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April 27, 2024 • 163 mins
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(00:00):
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 Trim. Just watch himas we may give it. Please the

(00:27):
Supertzy gas Club again, not asign sun. Hey, good morning,
Welcome to Garden Line. It's greatto have you with us today. Congratulations.

(00:48):
If you are listening to this,you made it up. Maybe got
a cup of coffee or tea orwhatever it is. It helps you open
your eyes and we're gonna have agood d day day today. We actually
have a pretty some weekend here.I got a little rain forecast maybe,
but tomorrow today's gonna be a greatday. Look forward to getting outside today
and getting some gardening work done,making sure that we make I don't know,

(01:12):
let's just say, the right adjustmentsto our landscape. That would include
from fertilizing and the right rate,the right types of products. Right timing
always important. Putting in plants.This is a really important time to get
things planted for summer. We arestill in mild temperatures. It is not
bad yet and those of you beenhere for a year know that it can

(01:34):
get a little interesting when we getinto the brunt of summer. But by
planting now, you can make sureyour plants are well established. You know,
we have things that can take summerheat just fine. Venka, for
example. I prefer to call itMadagascar periwinkle because there is another plant called
vinca. But I guess there's anotherplant called periwinkle too, So there we

(01:57):
are. That's the deal with commonnames. But anyway, what most people
refer to as vinca super heat tolerant, and so many types of it now
they're just breeders have really done agreat job of coming up with some nice
twists on really an old plant.I remember growing up we had that in
flower beds in front of our house. I lived south a little further in

(02:22):
south central Texas, and we hadit in the front flower bed and it
would recede, and some of theplants would just survive year to year because
it didn't always get cold enough inthat protected area. But it's a great
plant, does super well. Angeloniasuper superflower for heat. Lots of types
of Angelonia, different heights. Gota nice little range of colors. We

(02:44):
can do the typical, the pink, the red, the white. There
is some purple, purple, lavendercolors and whatnot. It's just a good
plant. It's an excellent, outstandingplant. Really person lane Porto Laca and
Slain both very closely related. Theycan take the heat and they can also
take the drought and do really well. We could go on and on.

(03:07):
I mean there's shrubs, there's vines, there's all kinds of things. Get
them in now so that they havetime to establish roots. And once they've
established roots and the heat comes,these are plants that are tough and they
can take it. But don't delay. Go ahead and get them in.
Get some size on them. Youknow, you buy the little plants they're
pretty in the garden center, butyou want them to get bigger. You
want them to get to whatever sizethey're going to be so they look their

(03:29):
best. So whether you have sunor shade, there are plants that will
do wonderfully for you. Here inthe KTRH listening area, we have a
lot of great options. Makes itkind of nice. I'm go'na quit talking
for just a minute. By theway, I should give you a phone
number seven one three two one twoKTRH. We're going to go to Des

(03:50):
Moines, Iowa and talk to Dan. Hello, Dan, are you there
all right? I'll tell you what. I'm gonna put Dan on on hold
and we'll see if we can gethim back. That was interesting all the
way from Des Moines, Iowa.First thing in the morning. So I
was talking about cool, cool,heat tolerant plants, plants that can take

(04:15):
the heat. One thing to alwaysremember is even the toughest of plants need
a root system to be able tobe tough in heat and drought. And
a root system requires good soil.And we talk all the time about brown
stuff before green stuff, and sothat is that is one principle. But
it's also true if you're putting themin containers, you need to sew a

(04:38):
volume that is as much as prettymuch as much as you can really we
oftentimes, you know, plant anda little bit smaller containers, and that
container volume of soil is the entirearea that that plant can get water and
nutrients from. If we if wecan look at a larger area, a

(05:00):
larger pot, then we're able todraw from that larger area and the plants
are just better able to survive.And I'll talk about that more in a
minute, We're gonna go back tothe boy and talk to Dan. Hello,
Dan, we got you? Uhdid you? Is that for for

(05:21):
Dan? Yes? Dan, You'reit. You're on you Okay, No,
no, no, I don't.I'm actually over in the Beaumont area
now, okay, And when Iwas in the one the boy, I'll
tell you what. You could pullsome crops up there that are just crazy.
But over here, I'm having aproblem with some pill bugs. Okay,

(05:46):
how do I get rid of them? Well, let me ask you
this first. What are they doing? What is uh what? They're eating
my basil and uh some other uhsome stuff like cucumbers, but not as
much as the basil. Okay,well, yeah, typically they're not uh

(06:09):
they're not one of our big peststhat we have to deal with. They
feed on decaying organic matter. I'vegot a strawberry patch and the underside of
every strawberry that touches the ground.It's going to ben about pill bugs.
But there are baits that you canput out there that are for pill bugs,
and they're close relative called sow bugs, right and and other kinds of

(06:31):
critters. And I would just goto You've got you know, a couple
of great A hardware stores out therein your area. I would just probably
go over them and say, youknow, I need a bait for snails
and pill bugs and slugs and thingslike that, and they can get you.
They can get you fixed up withone. I have done some research

(06:53):
and I've seen that there was aproduct called slug O Pro. Yeah,
and I can't find it anywhere.I don't know Slugo Pro. There's a
Slugo Plus. I think could thatbe a that what what you saw?
That? Possibly? Yeah, slugSlugo plus gosh, if memory serves me

(07:14):
right, Slugo is basically an ironbased bait. It gives uh, it
gives a toxic amount of iron tothe pests that eats it. Uh.
Slugo Plus I'm pretty sure also hasspinosa in it, which is an insecticide
that also works. And so itjust it just spreads out the number of
things Slugo will work on. Butif you if you head over to you

(07:36):
got an M and D there onCollege Street in Beaumont, I would I
would try them talk to them they. I've been to Ace hardware stores many
times that had the Slugo Plus,So I don't know if you've tried that
one or not. But but butI would, but I would just go,
you know, just read the labelon anything like that, any kind

(07:56):
of a bait that they would have, and just make sure that it's sow
bugs or pill bugs are on thelevel, right, Yeah, okay,
you know they are crustaceans like crawfish, so you're in crawfish country. That's
right. This is just a crustacean. I don't think you want to eat
these, but who knows the sametaste? All right, Dad, thanks

(08:22):
a lot, appreciate your call.Yeah. Yeah, pillbugs you turn over
organic matter, and they are justeverywhere. I got mulches in my garden,
and whenever I pull the mulch back, it's like good night, there's
herds of pill bugs into there.I generally don't worry about them, but
yep, they can do some feedingon some things here and there. Just
so it wasn't want check too thatwhen you see an insect and then you

(08:43):
see damage, make sure that whatyou're the pest you're seeing is truly a
pest doing the damage. It's somethingelse and sneaking in there. Uh,
and it gets blamed on on somethingelse. Let's take a little break.
Our phone number is seven one threetwo two fifty eight seventy four. Welcome
back to the garden Line. Goodto have you with us today. Hey,
if you ever thought about having beesin the backyard to make your own

(09:05):
honey, to pollinate your own crops, if you will, you have fruit
trees, you've got vegetables perhaps,or you just enjoy being a support to
the pollinators that we have, becauseyou know how important that is. Well,
you can put bees in your backyardand the bee Supply can help you
do that. They specialize in thingslike that. They have classes for you.

(09:26):
You want to go in and learnall about it if you find out
it's for you, which I thinkyou will when you get the hands on
part. Their classes are excellent.By the way, they also have a
b rental program. Maybe you've gota piece of property five to twenty acres.
If you have five to twenty acresand you're within fifty miles of Dayton,
Texas, just to the north endeast of US and fifty miles of

(09:46):
that, they will come out.They do all the work, They set
up the bees, they tend tothe bees. It's a really good deal.
You can go to their website.Go to the website it's thebesupply dot
com and find out about the beerental program. They also have something that's
really cool and that is a leafcutter bee a little home for them.

(10:07):
It's little tubes that they live in. Leaf cutter bees are excellent pollinators and
you can bring those home to yourgarden as well, and the Bee Supply
can get you fixed up on that. It's just a great place to go
and if you ever want to getout there and do a little tour,
take some friends out. They've gotan observation hive that is so cool to
look at. You. If youhave kids or grandkids, they really need

(10:28):
to see this because is that itis that fascinating at thebesupply dot com.
If you want to go the websiteone more time, thebsupply dot Com.
I'm going to head to Sugarland nowand we're going to talk to Mike.
Hello Mike, Well, good morning, Skip Marni. I got a question
about the pH of my soil.How do I test it? And then

(10:52):
if it's high what do I use? And then if it's a low pH
what do I have? All Right, Why Mike, is your soil a
clay soil, a sandy soil,or something in between. It's primarily clay.
Okay, so I've done several popsoilapplications. My problem is, like

(11:13):
some green some of the grass bladesare light lime green as opposed to a
dark green, right, Okay,yeah, yeah, that could be a
little bit of an ron deficiency,but it also could be just well,
there's a variation depending on the numberof nutrients in the soil, including nitrogen
being the main one that helps drivethat green color. So as far as

(11:37):
how do you do that, Idon't know if you've been to my website
Gardening with Skip dot com and lookedat my lawn care schedule that's on there.
But if you go there to Gardeningwith Skip dot com, there's a
free lawn care schedule. You canlook at it on your computer or print
it out. There's also a lawnpest, disease and weed management schedule again

(11:58):
takes you from January way through December, tells you the problems you run into,
what to use for that, andhow to time it. But the
reason I bring it up is becauseon there is a live link to the
soil test lab at an M andthat is where you would find out your
pH. You just send a sampleup to them. There's a link right

(12:18):
to the form that you need onthere if you have a pen and want
to write it down. It's soiltesting dot T A m U, dot
ed U and they can tell yourpH. I can tell you this.
Chances are it's a little bit high. And if it's a clay, chances
are you're not going to move itmuch. It's difficult to make a high

(12:41):
pH clay more acidic. But whatyou can do for beds, garden beds,
vegetable beds, flower beds, youcan bring in a quality mix that
has a good pH and put iton top of the ground, mix it
in a little bit with your soiland just grow in that. That's the
best and easiest way to deal withit. Far as your lawn. You're
not gonna make your lawn a raisedbad so, but but grass is pretty

(13:05):
tolerant of pH. You may haveto use a little keylated iron or something
like that. But i'd start withfinding out what the pH is and at
the same time you're going to findout your nutrient content, and that's important.
Okay, what about some some havesaid, well, put some sulfur
down. Is that well, that'sthat is how you bring pH down.

(13:26):
But in a in a in aclay soil, the term is buffered.
The clay is so buffered that youjust add sulfur and add sulfur and add
sulfur, and it's hard to getthe pH to come down. Uh,
and so it's very difficult. Ifnot, I'll just say it's impractical to

(13:46):
try to bring a clay high pHclay down much in pH. And then
the final question is I'm considering goingto a professional long service. Do you
recommend them? I've done two applications. You know already they share so pretty

(14:07):
using or is there one we wouldrecommend down there? Yeah, in the
area, or well, what doyou think of them in general? Their
prices are pretty high, so theones you've been looking at, Yeah,
okay, Well, I generally don'tget into just the kind of the mow

(14:28):
and care for lun care services wedo. Well, you do have BnB
turf Pros down there and they'll dothe compost top dressing, which, by
the way, will be another wayto help your loan because it's getting the
compost down in the soil and theroots find it and they have access to
the nutrients. Maybe the high pHtends to lock up. But BnB turf
Pros down there, you'd have totalk to them about any other services and

(14:54):
whatnot that they that they might provide. I know that the website is Bbturfpros
dot com and sugar lens is oneof the areas that they service down down
where you are. So you're you'resaying, you know, if you can't
do it on your own, thenmaybe search out these professionals. I'm talking

(15:16):
to me. I'm not the mowingand the trimming. I'm talking fertilizing and
doing so past. Uh so,Yeah, I've never talked to them about
whether they do sell tests, butit's so easy for you to do that
yourself, just to send the samplein. But BB tur Pros would be
the one I would call. Theydo the compost, top dressing, they

(15:37):
do deep time erration. Now thosethose activities top dressing and neration are not
inexpensive, but you're making a significantdifference in the lawn. It's not just
like throwing fertilizer out there. It'sit's going beyond that. But you might
I would call them and just seebecause I think a lot of them.
In the way they do business.They really focus They only use products that

(15:58):
are quality. Then they focus onthe customer and making sure you're happy.
It's more of a relationship with them. It's not just like send me a
check and we'll show up ever sooften. It's I like the way they
do this. I would give ma call and talk to them about it,
and they could probably as you visitwith them. I think between the

(16:21):
two you work out, you know, some sort of a plan. And
so do you have a preference asto whether you should use granular or liquid
fertilizers? They both work, Theyboth work well granular. With granular you
can get some nice slow releases thatwill release over three or four months that

(16:44):
you're not going to be able toget that slow over release and a liquid
and I like that gradual feed overthe course of the summer. So I
would aim toward granular. But ifyou want to get out there and get
a nice green up, there's someexcellent products, including a new and I'll
be talking about in a little bithere from Medina that that's good. You
just put it on the end ofa hose and you can get it done

(17:06):
real quick. All right, soif I have a low pH, well
did you is there a certain thingyou want to put on your yard?
Well, then yes, I thinkthere's a ninety nine point nine percent chance
you don't have too low of apH that would need to be raised.
But lime lime is what is usedfor that. Oh okay, that'd start

(17:26):
with this old test. It's goingto tell your phosphorus, your magnesium,
your nitrogen, your potassium. It'sgoing to give you all the levels and
you'll be able to fertilize more accurately. All right, I'm gonna have to
thank you. I'm gonna have torun. Thank you very much. Good
luck to that lawn in good shape. Appreciate that. Yeah, you're talking

(17:47):
about slow release fertilizers. Nitrophos hasgot their superturf and that's the nineteen four
to ten, nineteen four ten.It's a silver bag. Makes it easy.
Just remember silver nitrophs nineteen four ten. Half the nitrogen is in a
slow release form. So it's goingto feed your lawn for several months.
Here, it's going to give youa nice gradual and also Mike's talking about

(18:07):
you know a little bit of asharp trouse color of green well, it's
going to give you more of aboost because it has the four percent iron
in it as well, and thatgives the nice green color on lawns that
are struggling because the pH is highand the iron is tied up. Nitrofoss

(18:27):
nineteen four to ten Super Turf's availablea lot of different places. You're gonna
find it at Gym's Hardware up inMontgomery. You're gonna find it at Lake
Hardware Inclute. You can find itin a lot of places. Ace hard
Ride and Sinco Ranch also carries theNitroposs Super Turf. We're going to head
now to let's see, we're headingto Greg and Hempstead. Hello Greg,

(18:49):
Hey, good morning, Skip.You've got a couple I've got a couple
of questions for you. The firstone is core aerating my yard. I
received the and doing a compost topdressing. I received a price for it.
I'm not saying the price is wrong, but the price is more than

(19:10):
I can more than I can biteoff at this time. Okay. My
question to you is if I doa plug aeriation and instead of using doing
the compost top dressing, could wouldthere be any benefits to doing something you
know, putting down something like Microlife'shummates instead of the top dressing. Well,

(19:33):
yeah, it's beneficial. The humatesare very beneficial. I don't It's
kind of a different thing than puttingdown the screen compost. You know,
they both have their benefits and advantagesand things. But the humates would be
fine. You know, you canbuy the compost for top dressing, a
screened leaf leaf composts. You canbite it by the bag, or you

(19:56):
can just have somebody dump it offthere and spread at your But are you
talking about using a like a littlestep on it push it down in the
yard aer rator? Are you talkingabout renting one? No? I was,
Yeah, I was going to eitherrent one or even even buy the
plug aerator to hook onto the back. I've got a small lawn tractor to

(20:18):
hook onto the back of it.And it wasn't going to be one of
the core Yeah, you know,one of the plug ones. But my
problem is I've got twenty I've gottwenty two to twenty three thousand square feet
a yard, and it's just alittle to put down the compost top dressings
a little bit more than this fiftysomething year older is able to do.
By himself at the twenty and again, I'm not saying the price I got

(20:47):
to do it is wrong or it'smore than at an expense, very expensive
equipment and hauling a lot of stuff. Well, you know, I maybe
I would just have my wife godo it be easier. I don't you
know the old Germans they used toget all their work done by this weather,
their friw. So I don't knowif that. Yeah, I know,

(21:10):
I grew up with the old Germans. So hey, I'm up against
a heardbreak, Mike. Good luckwith that. I gotta run, Thank
you very much, Yeah, thankyou, bye bye. All right,
it's time for Nicky in the newsour phone number seven one three two one
two fifty eight seventy four. Allright, no more, no more old
German jokes spouses. Oh gosh uh. I was talking about B and B

(21:36):
turf pros a minute ago, andI just I don't know if you guys
have heard me mentioned them before,but this is an outstanding outstanding organization.
They they they spend time with theirclientele, and it matters to them to
know you, to serve you,and to make sure you're happy with what
they do. They really go aboveand beyond to make that personal connection and

(21:59):
to ensure the satisfaction they do highquality work, their products or excellent.
In fact, they only use productsand companies that I trust. Here on
garden Line with a website. Ifyou are looking to have top Dressing Corporation
done, and you are down inthe south and east part, let's say
on the east end from Pearland onthe west end to sugar Land and from

(22:21):
Missouri City down to Fresno or Coola, Iowa colony, Manvil. This is
your company. It's Bbturfpros dot com. And the phone number if you'd like
to write this one down seven onethree two three four fifty five ninety eight.
I'm going to head out now tonorthwest Houston. We're going to talk
to Paula. Hello, Paula,Hi, good morning, good morning.
Okay, my Tameya. Problems keephappening. Now. I've got tomatoes with

(22:48):
green tomatoes with black bottom. I'vesent you a picture yesterday, Okay,
that is called blossom end rot andwell that's rot. I remember that.
Yeah, it's boss better. Andso what happens is it's usually due to
a moisture fluctuation. The disease iscaused by a lack of calcium to the

(23:12):
growing the tip of the tomato.When the cells there start, when they
don't get calcium, they start tocollapse and die, and then the rot
sets in behind them. So wesee it more often early in the season
than late because later in the seasonthe tomatoes root systems a little more extensive.
It's taking up nutrients. Well,chances are you've got enough calcium in

(23:34):
the soil, but a soil testwould help confirm that. But if you
can keep the moisture even it reallyhelps make that blossom indrot go away.
I have a feeling it's going toget better on its own. Are these
containers or the ground I don't Yeah, yeah, these are in the grow
boxes, so it's hard to keepthe moisture. I've held off on watering

(23:59):
because they seem to be pretty wet, so I haven't been filling those reservoir
Yeah. Uh, well, sothere's nothing. There's no way I can
add calcium, or well you could, but even if the calcium is there,
with the moisture fluctuation, you're goingto get blossomed. Okay, blossom
man. So, but I thinkgrow boxes have the reservoir underneath them,

(24:19):
right right, Yeah, well,yeah, you keep that full and it
ought to be. Okay, youcan put in, uh, some nutrients
in the soil if it truly ismissing. You can even make a kind
of a solution of some nutrients inthat water in the bottom from the take
it up something that does you know, that's all the nutrients in it,

(24:40):
or mix in the like liquid microlife. There are some liquid micros.
I'd have to check the label tosee if they have calcium in the particular
one you're you would be Oh,I'll look in the bottle and see.
Okay, check that regular Microlife's gonnahave some calcium in it, So you
could just use that too. Well, it's got microlife in there. It's
got mic life in this. Guy, leave my old composts. I don't

(25:03):
understand. Well, oh well,I don't know, but I still think
it's a matter of maybe the boxwater level. Yeah okay, yeah,
okay, so water thing. Youhave a minute to recap what you told
me about that limp to made upwhen I saw you at r c W
last Saturday. Oh okay, okay, Look it looks it's real limp and

(25:27):
it looks like it was dying,and you told me to look at the
roots to see if it if therewas any light, little nodules on it
or something. And I looked atthe roots and the roots look fine.
But recap again, what what youtold me to look for? A right,
we were looking for nots on theroots, which is nematodes, which

(25:47):
affects water getting okay, makes itwill huh. The other thing would be
a root rot. If the topof a plant is declining and you basically
pull it up and look at theroot system and the root system is further
declined, it's like it's rotting away. The problem started in the roots as
a root rot. If the rootslook fairly normal and healthy and you're just

(26:11):
getting wilting, then it's it's gonnabe a lack of moisture in the soil.
Okay, Okay, I'm writing allthis down this time, okay.
And then you told me that ifit does, to go ahead and cut
open that stem. Okay, yes, the last thing we look for.
The last thing is you slice thestem vertically, and this is this is

(26:33):
this is the you're performing the autopsyat this state, you slice it ethically,
and instead of healthy green with alittle creamy white inside the tomato stem.
You see streaks of brown like itwas an old stained cinaret filter,
but but streaks of it through there. That is another covering disease that came

(26:53):
from the soil, so that wefight with resistant varieties. Hey, Paul,
I got another guy on the linehere. I'm gonna all right,
you take care, appreciate that.We'll go to Jonathan and clearly Hello Jonathan.
Hey, good morning, sir.I have a question. I hope
it's an interesting question for you.I have a Saint Augustine lawn full Sun,

(27:14):
and I've been follow following the schedulefor twenty years. About six years
ago, we had a very largeoak tree that was in the middle of
this that we had removed and webrought in the special the correct soil,
and we did sod and it's beendoing great. Right where the tree was.
I'm realizing I'm having to water alot more than in other parts.

(27:40):
And we've done the top dressing.We did that a couple of years ago,
but we've never air rated. Sothis year I tried to air rate
and I'm noticing, of course nowthat I'm finding bits of root and things
about four inches under the ground rightwhere we're having to water a lot.
All right here, let me justcut to the chase on this one,

(28:02):
John, I think I know whatyou got. Whenever you do have a
tree and you take it out andstuff, you've got a lot of wood
in the soil. And that wooddoes a number of things. Number one,
initially ties up a little nitrogen asit decomposes. But you just it's
just going to be. It's justgoing to take time for it to settle

(28:22):
down and to decay away, andhaving to water a lot is maybe part
of that process, and there's nofix to it. Keep making sure that
it's kept moist, that you givegood fertilization to the grass is what's in
your power. But other than that, you know what is is and that's
wood in the all over in thesoil compared to the soil that you're lawn

(28:45):
in other areas is growing in.That's great. And then my question beyond
that was I had a bag ofrose soil and I just kind of sprinkled
it over top, thinking maybe Icould elevate the soil above those roots.
Is that bad idea? No,that's fine, that's fine. It may
be a little greener spot. ButI think that's what's within your all right,

(29:08):
man, thank you, thank youa lot. I appreciate that.
I appreciate that. If you're thinkingabout putting a tree in, by the
way, you need to get youa three sixty tree stabilizer. If you
put one in in the last fewmonths. Three sixty tree stabilizer holds that
tree, but it doesn't hold ittight. It holds it in a slightly

(29:29):
allows the slight amount of movement,and that allows it to establish well.
And when the tree moves, it'sgoing to strengthen the tissues in the trunk
and in the braceroots right there atthe bottom, it's going to strengthen those.
Now you can get a three sixtytree stabilizer at Buchanans and arbor Gate
Plants for all seasons carries them.RCW has them down and Alvin Jorge Hidden

(29:49):
Gardens has them in Southwest Fertilizer whereI'm going to be today, by the
way, I'm going to be there. I'll tell you about that in just
a bit. They have those aswell. But three sixty trees say there's
a quality product. It hooks rightto a t post or any kind of
post you put in and it workswell and it lasts well. I guess
we got to take another break here. Here we go. I'll be right

(30:11):
back seven one three two one twofifty eight seventy four. Welcome back to
Guardenline. Good to have you withus today. If you have not been
to RCW Nursery recently, you needto go. I was out there a
couple saturdas ago, I guess,and just always amazing the color they have,
it's just outstanding. The book andvillias are gorgeous. The roses,

(30:33):
by the way, they got it. They have a cell going on on
the roses. Ten percent off alltrees and roses. You got that right,
all trees and roses both. Now'sa great time to get them established.
You know, with RCW they growtheir own trees, and so they
grow things that belong here, thatgrow here, that'll do well here.
You can purchase a tree, oryou can have them come planet, which

(30:55):
I'd recommend the latter because they'll doa good job. Make sure it gets
established very very well for you,and that is really important. They also
have in celebration of Arbor Day,they've got all their beautiful arbors and all
the metal artwork for sale twenty percentoff. RCW Nurseries haven't been there before.
It's two forty nine, which isTomball Parkway where it comes into belt

(31:17):
Way eight. If they don't havesomething, I bet they can get it.
That's why we like to call themthe get it, Got It Nursery
because they are excellent at hunting somethingdown and getting it in for you,
and the selection is just outstanding.Check them out over at RCW yesterday I
was I was going around, stoppedin at Spring Creek Feed Sprint Creek Feed

(31:38):
is the feed starts up there onFM twenty nine seventy eights and Magnolia,
so kind of north and east totom Ball, not very far all away
from ground Parkway Highway to forty nine. Their selection is just still excellent.
In fact, he keeps getting better. They had plants outside. They had
all kinds of garden de core andstuff outside, but inside to find the

(32:00):
fertilizers, I recommend on garden line, you're going to find all kinds of
pest. I was surprised at theamount of different types of pest disease and
weed management products that they have.It is excellent and of course it's a
feed store. You're gonna get qualityfeed there. The store itself is cool.
I mean it's just beautiful, froma little home to core and bling

(32:22):
to everything you can imagine that youmight need for animals or in this case,
for your landscape and garden. AtSpring Creek Feed. You should get
by there and check them out.Not this coming week, but after that.
I've got to get out in myyard and get some more potting done.
I've got a number of plants thatare just waiting on me to show

(32:45):
up and move them from the containersthat they came in to the pots that
I have. I got some beautifulpots out there. We were talking about
the other day some my wife andI some things that we might move and
plant and where to put them andwhatnot. And you need a quality soil
when you do that. First ofall, you need a container that's large
because you need to hold a lotof soil so you can hold moisture and

(33:06):
nutrients in our brutal summers. Don'tstick them in a little tiny pot unless
you want to water them three timesa day trying to keep them alive.
So we need a large pot thathas drain holes. And then a quality
soil like jungle land. Jungle Landis the one you've heard me talk about
distributed by Nitrofoss. There's the outdoorflour and vegetable planting soil, and there's

(33:27):
the indoor water saving potting soil.That outdoor flour and vegetable that's the one
you use for all those plants outon the patio or wherever you've got your
containers sitting. You're going to findit in a lot of places, easy,
easy to find. Shades of Texas. Down in South Houston on Genoa
Red Bluff, some of you probablyknow that one. Well, Kingwood Ace
Hardware has got it. In theArbrogate up and Tumble, They've all got

(33:50):
the Nitrofoss products. That's a goodyou know, that whole line of products
is easy, easy to find,and it's widely, widely available, easy
to go. I love to govisit garden centers. That is one of
my favorite things in the world todo, to get out and to check
things out and you know, justkind of get a feel for what's new

(34:12):
and what's going on out there.And I Enchanted Gardens down in the Richmond
Rosenberg area is one of those destinationplaces you just you just love to go.
And it's because they have everything everythingyou can imagine. And I was
just looking at some things that theyhad available, and one of the cool
things they do is container plantings.You can get all you can get your

(34:37):
containers there. You can get allthe plants you need, you can get
the soils you need. And bythe way, they also have all the
fertilizers I recommend here on garden Line. But some of the combos they've put
together are just gorgeous and it justyou stare at them and there's things spilling
over the sides, there's things fillingin, there's things coming out of the
top. And when you use alarger container and make a multiplant, different

(35:00):
types of planting, different species ofplants all combined in a planting, it
is just really cool. And theyof course they have that there at Enchanted
Gardens as long as well as can'ttalk right now, as well as everything
else that you might need for yourplants. A cool new venka called tattoo
that you got to see that boy, that is a deep deep, deep

(35:22):
pink VCA really beautiful. Hey.Enchanted Gardens, by the way, is
on FM three point fifty nine.It's north of Richmond. So if you're
heading up Kiati direction full show direction, that is the way you go.
Enchanted Gardens Richmond dot com. Today'dbe a good day to get out there
and to check them out. Soanyway they say the cobblers' kids go barefoot,

(35:45):
and sometime at my house that isthe case, especially when I'm traveling
and off doing different kinds of things. And I'm ready looking forward to getting
back and getting some things in order. I've got a front flower bed that
we it's just plants have struggled thereand it is a nasty, sticky clay.
It's just a mess. There's claysthat are good clays and there's clays

(36:08):
that are just I don't know.They're not very conducive to plant growth,
for sure. And that's what Igot, and I need to put some
some amendment in there to fix itup. And what do you do?
Well, Expanded shale is important.That works very well on helping a clay
stay open. Takes about three inchesof shale on the top mixed in to

(36:29):
significantly do a good job, butany little amount is going to help a
little bit. Also, organic matter, you know, I think about places
like Nature's Way. Nature's Way ison I forty five north. They're right
where fourteen eighty eight comes in toInterstate forty five, just south of Conra.
You turn right across the tracks andyou're there. And Nature's Way,

(36:49):
for a long time, has ledin the creation of new quality product blends.
For example, the rose soil thatstarted at Nature's Way, the leaf
more compost that we talk about topdressing our lawns, but that started in
Nature's Way. Remember it. Nature'sWay. Every Friday is Fungal Friday.
Fungal based composts are ten percent offin the bags and twenty percent off in

(37:13):
the bulk, and you can givethem a call. By the way,
I always listen to the guard linewith a pen and paper. Here's a
phone number. Write it down.Nine three six three two one sixty nine
nine three six three two one sixnine nine zero. Nature's Way excellent source
of quality products to fix things likethat flower bed I got in front.

(37:36):
Before us stick my plants in it, I'm going to actually take my own
advice and take care of the brownstuff before I start putting in the green
stuff. We're going to head outto Paarland and visit with k now.
Hello, Okay, good morning,Skip, Thank you for taking my call.
I have a question. I wasjust inquiring about a fragrant plans,

(38:00):
particularly a climber if possible other thanjasmine, that would bloom at a different
time so it can have the fragrancemore frequently. Uh, something that would
bloom on through the There is gosha vine you want to vine? Well,
well, it could be of ourflower of Okay, well among our

(38:25):
fravorite fragrant plants in shade, avery bright shade white butterfly ginger is going
to be a late summer and fallbloomer that has a beautiful gardena like fragrance.
The almond verbinam saying that right,Alma verbina aloisia. It's a it's
a shrub slash. It's not atree, but it's a very lanky,

(38:46):
big shrub that has an unbelievable vanillafragrance that just wafts through the air.
It's one of the more fragrant.There's night blooming plants that have that kind
of fragrance as well. Let's seewhat else A vine ladybanks, the white

(39:06):
lady banks in the spring. It'sa once Bloomer, that's going to have
a nice fragrance for you. ConfederateJasmine. Uh, that that is a
good one. It just its fragranceis outstanding. That'd be another one.
So those are a few that cometo mind. Oh that sounds that's great,
great choice. I appreciate it,all right. And then finally,
don't forget don't forget angels trump ator brug Mancia. Uh that late in

(39:30):
the day it releases its fragrance.So it gets one and put it in
a big giant container on your patioso you can enjoy. Angels trumpet is
kind of poisonous. Though you're thinkingof Datura. I'm talking about one the
flowers hang down like trumpets hanging fromheaven. That's where it gets to.
Yeah, that's the one I wasthinking of too, that i'd heard from
other people. Yes, I heartheir music. You gotta go. Thank

(39:52):
you so much for taking my blessedday. Thank you, bye bye.
Appreciate your call. Hey, guesswhere I'm gonna be today and where I
hope you will show up. SouthwestFertilizer. Southwest Fertilizer in the corner of
Byssinet and Runwick I'm going to begiving listening to this. I'm gonna give
away skip Bucks. So you comeout there, you stop at my table

(40:13):
and ask a question. I'll giveyou skip Bucks, which is a very
valuable uh dollar value. You cango and purchase stuff with Medina product.
We're gonna have Toro blower and aToro string tremor. Listen, you don't
want to miss this. Kat rH Garden Line does not necessarily endorse any
of the products or services advertised onthis program. Welcome to kt r H

(40:36):
Garden Line with Skip Rictor. It'sso crazy, Trim just watch him as
world. Give a tea the suptTasy not a side. Hey, welcome

(41:06):
back to Guarden Line. Good dayhave you with us today? Got some
light outside, I see clouds.But listen, this is gonna be a
good day. It's gonna be agood day to get out and get things
done. These clouds are just let'sjust say that, a're making it a
little cooler for you to get outsideand work. We'll look at the upside
of that. We're not looking toget a lot of rain out of them
today. So I hope you're makingplans to get out and do some shopping,

(41:29):
get out and do some yard work, whatever you need to get done
around your place. What have younever grown before? What have you never
tried to grow before? Have youhave you never tried to grow vegetables?
Have you never tried to grow aplumeria? Have you ever created a terraria?
Remember those those are really popular backyears and years ago. They still

(41:50):
are. What what have you nevertried to do before? Something just off
off the top, hanging baskets,beautiful hanging basket areas. Do you have
some areas of your law in landscapethat needs some work and need some renovation.
Maybe a shade that is so deepthat it just you just don't even
notice it. It's like you've sortof lost that area from an esthetic standpoint

(42:12):
on your property. There are thingsthat will grow there. Why to tackle
one of those things this year?If you've never tried it before, if
you have kids around the house,I really hope you will try vegetable gardening
because when we grow it, we'remore likely to eat it, and when
we eat it, we're more likelyto have good, long, healthy lives.
You know, our number one healthproblem is what goes into our mouth

(42:36):
and the fact that we like tosit on the couch. Those kinds of
things are big deals, and wecan set kids off to a different kind
of lifestyle than that by getting outwith us in the garden, by enjoying
growing things, whether it's flowers orvegetables. You know, have them grow
some cut flowers, and they cantake them and give them to to give
them to teachers at school, givethem to friends, give them to family,

(42:59):
grandma, who who ever. Itjust gets them involved in nature,
and nature has a positive effect onus. There's research a mile high on
the effects on us mentally, theeffects things like ADHD with kids, the
things with performance on tests, forexample, exposure to nature, exposure to

(43:22):
plants has an effect on that.It does. I just believe that we
were made to be engaged with theliving world around us, and here we
are. We're gardeners. We've gotthe easy way in. I hope you'll
try something new this year, tacklesomething. If you got a question,
a problem you've been dealing with,give me a call seven one three,

(43:44):
two, one two fifty eight seventyfour one of those problem areas. Maybe
we can kind of help resolve that. You know, the best time to
plant a tree was what forty yearsago. Second best time is today today.
The folks at Verdant Tree Farm packand the team there. They grow
quality trees and they grow trees ofall sizes. I mean you can get

(44:06):
trees up to seven hundred gallon size, so I mean that's almost like it
ought to come with a hammock,right, I mean, if it's going
to be that size, that isawesome. They grow palm trees. Their
selection of palms is excellent. Andhere's the deal. They plant them and
then when they plant them, theywill give you a one year warranty with
that installation because they know how todo it right. They've been doing this

(44:30):
a while. Patrick's been doing ita while. If they really serve the
community, you know, if youwere a first responder or a military farmer
military current military, ten percent discountfor those as well, and I appreciate
them doing that. They'll do freeoffice consultation. You come in, bring
them a picture, say hey,I'm looking for and you fill in the

(44:51):
blank. Talk to them. They'llget you set up. It's easy to
find one because there's three Verdant TreeFarms. There's one on Barker, Cypress
and West Houston. There's one downBroadway Street in Parland, and there's one
in the Heights where I ten andYelle Street come together. Verdant Treefarm dot
com. By the way, theyalso have very large shrubs, like certain

(45:12):
kinds of hollies that you might wantto use for a screen. They can
get you fixed up on that aswell. Someone was making a comment to
me the other day about how muchthey liked the smell of sweet Green fertilizer.
Not normally the people walk up,you know, it's like, Hey,
I love the smell of fertilizer,but I understand what they're talking about.

(45:36):
It's a molasses based fertilizer from nitrophossand my crobes work on the molasses
base and through magic, they turnit into an eleven percent nitrogen fertilizer that
you can put out there on yourlawn. It dissolves away and a sugar
based carbohydrate and molasses that substance isjust rocket fuel for beneficial bacteria in the

(46:01):
soil. It's just a it's justa quality blend. It really works super
well and it will green up yourlawn and you see a nice benefit from
it. And it is widely available, you know, You're going to find
it all kinds of places. SweetGreen, kingwoob Ace Hardware, for example,
they're going to have that product.You can go down to Angleton to

(46:22):
Lake Hardware down there they're going tohave it, or over in Baytown Fisher's
Hardware they're going to carry it aswell. Over there. It's easy to
easy to find nitropost products that arevery widely available. You ought to try
this Sweet Green. I think thatyou'll be very impressed. Eleven percent is
one of the highest analyzes for anorganic plant food that you're going to find.

(46:45):
Not every day someone walks up andsays, hey, I like the
smell of fertilizer. This fertilizer.I was at the Arbigate a while back,
and in fact, I posted somethingto Facebook, to our Facebook,
our garden Line Facebook page, whichyou should follow if you don't already,
about the parking lot in the back. You know, I keep talking about

(47:05):
it and I want you to seeit. It's this all weather parking lot
where it's got a grid, likea plastic honeycomb looking grid with rock that's
inside of it, and so whenrain hits it, it goes right through
it. It just absorbs water.So there's never muddy out there. I
mean, you drive in any kindof weather and you have this all weather

(47:27):
surface. You have to turn downTrishel Road, which goes around behind Arburgate.
So if you pass Arburgate and youhaven't seen Trischel, keep going,
but look better because you're going tosee the other end of Trish'll come back
in. Just drive around behind Arbrogateand you get right in there. And
you know Arburgate always has quality products. There're one two three completely easy system
is just an outstanding, an outstandingcombination for making your plants happy. I

(47:53):
always say on Guardline, brown stuffbefore green stuff. The one two three
easy system is brownst You know,it's got a food for anything that has
roots with calcium added too, bythe way. Uh, it's got a
compost that has expanded shale in it. And it also has a soil,
a soil blend that has expanded shalein it. So it's one two three

(48:16):
easy. You take those three bagshome with your plant. Your plant's going
to be happy, the roots aregoing to be happy, it's going to
thrive. That's why Beverly and theyou know Arbrogate, that's why they have
that system. Because they want youto take their beautiful plants home and have
success with them. And they knowthat by getting those products in your hand,

(48:36):
you're going to have success. Arbrogate'son twenty nine to twenty just west
of tom Ball. It's easy tofind. Check them out on social media
too. They got some excellent postsall the time going on up there.
We're gonna take a little quick breakhere. Our phone number is seven one
three two one two fifty eight seventyfour. Welcome back to Guarden Line.
Good to have you with us today. What are we going to talk about?

(48:59):
Well, you have to tell me. Well, and if I don't
hear from you, I'll tell you. I'll tell you what I want to
talk about. Seven one three twoone two k t r H. Seven
one three two one two k tr H. You may have heard Nicky
during the news earlier talk about thefact that there is a holiday or tax
holiday when it this weekend. Whenit comes to things that are emergency,

(49:23):
you know, emergency type items,and I can't go through the whole list
of what's available. You can goto the Texas Controller website and see But
if you've been looking to purchase someof these items. ACE Hardware Store is
a great place to do it.And while you're at ACE, here here
is a huge deal going on atACE. At two day, thirty two

(49:43):
participating ACE Hardware stores, thirty twodifferent stores will honor a sale on Still
equipment Still power equipment. It's calledthe ACE Big Still Sale. Still is
a quality brand of power equipment.They're going to give you fifteen percent off,
and even if the item was onsale, it's still a fifteen percent

(50:04):
off. I mean, you cannotbeat that if you've looked to get any
quality equipment for doing all of thedifferent things around. You know, we
got weed eaters and everything else thatstill provides chainsaws and whatnot. Now's the
time to do it, because you'renot going to do better than a fifteen
percent off sale. You can goto your local ACE Hardware store. If

(50:25):
you don't know where ACE Hardware storeis, well, go to ACE Hardware
dot com and find the store locatorand it'll tell you. In fact,
when I sign into Acehardware dot Com, it always says can I use your
location? And I say yes,and I get this big map of red
dots all over the Greater Houston area. Forty different stores in the extended Greater
Houston area. Thirty two stores thougharound here are doing that still sale today.

(50:49):
The ACE big still sale take advantageof that, and while you're in
there, ask them about what qualifiesfor emergency supplies. They're like, whether
I can go into it. Butthere's a bunch of different things that qualify,
and you can say you won't haveto pay tax on those items as
well. I got two birds withone stone. Let's go to Cypress.
We're going to talk to Eric.Hello. Eric, Hey, Skip,

(51:15):
I got a question for you abouta really terrible looking lawn. I've been
skimpy on chemicals in the backyard fora few years, I guess because the
pets, grandkids, and guess whatlanded in my yard this year And I
didn't really realize it until it wastoo late. Burweed is everywhere, and

(51:39):
you can't walk on a yard withburweed. Yeah it hurts. I'll start
digging it up. But then I'velooked at some of the possible chemicals like
atrazine. I don't know how toxicthat is in the back how long it
takes to get it away, andif it harms the tree. Because I

(52:00):
had an arborist out of a whileback, and he said, don't use
around up on the yard, thekind that's for lawns, and don't use
a lot of things because it killsthe microbes that the trees need. So
I'm a little bit of a quandaryas to what to put down for the
grass, and then now what todo with the with this spur weed.
I've considered residing, and I knowthat would cost it a small fortune and

(52:24):
be a backbreaker. So I justcalling for your thoughts. Let's drill down
on this. I just want tomake sure that I've got the right weed
with you. It's not grass burr. You're talking about a little frilly leafed
broad leaf plant that has the burrson it. Is that correct? Yeah?
Kind of. It's low, itstays low, so it doesn't hardly
cut very easily. You got todig that out. And boy, they

(52:45):
right, and they're everywhere because Isaw that where they like sparse grass,
and mine is sparse, so it'smoved in anytime sunlight hits The sell nature
plants of weeds. So the densityof your lawn is like the bodyguard that
either does or does not let weedsinto your lawn. And that's kind of
what you described at the beginning ofthe call. So your number one goal

(53:07):
is to go to my website,Gardening with Skip dot com and get my
free download lawn care guide. Itties you how to mow, water and
fertilize properly and the timing on thosethings. And the more you build the
lawn over time, the less weedproblems you're going to have. Like burweed,
for example, there are a fewweeds that can coexist in a dense

(53:28):
Saint Augustine lawn. Most of themcan't. And so I would say I
kind of hear from you you'd rathernot use chemicals if possible, but whatever.
So that mowwater, fertilized fact sheetor chart calendar is very very important.
Do that all summer long. Now, as far as what to do

(53:50):
about the burweed, now you wouldhave to use a post emergent broad leaf
weed killer, but you're not goingto put it down at a rate that
would inch through the soil or harma tree or something like that. You're
going to apply it just enough todampen the leaves of the weeds, and
once you do that, it's goingto kill the weeds back. And then

(54:12):
as the grass begins to grow.It's not like your long stays toxic for
months, you know, or anything. It's not going to be an issue
there. Just just follow the labelcarefully. These products that work best when
it gets in the upper eighties,they begin to be stressful to Saint Augustine.
So we're right now in temperatures thatare hitting the upper eighties. But

(54:37):
if you do it in the morningand let them dry up before the temperatures
get up there, you're okay.Still. If you wait another month or
so, then we're looking at thenineties and it's already hot first thing in
the morning, and so I wouldget it done now rather than later.
If you're going to do those sprays, yeah, and so yeah, go

(54:58):
ahead. So I don't have awhole of Saint Augustine to worry about in
the back. You could do inthe front. I haven't seen the birweed
in the front yet. But whatis the chemical that you would recommend putting
down on that? And I'm guessingI need to kill it and then dig
it up still because those birds don'tdisappear. I mean the plant might die,
but yeah, but well, ifyou're going to dig it up anyway,

(55:21):
then I wouldn't spray it. Ijust dig it up. But that
is one heck of a job diggingup burweed all over a lawn. If
you're up to that, then gofor it, but don't don't spray it
and then dig it up. Youjust got to determine that you are going
to get the densest Saint Augustine anyone'sever seen by the end of summer,
and you can do that with withthat mollwater fertilized with quality products, and

(55:44):
I would that's what I would aimfor. There are pre emergent herbicides that
you would put out in this earlylike February for the burweed. But let's
just work on getting the lawn dnseand seeing how far we can it there.
And getting the burweed out is helpfulbecause it is a competition for your

(56:05):
grass. Now that it's found thislittle niche in the spots in the lawn
where sunlight hit the soil. Youdecide the way you want to go about
it, you know, from handpulling to spraying to whatnot. But the
simplest, least spray way I cantell you to do it is maybe hit
them now with the spray to killthe ones that are there. But then

(56:27):
just really focus on that mowater fertilizedand what's fertilizer called again? Say it
again? What the name of yourfertilizer that you're talking about. Oh,
there's a number of them on myschedule. You hear me talk about them
on garden Line. You know,there's products from Microlife, there's products from
Nelson's, there's products from nitrofoss andfrom Medina and they all work. They're

(56:51):
all good products. They work.They're different, you know, some are
immediate release, some are slow release. But when you look at my schedule
at Gardening with Skip, it listsall of the products there and it talks
about when to apply them. Andso that that's why I'm trying to send
you there. Because it's free.You just download it, print it up
if you want. And when whena yard is bad enough, I mean,

(57:13):
do you at some point you gotto say there's nothing there to redeem.
I mean talk about residing a littlebit. I know that's okay,
I'm gonna have to I'll do thisin a real quick way because I have
to run on. But if youhave grass that's alive, that's in decent
health within a foot space apart.It will cover back over by by summery,

(57:37):
you know, through the sometime inthe summer with good care. If
if it's more sparse than that andyou got larger areas, either you're having
to plug in strips here and thereto try to speed the fill in,
or you just go to the totalresaid and it is money. But sometimes
biting the bullet and just starting offthat way maybe easier. Unless you have

(57:59):
the time to it out and kindof mess with your lawn each week,
a couple of days a week doingsome things, it may be easier to
just go to the reside. Butthat you have any recommendations for reside companies
are places to buy it. There'sa number of places around town. I
don't have a specific one that Iwould recommend. I would do a little
research on what kind of grass youwant, and what variety of grass you

(58:21):
want, what cultivar. Saint Augustineit is the most shade tolerant that we
have. There are zoisias that aremoderate close in shade tolerance, but not
as good as Saint Augustine. Andthen I wouldn't even do Bermuda. It
has its own issues. It's justa version of St. Augustine. There's

(58:43):
a couple of different breeds of itor whatever. There's a lot of them,
and some of them are hard tohard to find. I tell you
what. Let me let me dothis. If you go to the Aggie
turf website, I'm concerned. I'mon time here. If you go Aggie
Turf website, it's it's Aggie turfdot TAMU t A m U dot e

(59:06):
d U go to text turf grassesbeing the lower left corner says it has
turf grass, weeds and turf grass'sby the way, you should look at
the weed part two. Uh andand it'll list like you click on Saint
Augustine or click on Zoisia and it'lltell you cultivars and stuff. Now that's
not the most up to date list, you know, websites have to get
updated periodically, but that's a goodstart. Uh And And I I would

(59:30):
I would try that. Depending onhow much shade you have, and depending
on uh some other factors, onevariety or another would be better suited to
your lawn. Okay, okay,I appreciate you, all right, you
bet, Eric, thank you verymuch for that call. You know we're
talking about fertilizing and things. Microlife. Micro Life products are excellent. You

(59:52):
know, Eric was kind of interestedmaybe and stand away from some things that
are synthetic. Well that that's God'sfine. That's that's your prerogative. By
the way, my schedules, bothof them online, have organic and synthetic
options, so you choose what youwant. They're there. We help you
have success based on the way youwant to go about it. And Microlife

(01:00:13):
is an organic product. The greenbag the six two four that is the
standard lawn fertilized standard organic lawn fertilizer, and I use it for things way
beyond the lawn. I mean,it's an excellent product. The Microlife humts
plus C zero four helps with yoursoil structure. Humate is concentrated compost.
If you take composts to its finalstage, that's called humus, and humates

(01:00:37):
plus is a high quality soil amendmentthat you can put on the surface in
your lawn and in time, asyou do that and the lawn grows,
you just create an environment where grasscan thrive. And that's that's what we're
looking for. If you go toMicrolifefertilizer DOT com Microlife Fertilizer dot com.
You can find out where to getit, and it's widely, widely available.

(01:00:58):
I mean you hear me talking aboutfeed stores and ace hardware stores of
Southwest Fertilizer, and you know allthese places are going to carry micro Life.
It's easy, easy to find.Well, we just ran through another
break Nikki. This morning is goingtwo dead gum fasts. It is really
I don't have time to talk aboutall the things I want to talk about.

(01:01:19):
And humus is that like hummus butdifferent. It's like hummus for the
soil. Oh No, humus islike okay, so you start with the
leaves and grass clippings, that's organicmatter. It decomposes into composts. That's
the good stuff to put in yoursoil. And when composts decomposes all the
way as far as it can,that's humus. Wow, I don't love

(01:01:42):
the education. Maybe we need tomix it up and put it in a
little one pint tens and I don'tknow, maybe keep you regular or something
like that idea. Sure, I'mjust saying I never heard about anybody eating
hummus, but humus all right,I'm past sorry. Hey, welcome back
to the garden Line. Good tohave you with us today. You hear

(01:02:05):
me all the time brag about ourindependent garden centers here in the Houston area.
I'm just telling you, if youlive in any other city here in
Texas and a lot of I've beento a lot of cities around the country,
nobody has got this selection of gardencenters that we do, the top
notch independent mom and pop whatever youwant to call them garden centers. And

(01:02:29):
Warren Southern Gardens out in Kingwood isan example of that. You know that
you've got Warren Southern Gardens and yougot Kingwood Garden Center out there. It
is just one of those places whereyou go and you just want to hang
out, You want to wander aroundbecause they have so many cool things.
By the way, they've got adeal right now that whether you buy a
bag of Nelson's Turf Star Slow andEasy or Nitrofoss Super Turf, either one,

(01:02:52):
they'll give you a free tempon bagof a barricade for the pre murder
week control. That is a dealthey got going on out there also.
And they have a selection of plants, outstanding hibiscus, outstanding color anything you're
looking for, you're going to findit out there. But there is a
plant that I hadn't seen in along time, and it's blue butterfly clarodendron.

(01:03:15):
And you've got to see this plant. It's a shrub, but it
has a little clusters of little blueflowers that look like butterflies. The petals
look like butterfly wings, and theanthers and filaments, the pollen and everything.
The reproductive part of the flower comingup look like the antenna of a
butterfly. Blue butterfly clarodendum. Justgo out there and see it. It

(01:03:37):
is an excellent plant. I liketo put it in a kind of a
semi sun area where it gets alittle sun, a little bit of shade.
It does super super well there,Blue butterfly Clara dendum. But that's
just typical of woring Southern gardens.Of course you're going to have new things.
Of course you're going to have coolthings going on, and they always
have some great deals going on too. You can go to the website it's

(01:04:00):
Warrens Southern Gardens Warrens Southern Gardens.So you know, I've I've been there
a number of times. By theway, they're open seven days a week
too. That's another thing. Imean, it's always a good day to
go out there to Warren Southern Guardsand a Kingwood Garden Center. While you're
at it, well, guess whatMother's Day is coming up? I hope

(01:04:23):
you know that. Guys, thisis your official You've been told, you've
been minded, you've been remembered.Mother's Day is coming up, and so
what do you do for mom onMother's Day? Well, there's a lot
of things. Of course, peoplethink of flowers or box of chocolates or
whatnot. I'll tell you what momwould really like. Mom would like something
from Wabirds Unlimited. Because at Wabirdseverything you can imagine that associates with birds.

(01:04:49):
They're gonna have it. They're gonnahave feeders, they're gonna have the
bird houses. You know. They'vegot the little hyper hummingbird feeder, which
in my opinion, is the besthummingbird there is. I've got one myself,
high perch hummingbird feeder. They gotthe Eco Tough Classic feeder. It's
the typical if you kind of picturea bird feeder in your mind, it's
probably what you're picturing, but it'smade out of recycled plastic milk jugs.

(01:05:14):
Really cool. My favorite feeder thesquirrel proof. It's called the Eliminator squirrel
Proof feeder. That is a Cadillacand it works. I'm telling you the
squirrels at my house. You shouldhear the language they use around the yard
because they can't get into the darnthing. They're very frustrated. There's books,
there's just all kinds of things atWildbirds Unlimited, including even like jewelry

(01:05:39):
and decorations for the home, andbird baths, bird bath, bird water
feature for birds. Right, they'vegot it. Wilbird's unlimited and super super
quality feed where when you buy apound of wild Bird feed, you're getting
a pound of stuff that's going togo into the stomach of a bird,
not kicked off on the ground.Super high quality. That's what they do

(01:06:02):
wild Bird's Unlimited. So get bythere, now, get mom something.
I guarantee you can find something fromMom there. We're going to head now
out to Mike in Surfside. Hey, Mike, Hey, Skip, thanks
for taking my call. I gota quick question for him trying to store
some vegetable seeds and I was wonderingif by refrigerating them and just a normal

(01:06:26):
refrigerator. Would that extend the lifeof the seed or are they just better
off at room temperature? No,significantly better when you cool them down.
You know, when people are wantto store seed forever, they put them
in the freezer, right, Buta refrigerator for our home garden purposes or
refrigerators just find you just need themto be dry, make sure they're dropping.
That's why you know, whenever Ibuy something you get those little desecon

(01:06:49):
packets in it. I always savethose because I throw those in with my
seed and that's pulling moisture out ofthe air. In cold storage, you
need something that seals tightly, notas I but like a Mason jar with
a lid, or one of thoseclick down food storage jars that has a
rubber seal. Yeah, yeah,plan on using the Mason jar ceiling deal.

(01:07:12):
I'll figured the refrigeration would probably helpextend the life of the seed.
That wasn't quite sure it does significantly. All right, I appreciate you helping
me. All right, take care, Thanks, Mike, appreciate your call.
That is for sure. I've toldyou about the silver bag. You
know what the silver bag is that'sNitrophoss's superturf. Superturf, it's nineteen four

(01:07:35):
ten. It's got a lot ofnitrogen in it. But don't worry about
that. You're not. We don'twant to overdo nitrogen, but you don't
when you put on superturf. Andhere's why. Half of that nitrogen is
in a slow release form that's goingto release over the next two or three
or four months. I mean,it just depends on conditions, weather conditions,
but it gradually feeds the grass likegrass takes up nutrients gradually. It's

(01:08:00):
kind of like we eat. Doyou eat six months of food at one
time? Well, I've attempted iton several occasions, but no, we
don't do that. We eat graduallyeach day, and grass takes up nudrinks
gradually each day. So that slowrelease is the way you spread out the
growth get a stronger, deeper,more resilient root system. It also has
four percent iron, which is importantfor good color. A lot of times

(01:08:24):
in our clay soils and our highphsoils, we end up with a little
bit of an iron deficiency, especiallyearly in the season, but it can
occur through the year and the nitroposssuperturf the silver bag. That's how we
avoid that. So where do youget nitrofas superturf, Well, pretty much
everywhere, that's a fast answer.You get it plants for all seasons,
yep, that's on Tomball Parkway,you know that one. You can get

(01:08:46):
into asposees up in the woodlands.They carry nitrofoss products up there as well.
Or go out to Brenham to plantsand things and you're going to find
superturf as well as other nitrofoss products. Makes it easy, you know,
I just realized I am not givingthe phone number out often today, and
I always have to do that becausepeople tune in and they don't know where

(01:09:08):
to call. Well, our phonenumber is seven to one three two one
two kt r H seven to onethree two one two kt r H.
That makes it easy to get aholdof us. What do you want to
talk about? What kind of questionsdo you have that we can assist you
with. I earlier was talking aboutgetting out and doing some container repotting that

(01:09:30):
I need to get done. Thatis important. I've got a bunch of
orchids. You know how it is, You go and you maybe you,
I don't know. You get anorchid, someone gives it to you,
you buy it yourself, and youbring it home. The moth orchid,
that is the one that is justubiquitous. It's the one you see everywhere
from grocery stores to garden centers.The moth orchid is the easiest orchid to

(01:09:55):
grow indoors. It's the full,almost fool proof orchid. If you've got
a bathroom with a real bright window, that's a perfect environment because you know,
every now and then you shower andyou get some humidity in the air
and whatnot, and they're just happythere in that bright light. They don't
want to be in direct sun,but they want to be a nice bright
light to do their best. AndI've got a bunch that are sitting there.

(01:10:17):
They most of them bloomed for methis year. A lot of them
are about a year past when Ishould have been repotting them. But I'll
go in there and pull them out. I cut away all the dead roots
and the base of the stem thatnow is no longer functioning, and they're
always sending new aerial roots down fromthe stem up above. You probably see
those coming out, maybe sprawling outsidethe outside of the pot. Orchids are

(01:10:40):
not a terrestrial well, moth orchidsare not a terrestrial plant. They live
in trees. They attached to thebark of trees, and that's their natural
habitat. So that's why we putthem in a bark mix and occasionally if
you will clean them up like I'mdescribing, repot them in a container with
some fresh bark chunks. You canbuy orchid blends at our garden centers that

(01:11:03):
are designed for that. They mayeven have a little bit of charcoal in
them or stuff. Just to avoidsoggy conditions. Orchids do not want to
sit in water. They just needto get a good soaking every now and
then and then drain really well.Do not let them sit in water.
But if you do that and thenbegin to fertilize them very lightly, super

(01:11:24):
super low rate. When you water, you can get invigorating new growth along
with good sunlight, and that orchidwill cycle back into bloom for you later
on. And I need to dothat to mine. I just got this
pile of orchids that have been neglected, and so the Society for the Prevention
of Cruelty to Orchids is probably ontheir way to my house right now.
But I'm gonna fix that. AndI just a tip for you as well.

(01:11:45):
Hey, we're going to take abreak seven one three two one two
ktr h. I'll be right back. Welcome back to garden Line. Good
to have you. We are.We are hopefully walking on sunshine. We
got a little bit of clouds outthere in the sky, but listen to
day is it's safe, It's safeto go out. The weatherman keeps telling
us, yeah, it's cloudy,but chances of a rain are very scattered

(01:12:06):
and not that high in any givenlocation. So let's get out there and
get some stuff done in our yards. I was talking about wild birds being
a good gift for Mother's Day,and it just reminded me I bought my
mother outlaw. I'm sorry, motherin law. I get those confused sometimes,
but you know, I'm gonna leavethat as it is. I bought

(01:12:27):
her one of those little hangars thatyou put a bird feeder on. You
know, it's kind of like ashepherd's crook that comes up. I got
one at Wildbird's Unlimited recently, andI'm gonna get her all set up with
a bird feeder right outside the windowwhere she likes to sit, and we'll
get her all fixed up to you. So don't forget your mother outlaw.
I'm sorry your mother in law whenyou're purchasing your mother's day gifts at wild

(01:12:48):
Birds Unlimited. If you're listening tothis, have you been to Nelson's Water
Garden out in Katie A lot ofyou have. No, It's a popular
place. They've been around a longtime. You know Nelson's water Garden.
They are national leaders in the watergarden industry. They have been building water

(01:13:10):
gardens for a very long time.So everything from the fish, to the
plants, to the structures themselves.They can get you fixed up. They
will come and build like a waterfallin your property if you like that,
a pond whatever kinds of little WhenI say a pond, I mean you
know, a little small pond foryour koi or whatever kind of fish you're

(01:13:31):
doing. They've been doing this.They can do it turnkey. But if
you want to do some do ityourself. They can guide you on that
as well. Yes, they alsohelp with that. Now, Nelson's Nursery
and water Garden is also a nursery. Don't forget that. I mean,
they got some sod in the otherday people were in purchasing the sod.

(01:13:53):
They've got all kinds of plants restockedon zenias, really cool, really cool
shrubs, the kaleidoscope, babelia,which is a beautiful little abilia. They've
got those, and I don't know, guardinas, adrajas, you name it.
Definitely got the hibiscus, of course, but they really the feature of

(01:14:13):
that place is the water gardens andit's the way they transform a landscape.
And I just have to please dothis. Just go out the plan an
outing, get some friends, getyour neighbors, family, whatever, go
out there and check them out andlook, and you will be inspired you
walk through there, and I didthe first time I walked in there.

(01:14:35):
Everywhere I went it was just like, oh my gosh, I have to
have that for my backyard. Ohmy gosh, I have to have that
for my backyard. When you seeit set up like that, it is
so inspirational. And they really arean inspiring place. A destination garden center
Nelson's Watergardens dot Com. Think ofit as your West Houston garden center.

(01:14:57):
It is out on Katie Fortvenroe snortof Katie Freeway out there in Katie.
I promise you, if you go, you will be impressed, and you
will suddenly you will realize that howdid I ever get by without a disappearing
fountain coming out of a beautiful containeror a little waterfall. I love love
that kind of inspiration in places likethat. At the house, we are

(01:15:20):
transitioning our vegetable garden. It's comingout pretty quick here. I've got some
cool seasoned peas. I had somesugar snaps that are now on their way
out. They have finished up,and boy, they were productive. It
was with a very productive planting.For sure. I need to get my
tomato trellis vine. I need toget my tomato vines attached to the trellis.

(01:15:46):
They're kind of flopping around. AndI like to use cattle panels just
those are those livestock panels, thegalvanized very heavy duty wire with big oldes
ones with like four inch by sixinch openings, and the and the thing
you can put a couple of teepostsin attach them to a teeposts. I
slap mine just a little bit andthen the tomatoes kind of grow on that

(01:16:09):
and whenever one flops the wrong way, I just push it back through the
trellis and ends up with a wallof tomato foliage and the tomatoes, because
they're slanted, they hang down alittle bit below the treillers where they don't
get as much sunburn. And itworks really well. But I occasionally have
to go back and kind of windthem through it. But a lot of
things to be done in the vegetablegarden this week. Have you been to

(01:16:31):
A and A Plants and Produce recentlyup in the Montgomery area, All of
you who live up there in theLake Conroy area, this is your hometown
garden center. I mean it's justright there on the back door. They
have a landscape crew that can comeout to your place and they can do
work for you out there. Theyabsolutely are excellent at tending to things like

(01:16:53):
that. If you are needing anyof the fertilizers that I talk about here
on guarden Line, they have them. They always are getting restocked. They
restocked mulches, they restock the fertilizer, they restock the compost. So you
know, you hear me brag aboutairloom soils and Nature's way, you hear
me brag about Nelson's fertilizers, microlife, fertilizers, nitrophos fertilizer. It's

(01:17:17):
all there, and really cool gardenbling too, from signs to little metal
arbor structures. It's just I lovegoing through there. If you have any
imagination at all, you walk inthere and you can kind of see how
that place can really turn your beautiful, beautiful landscape even into a more beautiful,

(01:17:38):
enchanting one. Lots of activities forkids too. When you go by
there, ask them about the thingsthat they do, the programs that they
do with the kiddos, because theyalways have something like that going on at
Ana Plants and Produce in Montgomery.By the way, they're on the east
side of Montgomery on one oh five, So if you are heading up in
that direction, you're going to driveby. In fact, anybody going up

(01:18:00):
and down one oh five all theway from Nevinesota to Conrod, Texas,
you just drive by Ana all thetime. That's right there. I have
my lawn. I finally mowed thefirst time my lawn. I always tried
to lay a little bit, butI got that new grass put in that

(01:18:20):
I was talking about earlier, andit's starting to grow and finally hit a
point where I needed to get itmode. So I got that knocked out
because I'm going to be out thisweek in a way, and got it
down to a good level. Justremember when you're mowing, a sharp mower
is important. Number one is lessstrained on your lawn more. But number

(01:18:42):
two, and this is something Ibet you haven't thought about. When you
look at your lawn, it's likelooking at a pixelated picture, but you're
so far away that you don't seethe pixels. Right. But each grass
tip is going to have a brownedge where it was cut off. And
if your mower is sharp, that'sgoing to be a real thin brown edge

(01:19:06):
because it made a nice clean cut, like you just took scissors and snipped
it off. If your mower isdull, it's going to be a split,
ragged, larger ten brown end ofthe grass blade because that blade just
essentially just just hammered off the endof that grass blade as it flew by

(01:19:27):
and didn't make a clean cut.Now you take that difference between like a
little one eighth of an inch brownand maybe one half of an inch brown
in some cases, and you multiplythat times ten billion grass blades out there,
and the green suddenly looks less green, and so a sharp more blade
to a degree makes your lawn greener. I know that's just think about it.

(01:19:50):
I think it'll make sense the wayI described it if you just think
about it. You want to fertilize, you want to get it mode,
but you want to mow regularly.Every time you mow is like you're hedging
your lawn. And the more youhedge a plant, the dentre it gets.
And so the turf specialists first timeone of them told me this,
I thought you got to be kidding, but it's true. Of all the

(01:20:13):
things we do our lawns, thesingle most important thing to have a dense,
beautiful lawn is regular mowing. Yes. They need water, yes,
and we need fertilizer. Butt thesingle most important thing is mowing frequently with
a very sharp mower, and that'llgive you success. I hope that helps
out. Hope that's something to thinkabout when it comes to fertilizing. Nelson
plant Food has got a couple ofproducts that are outstanding. One of them

(01:20:36):
is I always thought of it asa fast release, but actually it also
has some slow release nitrogen in itas well. It's called Bruce's Brew.
Bruce's Brew is primarily one that releasesfast, but it does have some slower
release products in it. We useit in spring for a quick green up.
You can do it anytime the yearyou want to do it. You

(01:20:58):
can do a regular standard rate ofyou can kind of cut it in half
and do a lower rate and thenlater do another lower rate and that sort
of spreads out the release even moreor just gets slow and easy. Slow
and easy is Nelson's slow release.And when I say slow, I mean
this is going to feed your lawnfor three months, four months. I
mean it really goes out there prettydarn far. And when you return your

(01:21:21):
clippings, in addition to that,they're decomposing. And so your lawn is
just getting the nicest, slowest feedall through the summer months, just like
you would want it to be innature. And slow and easy by Nelson
plant Food is an outstanding blend withthe right kinds of nitrogen to provide that

(01:21:42):
kind of gradual feed over time.Pretty important, pretty important to do.
Nelson plant Food products are widely available. They have everything from the jars of
color Star products to these these turffertilizers part of the turf Star line of
products work. I know because I'veused it to work very well. Where

(01:22:03):
you're listening to the Garden Line,and I want to remind you that today
after the show at eleven am elevenam, I'll be at Southwest Fertilizer corner
of Bissing at and run with Now, Bob's going to be given away a
Toro blower and a Touro string tremor. That's a valuable gift to be given
to two valuable gifts. We'll begiving away some Medina stuff. They'll be

(01:22:28):
something called skip Bucks. When youstop by my table and maybe you bring
a plant sample or a picture,just a question in and I'm helping you
with it, I'll give you skipBucks and you can use those to get
things at the store there. Forexample, Medina has got something called super
Grow plus sixteen O to hose endapplicating. I'm going to tell you more
about that in a little bit,but you could use your skip Bucks to

(01:22:50):
get some of that. KTRH GardenLine does not necessarily endorse any of the
products or services advertised on this program. To Katie r. H. Garden
Line with skin Rict it's so trim. Just watch him as so many superasys.

(01:23:28):
They're not a sign. Welcome backto Garden Line. Good to have
you with us, looking forward totalking. We got a lot of things
to talk about this hour. Ifyou have been by Plants for All Seasons
lately, you know what I'm talkingabout. When I say the place looks
gorgeous. It is stocked up.There's plenty of everything there. One of

(01:23:50):
the things I enjoy there is thefact that they're gonna carry things that do
well here, that that's just whatthey do. They this place Plants for
all seasons, the Flowery Family.They've been doing this since nineteen seventy three.
For those of you who haven't beenthere, it's on Highway to forty
nine North. That's Tomball Parkway whenyou get if you're heading north, when

(01:24:12):
you get to Luetta, you exitLuetta and go over Luetta and it's right
there on the side of Tomball Parkway, just past Luetta. Easy, easy,
easy to get to. Now theyare green thumb experts, So if
you have a brown thumb, youwalk in there, they're going to give
you a plant, and they're goingto give you advice, and they're going
to give you the products you needto turn the brown green. That's what
we always say. There's no suchthing as a brown thumb, there's uninformed

(01:24:35):
thumbs. Well, when you takequality plants, quality products, and quality
advice, everything looks like you havea green thumb because you're doing it right.
And Plants for All Seasons helps youdo that. The website Plants for
All Seasons dot com. The phonenumber you want to write this down two
eight, one, three, sevensix, sixteen forty six. Go in,

(01:24:57):
talk to Sherry, talk to Kelly, talk the whole crew there.
Everybody that's there is an expert inhelping you have success. You can take
them a sample, you can apicture in there. Their goal is to
make sure that you have beauty andbounty just like you're dreaming of when you
walk into the place, and they'llwork with you to help you achieve just
that at Plants for All Seasons.I'm going to head up to Cypress now

(01:25:23):
and talk to Sandy. Hello,Sandy, good morning, Thank you for
taking my call. I have aquestion, like a general question on my
vegetable plant. I know indeterminate tonightYou're not you're supposed to prune, but
like my black beauty eggplant they finallyproduced, and my okras and my bell

(01:25:48):
peppers. If the lead at thebottom are touching the oil, should I
pick them off? But pip themoff? I generally do. I mean,
you know, there's always a potential, especially an unmulched soil, to
splash dirt up on them and maybeget a little more disease issues that could
get in there a little leisier.It's not night and day. It's not

(01:26:09):
like, you know, it's theend of the world if you don't prone
them off. But number one,just keep the soul mult and then you
don't really even have to worry aboutit, Sandy, I find containers.
Okay, yeah, no, Iwouldn't. I just wouldn't worry about it.
A lot. You'll find that theolder leaves start to get aged,
and they may get more leaf spots, or they may turn a little bit

(01:26:30):
yellow and stuff. So sometimes you'recleaning them up just for aesthetics, sort
of get disease issues reduced a littlebit in the in the plant. Thank
you, bet good luck. Nowyou know, Sandy that if we give
advice, it's free. But allI ask for is half the eggplant you
grow, drop it off at thestudio. I got to make my baba

(01:26:51):
ganoosh and so I'm dependent on yourbaba. You take care, you take
care. If if you are lookingto improve your lawn and you're looking for
a natural product that has a highconcentration of nitrogen in it, Sweet Green
by Nitrofoss has just that. It'seleven percent nitrogen product. It's based on

(01:27:14):
a molasses with the microbial content involvedto create this sweet Green product that absolutely
stimulates microbial growth in your soil.You know, organic gardeners have been using
molasses on their soil for a longtime and they understand the value that to
stimulating beneficial bacteria and other microbes.And Sweet Green will do that now.

(01:27:36):
Sweet Grain, being a Knight Foshproduct, is easy to find. You
don't have to hunt everywhere for it. You're going to find it an enchanted
forest out there in the Richmond Rosenbergarea. A growers outlet up in willis
Or RCW Nursery where Interstate Interstate whereFM two forty nine Tambo Parkway comes into

(01:27:57):
Beltway eight. All places you canget You're Sweet Green from Nitroposs. We're
gonna head out now to Jersey Village, and talk to Teddy. Hello,
Teddy, how are you doing?Skip? I'm well, how are you?
I'm doing fantastic. I got aquick question for you. I drove
around the neighborhood and as a matterof fact, in my front yard,

(01:28:19):
I've noticed that I'm patches. Ionly got a few patches of lime green
color. And I'm I'm over here, like am I'm the only one?
So hey, you know what.I drove around, you know, and
a few homes and all that,and they even had it too. I
mean, it's what's the problem there. It could be a couple of things.

(01:28:41):
Uh. Iron deficiency will cause alack of iron, I'm a lack
of art, a lack of deepgreen, the emerald green color you're probably
looking for. Uh. If yougrab a grass blade that lacks the color
and you hold it up to thelight and let the light kind of come
through it, and you see greenand yellow stripes going up and down the

(01:29:02):
blade, that is an iron deficiency. And so now the next question is
why is there an iron deficiency.It could be because of a lack of
iron, but more likely it's becauseof a lack of available iron. And
so putting down a product that isgoing to give you iron. You can
do an iron keylate. A keylateis a way they protect the iron molecules

(01:29:25):
so the soil doesn't tie it upas fast. You could do that.
You could do fertilizers that contain iron. You know, this silver bag nitrophuss
superturf contains four percent. You know, I put that the nineteen fourten.
That yeah, I called in thatlast week. I put that in last
week, okay, and that willbe that will be providing some iron for

(01:29:46):
them. The other thing that cancause iron deficiency is loss of roots.
The disease take all root rot oftenshows up as yellowish types of areas on
their way down to dead. Andif the yellow keeps going and you end
up with dead spots, that wouldprobably take a root rot. But I
don't want to jump to conclusions.I'm just telling you you're seeing an iron

(01:30:11):
deficiency and it's due to one ofthose things. And I think you did
the right thing starting with the silverbag super turf. Let's see if it
carry up from that. If not, you may want to treat those spots
with a little iron key late aswell. Okay. Is that a concern
I need to worry about? Rightnow, or I just just I would
wait if it were mine, Iwould wait and watch a lot of times

(01:30:31):
iron deficiency gets better as the weatherwarms up a little bit too. All
right, okay, okay, allright, skip, Thank you buddy,
all right, you bet, thankyou nobody. I wanted to tell you
guys about Jorges Hidden Gardens. Youprobably have have heard me talk about them
before. They're down in Alvin andHoores Hidden Gardens. Is it's easy,

(01:30:54):
easy to get to. I meanthey here's there. They're hours, by
the way. They're open for weekendFriday from eight am to four pm Saturday
from a am to four pm.Sunday from eight am to four pm,
so it's easy to remember, righteight am to four pm Saturday through Sunday.
They have a lot of plants,a lot of selection plants. You
can get fruit trees, you canget bedding plants. You can get your

(01:31:15):
vegetables and herbs and blueberries and Imean just all kinds of things at Jorges
Hidden Gardens. They also carry thisthree sixty tree stabilizer three sixty tree stabilizer
a brago. They've got it downthere. You can get it, so
if you're in Alvin, Santa Fe, Dickinson Hillcrest, Alcoa, Arcadia,
Alta Loma, all those communities.You got a hometown garden center right in

(01:31:38):
your backyard. Jorges Hidden Gardens.They are easy to get to. Again,
they're in Alvin, Texas, sono problem finding Jorges Hidden Gardens.
By the way, they're on ElizabethStreet. If you're looking, I'm gonna
go away, take a break.I'll be right back. Seven one three,
two point two fifty eight seventy four. Hey, welcome back to garden

(01:31:58):
Line. Good to have you withus today. It's going to be a
good day. By the way,I know you see clouds, but that's
just to keep a cooler for us. We're not going to get a lot
of rain today. In fact,you probably will not see rain where you
are at all, even in alittle tiny sprinkle. So it's a good
day to get out, get somework done, get some plants and products
and things, so you set yourselfup for success. Remember that spring,

(01:32:19):
we are still officially in. Springis the time when we set ourself up
for success. So when the brutalsummer months come, we've got healthy plants
with good, deep, strong rootsystems because we've prepared the soil, and
we purchased plants that belonged, andwe got them planted and established before the

(01:32:39):
brutal weather of summer I hit them. So it's now's the chance. You
have been warned, you have beenadvised, or whatever. Now's the time
to get all this done so youcan have that kind of success. Speaking
of getting out and about ACE Hardwarehas got a deal that I got to
tell you about. This is theBig still Sail Steel. Steel is in

(01:33:01):
the string tremors, as in thechainsaws, as in the power equipment that
you love it, quality equipment.Right now, thirty two participating ACE stores
will honor this sale today. There'sa couple of them that may. Some
of them are doing it yesterday,some of them will do it tomorrow.
But today, all of them,all of them today, Big Ace,

(01:33:23):
the ACE Big Steel Sale. Andit is now fifteen percent off. Even
if something's on sale, you stillget fifteen more percent off. I don't
know how you beat that. Sothat's on all the steel serial numbered tools,
all the attachments, the batteries,and the chargers. Now it doesn't
include industrial tools and accessories, butall still serial number tools, attachments,

(01:33:48):
batteries and chargers at thirty two differentACE Hardware stores. You're not going to
beat that. And by the way, while you're there, don't forget this
is the emergency weekend break where thingsthat we would purchase, such as batteries,
such as an escape ladder out ofthe second story, and all the

(01:34:09):
kinds of things you might purchase duringit for emergencies at your house you can
get tax free, and ACE carriesthose kinds of things, So talk to
them about that when you're in theretoo. I want to head now to
Richmond and we're going to talk toSteve. Hello, Steve, Hey,
good morning Skip. I got aquick question for you. We've got some

(01:34:30):
live oaks in our front yard,three of them. They've been here,
oh, probably five years. They'vebeen getting about twelve thirteen fourteen feet tall
now and I need to find somebodythat can come and excuse me and the
trim the tops of them. They'regetting kind of bushy. All right,
Well, the person I would suggestyou get is Martin spoon More. Martin
Spoon Moore's companies called Afordable Tree Service. You want to hear them advertised on

(01:34:55):
your shows or the channel there alot. So yeah, Mark's been doing
this long time if they're over thirtyyears experience, and I've seen the work
he does, visited with the hemand Joe. Uh. There, that's
that old time kind of company servicewhere the owners answer the phone and the
the they make sure you're happy withthe work. So uh here that was

(01:35:16):
right. Okay, here's the phonenumber. Do you got a penhandy?
There? I do. I'm readyseven one three six nine nine twenty six
sixty three seven one okay, sixnine nine twenty six sixty three. If
you want to go to the websitewebsites aff Tree Service dot com. Aff
Tree Service dot com. Okay,I got one more quick question if you

(01:35:36):
have time absolutely work. My wife, our neighbor has an evergreen rosebush out
front and it's just beautiful and we'rehaving a hard time finding those, uh
and nurseries around. Do you haveany idea? Those are the ones I
had, like the five white petalsthat look more like a flower than a
rose. Well, I'm not youdon't have to have a variety name for

(01:36:00):
it, yeah, rosesance. Oh, I'll tell you what I would.
I would call RCW Nursery and seeif they have access to that they've got
like, oh gosh, four pagessingle space of roses that they have access

(01:36:23):
to to be able to get somestuff. RCW prib be your best bet.
RCW Nursery. You know, sensea builder put these in five years
ago, you think they'd be clinicalbecause they don't really put the most expensive
things into yeah, you know,landscape. But yeah, well that's a
hard time for some reason. Well, and I don't know that. I've
never grown that rose. I don'tknow that rose. So that's why I'm

(01:36:45):
going to refer you just to givethem, give them a call or go
buy. The website is RCW Nurseriesdot com. Uh, they're they're there
at We're talking about park Land beltWay eight. Come together. Okay,
we'll give me show. Thank youfor appreciate you you bet appreciate the call
away audios. Yeah, that's interesting. I don't have to look that up.

(01:37:06):
I'm not familiar. Haven't grown thatone before. We talk about lawn
fertilizing, and you know the purposeof fertilizer is to provide the nutrient bank
account in the soil that plants need. I know, we think of it
like you know, you fertilize andit makes your plants grow. And well,

(01:37:28):
yes, to a degree, thenitrogen is doing that, but you
have all these other nutrients that don'tmake the plant grow. They support the
growth the plant is trying to do. And asamite would be an example.
As mite provides trace minerals. Traceminerals are needed in tiny amounts. It
doesn't, you know, azamite goesa long way. I mean, you
know, one one bag of azamite, what a forty four pound bag will

(01:37:51):
cover six to twelve thousand square feet. But you got to have those nutrients
because remember how I was kind ofjoking earlier that I don't eat six months
worth of food in one day.I eat a little bit every day.
And plants are taking up nutrients alittle bit every day. So you can't
fertilize every day for them. Youshouldn't. What you do is you build

(01:38:11):
that bank account and then when theroots need it, it's there. And
as mite does just that. It'seasy to find as m It's widely available,
no problem at all getting hold azmite. It's one of the more easy
to find products that we talk abouthere on Garden Line. But it does
provide that kind of a boost.You're listening to garden Line, and I'm
your host, Skip Richter, andhere is the phone number seven one three

(01:38:34):
two one two fifty eight seventy fourseven one three two one two five eight
seven four. We're going to gonow to let's see spring and talk to
rich Hello, rich good morning.Skip. Question regarding nuts edge, I
had a little patch in my yard, so I used Prosedge hell soap puron

(01:38:56):
methyl product. Okay, My neighbornext door add a bunch of nuts edge
along with some Virginia button weed,so I used blind side. The blind
side on his lawn knocked the heckout of the nuts edge as well as
the Virginia button weed. But mylawn using the pro sedge, it has

(01:39:19):
impacted it, but at two weeksdown the road, it's still not even
dead any ideas the pro sedge tellme again, it knocked backge. It
didn't. It knocked it back,but nowhere near killing it. Like the

(01:39:40):
nuts edge on my neighbors that infour days it's totally brown. Okay,
well, okay. First of all, just in general about herbicides, how
fast it works doesn't necessarily mean itworks better or worse. You know,
some things take their time and doan awesome job. So I'll just set
the speed aside. But the blindSide is a product that's generally not available

(01:40:04):
over the counter. It's it's goingto have two different ingredients in it,
and so you're probably coming at itfrom both sides. It is. It
does do good on on purple andyellow nuts sedge. The pro sedgs the
halo you said, halo sulfur on, right, was the ingredient, and
yes, yeah, yes, sir, Yeah, the halo sulfur on is

(01:40:25):
also I believe that's the one that'sin manage. Let me see if I
can find that particular thing or saigeexcuse me, just an I'm gonna find
out sedgehammer that's the one. Yeah, it's the same. Yeah, it's
the same. I've checked it.Yeah, and it works good. It's
a very effective product on the nutsedge. So uh, just get be
a little patient with it, Iguess, and see if you feel like

(01:40:48):
it's not going to do the job, which I'm not sure why I wouldn't,
because it does work. It's avery popular product. Uh, then
maybe talk to your neighbor and geta little bit of a little bit of
what he bought, because he probablybought way more than he needs. If
you know I bought it, I'vegot bottles of Blindside and Celsius. I'm
the guy that takes care of myneighbors launched. Okay, so you're the

(01:41:10):
you're the local controller around the placethere. Well, I wouldn't just immediately
jump on that and apply that tothe product. I would I would stick
with waiting to see how what yoursis going to do. Give it another
couple of weeks to see if yousee results before you well do Joe.
Thanks collusions all right, Rich,thank you for the call. Thanks appreciate

(01:41:33):
that very much. When it comesto brown stuff and having success, Ciena
Mulch is a place where you're goingto get everything you need. Every fertilizer
I talk about on guardline, isthere, the heirloom soils, rose soil,
the leaf mole compost, it's there. They deliver within twenty miles and

(01:41:54):
twenty miles Ciena malt where twenty milesof what Well, it's due south of
Houston. So if you are outin neighborhoods like Iowa Colony or Coola Lake,
Olympia, Pomona Riverstone Manbill Roach,Sharon, Meridian, first colony.
We can just go on and onthat. Cena Maultch is your hometown local
supplier. They are near Highway sixand two eighty eight just north of Roch

(01:42:16):
Sharon on FM five twenty one.Cienamultch dot com is the website Sienna mulch
dot com. You can get allthe stuff to make the brown stuff perfect
for when you plant the green stuffin it. That's how that works.
Soils, fertilizers, quality products,mulches, that's it's all CNA malts.

(01:42:38):
They deliver within about twenty miles oftheir location. All right, it's time
for a break here. Well,I've got some folks online, those of
you that are out there, Iwill come to you first when we come
back. We just want to makesure we have plenty of time to be
able to address your call. Andnow it's time to turn it over to
Nikky for news. Right, Igot it. Is that what we're gonna

(01:42:58):
do. That's what we're going todo. All right, Well, thanks
for listening to Garden And by theway, don't forget I'm going to be
at Southwest Fertilizer today starting at elevena m. We're going to be giving
away all kinds of things, includingsome really cool stuff like a Toro blower
and a Toro string trimmer. Andwe got some cool products from Adina as
well. All right, well,here's Nicky Welcome back to garden Line.

(01:43:23):
Little music from looking Glass. Alsomusic for Guardians from Guardians to the Galaxy
for those of you who know thesong from that. We're gonna go to
Northwest Houston and talk to Bob Hello, Bob, Hey, Skip. I've
got a dilemma. I mault myyard every every year, and I've done
it, you know, for twentyfive years with bulk hardwood mult Last year

(01:43:48):
I put the mulch down and immediatelymy my tender plant started drying, dying
young ones, certain varieties. Somethingwas in that malt. So this year
I changed where I got it.Okay, put it down last weekend.
We got that heavy rain Saturday nightand everything's dying Sunday morning, my tomatoes,

(01:44:15):
my young plants. I read thatthe malt can leach an acid if
it hasn't been wet and dried priorto putting it down. What's going on?
Oh boy? This would take awhile to drill down through all the

(01:44:36):
issues that might be going on onit. But mulch can be a problem,
but generally is not. If someoneknows what they're doing making mulch,
creating a multch product, you shouldn'thave that problem with it. This wasn't
a dyed mulch by any chance,was it. No, no, no,

(01:44:56):
no, no. This is justregular hardwood. And like I said,
I had got mulch in prior yearsat the same place for twenty years.
Yeah, this year I changed andit's irreputable. It's ground up,
the ground up and good looking mulch. Put it down and boom it kills
it. My thought was they itdoesn't have time to sit in the yard

(01:45:21):
to deteriorate, and it's still gotit's still green, and it's high nitrogen
as it as it decomposes, andit's burning the plants. Well that is
yeah, the mult will not behindnitrogen to be on the other end of
the spectrum. But people put undecomposedmulches down all the time, dried leaves

(01:45:45):
for example, you know pine pinebark chips, right, it's not not
the fact that it's not decomposed.Only there are things that can happen in
the process that create an issue.But what you're describing it, something's not
quite right. How fast did yousay you solve the problem overnight? Overnight?

(01:46:05):
Yeah, we had that heavy rainand the next morning my my begonias
were dying. I had my tomatoesare turning brown. A pepper plant,
a bell pepper plant. I meanjust generally the younger, the more tender

(01:46:28):
plants are dying. Helly, itkilled Basle overnight. Well, you got
me somebody to be able to answerthis. Yeah, this, And I've
done nothing different than I've done inprior years. Prior, I mean,
I do it. I even putit on a little thinner this year.

(01:46:48):
Normally I put about ten inches down, and I probably put four or five
thinking, you know, may yes, mothered them four or five inches deep?
Yes, holy cow, well tenI've never heard of that. But
four or five is even a prettygood thick. Well, I mean it's
composed down it, you know,it compacts. Okay, And well,

(01:47:11):
I'll tell you what, Bob,I'm not gonna I'm not gonna have an
answer just immediately. I'm going totry to check with some of our the
mulch makers that I know what they'redoing. Maybe one of them would like
to call in and discuss it.I just think it's interesting that it happened
two years in a row with twodifferent suppliers. That is very strange,
and so I'm kind of at aloss as to where to go from here.

(01:47:34):
It shouldn't be the case, though. I mean, I will say
this, A friend of mine gotpart of this load. My last load
then finished up the yard with bagmault, and the bag malts came from
one of the biggest supplier here intown. And the bag malts didn't seem

(01:47:59):
to have the effect that the bulkmulch. Okay, well let me look
into it. If I figure outanything, we'll say it on the air
today. But you got you gotme on that one, okay, Well,
everybody the same thing I've said,Yeah, okay, thank you,
thank you. I appreciate it.Bye bye. Speaking of multch products,

(01:48:21):
you know that it is important toget a quality product when you do that,
and uh yeah, folks at landscaperSpride they absolutely know how to create
quality products. They've got a bunchtwenty something different products twenty seven to be
exact. Landscaperspride dot Com is thewebsite you can learn about it there at

(01:48:42):
Landscapers Pride, you are going tofind quality products. They're going to have
the black velvet mulch, which isnot dyed. It is not dyed,
it is naturally that color and itjust beautiful, velvety and dense. It's
just it's an excellent They have ahardwood mulch, a hardwood based mult ground
up. It's not you know peoplethat grind up palettes or repurposed wood.

(01:49:04):
No, this is truly hardwood malts. Good for walkways, you know,
all where the pathway melting the surfacein your flower beds and recreation areas.
Pine bark maults they have that locallysourced pine. It's got a very slow
decomposition rate which people like just kindof lasts a little bit longer out there
in the garden. And then theirGarden Magic Soil. It's a pine based

(01:49:27):
blend that contains humus and screened pineand composted rice holes as well as chicken
pellet furbilizer that will give you feedingfor up to three months. That's the
Garden Magic Soil from Landscaper's Pride.If you want to find out more about
them, Landscaperspride dot com find outabout this twenty seven products and their store
locator as well. While you're outabout doing that, let's go to Dayton

(01:49:50):
now and we're going to talk toMarshall. Hello, Marshall, Hey,
Skip, how you doing. I'mwell, thank you. Hey. I
got a question on I've got acouple of silver maples still in the pots.
Without getting into a long story,I was babying them and you got

(01:50:10):
them up to growing pretty good,but then I got busy I didn't mess
with it. And then now they'vebeen in there a year and a half
and I want to transplant them.How should I go about that? Well,
you need to pull them out ofthe pot, and you're going to
see roots going in a circle,and you need to either unwind those,

(01:50:31):
which is not going to probably bepractical, or slice through them in three
or four places vertically through that cylinderof roots. I know that sounds drastic,
don't worry about. Just go aheadand do it. Plant them in
the ground, get them established,and within a couple of weeks are going
to have fresh new roots coming outfrom where you cut the ends. That's

(01:50:51):
your best chance of getting them established. Now, if the roots have grown
through the pots, can trim thoseroots or is that a no no?
Or what no? You got tocut those off. You got to cut
them off. So the ball rootis probably still obviously inside the pot,

(01:51:13):
right the what root please? Theball root? The root ball itself?
Yeah, thes I like to callit a root cylinder. It's called root
balls because people used to ball andburlap trees, and you had a tree
with a little ball on the bottomof roots and soil. But it's kind
of a root cylinder since you've grownthem in a pot and it's inside there.
It's got all the roots of thetree, unless some have come out

(01:51:34):
the holes into the ground. Butjust cut them all off, cut those
off that are coming out of theholes of the pot, and then slice
vertically through the others. It's drastic, but it's you know, it's the
only way to not end up witha problem on those trees that you've grown
in the pot for a little extratime there and on cutting them. Is

(01:51:55):
there a certain way I should cutthem like at a forty five or just
chomp it or clip it? Orhow should I I that? You know,
on some plants with the roots aren'tbig. I take a box cutter
knife and just vertically slice through itabout an inch a date. If you
need to get pruners, just goingwith pruners and snip off the ones going
in a circle, and do itin about three or four places around there,

(01:52:18):
because everywhere you cut, it's goingto branch and it'll establish better.
All right, sounds great, Thankyou you, Bet Marshall. Thanks a
lot. I appreciate that. Hey, we got to take a little break
here. If listen, Linda,you'll be first when we come back.
If you'd like to give us acall seven to one three two one two
kat r h. All right.If you put it and tap in,

(01:52:40):
you you better check your pulse,that is for sure. If you're looking
for a quality mix to put ina container for your indoor plants, that
would be jungle Land water saving pottingsoil. It's got crystals in it that
swell up with water. After themix itself begins to dry out a little
too far, you know, youforgot to water well. Those crystals are

(01:53:01):
still holding onto moisture and the rootscan get access. So let's just say
it makes the soil a little moreforgiving, if you will of a bad
watering schedule. Well, jungle Landindoor water saving crystals, indoor potting salt
with water saving crystals. You're goingto get it in enchanted forest. You're
going to get it at Growers Outletup in Willis RCW Nursery carries the night

(01:53:25):
Fist products as well. We're goingto head out now to Linda in Tomball.
Hello, Linda, I skip doinga great job. Thank you.
Man. I need some help withmy all my plants basically, but I
have some night blooming jazmine bushes.I have four around my back and for

(01:53:48):
some reason, I've had them forten twelve years and at night they are
fantastic. But something is eating myleaves for the first time. Okay,
they're chewing them like this little redand then some of them have like insl

(01:54:09):
sized holes in them. I sprayedit twice with memol and that's not doing
it. Really, that's surprising.Uh. You kind of have to once
you get a bunch of holes,you kind of have to study where they
are so when you look again youcan tell if they're new holes or if
it's still the same old holes.I was, well, go ahead pinching

(01:54:29):
off of the pinchin the old ones, the ones that are damaged off though
I couldn't and they're there every night, all right. I would switch over
and get a product called spin nosaid s p I n O s a
D spin nose sad and spray thaton it, and I think that will
take care of it for you.I just want to get good coverage on

(01:54:53):
it. But just realize too,that night blooming jasmine, it can lose
a lot of leaves and it's stillokay. I may not look good,
but it's not like you know,you get a few leaves with holes in
them and the plants in trouble,it still will perform well for you,
all right. Yeah, they havemade it through the phrases and the monsoons

(01:55:14):
and everything, and they love thatplant. I absolutely love it. Hey,
Linda, thank you for the calland good luck with it. I
think the spinosa is going to dowhat you need to. I'm going to
give it. Thank you. You'vehad you take care. Hey, have
you been to the antique rosen Porium. I'm telling you that place is crawling
with roses. You know, theygrow them in two gallons. Every rose

(01:55:34):
they have it's once that price twentynine to ninety five each. The two
gallon containers. That's a good sizedcontainer to grow a nice robust rose.
So it does well for you.Now an antique Rose, you got to
go just to see the nursery anddisplay gardens because they are roses, but
they are so much more. Lotsof different kinds of quality plants out there,

(01:55:55):
houseplants, flowers, fruit trees,lots of natives, tons of natives.
Every Friday and Saturday at one pmis their Tinker Garden Workshops. That's
for kids, by the way,age two through eight. It's a ticketed
event. It'll go through mid May, so you can bring the kiddos out
there again Friday or Saturday at onepm for the Tinker Garden Workshops. Go

(01:56:16):
to the website Antique Roseemporium dot comand just check out the upcoming events tab.
That's where you find that kind ofstuff out. Still looks beautiful at
Antique Rows. Always looks beautiful atAntiquerose. If you want to give them
a call, it's ninety seven nineeight three six fifty five forty eight eight
three six five five four eight.We're going to go out to Angleton.

(01:56:41):
Now we're going to talk to Steve. Hello, Steve, how are you
doing this twenty. I'm well,sir, how can we help. Well,
we bought a house a few yearsago and it had what I would
call, I guess, an ornamentalcedar tree in the front yard. It
was a couple of them. Theyweren't real tall. They had been there
about twenty twenty one years and theywere starting to die. I'd cut them

(01:57:04):
off. I dug up the stumpsand got that out. But now for
the past almost three years, Ihaven't been able to get grass to grow
in that area, and just wonderingif the soil may be toxic or from
the app or what. Sometimes wesee that around cedars. I think it's
I don't think it's toxic, butI think it should get improved. I
would do a little errating on it, get some composts down in there.

(01:57:27):
Even you know, it's not toobig of an area if it was around
a plant like that, So youcould even take a spading for it and
push it, wiggle it straight downin the soil and just kind of pull
back a little to crack it open, and then move over and do that
again, and then put a finequality, very small particle compost like a
screened leaf mole compost over it wateredin really good, and then do your

(01:57:47):
fertilizing and I think you're going tobe able to bring it back. Just
that shouldn't last long what you're seeing. Okay, well, I appreciate it
all right, good luck, Thanksa lot, appreciate your call very much.
You know, you can use aproduct like Microlife on there, the
sixty four that's a green bag.Put that on after you make the holes

(01:58:08):
in the ground and in the situationlike I was just discussing with him,
and you can absolutely get that nutrientdone in the ground and it'll do very
well. Humants plus would be anothergood example that is concentrated compost in a
bag. I would sprinkle Humage plusover that area after doing the aeration in
this specific situation. For the restof you, you just sprinkle it out,

(01:58:30):
spread it out with your spreader onthe ground, do the Humane plus,
turn right around, do the Microlifegreen bag six two four and those
over time, just get the soilbetter and better and better, and you're
going to see. This is theorganic system, you know, it's not
just this quick fix thing. Webuild the soil with quality products and things
get better and better. The grassketsdenser. We do all least less weed

(01:58:55):
problems. As a result of that, the soil is better, the aeration,
the and everything. The root systemsare happy all because you get on
that system and stay on it.Microlife Fertilizer dot com is where you can
find out where to get microlife aswell as learn more about their products.
I'm going to head out now toAudrey and Tom Ball. Hello, Audrey,

(01:59:17):
Hi didn't learning Hi? March sixteenth, got planted at Guardina and it's
just sitting there with the balloons.It's been sitting there with the balloons and
they're not opening. Okay. Ican see the flowers and they're just not
blooming. Okay. It's called agardenia August beauty. So far it hasn't

(01:59:40):
been too beautiful without any blooming.Well, that's a that's a beautiful old
garden. You've been around for awhile now, your did you do any
show work before you planted it?Yes, it said to Nick, sand
and soil a foot wide and afoot deep, And I did that.
Okay. And how long did youplant? How long ago did you say

(02:00:01):
you planted it on March sixteenth?I tell you Guardina's love acidic soil that
has a lot of organic matter init, and I, you know,
I'm kind of sitting here trying todecide which way would I go. I
think if it were mine, Imight lift it up and slide it onto

(02:00:23):
a tart, move it out ofthe way, and then get a good
quality mix like a rose soil orwhich which is good for plants, especially
those that like it a little onthe cidic side. Mix that in also
with what you've already done, andthen reset that plant watered in really well
and begin using a plant food foracidic plants in it. If you don't

(02:00:47):
want to go to that trouble,let's just get some good multa over the
top and begin using that acidic plantplant food. I think that it will
do well. It's just gardenias needreally good rainage, and to just dig
a hole and put sand in itis not necessarily gonna improve the internal drainage
down through the soil it. Youknow, a whole, a clay soil

(02:01:10):
whole holds water like a bathtub.And so I'm just kind of trying to
lift it up a little bit higher. I don't think that's why that's sitting
there in the blooms aren't opening yet, but I'm just thinking about Guardina's and
what they love and want to makesure long term you're setting it up for
success, So that would be theoption I would consider. Okay, so
rose soil, yeah absolutely, yeah, up, yeah, you're gonna roast

(02:01:36):
soil is easy to find. Uhyou know, it's widely available. I
know you go out there to uhD and de Feed on the west side
from Tomball. They carry the heirloomsoils products. You might call them first
make sure they got the roast soilin stock that someone hadn't come cleaned them
out. But you can buy bagsof it from them. There are a
lot of other places that you're goingto get a quality roast sox perfect.

(02:02:00):
I'm by plants for all seasons.Should they have that, they may have
that as well, but if not, they may have a different plant soil
for acidic plants. If you're closeto them, then just swing over there
and see what Cherry and them hadover there. Wonderful. I'm so thankful
for your help, all right,and uh I appreciate it. That mean
a picture when it starts blooming.Thanks a lot, Audrey. Okay,

(02:02:24):
you did all right, bye bye, okay, bye bye. Yeah.
Nature's Way Resources, that's another goodone. You know, Nature's way.
They created rose soil. That's whererose soil was born, if you will.
And the finely screened leaf compost thatwe talk about top dressing with,
that's where it came from. That'swhere it came from. Nature's Way Resources.

(02:02:46):
They are on I forty five uptoward Conroe on the right hand side,
and they have all kinds of things. Don't forget fungo Friday's Fungo Friday's
ten percent off bag, twenty percentoff book. Write this number down nine
three six three two one sixty nineto ninety. Nature's will get you set
up with quality products. Remember itall starts with the soil. All right,

(02:03:10):
We're gonna put this hour in thebooks. Just a reminder. I
am making a bee line for SouthwestFertilizer. I'll get there at eleven o'clock
today. I hope you'll come outand see me, bring me samples,
bring me your photos, just stopby to say hi. I always love
to meet people that listen to GardenLine. We're gonna be giving away a
toro blower, you heard that right, and a Toro, String Tremor.

(02:03:32):
I'm gonna be giving them away skipBucks. You stop by the table and
ask me a question and I willgive you skip Bucks where you can go
use them to buy products that arethere. And you know Southwest Fertilizer they
got every product that you can imagine. We'll have some the Dina giveaways as
well. It's gonna be fun.Come on out and see us. Eleven
am KTRH Garden Line does not necessarilyendorse any of the products or services advertised

(02:03:57):
on this program. Welcome to Katier H Garden Line with Skip Rictor.
It's so we just watching as many. Welcome back to the guard Line.

(02:04:25):
Good to have you with us today. Good to have you with us today.
I'm glad, glad to talk toyou about the things that are of
interest to you. You know,I am a broken record when it comes
to making sure your plants have success, that you get beauty and you get
bounty. And the way you dothat is what what is the mantra here
on guard Line Brown stuff before greenstuff. That's the simple way I put

(02:04:48):
together to say, if you getthe soil right, your plants are going
to thrive and heirloom Soils has designeda wide variety of products to do just
that. For example, the veggieand herb mix. The veggie and herb
mix is excellent for growing anything edibleout there in the garden, but especially
the veggies and the herbs. They'vegot a fruit berry and citrus mix.

(02:05:12):
You're going to be able to geta quality screened leaf more compost to do
your top dressing. You're going tobe able to get a rose soil that
is top notch. By the way, it's they got some really attractive brand
new bags of it, so ifyou used to looking at the old bag,
they got a really cool pretty muchsame old quality rose soil in it.
But that is just how they dothings at nature at the Airlom Soils

(02:05:35):
folks. Now, if you wantbulk, you can drive out there to
porter. You can get a bulk. You can have them deliver it.
You can have them put it ina supersack, a one cubic yard container.
They sit it on your driveway.It's real neat and easy. Or
you can drive out and haven't putit on the trailer you got, put
them behind your truck if you wantto go about that route. However you

(02:05:56):
want to go about it, orif maybe you just want to go to
some garden centers. Heirlom soils iswidely available. If you're listening to Garden
Line from way out beyond the Houstonarea, heirloom soils is probably available in
your community because they just keep expandingthe reach, so a lot of people
have access to these quality soils.Uh, I'm gonna see. We're gonna

(02:06:18):
go to the phone. Oh,speaking of Uh, go to the phone
right now. We're going to talkto Louise and Houston. Hey's Louise surprised?
Hey, Skip, I have Ihave Mark Powen with Bego Garden on
the line. He was the mastermindbehind most of the recipes form. He
has the answered to the question youhave good Hey Bob, Bob in northwest

(02:06:39):
Houston. You had that question aboutthe molds. You put it out and
the next day you said plants werestruggling. So here comes the experts with
your answer. Mark. Good tohave you man. Hey, good morning,
Skip. I'm so great to bejoining you and Louise. Of course,
so I've run into this in thepast. There's like a potential like

(02:07:00):
perfect storm when it comes to multand here it is so the maltz production
process. Typically MULT is sold asa finished product as a double ground mult.
So it's you know, you havelike large trees and branches and all
that are ground once into some biglarge shreds like five to nine inches long,

(02:07:23):
and then it's aged up and thendown the road. Then they grind
it into smaller shreds, usually anywherefrom half an inch to like three inches.
That's what we call the second grindor the double grind. And so
long story short, a second grind. If that malt is piled up in
a big pile what we call staticpile, there is a potential perfect storm

(02:07:47):
window of like three to fifteen dayslater where that mult is sold three to
fifteen days later, that's the timeperiod when that moult goes into the thermophilic
heating. Heat process can go anywherefrom one hundred and fifty to you know,
two hundred degrees hot. Right,you can cook it in a multipile.

(02:08:07):
I hear, Oh, Louis's cookedsteak and a whole meal in a
I'm not going to be eating athis house anytime soon. I hope you
wrap those up, Louis. Oh, you never know when you go to
Louise's house. So it's for sure, and just you could get the savici
right because then at least you knowthat doesn't gone too the composing process.
All right, I digress. Soback to the So three to fifteen days

(02:08:33):
is really hot, and if it'sa really big pile with all that heat
and all that mass, sometimes they'llgo anaerobic. And during that thirteen day
period sometimes you walk up and diginto the pile and it'll smell like vinegar.
And what's going on is that perfectstorm when it's really hot, a
really big pile and it goes anaerobicwhere it doesn't have enough oxygen. Then

(02:08:54):
you'll have a pH which skip probablywill sound shocking anywhere from like one and
a half to three. And that'slike an indicator. And if it smells
like vinegar, yes, it's producingacidic acid. And we all know what
vinegars use for in the horticulture industrythese days for people that you don't want
a natural way to combat weak itkills plants. Good. Yeah, And

(02:09:16):
so you have this little perfect stormand then so the good news is and
then what will happen is say thatgets sold, you know, goes in
the dump truck, somebody delivers it, and and and of course the mult
will be physically hot. Plus youhave the acidic acid. And so then
if it sits in a driveway,and then it starts trying to cool off.

(02:09:37):
But then when people start digging intothe pile, well, when it's
piled, when it goes dumps outit, say it takes a couple of
days or whatever it is, youknow, immediately starts to try to reheat
again. But and so what willhappen is often people if they take it
at that perfect storm stage, putit on the landscape. The physical heat

(02:09:58):
can be an issue for plants likethat are more sensitive, like some of
the ferns and begonias, And andthen on top of it you've got the
acidic acid, and so it canbe a real issue. Now larger shrubs
because this fellow and this fellow hadmalted pretty deep too in the past,
like up to ten inches and thistime maybe about five. So that just

(02:10:20):
adds to the potential for the heatthat you're describing, I think, right.
And then larger shrubs and trees willusually withstand it. But you'll see
you know, on their the margesedges of their leaves what looks like symptoms
like if something had a chemical youknow, burn, you know, or
something where somebody's putting you know,something's gotten dumped into the soil or whatever.

(02:10:41):
So that's the So that's the badnews that can happen in that cycle.
The good news is most plants willwithstand it. They may go into
a little bit of shock. Oneof the best cures is just the water
more. If you spread it outreal thick the potentially you know, maybe
send it out a little bit andthen it down to two or three inches,

(02:11:03):
water it more and then if andthen the other thing I would say
if people want to be pretty safeis just you know, if you if
you ever have a chance to smellof it there, if it evere's like
vinegar, it may be in thatstage and then you either want to pass
on it or come back and revisitthe issue in the positive of buying it

(02:11:26):
later. But so the two thingsto do is one, if you have
it the pile, it is like, wow, this is like really hot.
Ideally before you put in the landscapeit should be have dropped under one
hundred and twenty degrees. So that'sone thing you could take a thermometer and
see if it's dropped under. Andthen the second thing, if it smells
like the vinegar. The thing youwant to do, which is kind of

(02:11:46):
the cure both ways, would beto cure it off longer if you can't,
and then it could be as littleas two weeks for curing it and
up to but just to let itcome down on the temperature and let that
pH kind of come back up citicacid to kind of work its way out,
and if you errate it a littlebit more too, that that helps
kind of mitigate the effects of thatacidic acid. Man, Mark, I

(02:12:09):
appreciate that, And Louise, I'mup against another break. But thank you
guys so much. Louise from HeirloomSoils and Mark you're you're my Vego friend
now over there at Vego Gardens too, right. That's great we can so
they're lucky to heank you guys.Thanks so much. Man, appreciate it

(02:12:31):
all. Right, there you go, folks that you just got the answer.
Uh, glad we could provide that. And Bob, I sure hope
you were listening. We're gonna takea little quick break here and I'll be
right back. Bill, you'll bethe first up. Welcome back to Guardenline.
Good to have you with us today. Hey, if you're looking for
a fertilizer that you put down nowand you have fertilized your lawn with a

(02:12:52):
gradual release all through the coming twoor three four months, that would be
Nightcross Silver Bag nineteen four to ten. It's called superturf. And the reason
is it releases half that nutrient overthe coming weeks and months. Literally,
I mean it carries on and on, depending on weather conditions and different things.

(02:13:15):
That release me a little slower,a little faster. But you basically
have got your summer fertilizing done withNitrofoss superturf and you put it down right
now. It's got this supplemental iron. And we've had two collars, say
we talk about iron deficiency in theturf, well four percent additional iron promoting
that uniform, nice green color inyour lawn. You're going to find Nitrofoss
superturf a lot of places because nitrofossis basically a ubiquitously available product. You

(02:13:41):
can find it, for example,the shades of Texas in the woodlands.
You're going to find it in enchantedgardens down in Richmond. You're going to
find it at Fisher's Hardware, boththe one in South Houston on Sophomore and
the one in Laporte on Broadway Street. All places where you're going to get
nitrofass superturf product. Go to Billin Cypress Now, Hello Bill, A

(02:14:03):
good morning. Skip A simple questionout here in Bridge Lines there's not enough
tree for hawks to live in andanyway, we've got a problem with rabbits
eating my foliage. Okay, anysuggestions, Uh, you know, for
rabbits you're kind of basically fencing themout with a real low fence. That
is one option around gardens and things. You just see people put the chicken

(02:14:28):
wira up, get it down tothe ground where maybe a little below the
ground, even where they're not goingto just dig right under it, and
uh that I don't know to seeZara. There is a rabbit repellent out
there, and I can't remember whatit's based on, probably a predator urine
or something like that, but thereis a rabbit repellent. I've never tried
using it before. What about molasses? I don't know that that would keep

(02:14:54):
them away? Have you heard thatit says. They said it keeps barmans
away, like you possums and stuff. Huh. I wonder why that is.
I don't know that that would benew to me. But I used
to use it on the nut grasstoo. Uh huh. Did it work

(02:15:15):
well for you? Yeah? Itjust takes a while. Yeah, yeah,
all right, yeah you you uh, other than what I told you
that, That's about all I wouldknow to suggest. But hey, Bill,
you you can eat rabbits, youknow that, right, They're not

(02:15:37):
that big. I've got people.I can hear screams from all over Houston.
People are how dare you? Okay? All right, I'm just starting
it up a little bit. Ihave a good day. Oh gosh,
I shouldn't go there, but Idid. I did. Hey have you
been out to the Enchanted Forest?And Jenner Forest is in Richmond. It's

(02:15:58):
the garden center that if you're Richmond, you're heading towards sugar Land. It's
off to the right hand side,off to the right hand side. So
what you do is you just headout FM twenty seven fifty nine, twenty
seven fifty nine. Let me giveyou the website for I forget it.
Enchanted Forest, Richmond, TX.Dot com. Enchanted Forest, Richmond,

(02:16:20):
TX dot com. Unbelievable website,excellent, excellent website. You want to
get on there, find out what'sgoing on. It is a place you
go if you need anything in theway of herbs, vegetables, flowers,
trees, shrubs, if you likebutterfly gardens, man, can they fix
you up. They've got the flowersfor the adults. And they have a
lot of good larval food sources,you know, things like milkweed to supply

(02:16:45):
monarchs, or passion vine to supplygo fritillaries, or pipeline for the pipeline
swallowtail caterpillars. They've got all ofthat and then some. And they always
have things going on all the time. There's something happening on Saturdays, especially
in the springtime, out at theArborgate Nursery Arbor Gate. What am I
saying? And I'm halfway across thecounty at Enchanted Forest Garden Center down on

(02:17:11):
FM twenty seven fifty nine. Youknow, you I go on auto pilots
sometimes and that is never a goodthing to do. Let's head out now
to Austin County and talk to Doris. Hello, Doris, Hi, are
you I'm well, thank you.I have a problem in my yard along

(02:17:33):
the curve and the walkways of thedry grass, like it didn't get enough
water. Maybe okay, so dry. If I pull that out and put
some topsoil down on those edges,will the grass be able to spread out?
It will, it'll close back in, But you got to get you

(02:17:56):
got to just make sure it hasmoisture. That's important. Sometimes I bought
silker hosts. Oh okay, wellyou could go that rude too. Then
you're then you're making sure that you'vegot it covered. Yeah, yeah,
that ought to do. What kindof grass do you have, Doris?
Okay, yeah, it'll crawl backin there pretty quick if you I'd give
it a little extra fertilizer too,not extra, but make sure you do

(02:18:18):
fertilize it as well, and thatwill the water. Uh let's see.
Do you like organic? Do youlike synthetic or do you care? I
used the silver bag when I'm fertilize. Okay, Well that's it. That
is that is super turf. It'sgoing to gradually feed it. Uh.
Have you already fertilized that this year? You're saying, yeah, okay,

(02:18:41):
well you ought to be good.You ought to be good to go.
You ought to be good to go, all right, Doris? All right,
thank you so much, you betthanks a lot. I I appreciate
that a lot, that is forsure. Uh. The uh folks at
Southwest Fertilizer, I'm talking about Bob, they bye just make sure that he
has everything you could possibly need.I mean everything, really, eighty foot

(02:19:05):
wall of tools. If there isa pesticide to control insects, diseases,
or weeds, he's got it.If there's a fertilizer, liquid, granular,
organic, synthetic, fast, reallyslowerly, he has it all.
He has it all there. AndI'm going to be there today, by
the way, from eleven o'clock toone o'clock, so you got a two

(02:19:28):
hour window to stop buy, andI hope you will. I always love
to meet the folks that listen toGarden Line. We're gonna be given away
the I can't even see the name, and now my brain just went blank
here for just a second. Hangon something, sorry, Toro. I've
said it three times today, theToro blower and the Toro string trimmer.

(02:19:48):
Can you believe that that's a hugegiveaway thing. We're give away some Medina
samples and products and things. Andby the way, Bob just got a
shipment of this new Medina product calledsuper Grow Plus. Supergirl Plus. It's
a sixteen zero two. Sixteen zerotwo is a wonderful blend. It of
course has zero on the phosphorus andphosphorus. If you fertilize your lawn for

(02:20:11):
years, you have enough phosphorus.It tends to build up over time.
This is a hose end application.It's got iron edta. Remember how I
talked about iron keylate earlier. That'swhat iron edta is. It's a type
of keylated iron. It's got seaweedextract in it. It is going to
be primarily an immediate release, butabout one fifth of the nitrogen is going

(02:20:33):
to be slow release in that hasto grow Supergirl Plus. Hook it up
to your garden hose. One quartcovers four thousand square feet and Bob's got
it in stock. And you needto try this one. This is a
new thing, and if you haven'ttried it before, you need to try
it. So swing by today.I'll you stop at the table and I'll
give you super skip Bucks Super skipBuck skip Bucks and you can take that

(02:20:58):
and get a huge discount off theprice of anything you want to purchase in
there, including the has to growsuper Grow Plus. You're not going to
find a better deal than this.Absolutely. And Southwest Fertilizer where is it.
It's on the corner of Businett andRunwick in Southwest Houston. Here's the
website Southwest Fertilizer dot com. SouthwestFertilizer dot com. Come see me today

(02:21:24):
again. I'll be there. I'llarrive by eleven and I'll stay there until
one o'clock. I used to sticka little longer around. When I do
that, I always love to getto visit with Bob and his team there,
Aaron and all the folks. Theyknow what they're talking about by the
way you carry them a sample inthere, You car them a picture of
something and whatever. They can pointyou in the right direction. They understand
how their products work, so theycan guide you in that. That is

(02:21:46):
important. You know, you gosomeplace and you buy a product from someone
that doesn't have a clue what they'retalking about, and that's just wasted money
and who knows, you may endup doing damage with it. That's why
I like to go to Bob inSouthwest Fertilizer because they do know what they're
talking about. And I'm going tobe there today. Come by and see
me. Let me get a skipsome skip Bucks in your hand so you

(02:22:09):
can go and get a great dealon the many many products that they carry
there at Southwest Fertilizer, including thisgreat new product has to Grow Super Grow
plus the hose inch prayer with asixteen zero two fertilizer in it. I'm
going to head out to Magnolia nowand talk to Ted. Hello, Ted,

(02:22:31):
good morning. Wow, my backyard, Saint Agustine I lost from last
year. I don't know if itwas take all ry rock, chinch bugs,
or heat or combination of all,but I did my best to treat
all three, but it's gone.I just air rated my entire yard and

(02:22:52):
I'm going to fertilize today and thenI was going to put kalman ere a
day and then put side on topof that, uh and then treat for
the take all the root rock becauseI'm seeing signs of that again. Okay,
I wouldn't do the calmandar. Iwouldn't do the calendar. It's a

(02:23:13):
it's a pretty high pH naturally highpH product. And like take all loves
high pH and we we don't wantto encourage it by raising pH anymore than
it already is. Uh. Butuh, you know, a good quality
fertilizer applied at the right time.What what did you say you were fertilizing
with. I'm sorry, other thanthe calmndar, did you have something?
It's it's a slow release, uh, fertilizer. Okay, Like is it

(02:23:39):
the Nelson Slow and Easy It's uh. Now it's some that I had from
my it's less go I think.Okay, all right, Well, I
mean if you got a fertilizer onhand, you can you can, you
know, go ahead and use it. But I would recommend you get you
some Slow and Easy by Nelson.That one will fertilized for the next three

(02:24:01):
months, and it's got several differenttypes of nitrogen so that they get released
very slowly over time out there.Uh. It's easy slow and then with
apostrophe in and then easy slow ineasy. Uh. And it's Nelson plant
food, so that'll get you setup. I'm up against a hard break

(02:24:22):
here, but I think the properfertilizing with adequate watering and regular mowing,
and you're going to grow yourself outof this ted, but not worry about
putting any thing down before I putthe side down. No, no,
I would just get the side andthen I would begin to do the fertilizing.
Yeah, water it twice a daythe first week, once a day

(02:24:43):
the next week, and then backoff eventually to once a week. All
right, thanks a lot man,appreciate it. All right. Our phone
number if you'd like to give usa call seven one three two one two
kt r H. And here's Nicky. Yeah, all right, we're back
here on garden. I'm about toenter our last half hour of the morning.
I just wanted to let's just startby going straight to the phone here.

(02:25:07):
We're going to go to Matthew inConro. Hello, Matthew. How
you doing today, sir? I'mgood, I'm good. What's up?
Yes, sir, I've got acelebration Bermuda celebration in my yard and i'd
like to try to get this torpedograss out of my yard. Oh boy,
what a combo, I know,And you know how taken over more

(02:25:28):
and more I know, I know, and it's a booger. It's a
bogger to get rid of you can. I'm going to suggest a surgical way
to get it out of there,and the alternative to that is not good,
and that's just get rid of everything, kill everything and let the bermuda
come back in. But that I'mgoing to think you're gonna let's try first

(02:25:50):
the surgical. Uh. You knowhow the torpedo grass comes up above the
bermuda, right, it's a it'sa mult upright figorous. If you can
create a wiper applicator and I'll tellyou how in a minute, and put
a product on it to kill grass, I would probably use Glyphoss eight because
it's very thorough in it. Youcould also use a grass only killer.

(02:26:13):
There are products that don't kill broadlace but kill grass. A couple of
those on the market, easy tofind. But if you buy one of
those little gadgets, you get ajar off a shelf with it's got a
little pistol grip on one end andthe other end maybe two section cups or
something like that, and you grabthe jar, take the suction cups off
and get a plate, one ofthose little metal plates at a lumber type

(02:26:39):
store that has holes in it.You know, it's used for joining two
tuba fours. Do you know thekind I'm talking about. It's like a
whole bunch of little holes in athin metal plate. It's about the size
of a deck of plane cards roughly, Yesta, put that on there,
and then put a sponge, akitchen sponge. Just take a standard size

(02:27:01):
sponge and cut it in half andput on there. Put a boat with
a washer to hold the sponge on. So what you got is you got
the same gadget, but you've replacedlet's say the section cup with a plate
and a sponge. The plate justto hold the sponge so it doesn't just
bend backwards. And you squirt thosesponges with the galiposate product, and you

(02:27:24):
go through your yard and you don'teven have to stoop because those things are
about three feet long, and youcan just reach down and grab the torpedo
grass and pull up, and thengrab the next one and pull up,
and you're just wiping it on individuallyto the torpedogress. You're I can get
it all the first time. Justplan on spending the next few Saturday mornings
with a cup of coffee in onehand and your little applicator in the other,

(02:27:48):
and just every time you get achance, just stay on it,
get all of it you can,and you can work your way back out
of it that way without having tokill everything in renovate. Because there's not
a selective product. To kill torpedograss, it won't kill your celebration Bermuda,
Yes, sir, did that makesense? Yes, sir, I
was just wondering, during the dormantstage during our winter months, was it

(02:28:11):
possible I could put something down duringthat time, because of course, you
know, my celebration goes dormant,but then you don't see the torpedo grass.
Yeah, the torpedo grass is dormant, right, Well, you don't
see it, and you know,with the celebration being dormant, I guess
the torpedo grass you know, doestoo. But yeah, I was wondering

(02:28:33):
if at that time would it begood to do something. Now they both
have that same growth schedule of notbeing happy with winter weather, winter cold
and stuff, and so if itwere a broad leaf weed that was a
cool season weed, you could sprayit in the winter and not kill your
celebration because you're right, celebration isdormant. But I think the wiper's probably

(02:28:56):
the best way and if it's alreadygotten so far ahead of you, you
know, at some point you justbite the bullet and you go, I
just have to kill everything and startover. Yeah, in the military,
I cut everybody else's grass. NowI'm trying to take care of my own
grass. I know, I knowI can tell you we're in the military,
Matthew, because I've never been toldyes, sir so many times in
my whole life. And thank youfor that. A lot of it is

(02:29:20):
my mom hitting the back of myhead when I don't do it all right.
Well, you know, family,family's family. So anyway, good
luck with that torpedo grass man.Thank you very much, sir, and
you have a nice day, sir, you too, Bye bye. All

(02:29:41):
right, Hey, have you beento Buchanan's Native Plants in the Heights.
That's right Eleventh Street in the Heights. This this place has been around a
long time, but everybody knows abouthim because it's just cool. It's fun
to go there. I think ofit as almost like a hideaway. You
driving down Eleventh Street and all ofa sudden, boom, you're there,

(02:30:03):
and it's this nestled in to theHeights. They specialize in native plants that
if you're looking for natives, evendown to I want a plant that was
native here in the Harris County,well they can point you to those.
They have those separate out like thatNative Texas plants in general. But Buchanans

(02:30:24):
Plants always always has a good supplyof all kinds of things you need for
your lawn and garden. They're goingto have the fertilizers that I talk about,
they are going to have absolutely havethe soil type products to improve and
create that beautiful, wonderful soil.But are you looking for color like begonias
and silotia. By the way,I didn't talk about solosia earlier when I

(02:30:48):
was mentioning heat tolerant plants. Soilosiais great. It's got those plumes on
top that are colorful. And sometypes have beautiful burgundy leaves. I love
it. In College station we callthat maroon where I come from. But
beautiful burgundy maroon leaves. They havethat trees native trees. You know,
we're talking about Earth Day. Thisstimmy year for Earth Day, and they

(02:31:11):
have thirty percent off their Native Texastrees. How can you how much better
than that? Can you do?They also have their life below all purpose
soil thirty percent off of that aswell. So here's your excuse. There's
a time to get it done.Any kind of plants for decorating, for
creating beauty, herbs and vegetables andeverything else are at Buchanan's Native Plants.

(02:31:37):
Very knowledgeable staff absolutely steer you inthe right direction for success. And let's
just put it this way. It'sjust a fun place to go and to
explore it just is. I lovegoing into there and you will too.
You probably already do you probably knowabout that. Let's see where are we
going to go? Now? I'mgoing to head out to Tyler and talk

(02:32:00):
to Nancy. Is that right Tyler, Texas? Yes, yes it is.
Well, actually I live on LakePalaestine. That's a little ways out
of there. But and I saidpictures just now, I just found the
address, but I'm sure if youhard to get to. I have a
plum tree that is two years oldand it's got maybe a little bit bigger

(02:32:22):
than a quarter size plums on it, but it doesn't seem to be growing
any bigger. Also, I havea lemon tree that looks like it needs
a really bad haircut. I've hadone lemon in four years. I have
something that's eating a few of theleaves. I'm just wondering what am I

(02:32:48):
doing wrong? We don't have microlife out here, are ace hardwares or
any other place? Okay, whatis a can I go online? What
would be a good for I'll purposefor all my plants ventrum the deck,
Yeah, in my guarden. Well, if you can't get the micro life

(02:33:09):
up there, you probably have nitrophospertilizersavailable up there, and that would be
a fine one. If you're lookingfor organic, then you would need to
look for something that's got the Medinaproducts in it. That would be a
good choice. There. I'm lookingat your pictures. I did get them.
The plum has got some little thingsthat are sucking juices out of the

(02:33:31):
bottom of the leaves, and soI would get an insecticidal soap product and
spray upward, upward from underneath theleaves to knock those things out. It
could be spider mites, it couldbe something else, but it's pretty severely
affected by that. The holes inthe leaves I wouldn't worry about that's not
significant. But you do need toget that plum out of the container and

(02:33:54):
into either bigger container or out inthe garden soil hand because the containers are
a little on the small side andit's gonna stunt it like plums. But
that's last on my back deck.Yeah, my garden so very good.

(02:34:16):
So on the on the lemon tree, do you see the one branch that's
just yea out there? I do, I would, I would trim those
back. I'm sorry, but Ihave got to run, Nancy, I'm
I'm up. I've already passed abreak I didn't catch. Okay, thank
you. Trim that wild branch backa little bit, balance it out,

(02:34:37):
all right, We'll be right back. Well, welcome back to the garden
line. Good to have you withus today. Well we are ending the
show here in just a little bit. And I see we got some folks
on the board, so we aregoing to jump right out there and head
to beat Eyes, Texas and talkto Dane. Hello, Dane, Hey,
how's it going? But doing well? Doing well? How can I
help today? Man? I've gota couple of tomato plants of my raised

(02:35:00):
garden, and uh, some ofthe leaves on the tomato only two of
them, one more so than anyof them all the leaves are curling upwards.
And I've been reading on it andthey say the wind can do that.
Is that true? Well, alot of times we see it,
uh, when it gets a littlewarmer than it's been. But varieties differ
a lot in that. And nowwhen you say, oh you do me,

(02:35:20):
not just the new growth at thetop, you're talking about the older
leaves too, right, That iscorrect? Yes, yeah, I think
that's a natural physiological thing that isnot going to affect production. And I
wouldn't I wouldn't worry about it,Yeah, because the virus would just affect
the new growth, gotcha. Yeah, Yeah, And it was. It

(02:35:43):
was weird because it was it's moreso one plant two plants, than the
other two. And they are twodifferent of the four, they're two different
varieties. Yeah, yeah, andthat that's kind of normal. But don't
don't worry about it. It's it'san okay deal. Uh, just uh
get ready to enjoy your tomatoes.Hopefully they're in good sunlight. You're gonna
get good production. They are andthey're already growing good. So I appreciate

(02:36:05):
your man. Keep up good work. Thank you, Dane. Say aha
to my friends over there at thefeed store over by Carlos. You're just
a rock throw away from them,right, I was there this morning.
Good good, good folks, goodfolks. Thanks, thanks son, bye
bye. If you are looking fora quality potting soil for your containers out

(02:36:26):
on the patio, how about jungleLand. Jungle Land flour and vegetable.
Jungle and flour and vegetable potting soil. It does two things that a soil
needs to do. It drains wellwhen there's access. It drains the access
away, but it holds onto moisture. So you gotta have good air air
in the soil and you have goodmoisture in the soil. Both that is

(02:36:46):
important and jungle Land can do justthat for your soils. Now, where
do you find jungle l and soil? Well, Katie Ace Hardware has got
it. Ace Hardware City and Memorialyou can find jungle Land there as well.
Or Stanton Shoppings done in Alvin.You can find your jungle and products
there. Let's now head out toFriendswood and talk to Beverly. Hello,

(02:37:07):
Beverly, Hello, good morning.I have a pine apple pear that has
never given me any fruit till thisyear, and it is loaded, and
I covered it with a netting.My question is, how do I know
when they're ripe? Pineapple is afairly firm pair. It's not like a

(02:37:28):
Kiefer or anything like that. Butyou'll notice a little bit of a color
change in the scheme, that's onething. And you'll notice it gets a
little bit softer too, Okay,so you kind of can feel with your
hands a little bit. If you'rethinking, you know, this is looking
pretty ripe. You could try samplingone, right, I thought I would,
But I just wondered about the colorbecause the different pairs have different colors

(02:37:50):
than I was, Yeah, wonderingdoes it turn yellow? Yeah, well,
Pineapple, I'm surprised you haven't hadany production before because Pineapple asked the
crows got it, so I gotand covered it with a knitting so they
can't get to it or the squirrel. So yeah, yeah, I'm hoping.
All right. Well, uh,it's a good one. It's one

(02:38:13):
of the older ones that we have. It does the green does kind of
blush out to a chartruse. Sometimesyou'll see a little bit of color on
the sunny side of the pair too, a little bit of a blush on
that, but it's a it's agood old fashioned pair. It's tough,
kind of hard to kill. Butthey are pretty hard. It's don't think
in terms of like a boss ord'ango lit in the grocery store. This

(02:38:39):
is gonna be a harder pair.Okay, all right, thank you so
much. Enjoying your program. Allright, thank you man, I appreciate
that. Good luck with that.Let's go now out to Pasadena and talk
to Frida. Hello, Freda,Hi, how are you this morning?
I'm well, I'm well, what'sup? How about Peggy Martin? Rose?
And I'm putting it in a placethere was an ano there that didn't

(02:39:01):
do well because it's been full sun. And I want to know what I
need to do for the soil andwhat kind of fertilizer to put on it.
I would get a good roast soilmix. You'll find those. They
are widely available. You probably getthem done in Pasadena direction. Local ase
hardware stores there are going to havethem. But if it you know,
if it's from airloom or from nature'sway, and it says rose soil,

(02:39:24):
then that is what I would use. I would build a good sized bed
with it, you know, don'tjust put roast soil in a planting hole,
but mix it in with your soil, and then even add a little
more rose soil so you have reallygood drainage. That's important. And then
plant, plant your Peggy Martin.And she's not hard to be she's not
hard to make happy. She's prettypretty good tough ROAs. Just fertilize it

(02:39:48):
periodically and then get ready because it'sgoing to take off, run and so
have something for Peggy to grow on. Okay, all right, thank you.
I'm having all my pintilance. Ihave a chance to grow on.
Oh that's wonderful. That's wonderful.Well, it's it is a beautiful,
beautiful rose. That's why it's sopopular. Okay, thank you so much.

(02:40:11):
Thanks a lot, Fred, Youtake care, appreciate it. I
appreciate your call. Wow, thatwas it. That kind of went fast.
I want to remind you guys thatI'm going to be at Southwest Fertilizer
to day to day from eleven o'clockto one. So after the show,
I'm going to head over there,say hey to Bob and the team,

(02:40:31):
and get busy answering your gardening questions. At eleven will start off at the
table. If you come by thetable, I will give you some skip
Bucks. You have to come byand ask a question to visit me at
the table and I'll give you skipBucks and you can use those to purchase
products out there in the store.You know, I told you earlier.
Bob has gotten in this brand newproduct, a brand new product from Medina,

(02:40:54):
the super Grow. It is thehas to grow Supergrow for lunch.
It's a sixteen zero two. It'son a hose in hose end sprayer,
so you hook the hose up toit. It takes about ten minutes to
go through your yard and do it, and most of the nitrogen is going
to be immediate release. You're goingto get a nice quick green up.
Those of you just put a lawnin and want to get that growing.

(02:41:16):
Once it's established and rooted in,it'd be good for that. If you've
got an existing lin it'd be goodfor that too. But you hook it
up like that and then about afifth of the nitrogen this kind of slow
release. And it's even got somekeylated iron in it. I mean,
it's just all around. This isgood now, by the way, that
product is good for gardens and otherthings too, you know how it is.
I sometimes something is sold for thelawn, but it's good for other

(02:41:37):
things as well. Bob's got it, He's got a great supply of it.
He's ready to go. So comeon in, let's get some in
your hands. Stop by, geta skip buck and head over there.
And you need a really good discounton this cool new product or anything you
want to buy. There at SouthwestFertilizer would be given away samples of Medina
products. They're going to have colddrinks and popcorn there. Uh, they're

(02:42:01):
going to be given away. Getthis, this alone is worth the price
is showing up a Toro battery poweredblower and a Toro battery powered string tremor.
That's good. Tour is a greatbrand and battery is a way to
go these days. All at SouthwestFertilizer, bring me your samples in a
ziplock bag, Bring me photos ofthings that you want to identify it or

(02:42:24):
diagnosed, or maybe it's a sectionof the yard you would just like to
get, you know, some adviceon like hey, how can I bring
some color in here? Or whatdo you think? What would you do
if you had this section to kindof make it a little more impressive or
a little more effective. Well,we'll talk about any of those things you
want to you want to talk about. Don't forget too My schedules are online.

(02:42:48):
If you go to Gardening with Skipthat's me gardening with skip dot com.
There's a lawn care schedule January throughDecember. What are the art danic
fertilizers, what are the synthetic fertilizers? And when do you apply them?
And they're all listed there. Itmakes it easy trace. Mineral supplements are

(02:43:09):
on there. Aerration cor aeration,proper mowing. You think I know how
to mow my lawn, now listento me. There's information on there that
will be very helpful for you.And watering, I'll tell you month by
month, what is the historic averagenumber of inches of water that a Houston
lawn needs per week in the absenceof rainfall. Forget about the rain.

(02:43:33):
I mean that is what it is. But I can tell you, like
right now, we are in April. April is a month where three quarters
of an inch per week is howmuch water your lawn is using. And
then there's my lawn pest disease andweed management. Schedule, same thing for
insects, diseases and weeds.
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