to be doingon most of my containers, this year
and just adding some soil to themto bring that level back up and mix
it in. Jungle Land distributed bynitrofoss is an excellent soil. I choose
the one that says flour and vegetableplanting soil. Jungle l and flour and

(40:36):
vegetable planting soil. That's an outdoorplanting soil. Now there's a jungle Land
for indoors. It's called water,sabor, potting salt. It's got those
crystals that absorb water. And evenas the soil is drying out, those
crystals still have water in them.And your plant roots are growing through the
soil and they'll find a crystal andknow that is a good source. They

(40:57):
absorb the water from it, andthat helps it be I like to say
a little more forgiving. If youforget to water your plants, it kind
of helps it go a lot furtherbefore you have some plant problems because you've
got the water. That's the indoorone. Outdoors flour and vegetable. It's
got four different sources of aged organicmatter, and it's got microhizel fungi,

(41:17):
Canadian bloon pete. It's just aquality mix and using something like you know,
as I'm getting and doing this workand getting the flower pots ready to
go for another round, it's timefor that for some of the warm season
things. Jungle Land is that kindof quality soil that you would need for
that. It's found everywhere you findNitrofoss products. Where do you find Nitrofoss

(41:42):
products? Well, do you liveout in Brenham, go to Plants and
Things. You can find it therenorthwest. You know Highway two forty nine.
Plants for all seasons. You canfind Nitrofoss's distributed jungle Land at that
place as well an allspas ace.If you're up in the woodlands on carcodil,
they've got that easy easy to findthem. Speaking of plants for all

(42:05):
seasons, have you been to Plantsfor All Seasons lately? They always have
a stock and a supply that isamazing. The staff there, their knowledge
level, their ability to explain,to help, to teach, to guide,
to diagnose is incredible. Plants forall Seasons dot Com here's the number
two eight, one, three,seven, six, sixteen forty six.

(42:28):
Go by their talk to Sherry,other members of the Flowery family and their
staff there you're going to find there'sa reason that that place has theenrend since
nineteen seventy three and just gets morepopular every year. By the way,
they're just an north of Luetta onHighway to forty nine. Love to go
by. There, always something newgoing on, always new plants coming in.

(42:51):
Well even listening to the Guardenline.We're about to put an hour in
the books. If you would liketo give us a call, gif joshuacall
get on the board. We'll beready to go when we come back from
our news break seven one three twoone two fifty eight seventy four. Don't
forget today eleven thirty, after GuardenLine is over, I'm going to be
line over to M and D clearlayAce Hardware and we're going to be spending

(43:15):
two hours there answering your gardening questionsand giving away some ncrofoss fertilizes. Katie
r h. Garden Line does notnecessarily endorse any of the products or services
advertised on this program. Welcome toKatie r H. Garden Line with Skip
Rictor. It's crazy. Just watchhim as so many good things to see

(43:47):
that crazy business again, not asad good morning, Good morning on a
great day. For gardening. There'sa glow in the sky. Look outside,
it is a beautiful sky. It'sgoing to be an awesome day.

(44:08):
Need to get out there and getsome things done in the landscape. Go
buy a garden center. It getsyou some good quality products so you can
have success and enjoy enjoy a dayoutside. You know, there is a
therapy in many way shapes and forms, ways, shapes and forms that comes
when we're outside engaging with nature.There's the physical activity, there's breathing good

(44:31):
air, there's soaking in some sunshine, there's just the sounds of nature,
every aspect about it. Getting yourhands in the dirt. I think it's
Calvin and Hobbs comic strip that saidat the end of the day, well
your knees should be green or somethinglike that from you know, being out
and kneeling down in the grass andenjoying, enjoying being outside of nature.

(44:54):
And I would hope you would takepart in that today. It is a
antidepressant. Do you know that thereis actually a connection that science is made
between microbes and the soil and therelease of serotonin in our bodies. Isn't
that amazing? I mean, it'slike nature's own antidepressant. To get out

(45:15):
there and enjoy that. Well,I tell you I sure do enjoy it.
By the way, It's time rightnow I can make my words come
out of my mouth to begin toget that summer fertilization done. It's time
to get the nutrients that your soilneeds so that your plant can have them
when it needs them, to getthem down there in the bank account.

(45:37):
And azemite is one of those productsthat we talk about because asmide is a
trace mineral supplement. Now, thethree numbers on the bag, the three
big three nitrogen, phosphorus, potassium. Your soil needs a lot of that.
It needs them on a regular basis. We need to be supplying that.
That's why every fertilizer has US three. Pretty much everyone has those three

(45:59):
numbers on it. Asmite is traceminerals. They are essential, they are
absolutely essential. But if you everthought about combining azamite with some other things
that help enhance your soil. Youcan blend and combine it with compost and
a potting mix. You can blendand combine it with various things that are
part of helping your soil do well. You go make sure that when you

(46:22):
put the standard types of fertilizer inyour soil, why not put some microlife
in the soil as well. Youcan do it in containers. You can
do it when you're creating a newflower bed. That'd be a very good
time to do it, because you'reworking the soil. Get those nutrients in
there. When you do that withasmite, you are creating the bank account
that when that plant needs that littleminuscule amount, that essential minuscule amount of

(46:45):
manganese or zinc or lubdanum or whateverthe nutrients are, the roots need to
have access to all of them,and azemite helps build that bank account down
in the soil. Let's head overto Spring and we're going to talk to
Peggy this morning. Good morning,Peggy, Good morning. We just bought
a bag of asimite at Ace Hardwareup Spring. Okay, good good timing

(47:07):
there. Anyway, what I calledabout a few weeks ago on the here,
you mentioned a new rake that's outand you could just sort of pull
it alot of your beds and it'llget the little bitty weeds out. Where
can I buy that? I talkedabout a rake to get the weeds out.
That's what I thought you said,Maybe I'm is this recently or has

(47:30):
this been a while? Do youknow it's been a while? Oh?
Okay? Well, so rakes.You know, there's the I grew up
calling them bamboo rakes because they weremade out of bamboo back in the day.
But the metal rakes for leaves,there's a leaf rakes, and then
there's the soil rakes that have thevery stiff fingers that are for moving raking
and loosening soil. I think whatI may have talked about along the lines

(47:54):
of what you're saying is is ahoe that's called a diamond hoe. Now
there's several specialty hose out there thatdo well. The hula hoe has its
or the stirrup hoe, they haveit their benefits what they can do.
The diamond hoe. Imagine a long, skinny pointed sideways diamond. Okay,

(48:15):
diamond shape uh, and then goahead, go ahead, go ahead.
All four all four sides are sharpand the points are very pointed and sharp,
and it's set at an angle sothat you stand upright, you don't
stoop, and it's like you're moppingthe floor, you know, that motion

(48:37):
pushing back and forth and You're justgoing just like a half inch below the
surface, just slicing under, andit just cuts the weed roots. And
when the weeds are really young,that takes them out. Now, if
you wait until weeds are huge,I have strength to them. A diamond
hoe won't do it. It isnot a chopping hoe, it is it

(48:57):
is just a sliding under the surface. I've seen those at a lot of
places. You mentioned Ace Hardware.I've seen them at Ace Hardware's before.
You would have to kind of lookaround, you know, each area.
Each Ace Harder stores independently owned,so you won't find exactly the same thing
in every store. But I thinkthat would be where I would start and

(49:19):
just say, hey, can youget it in if they don't have it.
What about the two big nurseries wehave out here that you mentioned regularly?
We use both of them. Barbaragate, plants, frel Season. Do
they carry something like that. I'mtrying to remember, Peggy, if I've
seen them there before, well I'lllook for it. I haven't seen that

(49:39):
at Arburgate, but then they mightcould get it again. With plants Fell
Seasons. You just seem to askthem. I'm sorry, I just don't
I just don't know for sure.Yeah, well that's that's good. Well,
thank you. That's what I'm whatI need because I get these little
critters that I've always I would justbend over, yeah, you know,

(50:00):
pull out, and I'd like tohave something. Well easy. What you
should do is go online and doa search for diamond Hoe and that will
show you what you're looking for.And that way you'll know it when you
see it. Yeah, thank youfor the information, and I've enjoyed your
program. You're very knowledgeable. Well, thank you, Peggy. My father
was the national president of the Men'sGarden Clubs of America. Oh wow,

(50:22):
okay, he's been dead twenty years, but for a long time he in
our yard was fabulous. I bet. Well that's that's and I'm married a
tech sentent, so I've lived herefor the rest of my life. Well,
welcome to Texas. We're glad tohave you here for the rest of
your time. Yeah, thank you, Peggy. I appreciate that. Come,

(50:43):
thank you, bye bye bye.I'm very kind of you to say
that. Oh my, well,hey, we're going to take a little
breaks. Time for another break.Our phone number is seven one three two
one two five. Eight seven,four, seven, one, three fifty
eight seventy four. Give Josh acall. Let's get you on the board
so we can talk about the thingsyou are interested in. Welcome back to

(51:04):
Guarden Line. Good to have youwith us today. Hey, a public
service announcement for those of you upin the Grimes County area. Grimes County
Feed and Farm, they've got this. If you've been there before, you've
seen it. It's that antique likeflatbed truck and they've really renovated just in
wonderful shape. There's going to bea car show up there in Carlos,
Texas. It's going on from eightam to two pm today at the Yankees

(51:28):
Tavern on FM two forty four upin Carlos, just three miles down the
road from Grimes County Feed. Well, they're going to be out there with
the flatbed. They're going to havethat in the show and they're going to
be doing giveaways, so that youhave to show up over there at their
feed store truck the flatbed from tenam to two pm. That's when they'll
be doing the giveaways. They're goingto give away. You can get a

(51:51):
chance to win a four pound jaron Nelson's Plant Food, you get to
pick which one you want of theirfour pound jars. They're going to have
a bag of turf Star Bruce's Brucethat's another Nilson product. They're going to
have a full sized bag of turfStar Slow and Easy that is their slow
release product. They're going to havea bag of Nitrofoss Imperial and Nitrofoss Super

(52:12):
Turf. They're going to be giveneach of those away. So if you
live anywhere up there, you knowBrian College Station area now over in the
Navsota area, or any of thelittle small communities out there around Carlos,
Texas, swing over there to theYankees Tavern two forty four in Carlos today
and say hi to the folks fromGrimes County feet and hey, you might
get a chance to win one ofthose cool products. Speaking of that,

(52:35):
Imperial Imperial is Nitrofoss's fifteen five toten product that is a standard three to
one to two ratio, the ratiothat turf research throughout the South for years
now has shown to be the bestnutrient ratio for turf grass coming up.
It's a fast release, You putit down, you water it, it
dissolves away and the nutrients that sameday are down there at the roots and

(52:58):
the plant's able to start taking themup. Now, you can use it
for your lawn. That's what it'smade for. But I use it a
lot of other things. It's ait's a quality mix a lot of things.
Greens in my garden I'll put I'llput a fifteen five to ten like
an Imperial right there for that.But primarily it's a lawn fertilizer for a
real quick early green up. Andit's a nitrofoss product, so you know

(53:19):
that means it's going to be easyto find, right. Nitrofost products are
easy to find out an enchanted forest. They carry these products growers outlet up
in Willis RCW Nursery on Taball Parkwaytwo forty nine, right where Beltway eight
come together. They've got the Imperialfrom Nitrofoss. Or maybe you know,
head up to Grim's County feed tothat car show and Carlos, maybe you

(53:40):
can win you one right there.We're going to go now out to Jason
in West Houston. Hello, Jason, Hey, how's you go on?
Oh? Well, how can wehelp? Sorry? Water steps outside?
All right? So I've been achair out the shrubs in front of my

(54:00):
house two times now because I can'tseem to find a shrub that can handle
mostly shade. During the summer,I'll get four hours of stone in the
front of the house, but theshoes typically shade over there, and so
I need to get some kind ofidea of what I can put in over
there. It's not going to dieon me every two or three years.

(54:20):
Okay, well then, I meanthere are a number. As far as
they're dying on you, that's probablymore of a function of water too much,
not enough, some other issue goingon. But a number of shrubs
will grow in the shade depending onhow deep the shade is. So for
example, the yo pond will growin some shade but not in too deep

(54:45):
of shade, as alias will growin shade, but they're a little more
persnakeable. Kind of got to makesure they get the right amount of water
and have an acidic soil of thatgrains really well for them to do well.
There's things called fatsia f A Ts I A, and there's another
one called a cuba A U cU b A. There are a big

(55:06):
broad leaf shrub like plant that isfairly hardy here, and that might be
good if the shade is pretty dense, they will do better and in a
denser shade than a lot of theother plants will. But those are just
a few examples. I think Ithink I would give the yopods a shock.
And it's more like silfered shade toa pecan tree and a large water

(55:27):
road. Okay, so it's kindof sultered, kind of silky shade.
So I think the yopon might beready to do. Yeah, I tried
some. I tried some pineapple blama. That didn't work. I wouldn't say
they die, but they look reallysicky. How about that? Yeah,
they they need a little They doneed a little more light. There's a
couple of hollies that put up witha surprising amount of shade. Well,
yopon is a holly, but uh, there's a one called a Chinese holly

(55:50):
that has horribly poky leaves, verystiff, very big thorns on them,
so you know no one's going togo wandering through it. But it can
grow on quite a bit of shadethat stay small. It grows very slow,
so that that would be another option. I just think in shade,
always remember that anything that brightens theshade is helpful, you know. So
some of the darkerly plants, they'rethere, they're growing, but you don't

(56:14):
renoice them because it's already dark overthere. Right, Okay, all right,
sir, I appreciate it. Thankyou you've got Jason, thanks for
the call. Appreciate that very much. I saying earlier, if you're going
to get a tree planted, youneed to get it done now. We're
talking about that three sixty tree stabilizerfor helping a tree hold still enough to

(56:37):
get its roots established, and thenyou pull those things away. Well,
now's the time to do a lotof different kinds of work for your trees.
If you need any kind of pruningdone, you can still get that
done now if someone knows what they'retalking about, and by that I'm talking
about affordable tree service. Martin spoonMoore has been doing this a long time.
He knows how to do the jobright, and you can call him.

(56:58):
He'll come out hundred and fifty dollarsfor the consultation if you choose him
to hire him to do the work. That one fifty goes into the cost
of the job, so it makesit real easy. The one fifty is
just you know, hey, areyou very serious about this, because he
can't drive all over town people thatjust had tree questions. But if he
comes out to do a consultation,he'll see what's going on. He'll advise

(57:20):
you on any next steps. Hemay say tree spine doesn't need anything.
He may say no, there's somebranches there we need to work on,
or he may say something else,depending on what he sees. Don't just
trust whoever you're your lawn guy orsomebody that puts a business card in your
mailbox or in your door to dotree work. You need somebody that knows
what they're talking about. Hurricane seasonwill be here for you know it,

(57:42):
and proper pruning is essential to helpingminimize storm damage. Affordable Tree Services the
name of the company the phone numberseven one three six nine nine twenty six
sixty three seven one three six ninenine two six aff Tree Service dot Com
a fftree service dot Com. We'regoing to go now to the woodlands and

(58:07):
talk to Trey morning tray. Thanksget good morning, first time color,
good welcome, sir, So Iplanted a Michelia banana shrub in my yard,
my backyard. It's full sun inthe summer, actually full sun right
now. It's thriving pretty well,but I'm not seeing too many blooms.

(58:31):
I bought it for the fragrant kindof banana. Now in later snow,
yeah, and I'm seeing a few, but wondering when it's gonna kind of
bloom out, and when do Ineed to fertilize it. Just give it
a little more time. You canfertilize it anytime you want. Do it
moderately through the year. That's fine. If you want to stimulate a little

(58:52):
more growth, just a small amountof fertilizer periodically would be helpful. Water
is the most important thing, meaningnot meanings keep it soggy, but meaning
keep it moist in order to spurgood, healthy new growth those shrubs.
The blooming is seasonal, and soas it gets established, it should bloom

(59:14):
better. I tell you. Though. It also is related to light levels
and then their sun and then theirshade, and then there's deep shade,
and so if you get too farinto the shade, the blooming on the
banana shrub can decrease a little bit. Okay, if they do take shad.
Okay, okay, yeah, Iwould just do that and watch it.

(59:37):
You know, they're not The bloomsare small as you know, they're
about what size of a quarter ora little bigger, a little bigger in
the quarter. But they sure arefragrant, yes, sir, real quick,
skip on up. I missed it. But the slow release for the
lawn, can we throw that outyet? It is time? Yes,
it is time time. That isthe the one called super turf, the

(01:00:01):
Nitrofuss Superturf. It's a silver bagnineteen four ten. Yes, if you
go to my schedule online at Gardeningwith Skip dot com, you'll see that
superturf on there. And we webasically, you know, say about the
time that we get to April,let's go ahead and start with the summer

(01:00:22):
fertilizing. And we're there. It'sgood. It's great. Yeah, good
product too. By the way,I'm going to be given away a bag
of super turf every thirty minutes downat M and D in clear Lake.
Now, I realize that's a littlebit of a trot down the road for
you to get to. But ifyou want your chance at about every thirty

(01:00:44):
minutes from get my bag of thatsuper turf. So but I'm kind of
joking with you there, trade,but thank you for the call. I
appreciate it, no word. Thankyou. Have a good one, all
right, BOBBYE. Yeah. Superturfis a nice, very nice slow release
fertilized provides that gradual release of nutrients. And you think about that. I
mean, all plants they take outnutrients every day in small amounts every day.

(01:01:09):
So when you put fertilizers on thesoil, having especially the nitrogen that's
the one that's so volatile, itwashes away, it goes off as a
gas even I mean it gets tiedup or in the microbes in the soil
and then re released and a veryhere and there and moving around nutrient,

(01:01:29):
if you will. And a slowrelease is really important for that because if
you just dump a whole bunch offast release at one time, too much
from now, it's not going toread be as much of it they're doing
much of anything. And that's whywe like to do to go with the
slow especially for the nitrogen end ofthings. By the way, you can

(01:01:49):
find a super turf where you findother good quality nitrophoss products. Katie Hardware,
Ace they've got it out there.Ace Hardware Immemorial Memorial Drive, they've
got it there as well. Anduh, you know, in fact,
go down to Angleton on Velasco Street, there's a Lake Hardware Angleton. Excuse
me, Stanton Shopping Center on NorthTaylor. I'm giving you the wrong Uh.

(01:02:12):
No, No, I was right. Lake Hardwar Angleton on Velasko Street.
They've got it. By the way, Alvin Stanton Shopping Center has it
too easy to find. And thatis important. You know, when you've
got a product you like, youneed to be able to grab it.
And it comes to nitrofost products.Ace Hardware is a pretty good guess.
They're they're gonna they're gonna carry them, by and large. If you're listening
to Garden Line, our phone numberis seven one three two one two five

(01:02:37):
eight seven four seven one three twoone two fifty eight seventy four. Uh.
Talking to the folks out at Warren'sGarden Center, Warrens and Kingwood Garden
Center out there in Kingwood. Uh, they've got a bunch of Venca in
in stock, both the upright typesand the trailing types. And I was
mentioning Venka earlier because it is justone of those heat humidity tolerant plants,

(01:03:02):
and it just blooms and blooms andblooms through the summer. Likes good sunny
spots. A little bit of shades, okay, but good sign, full
sign. It just laughs at theheat and humidity. Excellent. They've got
the Boodleia Butterfly candy series. Doyou know bo Another name for Boodley is
butterfly bush. What does that tellyou? Well, it really is a
butterfly bush. No, Old Boodleyhas got really big, you know,

(01:03:24):
six feet and they're still around.You can get the big ones up there.
Candy series, the Butterfly candy series. They're like three foot shrubs,
just nice little neat shrubs and thesespikes of blooms, ones called raspberry,
ones called coconut, one's called grape, and those names described the color of
the blooms. They do well.Out at Warren's you got native milkweed available.

(01:03:47):
You got the encore and the bloomethonazaleas. They've restocked those. They've
got the Hollywood hibiscus that have comein and listen to this. At Warren's
Garden Center, there's called the EclipseSale that's a good name for it.
Three gallon Eclipse hydrangeas five dollars off. Three gallon Eclipse hydrangeas five dollars off

(01:04:08):
at Warren's Garden Center. Check outWarren's and King With Garden Center when you're
out in that area. Lots ofgood quality products. I always love to
go visit. Oh and hydranges aregorseous. They are beautiful. Yeah,
they absolutely are beautiful. So whenyou plant a hydrange, how long does
it take for the roots to reallyset where it gets to good blossom.
If it's got moist soil in warmweather like we're having none, that thing

(01:04:30):
ought to be established within about amonth. Really, it's doing its own
growth. Actually, within a coupleof weeks you're getting roots already growing in.
But within a month it ought tobe a good size root system.
Going where's this Warren's Garden Center?Wow, yeah, you got to run
out there. I think so toofar. All right, it's time for

(01:04:51):
me to pass the microphone over toNikki and the news. If you would
like to give us a call,get on the board, so your first
we are yeah first, when wecome back. That would be seven one
three two one two five eight sevenfour. Welcome back to Guarden Line.
What are we going to talk abouttoday? Well, I got some things

(01:05:12):
I'd like to talk about. Buthow about you give us a call and
we'll talk about what you are interestedin. If you've got to question,
somebody else has that question, Sofeel free to give us a call if
you like. Our phone number isseven one three two one two fifty eight
seventy four seven one three two onetwo five eight seven four. Went outside
yesterday morning and was taking care ofsome stuff out on the patio, and

(01:05:36):
I'm we have got a humming hummingbird, a mockingbird that is just crazy.
I mean that he's louder or sheis louder than any mocking bird i've
heard. I don't know why.Maybe it's just closer to me and it
just seems to be. It's likeit got up at about four am and

(01:05:57):
started drinking coffee, and by thetime we got to about five or six,
it was wound up and wired andready to go. It was going
after it. Maybe it was gripingat me because I need to refill the
feeder. If you have a birdfeeder and you're looking for quality food to
really provide birds what they need.Now, the folks at Wilbirds Unlimited have

(01:06:18):
something called Nesting super Blend. Nestingsuper Blend is a unique food and here's
why. It's designed for birds ata time when they need a super high
quality, high protein plenty of fatsand protein and whatnot in it. That
when they need that food because they'reraising young. Do you know right now

(01:06:38):
that you're birds that we're talking abouteverything from bluebirds, you name it.
The birds out there, they've gotlittle nests full of young, the little
fledglings, and they need high qualityfeed when those babies are born. That's
what Nesting super Blend does. Imean, it's good for all the birds,
but especially this time of year.It's got dried mealworms and peanuts and
sunflower chips and sideflower tree nuts andbark butter. It's super high quality.

(01:07:02):
And with wild bird food, youdon't get junk, you don't get trish,
you don't get stuff birds kick onthe ground because they don't want to
eat it. Cheap bird feed isnot inexpensive bird feed. It's cheap most
of in some cases over half thebird seed in it and stuff birds don't
like to eat. So how muchmoney you just say you got buy twice

(01:07:23):
as over twice as much to havethe same amount of food, so you
get the idea right. Nesting superBlend is one of those examples of quality
wildbird's food. Now, this isalso the place where anything you need for
birds is there. Do you needfeeders, do you need bird bests?
Do you need things that keep thewater in a bird bath moving so the

(01:07:43):
mosquitoes don't want legs in there?Do you need little things that's spurt water
for birds to get out and taketheir little bath in. They've got all
of that kind of stuff bird houses. I have their scroll proof feeder,
which I just love. My favoritefeeder that I've ever had is the squirrel
proof feeder from Walbird. Squirrels aresmart. They haven't figured out how to
get into my squirrel food feeder yet, at least my birds, my squirrels

(01:08:06):
haven't. They get frustrated. Theyuse language that I'd rather they not use
in front of the family, butthey you know, they don't like it,
but I like it a lot.Wild Birds Unlimited six stores around the
Houston area, WBU dot com,Forward Slash Houston, WBU dot Com Forward

(01:08:26):
Slash Houston let's go to Montgomery.Now we're going to talk to Jim.
Hello, Jim, Hey, how'sit gone, good, sir? What's
up? Well? I got theseseeds from somebody that's called the ice plant,
okay, and I was wondering aboutit because I don't know anything about
them. And at first I thoughtyou had to grow them in the wintertime

(01:08:46):
because it's ice plant. But fromwhat I understand, that's not the case.
Now there are succulents. There's actuallytwo different plants called ice plant.
But either way, you just wantto get them started, get them good.
They like warm growing conditions. Theydo their best and warm growing conditions.
Probably you have something of the typethat's going to be very succulent,

(01:09:09):
very thick, fleshy leaves, butthere are other there's more than one kind
of them. They need lots ofsun, put up with a little shape,
not too much. They need welldrained soil, but they prefer some
soil moisture, especially during the timeyou're trying to get them established. Once
they're an established plant, they're notgoing to need the little pampering with water.

(01:09:30):
Well, these are supposedly not agroundcover. They're a little bit taller,
not much, but the bigger ones. Okay, where'd you get to
see? Jim a friend of mineand gave them Timmy and didn't tell me
anything about them, And I justthought i'd try them and see what happens,
because I'm kind of an experimental newplant. Yeah. But I'd also

(01:09:54):
like to make a comment that somepeople haven't heard this, but if they're
looking for a shape plant that bloomsa juga, yeah that is a it's
a good groundcover, it is.I had some here and they got lost
in the yopond farm, but theydid real well for years. Okay,

(01:10:18):
well good. Yeah. I justthought i'd throw that out there because I
hadn't heard y'all talk about it.Because when somebody calls and wants to something
that blooms in the shade, yeah, those seem to be very good at
that, very hearty. Yeah,it's a good suggestion. It spreads out
and makes a nice little mat onthe ground. Hey, Jim, thank
you for that info, and goodluck, good luck with those seeds.

(01:10:38):
Hope they turn on will Okay,thank you, take care, bye bye.
If you are looking for a widevariety of quality soil products, Landscapers
Pride has got you covered. Theyhave twenty seven different bag products. They
also have bulk available. By theway, now you can go to the
website where you learn more Landscaperspride dotcom Landscaperspride dot com. There you can

(01:11:01):
find out where to get Landscaper's Prideproducts. There widely, widely, but
they've been around twenty years now,since two thousand. Over twenty years two
thousand and two, they've been inbusiness, always local, always top quality
resources. Things like premium potting soil, the pot dirt which is actually an
organic certified soil, Gardener's Magic soil, and rosemex We all know about rosemexes,

(01:11:27):
very important, very good quality.Remember the brown stuff comes first.
If you want blooms, if youwant production, if you want success,
give one of these landscapers Pride productsa shot. Go to the website Landscaperspride
dot com where you can learn alot more about each of these products.
We're going to now head over toPaarland and talk to Trevor. Hello,
Trevor, Hey, how's it going? Good service? Tell well, my

(01:11:55):
brother calls me up and he tellsme, man, you got to errorate
your yard and put down hum canyou tell me anything about that. Yes,
I tried looking up videos online andstuff, and I saw that it
was like predominantly dominated by like abunch of bermuda grass. So I have
Saint Augustine in my yard. SoI was just trying to call to get
some clarification on that. Yeah,what was that? Put its air rate

(01:12:17):
and put down what was the product? Humature? Oh okay, okay,
Yeah, yeah, biochar huh okay. So it doesn't matter the kind of
grass when you especially when you havea compacted soil like clays, will be
Uh that aeration really helps. Periodicallyyou air rate, it opens up,

(01:12:38):
it brings oxygen down into that tight, tight soil. I biochar is fine,
there's no problem with using biochart hasits benefits. I think more importantly
if you're gonna air rate would beto use a screened quality compost, a
leaf mold, a screen quality compost. It falls down in the holes and

(01:13:00):
it gets that organic matter down inthere and it just enhances the root system.
And the better your root system,the better your lawn's going to be.
A screen quality compost, yes,is that by the bag or well
you prefer, Yeah, you canbuy it by the bag. The thing
is when you when you purchase bythe bag, you got buy a lot

(01:13:21):
of bags to cover over a lawnarea. You can also buy a bull.
Now, a simple way would beto call Daniel green Pro and just
have them come out and do it. They cover I think they cover your
area. Depends on exactly where you'relocated out there, but they stayed pretty
much forty five miles from Magnolia inany direction, so you should be within

(01:13:45):
the range. Greenpro is greenpro dotnet. That's their website. But they
have a very good core errator machinethat reaches down in the soil and it
pops a plug of soil out andleaves it on the surface, and then
they have a machine that spreads thecompost really smoothly out. And I mean
it's a lot of work to getit done, and you know it's it's

(01:14:06):
dusty and a mess. Uh Sothat's why people like to use green Pro.
By the way, if you wantit, if you want to get
the call the numbers two eight,one, three, five, one forty
seven thirty three. Whether you doit yourself or whether you hire them to
do it, just make sure youget a core arrator that pulls the plugs
out of the ground and then usea finely screened compost. Not something that's

(01:14:30):
woody and chunky and all that.But you want something that's almost a potting
soil, like a texture that'll getright down in the soil. Okay,
yeah, that makes sense. Okay, perfect, Thank you very much,
you bet Trevor. Good luck,Yeah, good luck with good luck with
that. I might have to runto a break here. When we come
back, Gary, you'll be thefirst up our phone number seven one three

(01:14:50):
two one two five eight seven four. Welcome back to Guardline. Good to
have you with us. What arewe going to talk about today, Well,
you you tell me. I wantto talk about one thing, and
it's been a while since I've mentionedthis. Sweet Green. Sweet Green is
a fertilizer from Nitross and sweet Greenis a very unique fertilizer. It is
a molasses based, microbially built I'lluse the term built for that fertilizer that

(01:15:17):
is one of the highest levels ofnitrogen of any organic type product. Sweet
Green reacts with the water and releasesdown into the soil and really stimulates microbial
activity. That's what any kind ofa sugar based carbohydrate based product like that
is going to do. It's areally rich environment. The microbes are going

(01:15:40):
to be happy, your plants aregoing to be happy, and you're going
to be surprised. It's just howwe're well. Sweet Green works on your
lawn. Eleven percent I believe it'seleven percent nitrogen in that particular product.
Now being a nitrous product, youknow it's going to be easy to find.
The available a lot of different places. For example, if you go
up to Kingwood to the Ace Hardwarethere on Kingwood Drive, they've got it,

(01:16:01):
Arborgate up and Tumbles got it.Or maybe South Houston out there genera
Red Bluff, there's a shades ofTexas. It carries Sweet Green products out
there as well. First thing yougot do is when you open it up,
just smell it. It smells wonderful. I mean imagine sweet molasses.
Smell that's it sweet, great,really pleasant. Enjoy bringing it home in

(01:16:24):
the car. May just make anextra trip around the block because it smells
so good. All right, We'regonna go to West easton down and talk
to Gary. Hello, Gary,good morning. Skip. So I think
I have a really simple question.I have the Mondo monkey grass and in
years past, it's really been flourishing. It's kind of slow to grow.

(01:16:45):
Is there a fertilizer or maybe asoil amendment I need to use? Well,
No, I mean, you know, it's hard to do an amendment
once you have it in. Itlikes a real compost d you know,
organic soil, high organic matter,so there's not a lot of fixing that
later. I mean you could makesome holes in around it and sprinkle a

(01:17:06):
little fine, fine textured compost inthere, kind of wash it in maybe
a little bit, but I don'tknow. I've never known anybody to worry
about that and go to that measureon it. As far as nutrients,
just a good quality lawn fertilizer iswhat I would use on it. That's
about all it is. It isa slow growing plant, though, so

(01:17:27):
trying to speed it up you're kindof fighting against its genetics. So I
have a half a bag of nitrophossimperial hand, sprinkle that in there and
water it. Yeah, I wouldprobably put let's see imperial nineteen say five

(01:17:48):
about a cup per hundred square feetof that imperial and then so that's not
much. It doesn't take much.You can go a little higher than that
good two cups per hundred, butsprinkle it in and then just water it
in really good and that'll that'll okay, Yeah, yeah, it's not horrible.

(01:18:08):
There's some box was in there thatwouldn't harm that with it, No,
not at all. They'd be veryhappy. They have green leaves,
and that's a product for green leafplants. That's why we put it on
on. Gotcha. Well, Isure appreciate the show, and thanks for
taking my call. Have a greatday you too, sir. Good luck
with that monkey grass. What dowe head over to Frank in spring?

(01:18:29):
Hello? Frank, Yeah, goodmorning. How are you doing. I'm
well, sir. How can wehelp today? Well? I have I
just my wife and I just movedhere from Illinois, and we have two
hundred kalladiums that we'd like to plant, and I would like to do it.
I'd like to do it correctly.I'm thinking about getting twelve inch pots
and spreading them out across the frontof the house in pots. I don't

(01:18:51):
know if that's a good idea.I'd like to know the proper soil fertilizer
to start with. Okay, well, if you'm doing pots, that's good.
The bigger the pot. Down heredown south, our summers are so
brutally hot, and even our nighttimes are extra warm, and so it

(01:19:13):
takes a lot of moisture to keepthe plants happy. So with pots we
try to make sure they have asmuch soil as we can give them.
So small pots not so good unlessyou can water them twice a day.
Larger pots is better. As faras the soil, you might want to
try the jungle land by nitrofoss jungleland. Do the one. It's called
flour and vegetable. I know yourplant and kalladiums, but flower and vegetable

(01:19:36):
is there outdoor soil. You're goingto find jungle land all over the place.
You know you're up there, youknow in the spring area. So
there's gonna be a number of placesthat carry it up around you. R
CW Nursery on Tomoi Parkway is goingto have it hiding and feed on Stubener
airlines going to have It's gonna beeasy to find, but I would use

(01:19:57):
the jungle by microfol jungle Land isdistributed by night flash right, and it's
called flour and vegetable potting soil.Uh If if there's an ace hardware near
you, which there is. Uh, they're gonna they're gonna probably have the
jungle land there. Make sure youget a good sized pot and then keep
them moist, Frank, that's that'sthe most important thing. They want to
be in shade. Now there areso we have we have the shade.

(01:20:20):
Yeah. My thought was to putmaybe four of the tubers in a twelve
each pot. Is that too much? Is that crowding them? You could
do I might the size one.Yeah, I probably would do three,
you know in a pot tubers?Yeah, I like I like odd numbers
anyway on plants. But that oughtto that ought to do it for you.

(01:20:42):
Just uh it's warm enough now wherethey ought to be happy and ready
to grow. Okay. Uh anothercouple of questions. These things are I
would call it in my world,relatively expensive. And I've seen how to
propagate by spreading the tube tubers off, but I think that only leads on
stem, does it not? Well? People will do and depending on where

(01:21:03):
you bought them, the little cormsthat are used to plan them, they
will take the main bud out ofit. They'll like gouge out that one
main shoot and that causes a lotof small buds to form the trade office.
Instead of getting a really big leaf, you get a bunch of smaller
leaves, but it makes a fullerplant. Now, I don't know the

(01:21:24):
ones you bought, if that hadalready been done or not, but that
is that is a factor. Frank, I'm going to have to go here
for a break, but did youlet me try one more quick question and
then we may have to hold youuntil after break. Well, that's fine.
Thank you so much for your help, Thanks for calling. Hey,
welcome to Texas. Glad to haveyou done. Thank you, thank you.
Sir, Yes, sir, youbet. Have you been to RCW

(01:21:45):
Nursery. If you're thinking about planningroses this spring, you need to get
out there because they still have thatten percent off sale on roses. Now
you can go to their go totheir page, go to the website RCW
nurseres dot com. Find the roselist. I mean it is a huge
rose list. If you want tojust give them a call two eight one

(01:22:06):
four four zero fifty one sixty one. This is in order to make sure
they have the rose you want instock. Then people come and buy things,
so they have the list of whatthey carry, but call two eight
one, four four zero fifty onesixty one. It's the largest selection of
roses in Houston at RCW Nurseries.Easy, easy to find RCW nursries dot

(01:22:30):
com. They're located where belt Wayeight comes in to Tomball Parkway, which
is Highway two forty nine, soit's really easy to get to RCW Nursery.
Now I talk about roses, everythingyou need from a nursery standpoint,
including soils, the fertilizers. Irecommend they're all there at RCW Nurseries,
including things like microlife for example,microlife fertilizer. The standard microlife is the

(01:22:54):
green bag. That's the turf fertilizer, which don't tell anybody, but I
use it on everything. I mean, I'll put it on vegetables or even
on flowers and things. Yeah,you can do that. Plants can't read.
They look at the bag and theycan't see that. You know,
they can't read. But that's okay. But seriously, joking aside, it's
time to get the microlife down onyour lawn. It's also a good time

(01:23:16):
to put down the humans plus.The purple bag. Humans plus has four
percent potassium, but you're putting itdown for the humus, for the concentrated
compost in a bag that over time, as you do this, you're just
making the soil better and better andbetter. And it's all about the soil,
brown stuff before green stuff. Theway we fertilize, the compost we

(01:23:38):
put in soil, the way weairrate the compost, top dressings, the
returning clippings, it's all about thesoil. And microlife is all about the
microlife. Fertilizer dot Com feeling alittle more about it. Well, wow,
that aur went fast. Here weare, We're already done. I'm
going to be today going over tothe Ace hardware, the M and d

(01:24:00):
Ace and clearly M d Ace hardwareand clearly and I'm going to be I
don't know, answering your gardening questions, identifying plants, diagnosing plant problems.
Just bring me pictures, bring meplants in. Like the Ama Lazareuth poem,
I feel like the statue of liberty. You're tired, you're weary,
uh masses yearning that I'm messing upthe poem, yearning to breathe free.

(01:24:25):
We'll take a look at all those, We'll see if we can help them.
By the way, for those ofyou done in Wharton today, Wharton
feed and Ace Hardware's grand opening yesterdayand today. You need to get over
there. It's on North Richmond Roadin Wharton. Kat r H Garden Line
does not necessarily endorse any of theproducts or services advertised on this program.

(01:24:47):
Welcome to kt r H Garden Lineswith Scape Richt. It's so trim.
You just watching as so many ittakes. They're not a side. Hey,

(01:25:20):
welcome to guard Line. Oh mygoodness, the sun is shining on
a beautiful sky, beautiful day,good day for gardening. The temperature is
going to be just right today.I hope you have plants to get outside
and get some things done in thegarden and landscape. Remember remember remember the
rule on Guardline brown stuff before greenstuff, right, Get you some quality

(01:25:44):
soil or if you've got a bedwhere plants I've been doing well, consider
renovating it. Bring in a qualitysoil mix and get it going Nature's way
resources. That's what that's what they'reall about. I mean, they are
all about the brown stuff. Theyad alertly have got the top quality when
it comes to things like rosso whenit comes to things like a leaf mall

(01:26:06):
compost. When it comes to thingslike all kinds really, all kinds of
the fungal Fridays is what they callit when they do fungal based composts.
Do you know that fungi are oneof the number one decomposers in the whole
universe. Here they turn tree trunksinto soil. That fungi are the heavy
lifters. They can do things otherthings can't. Well, when it comes

(01:26:28):
to the microbs, fungal composts.Every Friday Fungal Friday. Ten percent off
of the bag product, twenty percentoff of the book product. They got
plenty of it on hand. Youcan have them deliver it. You can
buy it by the bag. Youcan go pick it up there. You
can take a trailer, have themdump it on the trailer if you like.
However you want to go about it, Nature's Way Resources on Interstate forty
five north, so you head northout of Houston. If you're coming from

(01:26:51):
this way, it'll be on theright hand side. Bup, we're fourteen
eighty eight, which goes off tothe left to Magnolia comes in with the
railroad tracks. You are at Nature'sWay Resources. They have a nice fine
leaf. More compost if you wantto do some compost top dressing. They've
got you set up there at Nature'sWay Resources. Very important product to use,

(01:27:14):
by the way, high quality.Here's a phone number nine three six
three two one sixty nine ninety ninethree six three two one six nine nine
zero. You are listening to gardenLine and we are normally a call in
show, so if you'd like togive us a call seven one three two
one two five eight seven four sevenone three two one two fifty eight seventy

(01:27:41):
four. I always like to goout to Moss Nursery and Seabrook because you
never know what they're going to havenext. I mean, you always know
they're going to have house plants likeyou've never seen before. Trust me on
this one. Succulents, cacti likeyou haven't seen before. You know they're
going to have annuals and perennials.They're gonna have hanging baskets and shrubs and

(01:28:01):
trees and roses, all kinds ofthey're gonna have all of that. They
just got in a brand new shipmentof roses. They have some really combination
containers too. How about bonesye haveyou ever thought about that as a hobby.
Bones eye. They have bones eyethere. The hanging baskets are beautiful.
Do you have some shady areas whereyou would like some azelias, for

(01:28:23):
example, or other shrubs sun orshade. They've got those. Their selection
of herbs is outstanding, and nowI think everybody on a plant herbs.
I use them as ornamental plants.The different kinds of herbs serve different functions.
Or reagano makes a groundcover, chivesmake a clumping plant. You get
the idea. There's herbs that attractbeneficial insects and pollinators and so on.

(01:28:45):
They have hibiscuits. They have boogainvillion. When you're in the South and the
summertime along the Gulf coast here wherewe live, hibiscus and Boogainvillia. That
just tells you it's summertime here.They got native plants. If you're into
natives, they can get you fixedup butterflies. Do you want to attract
butterflies? Do you want a littlebird bath or a little fountain? Moss

(01:29:05):
has everything. Eight acres you wanderthrough, you see everything you possibly could
want because they carry everything. They'reout there in Seabrook easy to find Moss
Nursery dot com. Moss has twoas maas Nursery dot com. We're going
to go now over to Tomball Woodlandsarea and talk to John. Hello John,

(01:29:29):
you're born and how are you?I'm well, sir? What's up?
Good? I planted last year threeof those. I think they're Mexican
white oaks. They're probably twelve fifteenfoot tall. Nows planted them last year.
The two of the three great.During we had a pretty bad drought,
as you're aware, last year.We did our best to keep them
watered. One of them though,and it's the best looking one, of

(01:29:54):
course, from the middle of it. Fifty percent of the top is brown
as can be, look looks dead. Bottom of it is green flourishing,
looks great. The other two fantastic. No problems. Can I take that
and cut it in half? Oris that what can I do to remedy
that? Or am I pretty muchthe lost carls? Well? You can,

(01:30:14):
and you know it has a beautifulupright form, especially when it's young.
It spreads out as it gets older. If you cut off the dead,
if you can figure out a wayto kind of train something to sort
of become the main trunk. Again, it's going to be a little bit
of a challenge, but you cando it that way. You try to
maintain somewhat of the natural form tothat tree. Right, Okay, that's

(01:30:40):
what I was concerned with. I'llthink, if I cut that thing in
half, is it going to dieon me? But no, it's not
going to die from cutting it becauseyou're cutting away dead. So that's not
a stimulating process at all. Itjust cuts away the dead. Just make
sure you cut back, you know, get the dead out of there,
because of course not going to comeback to life, and the sinny do

(01:31:00):
the better. We are in thebest season of the year for wound healing
on trees. Spring is the fastesttime of wound healing, so go ahead
and get it done. Then inthe months to come you can get that
callous starting to form and hopefully withina year or so you're back in business.
Perfect. Well, it's a beautifulday. That's what we're doing today.
So I appreciate your show. Well, good thank you, Sarah,

(01:31:20):
and good luck with that. Appreciateyou taking care of that out there.
If you are wanting to give yourlawn a nice quick boost, I mean
to really get it going and lookinggood. Maybe you get some areas that
just aren't doing so great. Medinahas a product called has to Grow twelve
four to eight lawn Food Plus.It's like a lawn care kit in a

(01:31:44):
bottle. Really. You attach itto a garden hose. It's got the
natural lawn food supplements and it plusit has Medina soil activator and humate liquid
humus and so you just go overyour lawn with it. Makes it real
easy touch it to a garden hose, I mean, how easy can you
get. They also have sizes gallonsizes and so on. But basically it's
going to stimulate the natural soil organisms. Because of the compounds in it,

(01:32:06):
you're going to get a really goodnutrient uptake. Not going to waste any
fertilizer on this. Now, ifyou're going to remove your clippings, you're
going to want to do this everymonth during the growing season. I highly
recommend you do not remove your clippings. You recycle them, which is what
nature does with clippings. Now,if you leave them on about four times
during the growing season, just getyour hash to grow twelve four eight.

(01:32:30):
That's a four one two four onetwo ratio product perfect product ratio and you
just work over your lawn with itat the end of a garden hose and
you'll see the results. I've usedit on my own lawn. I'm very
pleased with the way that it hasworked. Take a little break here.
When we come back, Cheryl,you'll be the first up for the rest
of you. Seven one three twoone two five eight seven four. Ah,

(01:32:53):
it's a good morning to listen toGeorge Straight. Hey, welcome back
to Guardline. Good to have youwith us today. If you would like
to give us a call seven onethree two one two fifty eight seventy four.
I want to remind you that itis going to be mosquito season,
and in fact, they have arrived. Someone has told me the other day
they were working on some shrubs aroundthe house during the day, and you

(01:33:13):
know that's where mosquitoes like to hangout in the heat of the day,
and the mosquitoes were just coming outand eating them up. Well, there's
a nifty low product called a mosquitodunk. It just is a win win
win as far as I'm concerned.And here's why. It's a disease of
mosquitoes. It's a type of betdoesn't kill caterpillars like regular bete kills mosquito
larva, and so you're not goingto hurt a ladybug or a bird that

(01:33:36):
drinks out of the bird bath,or your pets the drink out of the
bird bath, or anything else otherthan mosquito larva. The mosquito dunk she
toss them into the water wherever youhave standing water, maybe it's a bird
bath, maybe it's a little pondout there, just toss one little dunks
out in it. They also havea granular form too, by the way

(01:33:56):
that you can scatter around. Itgets in the water and mosquito larma can't
make it, and it is anatural, easy way to do it.
They're easy to find. You're goingto find them. Almost all independent nurseries
and feed stores and certainly ace hardwarestores are going to carry mosquito dunks.
And it is mosquito season. Youshould always have dunks on hand because you
never know when you're going to needto toss them out there and do that.

(01:34:19):
It works works super super well.Let's go to Cheryl in adding Keema.
Good morning, Cheryl, how canwe help today? Hello, good
morning, okay, things I barelyheard. One is which Ace hardware in
clear Lake? Are you going tobe today? Yeah, I'm glad you

(01:34:41):
ask. I'm going to be atthe M and D Supply Hammond am as
in Mary and Das and Dan Mand D A M and D Yes and
D Supply. Yeah. Where isthat? Where is it? Please?
Okay? Hang on? Let meokay, trying to get okay down in

(01:35:02):
chemo. Let me. I'm tryingto zoom in to give you the actual
street number. I should have thatin my head right here. Let me
see, here we go. It'sokay, I can look it up to
I just no, it's okay,give me, just give me one second.
I'm trying to pull the the siteup. I can't believe. Here
we go. My computer is onthe glitch right now and it's decided that

(01:35:24):
it doesn't want to cooperate with me. So give me one second. I'll
find it for you. Did youhave a question to by the way,
Yes, okay. You talk aboutheavy feeders, flowers fertilizer, and I
have these irises and I think thatit will fit for irises, but I

(01:35:44):
can't remember what it is you youyou you talk about it for Boogun vign
use some other flower, Yeah,you could use You could use a boom
Via fertilizer. You use a Plumarifertilizer too, on irises. Those will
both work just fine. Okay,okay, So no no specific brand or
anything. Oh well, there's alot of good brands out there, and

(01:36:05):
I trusts Booga and Villia they makefertilizer does really well with that. In
fact, they they're actually their hibiscusfertilizer wouldn't be a bad Yes, that's
what she said. For your whatdid you call it? I trust?
What's the name hibiscus? Now yousaid something about I trust fertilizer, but

(01:36:27):
I couldn't understand it. I'm sorry. Oh so fast, oh nitro fas.
Oh yeah, okay, let melet me go back to the aces,
because I don't want to leave youhanging and forget that. It's in
clear Lake. In clear Lake,Oh, that's where I'm at today.
I know where I know, Yes, yes, I know I know that
one. And then the third thingis my law looks great and I've done

(01:36:51):
a lot to it the last severalyears. Do I need to put can't
I just not put anything at all? On it right now, just leave
it alone. You can't. I'vehad years, right and fertilize and it's
okay, Okay. The thing aboutit is fertilizer drives growth, and growth
creates density, and density chokes outweeds and it makes it look pretty.

(01:37:14):
So to the degree you don't fertilize, your lawn goes from pretty green to
more of a charture's green. Yourdensity goes down a little bit, and
so sunlight begins to hit the soilnature plants of weed and so on.
So that's why we on an ongoingbasis want to fertilizer lawns. Okay.
And one more thing about leaves.I really got into collecting leaves from my

(01:37:40):
neighbors that have big lots that Iknow they don't do a lot of fertilizing
or anything is fall off of theirtrees. Yeah, And is it possible
to overdo it on the leaves,Well, I guess you can overdo anything.
I would only mulch about four tofive inches thick at the most.
You could go less than that.If you're are you talking about mowing them

(01:38:01):
into the lawn or are you talkingabout mowing them in? And just how
often to put them down. Ididn't have that many that had got that
thick. It was just a sprinklingof them on top of the lawn about
every week or two. Yeah.Well, if you've got a really good
mower that really chops them up.Finally, you can take an inch or
two of leaves and most turf grasses, especially Saint Augustine, and chop them

(01:38:26):
up and they'll fall down the endof the turf. We don't apply them
to the turf on purpose, butif you got them on the turf,
you can just mulch them into thesurface. I've done that before. It's
okay, works fine. But Iwouldn't just purposefully throw our leaves on the
turf because that's how trees kill turfis smothering it with leaves and shade.
Oh okay, No, I didn'tdo any smothering. I just wondered how

(01:38:49):
often, because all I did wasbring the bags and then sprinkle them and
then let the yard guy mow themwith his mower. Okay, all right,
we'll save me the multing your flowerbeds and all other kinds of things.
Hey, Cheryl, thanks, Iappreciate that. Good luck with you,
Iris and I hope you'll be outthere at M and D Clare Lake
Bay Area Boulevards. The street yousaid you know where it is, but

(01:39:12):
other than yes, yes, Iknow, I know that's Space Center Houston
out there. Oh yeah, yeah, I know right, I know right
where it is. Alrighty oh,okay, thank you so much. You
bet, Bobby. Yeah, I'llbe up there today, so don't forget
about that. Also, I wantedto mention to you that the Arburgate Nursery
up in Tumbo has a brand newparking lot. I say brand new.

(01:39:32):
It's been around a few months now, but basically it is the coolest thing
that I've seen because you don't haveto park on the road out there.
I mean, Arburgate' is a popularplace. People love to go there,
and when you go, you'll seewhy they've it's just an amazing place.
But now you just turn down TrishelRoad. It's it's a loop that goes
around behind Arburgate. So whether youturn before Arbrogate or after Arburgate, same

(01:39:57):
thing. You turn toward the southdown Try Road and come around behind it
park back there. It makes itreally really easy, and you know,
when you go to Arburgate. You'regoing to find one of the widest variety
of plants you will see anywhere.I mean the annuals perennials, herb shrubs,
houseplants, trees, fruit, thefruit year around there when it comes
to shrubs, the outstanding new selectionsby Monrovia and others. It's just always

(01:40:23):
a good time to be out atthe Arborgate. By the way, for
those of you who have been livingunder a rock and don't know where it
is, well, you just headwest from Tomball from two forty nine,
head west on twenty nine to twentynot very far out there, and you
will be You'll find Arbrogate right thereon the left hand side, easy to
get to. Good, very trained, very knowledgeable staff Beverly and Kennon and

(01:40:45):
the whole group out there at Arburgate. They will point you in the right
direction and put a plant in yourhand with the instructions you need to have
success. I want to head outnow to see We're going to go to
Sugarland and talk to Ross. Hello, ros Hey Skip, good morning morning.
Hey. I got a question aboutsulfur. I I've got some Indian

(01:41:09):
hawthornes that I planned with last yearand they I'm sure of the heat got
to them or whatever, but they'rejust not as green as the UH.
I went after one of the independentnurseries and they're just as green as those.
And the guy out there told meI should use soil sulfur. So
I bought a four pound bag andget home and there's no directions on it.

(01:41:32):
And I got to thinking, doI you know I've always used iron
eye, you know, in theyard green things up. Do I do
I need that? Or how doI use it? I guess well,
question sulfur is okay when A youhave a sulfur deficiency or B your pH
is a little high in a lighttextured soil like a sandy sandy long soil

(01:41:55):
in a clay. It's hard tochange pH with sulfur very much, but
it has its place. But nowyou've already got a growing plant, so
you can't rototil the sulfur down intothe soil. So I think rather than
just start to push things around withsulfur, I would I think I would
hold off and let's take a differentroot on this particular one. Again,

(01:42:19):
it kind of depends on the specificsof what your pH is. If you
have had a soil test. Thatwould be a good start. It would
tell you if pH is what's wrongor not. I doubt that it's pH
on an Indian hawthorn. I thinkyou probably just need to give them a
good I would use a lawn fertilizerto be honest. Just apply a lawn
fertilizer around them, watered and reallygood. Make sure the soul drains adequately

(01:42:43):
well, and just watch out forthe leaf disease. It can be a
problem on indian hawthorn. It causesthe spots and then the leaves turn kind
of a yellow to orange and falloff. Okay, I think you answer
my question. I'm probably gonna takeit back. I think I would in
this case. There are uses forsulfur, but I think that's the long

(01:43:03):
shot right now. I agree.Okay, appreciate you guys, all right,
Ross, good luck with that.Appreciate the call. You know.
Whenever you need a product, Idon't care if is it a fertilizer,
is it a soul blend to improveyour soil a compost blend? For example?
Do you need pesticides, insecticides,fungicides, herbicides, those kinds of

(01:43:25):
things. Ace Hardware store has alwaysgot you covered. This is fiant season.
It's time to get out there anddo the two Texas two step.
That doesn't mean I stepped in amound so I start dancing everywhere, although
I've done that before. What itmeans is first to put on a bait,
very low application rate, follow thelabel over the whole area, and

(01:43:46):
then any escape mounds. After acouple of weeks, you're going to know
you miss something. Then you usethe mound treatment with that. That's step
two. First bait, then moundtreatment. Texas two step. Ace Hardware
they've got it. You go toACE. She said, I need a
hard I need a fire ant bait, I need a fi mound treatment.
They'll get you set up mosquitoes.They have the repellents, but they also

(01:44:10):
have those dunks I was just talkingabout, So it's easy with ACE.
By the way, I'm going tobe at M and D ACE out on
Bay Area Boulevard down in clear Lake. Today had a eleven thirty, so
I hope you will join me outthere. For those of you out in
the Wharton area too. By theway, ACE Hardware it's called Wharton Feed
and ACE Hardware it's on North RichmondRoad in Wharton, Texas. Today,

(01:44:33):
yesterday and today's are grand opening,so you need to go check them out
as well. I want to let'ssee here. I wanted to mention I
talked about jungle Land as a soilblend for putting in containers. Talks about
that a little bit earlier. JungleLand for indoor plants. That is the
one that has the water saving crystals. It is an excellent potting soil.

(01:44:57):
What makes a potting so excellent wellquality ingredients. Number One, It needs
to drain well, but it alsoneeds to hold moisture so that when you
go between waterings the plants do justfine. That is jungle Land, jungle
Land water saving potting salt. That'sfor your indoor plants and it works really
well. You can get an ACEhardware out of sink or ranch. You

(01:45:18):
can get jungle land for the indoorplants. A task Acida Ace is going
to have it and clear Lake inclute. Im. We'll turn it over
to Nikki for the news. We'llbe right back. Welcome back to guarden
Line. Good to have you withus today. We're talking about all kinds
of things gardening and boy, arewe ever in the big middle of gardening
season. If you are not interestedright now and getting outside and planting a

(01:45:40):
plant, planting a flower of vegetable, or you know, getting the lawn
in good shape, you need toreach take your index and middle finger on
your right hand, or reach overand touch your wrist on your left hand,
and just pause for a minute andmake sure you have a pulse,
because telling you if you have anygardening blood left in you, absolutely the
best time to do that. Youknow, when we get rain, our

(01:46:02):
Houston glasoils swell up, they literallyget bigger. When we get dry conditions,
they shrink. They literally pull apartand create cracks in the ground.
And that movement rex havoc on sidewalksand driveways and house foundations. Look at
the brick on the outside, doyou see cracks? Look at the sheet

(01:46:23):
rock on the inside, do yousee any cracks? There is a door
that used to move freely now stickingat the top or bottom. Those are
all signs potential signs that you couldhave a foundation problem. Now. Ty
Strickland from fix my Slab Foundation RepairTI's been taking care of foundations for twenty
three years now. He understands whatcauses it, and he understands how to

(01:46:44):
fix it. Tye prides himself onbeing on time. He shows up what
he tells you will, on givingyou a fair price, and on fixing
it right, fix it once,fix it right. That's Tie. He
adds absolutely has the experience necessary.He knows he soils here. He sees
it every day. The same thing. You can go to fix myslab dot

(01:47:08):
com fix myslab dot com, orcall him two eight one two five five
forty nine forty nine. Tell himyou're a Guarden line listener. You get
a free estimate. And I wasvisiting with ty and his wife the other
day, is a while back,uh and just picking his brain about all
these foundation questions. And I'm tellingyou, the guy knows his business.

(01:47:29):
I would not hesitate to call himfor any kind of a question I have
about my foundation, wanting to makesure I get a fact, the truth,
and someone who knows what they're talkingabout. We're going to go now
out to Katie and talk to Ray. Good morning, Ray, Good Morning's
Kip, good morning. I justhad a quick question. I got some
I got some vegetable. They're stillnot producing tomatoes and egg plan all of

(01:47:54):
that. Okay, what can Ifeed them? Because, yeah, they
look pretty, the clients look likepretty, But I don't need them to
look pretty. I need them toproduce. Yeah, yeah, what can
I feed them to start? Seeingthose blooms in the tomatoes? Well,
if they're green and they're growing,well, that I don't know that you
need to feed them. Normally Iwould say, yeah, fertilizer, that

(01:48:16):
is a good thing to do.But when you push a plant with too
much fertilizer, you actually can causeit to grow shoots and leaves. Well,
but at the expense of flowering fruiting. Are you seeing flowers on them
and the flowers just aren't setting orhave they not started to bloom yet?
No, not, no blooms atall yet. Okay, Okay, well

(01:48:38):
in that case, I would holdoff on the fertilizing for right now.
I'm just assuming by the fact thatyou say they look pretty that they're in
decent shape. Some tomatoes take longerto reach harvest, and those you wouldn't
see blooming as early. Some tomatoescan be eighty days before they go from
planting to blooming. Other tomatoes couldbe like fifty days before planting. The

(01:49:01):
fifty five days because the stocks arelike they're really thick, like they they're
beautiful. They're beautiful plants. Ijust need to start, yeah, turning
some stuff out. Oh yeah,yeah, yeah, you can't. You
can't have a BLT sandwich if theydon't produce, right, So uh then
good stud You got them in alot of sunlight. Ray, Yes,

(01:49:25):
yes, sir, okay, wellsounds like you're doing everything right. Just
give them a little more time,let them settle in, and I think
they'll be all right. Yes,sir, thank you so much. Skip
you bet good luck with those tomatoes. All we ask is, if you
get fruit, bring half the tomatoesto the station, drop them off here
for me, and we'll call iteven avice is free. But what I

(01:49:45):
will be paid in produce. That'sjust a joke for those of you out
there. Let's go to Fred andsugar Land. Hey Fred, what's happening
in sugar Land? Good morning,sir. We planted pinters in bed that
we've done that for years, unwell, and about nearly a week after they
were planted, they started about halfof them started just wilting. Okay,

(01:50:08):
during the daytime. At night theyseem to come back a little bit,
and but a few of them juststay wilted. Interestingly, nine plants out
of the flats that we bought,we put in pots and things, and
they're just fine. Try to figureout what's going on. Okay, thieves
have big brown spots on them.They're wilted and all shrivel up, but
they don't die any thought. Yousaid, penta right, tell yes,

(01:50:31):
sir. So when a plant wilsI mean this sounds obvious, but it's
not getting adequate water. The questionis why if the soil is dry,
well, that would be why.If the soil is adequately moist, Okay,
eliminate that. If it's not gettinggood drainage and it's staying soggy wet,
then that also can cause wilting,believe it or not, because it

(01:50:54):
shuts down roots and roots can't takeup the water. It could be an
insect chewing on roots of certain plants, but not others. You wouldn't know
that until you dug it up andlooked. But there are things that can
chew on the roots. That isunlikely but a possibility. And then finally,
it could be a root rot,something causing decay there in the soil.

(01:51:15):
Sometimes plants come in and they're soroot bound the roots have just wadded
up in the pot, so theoutside of the pot is just like a
solid mass of roots. Those tothese, they were good, they were
okay, well really okay. I'mbeginning to lean, based on what you're
saying toward maybe a either a diseaseof the roots. Maybe take the worst

(01:51:39):
plants you have, get a shovelunder it and lift it up, and
then just kind of look at theroots. You should see white, healthy
roots. If what you see isbrown or water soaked, or we used
to say the looks like a cigarettefilter with that tar brown gray staining on
it. If it's that color,then that is a root rot. And
there are fung just drenches you canuse, but usually we just say let

(01:52:02):
it dry out a little bit.If it's not too far gone, the
plant may come back. If not, you may end up losing it and
having to replant it. I wonderedabout that because we had pansies in there
before, and our pansies just reallywent bad. So did they do that?
And I left the bed, youknow, to I turned the bed
and left it for about a weekdried out good and then plant it.

(01:52:26):
And so maybe we got a fungicidegoing along. I would take I would
take a plant that's alive but wiltedand looking bad, the worst one maybe,
and kind of lift it up andjust kind of shake the soil gently
loose and take a look. Ithink what you're going to see is the
roots of declining, which would bea sign of a root rod. And
usually those are connected to wet conditions, but they don't have to be their

(01:52:49):
root rots that will do just fineand moderately moist soil. Okay, So
we could use a funguside on andif it looks like a root bro you
could you can go you know,go out to you're in the Sugarland area.
I mean sure you can find thatat uh at the in Chenna Gardens
Richmond, in Chenna the and JennyForest out there is going to have it.

(01:53:12):
You got an ACE hardware out thereto plantation. Ace is right out
there in Richmond, and they're goingto have a pretty wide selection of products
and just a handy to funge yourside for root rot, for drenching U.
There's several several brands on the market. I was suspecting that probably a
root rot sort of thing, becausethey don't just die. They just wheeled
down and they park back up.But then and during the in the heat,

(01:53:35):
seems like they just wieled. It'sabout half of them. Yeah,
that's how it goes well. Ihope, I hope it turns out good
for you. Good luck with thoseand thank you for the call. Appreciate
that you to day. You betyou know I mentioned enchanted Forest out there
in Richmond, and Jenny Forest alwayshas things going on. I mean there's

(01:53:55):
always a program going on on thesaturdays out there in the spring. In
fact, yeah, I'm going tobe out there April thirteenth, that's next
Saturday for doing a Q and Aout there. They're going to have the
Robs Mini Donuts food truck. I'lltell you what, let me change that.
I won't be at the Q andI. I'm going to be out
there eating many donuts at the foodtruck. If you have a question,

(01:54:15):
come see me there. Seriously.Inchended Forest Richmond has every kind of plant
you could need, from shrubs totrees. You know, they I think
when I think of them, oneof the things that comes to mind is
butterflies. They know how to growbutterflies. They have the plants and everything
you need to grow a wonderful populationof butterflies. Today. As a matter

(01:54:40):
of fact, out there April sixthat ten am, they're going to have
a program called Beyond Butterflies, howto create a pollinator Paradise, and they
have it out there. Do youneed pollinator something that blooms, that attracts
butterflies, something that feeds the larvaof butterflies, and jennif Forest has got
all that. Of course, whenyou're out there, make sure you take
an empty car, because you're goingto find shrubs and trees and herbs and

(01:55:03):
vegetables and beautiful hanging baskets and houseplants and indoor bling. In the gift
shop, they got it all EnchantedForest out there in Richmond, by the
way, all the Easter de Chorseforty percent off, and they really have
a lot a wonderful selection of booksfor gardeners and pet lovers and other things

(01:55:23):
like that. They're on FM twentyseven fifty nine in Richmond, Texas twenty
seven to fifty nine. So ifyou're in Richmond heading toward Sugar Lamb,
they're off to the right we're gonnatake a little break here. We'll be
back our phone number seven one threetwo one two fifty eight seventy four.
Welcome back to garden Line on abeautiful sunny day. Ready to get outside?

(01:55:43):
I sure am. After the showtoday, I'm going to be heading
over to M and D Ace Hardwareand Clear Lake. If you don't know
where that is, well have youbeen to Space Center Houston. It's real
close to that's on Bay Area Boulevard, bay Area Boulevard, Ace Hardware Store.
Come see me, bring me samples, bring me pictures, let's just
meet and talk. I love tomeet the folks that listen to Garden Lines,

(01:56:05):
so come on out today. Thiswould be a great time to do
that. I'm going to be givenaway a bag of Nitropos the super turf
that's the silver bag every thirty minutes, so we'll giveing away quite a few
of these days. Two hours.I'll be there today. Nitrofoss Superturf fertilizer
that's the nineteen four to ten thesilver bag. That is a slow release.

(01:56:26):
It is an excellent blend of nutrients. The ratios are just right for
what turf needs to grow. Thechemistry of it is designed such that all
the nitrogen isn't released immediately. Itgradually feeds over time, which is how
your turf takes up nutrients every day. Think about this, every day you
look out at your lawn. Whileyou're looking at the lawn, it is

(01:56:47):
taking up all these nutrients that itneeds to make a good, strong turf
plant. When you put a slowrelease fertilizer like Nitropos nineteen four ten Superturf
silver Bag, when you put thatout, your fertilizers are going to be
releasing over time to give the turfthe nutrients that it needs. Really works
well last two two or three monthsout there in the garden or in the

(01:57:11):
garden in the lawn. You canuse it in a garden too, by
the way, but we primarily promoteit as a lawn fertilizer because it does
create a super turf. And wheredo you get it, well, where
do you get nitrofosh products? Idon't know, wherever you live, is
the fast answer. Kingwood Ace Hardwarehas them go up to Tomball the Arburgate
Nursery. They've got them out there. Shades of Texas down Genoa, Red

(01:57:31):
Bluff southeast part of town. Theycarry Superturf another nitrofosh products as well.
If you would like to give uscall and ask a question today, our
phone number is seven to one threetwo one two fifty eight seventy four seven
one three two one two five eightseven. For it's one of those unique

(01:57:51):
times we actually have a cleared board. I know some of you called,
and you happen to call when otherpeople are calling, so you can have
a little wait there right now,you don't if you'd like to give a
quick question, don't hesitate because you'vegot other folks listening that have fast fingers
and they can dial as well.But give us a call. Heirloom Soils

(01:58:12):
has been making quality soil for along time. They Heirloom Soils has blends
that pretty much fit every situation.Do you need a fungal like a leaf
mold based let's say composts. Doyou need a rose soil? Do you
need a vegetable and herb mix typesoil? Do you want a soil for
fruits and vegetables? And they havesoils for all of those blends. They

(01:58:36):
have things like the expanded shale that'smixed into some of their products that also
helps hold the soil open. Nowright now, the veggie and urb mix
is one hundred and nineteen dollars peryard cubic yard in bulk. And they
also they'll deliver you can go pickit up there up in porter at the
location. You can have them delivera supersac or dump some well in your

(01:59:00):
driveway, which whichever we want togo about it. They can get you
fixed up. Airloom soils wide,wide variety of products, and their bag
products are found everywhere. I know. I was talking about allspas Ace hardware
up in the Woodlands. They nowhave the fruit berry and citrus mix from
heirloom soils that they keep in stockup there. So real easy to find,

(01:59:21):
good quality mixes and they work.I can say that because I use
them. I tried them. I'vegrown things that I'm trying containers tried in
the soil. The ground just filledup a veg of one of those Vego
raised rolling planters this year, grownsome flowers in that with an heirloom soil
mix. The stuff works. HeirloomSoilsoftexas dot Com Heirloom Soils Offtexas dot Com

(01:59:47):
makes it easy, easy, easy, to find them. Gosh, you
talking about a lot of different thingstoday. One of the things that I've
not tried growing before is a plumerius. Excuse me, I couldn't think of
the word, but I know I'vehad them before for a little while,

(02:00:10):
but I moved or I don't know. I just have not really gotten into
those and grown them, you know, and give me a break too.
There's only eight hundred thousand different plantsout there, so there's a lot others
that I haven't gotten around to.But plumerius are so beautiful. If you
would like a plumeri if you likesto try it, Plumeria, which is
the Hawaiian lay flower. You know, you get off the plane in Hawaii,

(02:00:32):
they throw a neck ring of flowersover your neck. Well that is
that's what's going on here. I'msorry, I'm distracted. There's a crane
literally twenty feet from my window loweringgiant boxes of who knows what. That's
a distraction. But bluem area isa beautiful, easy, easy to grow.
I mean, you know, youforget to water them. They're okay,

(02:00:54):
they're tough, they they're not cold, hardy, but you can literally
dig them up and hang them upso down in the garage and get through
winter and put them back in theground. That's what I'd like to try.
A lot of our garden centers happen. Now's the time to get them
too. By the way, Iknow that Nitrophosh, for example, has
a really good plumeria food that theyspecialize in. And you go to all
the places you get Nitrofosh, you'regonna find that plumeria food. So that's

(02:01:16):
that's one of the new flowers Ineed to get going. Maybe I need
to grab somebody from the Plumeria Societyand say, hey, what would you
what would you recommend? How doI get started here? Again? I've
known people that had them, beenaround them and stuff, but just never
brewined one myself. We'll go outto Jersey Village now and let's talk to
Joe. Hello, Joe Hotei.I called last year out replace my grass

(02:01:42):
after the grout and between the droughtand the freeze. I guess what I
put in just didn't work? Isinstallation era? I'm sure, but I
got a traded area that I needto replace the grass, the turff and
so with zoi or palmetto be abetter august pal a better choice. Yeah,

(02:02:05):
palmetto for Saint Augustine is gonna beone of your better choices looking at
just the factor of shade specifically,that that would be one of the better
ones. Uh. There are zoysias. Zoysia in general is fairly shade tolerant,
usually not quite as much as SaintAugustine. But there is a zoysia
that, in fact, I justput some in my backyard called Xeon zeo

(02:02:26):
in that's a very fine texture.Now this is a different creature, you
know, Saint Augustine, big fatleaves, open growth habit Xeon almost I
want to say, golf course green, real dense, dense, dense grass,
and so you're gonna mow it alittle lower for it to look at
best. But it is very shadetolerant. So that, yes, the

(02:02:47):
palmetto would be the easy one,easier to find. You're gonna have to
hunt around for when we start gettinginto specific cultivars of turf, you may
have to do a little looking tofind the one that you're looking for.
Is this a high demand right downand in low supply because of the fright

(02:03:08):
trees and the drought that is ingeneral true. The turf is out there
and it's getting planted all the time. Right now we're in we're in the
beginning of the big turf planting season. You know. Once it warms up,
turf wants to grow and people areplanting it. Uh so the A
is going to be the best person. It's one of the best. Yeah,

(02:03:30):
I would, I would. Iwouldn't hesitate to try the palmetto.
Okay, let answer that, thanksso much. All right, all right,
thank you appreciate the call very much. I said that now's a good
time to get those trees planted.Well, Verdant Tree Farm can get you
set up. You know. Verden'seasy to find. If you're down south,

(02:03:50):
go to the Verdant that's over theresouth in Pearland. It's on a
Broadway Street. If you're in thecentral go up to the one at it
and Yale Street in the Heights.If you're out west, go to the
one on Barker Cyprus. They havea wide variety of trees. They credible
selection of palms as well, andtheir turnkey service. You walk in.

(02:04:14):
You can even bring them a pictureand say, hey, what do you
think would do well right here?What would be you know, and they'll
help you with that. You pickout your tree, they bring it,
they plant it, they guarantee itfor a year. Because they planted it,
they did it right, and it'seasy to do Verdant treefarm dot com
v er d a n T treefarmdot com. That makes it simple to
be able to go about it thatway. Let's go now to Parland and

(02:04:39):
talk to Henry. Hello, Henry, good morning. I had a question
regarding dwarf crape myrtles. First ofall, is there really such a thing,
because I've purchased what I thought wasa dwarf myrtle before and it ends
up being you know, larger,larger species, And I'm just wondering do

(02:05:03):
they are they really out there?And what's the trick to keeping them looking
at smallish, smaller, dainty typeof size because I have a perfect spot
for it and I love crape myrtles, And yes, yes there are.
I'm going to give you you gota piner pencil handy. Yes, if
you will do a web search forcrape myrtle and skip Richter my name r

(02:05:28):
I c ht er, you'll geta chart that goes from three feet crape
myrtles to thirty feet crepe myrtles.It shows you the flower colors. Now
that is not an extensive chart,meaning they're new ones every year, so
there's gonna be ones that aren't onthe list. But when you see the
list, you'll see that, yes, you can get a crape myrtle that

(02:05:48):
only gets five to seven feet also, or one that gets seven to twelve
feet for example. But you shouldn'thave to buy a saw when you buy
a crate murtle. You should buyone that gets the size you want,
which is exactly what Henry you're tryingto do. But if you go to
a quality nursery, those what they'retalking about. They only should sell you

(02:06:09):
something that they can tell you howbig it gets, and it should be
the truth. It shouldn't be Ibob a small one and it got big.
Shame on that one. About Thankyou all right, Henry, you
take care. Thank you appreciate appreciatethat call very much. Where you're listening
to garden Line. I'm going tobe today at M and d Ace Hardware

(02:06:30):
out in clear Lake on Bay AreaBay Area Boulevard. I hope you'll come
and see me. I'm going tobe giving away a bag of Nitro five
super turn for ever thirty minutes.While I'm out there, I'll be answering
your gardening questions. Bring me somesamples in a bag, bring me some
photos on your phone. Let's helpyou have a more bountiful garden and a
more beautiful landscape. I love tovisit the viewers. Hope you'll come out

(02:06:53):
to M and Dace. I'll bethere from eleven thirty to one thirty today
at clear Lake. Katrh Garden doesnot necessarily endorse any of the products or
services advertised on this program. Welcometo kt r H Garden Line with Skip
Rict. It's crazy. Just watchhim as Hey, we're going to jump

(02:07:20):
on into this hour. We've gota lot to talk about, so we
don't want to delay. If youare doing any kind of transplanting, if
you're moving houseplants from one pop toa bigger pot, which we have to
do from time to time. Ijust did some this week. Uh.
If you are outdoors and you areplanting, let's say flowers, moving them
out. You bought some flowers,you brought them home, you're putting them

(02:07:42):
in a container, putting them ina bed, a garden bed. Nutri
Star Genesis transplant Mix, vegetables,flowers, herbs, whatever you got.
It works. It's a six onethree natural fertilizer. It's got the indo
and actemech microhisol funge. Those arefungi that grow in association with the plant
root to make the root more efficient, in other words, make the plant

(02:08:03):
happier. If you are looking forbeneficial bacteria. Yes, that's also in
Genesis transplant mix. It's got alot of things to enhance the biology of
the soil when I've used it.I used it this spring on some pepper
plants I was growing. The resultswere amazing. It really works well.
Nutri Shar Genesis comes in little plasticjars like other products from Nelson's, can

(02:08:26):
be purchased and it just works superwell. I encourage you to mix it
into the potting mix that you're aboutto transplant into or the soil bed that
you're about to transplant into. Thenset your plant in the ground and water
it in well and you will seethe success. It works. It does
work really well, and I saythat because I've used it. When was

(02:08:48):
the last time you were out atthe antique rosing forium. There's always things
happening out there. You know,the place has been around since nineteen eighty
three. If you want to goto the website first, I would just
suggest you start there Antique Roseemporium dotcom Antique rosanporim Emporium dot com. Next
Saturday, they're going to have anice Native Plant partner program bringing a tent

(02:09:13):
to the display gardens. You'll wantto check it out. It's a collaboration
between the Native Plant Society and localnurseries around the state to offer native plants
that do well for the environment.They'll have that They're going to have the
Tinker Garden. I love that name. It's the newest children's in the Garden
program Venture. It's an outdoor,play based educational curriculum for children aged two
to eight years old. What abetter deal for kids to get to be

(02:09:37):
part of. It's a six weekcurriculum starts April nineteenth and twentieth at one
pm, runs through mid May.It'll be a ticketed event with payment details,
registration openings, and more information comingsoon. So not only follow the
website Antiqrosimporum dot com, but saywith them on social media as well.
They've got other programs on beekeeping onApril twentieth and so on. Hey,

(02:10:01):
but they're about plants. Do youneed house plants? Herbs? Do you
need roses? Of course they're aboutroses, but so much more bluebonet or
blooming. You're not gonna find abetter time to visit the Rosenporim than now
up in Independence, Texas. Planit outing and take some friends with you,
because really, this is a destination. It's not just like going to
some place that sells plants. Imean, this is a place where you

(02:10:24):
need to go and plan on stayin a while, because it truly is
a blast. I want to headout now to Missouri City and we're gonna
talk to Lauren. Hello, Lauren, good morning morning. Every year we
have the same problem with one treein our yard. Okay, it's webworms.

(02:10:46):
And this year my wife has beengetting out there with the hose and
her wand and spraying the heck outof them. The webs go away,
and she did that yesterday, andthis morning they're back with a vengeance.
It seems to be pissing them upmore than Okay, is she using just
water or is she using a pesticide? Yeah, that's the question. It's

(02:11:11):
just water. So what pesticide shouldwe use? Well, first of all,
doing it in the morning with justwater is not a bad idea because
you break the webs open, andthe number one predator of webworms is paper
wasps. Paper wasp will get inthere and they'll be hauling them away because
that's what they like to eat ascaterpillars. And so by overnight they rebuild

(02:11:35):
the web around and the paper waspcan't get to them, so you have
to break it open again. Butanyway, that's the safest, simplest thing.
It doesn't eradicate them, but itkeeps them in check. If you're
going to use the spray and blastthem open, any kind of an insecticide
put in there is going to killthem. If you use something with spinosid
or BT spinosid or BT in thespray, it'll get on the leaves because

(02:12:01):
the blast has broken the webs open, and when it gets inside on the
leaves and they eat those leaves,it kills the webworms also. But you
have to get it on leaves they'reeating within a day or two. Gotcha?
Okay? The question next question isapplication is there this BT or splenosa?

(02:12:24):
Is that something you hook up tothe hose and spray or do you
use it in a sprayer. Youcan put it in a hose in sprayer.
You just have to figure out theformulation as you're reading the label and
looking at the setting on the sprayer. But if it'll form a strong stream
to break through those webs, it'llwork. BT lasts about a day,

(02:12:45):
so I would get it out there, you know, and you could put
it on late in the day orearly in the day, it doesn't matter.
Lasts about a day, but whenthey eat it, they get six
spinosa. It lasts a little bit. Monger, gotcha. Okay, we'll
go that route. Thank you somuch. Yeah, good luck with that.
If you had been dealing with weedsin your lawn, and I bet
after last summer, with the lawnsstruggling in heat and drought, they've gotten

(02:13:09):
thin and wherever sunlight hits the soil, nature plants of weed. Well barricade.
Barricade by nitroposs is a pre emergentherbicide. You put it out,
follow the label rate. Trust meon this one. More is not better.
Follow the label rate. Watered inwith a half inch of water and
it goes in and forms a barricadeover the sole surface where you will get

(02:13:33):
forty five sixty days a protection againstweed seeds sprouting. And you're going to
find barricade at a task to seeto ace hardware up on tenver forests and
a task a sea. You're goingto find it at Lake Hardware. Don't
include You're going to find it atGem's Hardware in Montgomery on Liberty FM fourteen
ninety seven. It's easy to findand it works. Let's go to now

(02:13:56):
we're going to head to Magnolia andtalk to Cindy. Hello, Cindy,
nice, Kip, how are you? I'm good, I'm good. We
got a short time, but let'ssee we can get the question. Then
I'll come back and answer. Okay, it's a shafta daisy. I've purchased
it from loads over at to saveme shelf. They look about two of
them, looked like they were reallywilted. I brought them home, watered

(02:14:18):
them. They never picked back up. I'm assuming that they need to go
into a bigger pot, and I'mguessing that they're possibly root bound. What
do I need to do to besidesputting them in a bigger pot? Do
I need to loosen those roots.Do I need to cut some of those
roots down? What do I needto do with that? Well, initially

(02:14:39):
just keeping the sol moist. Ifthey don't perk up, there's been significant
damage and you may not be ableto bring them back. But I wouldn't
go messing with roots right now.I'd try to first get them to perk
up, then kind of loosen theroots up if it does that, and
get them planted. But I thinkthey may have gone a little too far.
There's a reason they're on that shelf. And uh, okay, yeah,

(02:15:01):
they've they've they've lived. I've hadthem for probably about a week and
a half and out water them.They've continued to live. They haven't died,
but they just never picked back up. All right, Well, let's
I'm gonna go to break here.Hang on, I'm gonna put you on
hold. We'll come back and we'llcontinue this discussion. Our phone number is
seven one three two one two fiftyeight seventy four. Let's give you a

(02:15:22):
little bit. I know you're justa bugging out there on cutting a rug.
Hey, welcome back to the Guardenline. Good to have you with us
today. Uh listen, if youare looking for a place to get these
products I'm talking about today. We'retalking about the fertilizers, we're talking about
the pesticides, we're talking about soilbased products and more. Ace Hardware is
it. It is fire ant season. You need to have fire ant bait

(02:15:43):
on hand. That is the bestway to go. Don't start with a
mound treatment. That's playing whack amole. You'd knock out one mound and
another one pops up somewhere else.When you use a bait treatment, it
gets all the mounds with foraging workers, which is all the mounds, and
if you escape, you always havea few escape. Nothing's one hundred percent.
That's when you go to an individualtreatment that's called the Texas two step.

(02:16:05):
There is the bait and then there'sthe individual mound treatment. ACE Hardware
has both of those. Just goin, do you need mosquito dunks or
other products for mosquitoes. Ace Hardware'sgot you covered. Go to the store
locator. If you go to acehardwaredot com and find the store locator,
it'll find the stor's near shoe.There's forty of them in the Houston area.

(02:16:26):
Makes it really easy to do.But ACE is the police where you
can find all of that and muchof course, much much more. We're
going to go now, let's see, I'm going to go to Cindy and
Magnolia. We were talking about Chestadai'sy'sright, Cindy, Yes, sir,
all right. I think what youneed to get is something called medina has
to grow six twelve six. Soit's got it's got a good phosphorus load

(02:16:52):
in there to help with the rootdevelopment. It has, it's loaded with
microbial activity that is going to helpthe root system. Apparently your plant is
hanging on in the ICU unit ofof your garden where it's being kept alive,
but it just can't quite turn thecorner. And I would get the

(02:17:13):
medina has to grow six twelve six, mix it according to the label,
drencher over it and if anything isgoing to be able to help it get
back on its feed or in thiscase of the roots, that would be
the one that would do it.And it's gonna be a little touch and
go here, because like I said, there's a reason those things get put
on that shelf. Okay, yousay it's the medina, what is it

(02:17:33):
has to grow six has to growsix twelve six. Any a hardware store
is going to have it. Thatprobably the you let's see where are you.
You're up in the Magnolia era.I'm close to arbor Gate, oh,
Arburgate, they may well have that. You would just I would just

(02:17:54):
go in and ask Beverly one ofthe folks there if they've got it.
And if they don't, you're probablygoing to need to run over to a
local ace hardware store or something alongthose lines. But I would check Arbrogate.
I think there's a good chance theywould have it. Okay, now,
Charvin, well, thank you somuch for your time. I appreciate
it. You bet, thank you. I appreciate that call a lot.

(02:18:16):
You know, Nature's Way Resources is, they're the ones that have the Fungal
Fridays where fungal based composts or tenpercent off if you want to buy it
by the bag, or twenty percentoff if you want to buy it by
the bulk. John Ferguson at Nature'sWay he has been making composts for a
long time. He's a soil scientist. He understands when we're talking about things

(02:18:37):
like roast soil and we're talking aboutthings like leaf mold, compost. He's
got that. He has a widevariety of products for whatever the situation is.
You just go in and tell themwhat you're wanting to grow and that
they'll give you the options. Youcan bring a trader over there and get
it. You can load up bagsin your car, you can drive around.
Some of the garden centers will carryNature's Way Resources as well, or

(02:19:00):
you can just call them and say, hey, deliver it. Deliver it
to where I live. Go tothe website Nature'sway Resources dot com or call
them at nine three six two seventhree twelve hundred nine three six two seven
three twelve hundred. Let's go overto Spring. Now we're going to talk
to Kevin. Hello, Kevin,Yeah, good morning, Good Morningney.

(02:19:24):
I'm briefly earlier I heard you talkingto someone about Zoie's Grasp. Yes,
and I've been looking at it.I've seen it on and off over the
years, you know, magazines ofthat type of thing, So I'm looking
for something a little. The onlythat bothers me the most is if,

(02:19:45):
first off, is it good forthis client? And secondly, how long
does it take to fill in?Got some large bare spots? Yeah,
three hundred and fifty square foot.The those eyes were a little bit slow
moving. Some of the new onesmove pretty fast compared to Saint Augustine.
Probably not as fast, but close. I I've I've got two different kinds

(02:20:09):
of Zuisia in different areas of myproperty, and I think they both are
going to do super super well.They're recently planted, but I've seen zoysias
through the years that just look superThey look really well. Palisades is one
of the kinds that has a littlebit of a broader leaf for zoysia.
If you're comparing it to Saint Augustine, the leaf blader are about a third

(02:20:30):
is wide as Saint Augustine, andthen there's some very fine texture ones.
Most people go with the broader leaftype of it's called palisades. Palisade is
one variety. There's a number ofthem. Does a matter if it's full
sound shade. It will take quitea bit of shade, not quite as
shade tolerant as Saint Augustine, butit will put up. I've seen it

(02:20:54):
sassa mountain tomball under some real talloak trees. It's almost solid shade covered
the yard, but it's very brightshade and it was looking Awesomelises is fun.
Don't don't get hung up though onjust having to find Palisades. I
mean, there's there's Jammer, Uh, there's al Toro. There's a lot
of cultivars out there. Palisades isthe one, uh that that I chose

(02:21:18):
to go with in my yard.But but it's not it's like you have
that one and this I was gonnaorder. If I did, I was
going to order the three inch plugs. Is that how you do it with
plugs? Well, you could dothat. That's quitty slow, that's pretty
slow. I would Uh can youcan? Oh? Yeah, you can
buy sod. That's the fast wayto go. Of course costs more to

(02:21:41):
wall. The wall said it,Uh, if you wanted to kind of
do something in between. I havebought grass pieces before, like sod pieces,
and taking them at chete and chopthem up into strips and plant them
about with you had probably been aboutten inches apart something like that. Begin
watering and fertilizing it to get itto close over. You're gonna have little

(02:22:03):
weed issues to deal with in thosebeare spots. But that that would be
one way to go. And ifI went, if I went the whole
sod. Do you know what itcosts per square foot? Roughly? I
do not, And it's going tovary between cultivars and the sources quite a
bit. Yeah, okay. Andthen the other thing, let's go real

(02:22:26):
quick quick so I can The otherthing is this particular at of the zois
at farms. It's there in Maryland. I mean you can buy it locally.
I understand from what you're saying.Don't mail order plugs. That is
the most expensive per square foot you'regoing to have. Don't do that.
Go local, find a good soil, find a sod supplier here and follow

(02:22:48):
that. Let me give you onemore website that I want you to go
to before you go out shopping.It's Aggie Turf Aggie Turf dot t a
m U Texas A and M Universitydot e d U Aggie Turf dot Tamou
dot e d U. Look underTexas turf Grasses. It's gonna be on

(02:23:09):
the bottom left. And go toZotzia and read about it, learn about
the types and they they'll have alist of varieties on that website that will
be helpful for you. Okay,okay, and spell our game real quick.
T uh aggie a g g IE turf at dot t a m

(02:23:30):
u m tamou dot e d u. All right, all right, Kevin,
thank you sir, Yes, sir, good luck with that. Hey,
when was the last time you're RCWNursery. I told you earlier.
They have got still got ten percentoff on their roses and they have the
selection like none other. Go tothe website r CW Nurseries dot com,

(02:23:52):
take a look at the list ofroses and then give them a call.
Make sure they've got it in becauseyou know there are other people, a
lot of people that are rose enthusiastshop at RCW because they know the quality
of what they have. You wantto give them a call, want to
make sure they've got what it isthat you're looking for. So they probably
still do, but I would justbe sure. I would give them call

(02:24:13):
just so you're absolutely sure. Noware you there? You're going to see
shrubs, You're going to see trees. I mean, they have excellent selection
on all kinds of things, includingthe products. The fertilizers that I talk
about on guardline and the root stimulatorsare things you might want to buy.
When you buy a woody ornamental likea shrub. The phone number two eight
one four four zero fifty one sixtyone two eight one four four zero five

(02:24:39):
to one six' one makes it reallyeasy RCW. By the way, they
are where Tombo Parkway Highway two fortynine comes into belt Wag eight, so
it makes it really easy to findthem and to get to them. You've
heard me talk about Southwest Fertilizer before. They're on corner of Busin and Runwick

(02:25:01):
and Southwest Fertilizer is the place togo for anything that you need to enhance
your plant growth, to control thethings that attack your plants, for the
tools you need. They even havea little repair shop in the back for
small engine. It's everything, andwhen I say that, I mean it.
You need to go there to seeit. Every fertilizer I talk about,

(02:25:24):
and more, every soil product.We're talking about insecticides to control pathts.
We're talking about fungicides to control disease. We're talking about herbicides to manage
weeds, pre emergent post emergent solidliquid. We're talking about the spreaders to
put out fertilizer. We're talking aboutseeds. We're talking about eighty foot wall
of tools everything. If Southwest Fertilizerdoesn't have it, you don't need it,

(02:25:48):
go to the website or just gobuy there. They're on the corner
of this and that and Runwick.The website is Southwest Fertilizer dot com.
Southwest Fertilizer dot com. I canguarantee you this. If you hear me
talk about a product on guardline.Southwest Fertilizer already has it. They already
have it. And if they don'thave something, I don't think that's ever
happened. But if they don't havesomething, they can sure find it and

(02:26:11):
get it for you. That's prettyimportant. For example, Sweet Green,
you know the fertilizer by Nitroposs I'vebeen talking about today. Eleven percent nitrogen
for an organic fertilizer. That's anincredible amount and it smells wonderful. It's
made from a molasses base with microbialactivity turning it into a good plant food.
Now Sweet Green, you put inthe back of the car and drive

(02:26:31):
around, you just want to keepdriving because it smells a good back there
with that molassa's base. Where doyou get Sweet Green? Well, you
can go to D and D Feedup there in Tomball, they're going to
fix you up with Sweet Green LakeHardware. In Angleton and Velasco, they're
going to have it. Fisher's Hardware. Over in Baytown they're going to have
Sweet Green as well. Easy tofind and you will like the way this

(02:26:54):
one works. It is a highquality fertilizer with a good nitrogen boost,
which is what our turf needs tohave success. I am gonna take a
little break here and we're gonna turnit over to Nicky and the News.
I want to remind you our phonenumber is seven one three two one two
five eight seven four seven one threetwo one two fifty eight seventy four.

(02:27:18):
You can give us a call,Josh, we'll get you on the board.
Don't forget that. I'm gonna beat M and D Ace Hardware on
Bay Area Boulevard today. That's Mand D Clear Lake on Bay and A
Bay and A Bay Area Boulevard today. I'll be there from eleven thirty to
one thirty answering your gardening questions.Come on and see me. Hey,
I'm gonna be giving away free bagsof nine to five super turf while we're

(02:27:41):
there. Welcome back to the gardenline. What do we want to talk
about today? Hey, this isour last hour of the morning. I'll
be back tomorrow morning six am toten am. But if you got any
questions now, it's time to callseven to one three two one two five
eight seven four listen to If youare looking at a landscape that took a

(02:28:01):
beating last year, or if you'rejust looking at landscape going, you know
it looks a little blah and Iwould like it to pop, Well,
call Jason at Peerscapes. I meanPierscapes. They have been doing this for
a long time. They've got designerson staff. I mean, you want
to go all out and really transformthe place. Nobody can do it like
they can. It is unbelievable thework that they do. Just trust me

(02:28:26):
on this, but go look atpierscapes dot com. Go to the website
peerscapes dot com. You will bestunned at the work that they can do.
Rock gardens, pathway, garden pathways, hardescapes, water feature, the
drainage issues. Do you have drainageissues where then they can fix that.
Do you have an irrigation system.I've been working on my irrigation system fixing

(02:28:48):
head head after head this last weekmisaligned night the right head. Whoever installed
it did it wrong. Piercescapes cando all that for you. And summer's
coming, you need to be readyto go. But listen, you need
to ask about their quarterly maintenance forbeds. They come out every quarter.
You sign up with a I wantyou to come out every quarter, they'll
come out. They'll do trimming andweeding and fertilizing. They'll check the irrigation

(02:29:11):
system. Now, if repairs areneeded, that's extra, but they'll look
it over, make sure things areworking right. They can do aeration and
seasonal color changes. Do you wantto see twice a year change in your
landscape color? Do you want itto be more quarterly change in your landscape
color. They'll do mulching of thebeds, making sure the mulch is maintained
so weed problems are less. Listen, they can do it all purescapes dot

(02:29:35):
com or write this phone number downgive them a call two eight one three
seven zero five zero six zero.And you need to understand this. A
good landscaper, someone who knows whatthey're doing, is going to be busy
right now, very busy, soit may be weeks, if not months
in advance, and some of thesefolks are booking out. Do not wait

(02:29:56):
around, get on the phone,make a call. Depending on the size
of you, your job and everything, you know they're going to get to
it. But you want to geton the books so that you can get
that work done because you're asking someonewho's a professional pierscapes to come on site
and really transform the place, andthat's what they specialize in. We're going
to head now to Terry and Montgomery. Hello Terry, Hi, Randy.

(02:30:20):
I have see la gust from bushesthat surround my house. They're like twenty
years old and they took a beatinglast year. But this year I noticed
the new growth is curling. Whyare the leaves curling? Tell me the
name of the plan again. It'slike the wax leaf. Yeah, yeah,

(02:30:41):
Is it the old leaves that arecurling or the new leaves? The
new leaves? Okay, first ofall, thanks for the compliment calling me
Randy. I take that as acompany. The leaves when they're new growth
curling on a shrub, it couldbe doesn't have to be. It could
be due to a broad leaf postemergent herbicide being used around the shrub,

(02:31:05):
or a sprayer being used on theshrub that once had one of those in
it. I'm saying that's the longshot, but I want to throw it
out there as a possibility. Waxleafs will do some leaf curling. It's
just kind of a stress related response. I've seen it. Usually when that's
the case, they just pull outof it and they seem to be fine
and not worried about it. WhatI'm gonna do, Terry, is as

(02:31:26):
we finish you, i'm gonna putyou on hold, and if you'll send
me some close up pictures showing mewhat you're seeing, I'll comment on it
further because maybe there's something I'm imaginingthat is not exactly what's happening right there.
Okay, Okay, so they hadbrown spot and I had to fix
that, and then now this.It just seems like I'm destined to lose
all of the I'm gonna lost aboutFulty bushes. Oh wow, Okay,

(02:31:50):
well it's not. It's not onmy top ten list of shrubs. For
sure. They'll waxually forgets. Okay, it has issues, and so but
let me take a look at itshow me the whole shrub group from a
distance, but then especially the closeups, and I'll be happy to comment.
I'm gonna put you can I haveyou because there's something I can just
like email them to you. That'swhat I'm going to put you on hold.

(02:32:15):
Josh is going to give you anemail that to send them to Just
hang on all right, Yeah,I appreciate that call. We're going to
go to St. Leone and talkto Rick. Hello, Rick, honey,
honey, I know the problem.I've been fighting these vines for ten
years and I'm now I'm trying tofigure out how to kill them. Okay,
do you know what goes on?Uh? No? But they put

(02:32:37):
it like a white flower out okay, and they just keep They're taking over
my trees. And I pulled fiveinches stick of vines out of my backyard
to try to get rid of themwhen I first moved in. Now they're
just coming all back. So Iwas wondering, as they're kind of poison
or anything I kill them with?Well, yeah, us, I kind

(02:33:01):
of like to figure out what theyare. It would be helpful. But
let me ask this. Does thevine kind of stay like a woody part
in the tree and then relief eachspring or does it die of the ground,
have to start all over from theground. O Oh no, it
grows all year round. Okay,what you need to get as a product
that contains trimech t r I mE C trime mech. It may on

(02:33:30):
a home garden market. It maybe called you know, brush killer or
poison ivy killer or something like that, but it kills brushy broad leaf weeds.
You don't want to get it ondesirable plants because it can kill those
two. But you just need toget on the lad So if it's if
it's like sometimes people will call andthey've got like a poison ivy going up

(02:33:52):
a tree trunk, and you justcut it there. You can just cut
the section of the of the ivyvine off and dab the cut surface with
the trimac and that'll do it.Or you can mix it up and spray
it on the foliage. But that'swhere you get into the danger of getting
it on something you don't want tokill. Well, it's so thick.

(02:34:13):
I don't have any grass anymore,so I'm trying to get rid of bry
and grow grass again. Let's dothis, rick I just want to make
sure I got the right kind ofidea here, because I'm trying to picture
what you have. Can I putyou on a hold and have Josh give
you my email address, and wouldyou send me some pictures of the whole
area and something really close and sharpfocus so I can see the leaves and

(02:34:35):
the flowers on this plant, andI may adjust my advice just a bit
based on CNA. See what's saidis the neighbor put a twenty five foot
tall fence up and now it's grownall up the fence, all the way
down mine through my yard. Ican't stop it. It's trying to grow
in the houses. Well, soundslike you got a little shop of horrors

(02:34:56):
going on over there. I do. I just need to hate them all
right. Well, for me tohelp you the best, let me send
me some pictures. I'll put youon hold right now and we'll take it.
You bet, Thank you very much. That is that is unusual?
Uh? You know, I'm goingto be giving away super turf. That
is the Nitrofoss product. It's asilver bag. It's a nineteen four to

(02:35:18):
ten. I'm giving away one everythirty minutes today. I'm going to be
out there at the uh Ace Hardwarestore. It is called M and D
clear Lake Ace Hardware. The Mand D Ace Hardware in clear Lake,
Texas. It's on Bay Area Boulevard, real close to NASA there. Come
out and see me. We're goingto be ever thirty minutes giving a bag

(02:35:39):
of that a way. If youaren't able to come out, or if
you don't win one, you needto buy one. That is an excellent
slow release gradual turf fertilizer to buildturf density. When you feed your lawn
properly, when you more regularly,when you water it adequately, you build
density and your weed problems go downhillfaster and faster by you creating a turf.

(02:36:01):
They just can't survive in very fewweeds. There are a few,
but very few that survive and thrivein a dense healthy Saint Augustine turf.
And super turf will create a superturf, a dense healthy Saint Augustine terf.
Night Fuss products available all over theplace, not hard to find those.
You can go a lot of differentplaces up in Montgomery. Jim's Hardware

(02:36:22):
they've got it up there. Youcan find it at a Task Sea to
ace. You can find it agrowers outlet up in Willis or shades of
Green or shades of Texas, excuseme, up in the woodlands. Easy
to find them. Let's take alittle break here. When I come back,
Charles, you will be the firstup. We're running out of time
today, so if you'd like togive us a call seven one three two

(02:36:43):
one two fifty eight seventy four.Welcome back to Guardline. Good to have
you with us today. Happy totalk about any kind of gardening questions you
might have. We're going to startoff by going to Spring, Texas and
talking to Charles. Hello, Charles, good morning you if you hear me,
okay, I can thank you,I can thank you. Good good.

(02:37:03):
Let's appreciate saying the call. Ijust had a quick question. I've
had some what I was told orcalled ferry circles and my grant in my
yard. They're about four feet diameter, about twelve inches wide, and they
just make the almost perfect circle.They popped up about a week or so
ago, and I got four orfive of them. Okay, wondering what
you might suggest. You're talking aboutlittle white mushroom, A little white mushroom,

(02:37:26):
Hey, well, I haven't seenit. Yes, sir, I
need to turn out radio down inthat round, okay, or maybe you're
on speakerphone that may be it.Well, I'm actually in the car.
Oh okay, okay, let melet me get hold on, let me
just get you off here a second. I'm sorry. Okay, Okay,
they're better. That's better. Soare they mushrooms that you're saying, Well,

(02:37:48):
I haven't seen any blooms yet ofany kind. It's just it's just
a little brown patch. It's justcircular. I think someone makes they could
be mushrooms with some combat. Idon't know. Well, we get fairy
rings, which are a it's afungus decomposing the thatch. So it's it's
not a bad organism, it's agood organism. But it makes you get

(02:38:11):
green circles that then little white mushroomspop up in them in the yard.
That's one thing. If you're seeingbrown circles, that's a disease called large
patch. Most people still call itbrown patch, the old name, uh,
And that is one that you canput a fungicide down to prevent it.
You know, once we hit thispoint in the season, it's going

(02:38:33):
to be warming up and the largepatch is going to be going away on
its own. Fungicide doesn't make browngrass green, it just prevents further infection,
so you kind of I don't knowthat it's worth doing a treatment for
it at this point. You certainlycan't. But it's one that we deal
with. If you go online,have two schedules online that are free to

(02:38:54):
download. It's at gardening with Skipdot com. Gardening with Skip dot com.
There's the lock care schedule, whichis fertilizing, mowing, watering your
lawn, and then there's everything thatgoes wrong with your lawn schedule. That's
the lawn pest disease and weed management. If you look on the disease line,
it tells you when to treat forlarge patch or brown patch, and

(02:39:18):
we're kind of passed that time rightnow. But in the fall October is
when you're probably going to see itresurface, if indeed that's the disease that
it is. Okay, okay,very good. Next, real quick question.
I know you got to go aboutthree four weeks ago, I put
some weed and feed in my yard, okay, and it had done a

(02:39:39):
whole lot. You mentioned something aboutsuper turf for some kind of stuff.
Yeah, wull be okay to putsomething like that on there now, Yeah,
sure, it absolutely would be.That's a nineteen four to ten.
It's a silver bag by Nitroposs andyou absolutely can't put it on now,
and that should give you a releaseof nutrients for the next two or three
months. Okay, that makes itvery good. I enjoy your show.

(02:40:03):
Thank you so much. Well,thank you, I appreciate I appreciate it
very much. Are you saying thatwe have a good day, Yes,
sir, you as well. Heyhave you been out to Nelson Watergarden?
Have you? Watergarden and Nursery?Actually, I should say that's out in
Katie, Texas. Just think ofit as your West Houston nursery. That's
an easy way. They have oneof a kind plants. They've got unbelievable

(02:40:24):
selection of some of the most beautifulcontainers I've ever seen. I really mean
that. They have fish, theyhave fountains. They specialize in helping you
create a beautiful space, so youcan you can go online sign up,
or you can go by there andtalk to them. First, you need
to go by because it's a showplace, walk through and look at all
the kinds of work they can do. It's all there on site. You
just like wandering through water wonderland whenyou go through that place. Nelsonwatergardens dot

(02:40:50):
com. That's the website. Thelocation, Katie Fort Benroad. Head out
to Katie, turn right on KatieFort Ben Road. If you're coming from
Houston, it's just a stone's throwaway up the street there and you can
really see. You can start small. They're a little container watergarden. It's
an easy way to start. Golook, go look at them. You'll

(02:41:11):
see what I'm talking about. They'rebeautiful. Do you want to create some
aquatic plants in a water garden?Maybe a waterfall? Do you want to
put some koi or goldfish or shabunka, all kinds of different things out there.
Just go and look and you'll seewhat I'm talking about. You can
do it yourself, you can hirethem to come out and do it.
They are experts. They're internationally knownexperts. Really, I mean these people

(02:41:35):
have been they've been setting the stagejust really the standard for water gardening for
a very very long time. Thecreators of that disappearing large container fountains that
just man, they're cool. They'rereally nice. Nelsonwatergarden dot com out and
Katie go check them out. You'llsee what I'm talking about. We're going

(02:41:58):
to go now to Spring and talkto Jamie. Hello Jamie. Hi,
Skip, Hey, I have myfront lawn. I know I've got some
areas that have thatch, and thenthere's some areas where I'm not sure if
I just need to replace the sad. I want to see if I can
send you some pictures. Yes,you sure can. I'm going to put

(02:42:18):
you on hole while we're done talking, but we'll take a look at it.
If you go out there and youwalk on your lawn and it feels
spongy because you're walking on a stackof runners that are cross crossing back and
forth underneath the lawn, that's thatch, and that's a sign you got to
do something about it. That's sponginessto it. That's one of the things.
But take some pictures, get upclose. Let me see some good,

(02:42:41):
sharp focused pictures, and we willbe happy to take a look.
Okay, love the show, Skip, thank you, Thank you, Jamie.
I' putting you on hole right now. Josh, we'll pick it up.
So just hang on. We're goingto go now to spring branch and
talk to Herda. Hello, Herda. Let me try that again. It
helps if I click on the rightbutton. How are you doing today?

(02:43:03):
Good morning, Skip, Good totalk to you. I have well.
My alo vera died. I don'tknow if it was the drought or what.
But anyway, a friend gave meanother one. But it was in
a little biggie pot and it didn'thand me drainage. It had one of

(02:43:26):
those faster things clipped to the bottomof the pot. But anyway I transplanted
it. The roots were all circledaround. I pulled them out. I
eat it. I got some advicefrom Southwest Fertilizer. But anyway, do
i've I've transplanted it into a muchlarger pot with lots of drainings at the

(02:43:52):
bottom. Do I feed it ordo I just let it take hold first,
let it kind of go, giveit a few weeks to just get
going. But there's no problem.If you want to go ahead and fertilize
it. You could use a liquidproduct, or you can put little granule.
Just to be real careful because ifit's a salt based synthetic fertilizer,
you don't want to dump a bunchof it in a pot, so you

(02:44:15):
sure would go with something that's aslower release. And Bob's got about five
or ten different kinds of slow releasefertilizer there. He can tell you that
that will gradually feed it over time. Alivera is not one that we have
to worry about fertilizing a lot,but it I love mine. Yeah,
it benefits from having adequate nutrients likeany plant. But yes, sir,

(02:44:35):
well, thank you so much forall your help. All right, heard
you take care appreciate it too.God BITEU. We have an alivera in
a pot ourselves, and I tellyou one thing it doesn't like is to
be kept too wet. And it'seasy, you know, you think you're
water and enough or whatever, butyou just got it. You got to

(02:44:58):
get on there and feel the soil. That's the way to tell. We
had a string of arrows plant thatmy wife's plant, actually, and I
go through and rescue plants when Ithink they need rescuing. Well, apparently
she'd been watering it and I wateredit also, and that created a little
bit of a problem that plant.She just did surgery on it and took
some cuttings to try to root them, and we're trying to bring the other

(02:45:22):
one back. But anything that's asucculent, anything that is able to survive
without a lot of water, youdefinitely don't want to put it in a
swamp and a pot that doesn't drain. You heard hers talking about putting it
in a pot with lots of drainage. Something else just to think about is
when a pot sits on the ground, oftentimes it'll almost like seal to the

(02:45:43):
clay soil underneath it, So ithas a hole, but it's essentially like
it's sat there so long it's killedwhatever was under it, and now the
clay of the ground is sealing thewhole. So make sure that it drains
well. Any kind of a containerif you want to have success. We're
going to go out of Matt inSpring, Texas. Hey Matt, we're
about out a time. But let'ssee if we can do it. Try

(02:46:05):
real quick. Just every year Ihave a battle with Virginia button weed,
and I I when it gets toohot. You can't put the ryside down
to kill it. Is there somethingyou can do to prevent it from coming
up? Well, you can theseeds. What's coming up from seeds.
Barricade that we talked about here fromNITROFOSSI will help with that, help prevent
new seeds from coming up. Butwhat you need, what you're going to

(02:46:26):
need to get, you've got existingbutton weed in your lawn. You need
to get a product called celsius,like the temperature celsius. Okay, and
you don't want to apply it whenit's one hundred degrees, but unlike other
products that we quit using when ithits about eighty upper eighties, Celsius you
can go into the low nineties andthey'll be just fine. Or apply it

(02:46:48):
early in the morning. You wantto do it now, right away.
You want to watch it because it'sgoing to take several applications over time to
knock that button weed out. Celsiais as good of a product as you're
going to be able to get todo that, but it is going to
take typically you don't get it allthe first time. Okay, super,

(02:47:11):
maybe we can prevent it from growingthis year. Yeah, and it's you
know wherever you live. I mean, you're up in Spring area. You've
got you've got some ace hardware storesthat probably will have it if you ask
them. To see if they haveit. If not, I know you
can get it down a Southwest fertilizerdown on Bismuth and rom Awesome. Yeah,
you bet. Good luck with thatall right way. Virginia button wheet

(02:47:33):
Virginia button weeds. That's off thephone here, but I hope you're still
listening. Virginia button weed and dollarweed are two weeds that tell you the
area is staying wetter than it needsto be. It may not be you
water, It may be the runoffor frequent rainfall, but it also may

(02:47:54):
be we're watering a lot too much. So that doesn't you know, cutting
back on water doesn't kill virgin buttonwe but overwatering makes it proliferate, and
it's like making it even harder foryou to have success. Well, I'm
about to head out here. We'regoing to go to M and DA's Hardware
in clear Lake on Barria Boulevard.I hope you'll come out and see me.

(02:48:16):
I'll start at eleven thirty am givingaway Nitroposford lunch