Who Wants A Green Lawn?

Skip answers listeners' phone calls all morning.

Episode Transcript

(00:00):
K t r H Garden Line doesnot necessarily endorse any of the products or
services advertised on this program. Welcometo kt r H Garden Line with Skip
rictor It's shop. Just watch himas so many good things to seas not

(00:35):
a sun. Good morning, goodSaturday morning. Glad you're joining us today.
We are looking forward to visiting withyou about the things that are of
interest to you. What kind ofquestions do you have? What's what are

(00:56):
you struggling with right now out therein the lawn and garden, or maybe
you're planning on putting in something newand would like to visit about that.
I always encourage people to try somethingdifferent, try something different. If you've
never grown vegetables before, don't haveroom for a garden, that's okay.
How about in containers we can helpyou with that. Have you never grown

(01:19):
a cut flower garden? Now there'sa fun thing to do. We my
wife and I put one in abouta week ago. Some more flowers and
things for enjoying indoors. Why nottry that aout? How about herbs?
Herbs are a thing that a lotof people have not tried. If you
tell me, well, I don'thave room for an herb garden. Yeah,
you do. You got containers.If you have vegetables, you put

(01:41):
herbs at the end of the vegetablerows. You can have used herbs in
the landscape. There's some herds thatare quite herbs that are quite ornamental as
a matter of fact. Well,if you'd like to visit about any of
those things or other things, giveus a call. It's seven one three
two one two ktr H seven onethree two one two k t r H.
We're going to go out here andtalk to our early bird of the

(02:04):
day, Mel and Tomball. Hey, Mel, Hey, good morning,
ship morning. I have a problemwith molds for years here, and we
tried all kinds of stuff. Imean, I didn't make this gas stuff
that you can put in area,which is expensive, and the even little
guillotine that you can use to killthem. Right, most of most of

(02:25):
their products are dealing with just movingthem out, including a castor oyle treatment,
which I haven't tried yet. Uh. Is there anything out there that
I just assumed kill them instead ofjust move them away? Yeah, well
you've got to. It's a challengeto control them because they let me just
make sure we're talking about moles.Rather than gophers. They don't have the

(02:47):
big mounds of dirt above the ground, right, No, it's the mold.
It's those little ridges you know thatthey pop up. And I tried
a lot of stuff, but justlike I said, I don't want to
move them around. I want tokill the little raffle because they have dig
enough. We have through the rootof the flowers and all that stuff.
Yeah, we're right there and tumble. If you go out to the folks

(03:09):
at D and D feed which ison twenty nine to twenty west. Uh,
they have got they've got various thingsthat you can use for that.
You may have tried some of thethings they have, but maybe not all.
Let me, do you have apen or pencil handy? I got
it ready. Let me let megive you something to write down. Agra
Life Learn. That's a g RI Agra life l A F E learn

(03:34):
l E A r N and thenput dot t a m U as in
Texas and m University dot e dU, so it's Agralife learn dot TAMU
dot e d U. If youwill type the word moles in to that
search, that's the bookstore. Andthere is a free publication managing mold damage

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you you they email you the orthey send you the link to the pdf.
You can print it out, youcan read it on your computer,
and it goes into great depth.I am not a wildlife expert, but
they are, and the folks thatwrote this will give you the ins and
outs of dealing with moles and waymore information and not give you on a
quick phone call. But between thatand running by D and D and grabbing

(04:18):
some of the product that they havethere, you're you are going to end
up with basically your options or traps. And there are some poisons out there.
There are also uh you know,sometimes people can exclude them by putting
in an underground fence around a smallgarden area, but most most folks don't
have the either the area protecting istoo big, or just the wherewithal to

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do that. All right, we'llwe'll give it a thirty five. Well,
good luck with that. I appreciateit. Yes, sir, thank
you, you've et you take care. Good to have you with us today
our phone number seven one three twoone two fifty eight seventy four. If

(05:08):
you've not done your summer fertilization yet, or if you did, an immediate
release fertilizer one of those that dissolvesaway whenever water hits it. You probably
want to go ahead and do asummer slow release fertilization and Nitropos superturf.
That's their sober bag. The silverbag is the nineteen percent nitrogen. Half

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of that is slow release nitrogen.It's a nineteen four to ten number.
That's the numbers on the bag,and a Nitropos Superturff will gradually feed your
turf over the summer season. Thatis how you want turf to receive.
It's especially nitrogen. You don't wantit all to get it at once.
You want to gradually feed it overtime. That creates a good root system
and it just ensures success. Nowyou're going to find Nitrofoss Superturf at places

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like Bearing's Hardware both on Bissonette andon Westheimer Plantation Ace. They're in the
Richmond Rosenberg area as well as Hidingand Feed on Stubner Airline in the Memorial
area. Easy to find as allnight Foss products are night Fass Superturf silver
bag sixteen four to ten for agradual feed on through the summertime with answers

(06:17):
still hopping out there at the BeeSupply and Dayton. You hear me talk
about them from time to time.They're always coming up with some really new
cool things. You know. Theyrecently announced they're doing this b rental program.
If you've got five to twenty acresyou live within fifty miles a Dayton,
they will come out and put beeson your property. They will walk

(06:38):
you through the process of how yougo about getting an ag exemption because bee
that is an agricultural production enterprise,and they'll walk you through that process.
They bring the bees out, theyset them up, they take care of
them, and so it makes itvery easy to go about doing that.
But go to the website to findout more. Theb supply dot Com,

(07:01):
the bsupply dot com, the bSupply out there in Dayton, Texas.
They at beginning beekeeping classes. Thoseare awesome ways to find out how to
get started or even if beekeeping isfor you. You will find those classes
to be very very informative. Theyhave any other classes. I'll tell you
about more as we get closer tothem in time. They also now have

(07:24):
the leaf cutter bee purchases that youcan make where you have these bees that
come and they live in little holesin wood or in paper tubes. Actually
that make it easier to clean.And you just hang them in your garden
and they are very very efficient pollinators, excellent pollinators. But give them a
call at nine three six seven sevensix seven three nine, or just go

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to the website where you'll also findthe phone number thebesupply dot com. Bees
are a fascinating thing. And bythe way, they have a live highve
there too, indoors, so youcan walk in and see bees working behind
plexiglass. You know, they comein through this long tube from outdoors into

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the into the the living indoor beehive, and it's just cool. When I
was a kid, you could goto a place called is it Nickerson Farms
or Stuckies that used to have thebee bees indoors and you'd walk up to
the glass and see them. Thoseare so cool. Driving across the country,
those have been replaced by BUCkies noweverywhere our Texas company. Maybe BUCkies

(08:31):
needs to get some bees in thewall. That would be that would be
interesting. Let's take a little break, We'll be back for your calls.
Seven one three two one two ktr H. Welcome back to the guard

(08:54):
line. Good to have you withus, looking forward to talking to you
about whatever's a ventry to you ourphone number seven one three two one two
fifty eight seventy four seven one threetwo one two five eight seven four.
I should say instead of whatever isof interest to you, I say whatever
horticulturally is of interest? How aboutthat? With there are a lot of

(09:18):
topics that are definitely way out ofmy league. When's the last time you
went to Plants for All Seasons?Up on Tomball Parkway two forty nine,
that's the road that goes up toTumble. You just head north like you're
going to Tombull and when you exitfor Luetta crossover Luetta and that's right there
on the right hand side. Frontdoor just faces right on to forty nine.

(09:39):
Really easy to find, easy toget in and out of. And
they always have good plants there.They always good have good information there.
And that's you know, that isone of the best reasons to go to
a quality, equality, independent gardencenter like Plants for All Seasons. They've
been doing this since nineteen seventy three. And if you think you got a
brown thumb, you just go inthere and start talking to them and they're

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gonna turn it green. They're gonnaput the right plant in your hand.
They are going to give you theadvice on how to grow that plant,
and then when you have questions,they're there to help you. It's not
just like one of these places wherenobody knows what they're talking about. And
well, I won't go on onthat, but you know what I mean.
Now, they they are there tohelp you. You can bring a
sample in, you can bring apicture in. Uh, you know,
you can go, hey, thishas happening in my yard. What what

(10:22):
are my options? What could Ido? And they know what to tell
you, they know the right answersand they're willing to do it. So
Plants for All Seasons just think ofthem as that full service place to get
your green on as we'd like toput it. Plants for All Seasons dot
Com. Plants for All Seasons dotCom. You can call them at two

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eight one three seven six one sixfour six two eight one three seven six
one six four six Plants for AllSeasons dot Com. Check them out today.
It's a good time to be plantingsome of these warm season cool excuse
me color plants that we want Iwas in there the other day at Plant

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froll Seas living all the shade lovingplants, lots of beautiful shade color options.
Those of you who live in aneighborhood maybe where you have a little
bit of trees and not quite enoughsun for some of the flowers that love
sun well plants fall seas. I'llget you fixed up on that. We
can't go out now to Liberty andtalk to Tracy. Hey, Tracy,
morning Skip. I've got a questionabout a peace lily that I received as

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a gift. It was on thefront porch. The front porch faces the
western sun. It was getting toomuch sun. I repotted it in some
quality rose sola and brought it,brought it inside. It's facing in a
trying to The window is a northwindow, so it gets a little bit

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of light, but it's it's justlike it's melted. It gets watered about
once a week or so, okay, kind of when it's dry. Now.
This morning, when I left forwork, I put a grow light
on it to see if some supplementallight might perk it up. And I
just wanted to see if you hadany suggestions. Yeah, we'll getting it

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out of direct souns good supplemental lightcould be helpful. You know, peace
lily Chinese evergreen they call it.It is a very low light tolerant plant.
But if you want to get itto grow, you know, grower
superducos. Don't grow them in superlow light. They grow them in plenty
of light to get the most energyin the plant and the most health growth

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and things like that. So yeah, you can do that. Just be
careful with overwatering. If you potit up and it's in let's just say
it has a lot of soil.For the amount of greenery sticking up above
the ground, it's really easy tokeep it too wet, and they hate
that. They don't want to gocry go dry. But you kill a

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lot more of those by overwatering thanby underwatering. And then in our house
the temperature is so miles compared tooutdoors that the water use rate is very
low as well. So just bereal careful on that watering. Uh,
And that I've pretty much saturated it, and then it's got to opening at

(13:16):
the bottom and I drain off allthe water. So is that possibly why
it's all wilted down looking? Probablya little too much. Yeah, Usually
I would recommend potting those in apretty chunky material, you know, just
to make sure that the water drainsthrough really well. Roast soil is a
good mix, a good blend,and it should be. Okay, I

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just would I would just be carefulwith the water. I think that's the
main The main thing is riot right, Okay, I will cut back on
the water and the you don't thinkthe grow light's gonna have a negative effect
on it, So I'll try thatfor a few days, right right,
just as you know, as longas you know within reason. I mean,

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I don't know whether you just havean inexpensive grow light or some of
these are just about create almost datefull sun levels of light. And I'm
sure that's not what you're putting onit. But just yes, supplemental light
is always good for plants that youwant to get them to grow indoors.
Okay, Well, I appreciate yourtime and I enjoy the show. You
have a great weeking. Thanks forbeing listener, Tracy, appreciate that.

(14:24):
Glad we could be of some assistanceto you if you'd like to give us
a call. Talk Gardening seven onethree two one two fifty eight seventy four
seven one three two one two fiftyeight seventy four uh visiting with ian id
IT Nature's Way Resources yesterday and theyare, boy, they are having one

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heck of a summer sail out there. You know, they have native plants,
lots of native things and now thosethat are not native. But they
have an excellent, huge selection ofTexas natives and pollinator plants in general,
just plants that will bring in thepollinators, which is always a good thing
to add garden. Now, theyare having thirty percent off of most of
their plants going through July first,so we got about a month, a

(15:07):
little over a month of this opportunity. Thirty percent off is a huge good
sale. Now that excludes native sunperennials. That just the native sun perennials,
but the rest are all part ofthat deal, a huge selection of
those natives and the pollinators. Forexample, they also have a twenty percent
discount on all the composts, allthe malts, and all the soil blends.

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Do you hear that right? Twentypercent all composts, all malts,
and all soil blends. But toget that a lot of times I'll say
something and people don't listen to everythingI say, so, please listen to
everything on this one. You gotto mention Garden Line. Say you heard
about this on Garden Line. Whenyou go into Nature's Way Resources, talk
to Ian, talk to any ofthe staff there, say I heard about

(15:54):
a twenty percent discount you guys haveon compost molts and soil blends. Now
that includes both the bag product andthe bulk product. So haul your trailer
in there. Bulk's always a betterdeal, right, buy bulk. You
don't have to bag each a littlebit of it, or take your trunk
in there and your car, openit up, take your trailer, take
your pickup either way, bagged orbulk. The twenty percent off both of

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them, and again that is thatis an excellent, excellent opportunity. Just
remember when you go in there toget this deal, you need to tell
them you heard about it on Guardlineand you'll be well on your way.
Nature's Way, By the way,where is it? If you don't know,
you need to go up there anyway, because it was one of our
original outstanding soil yards that we've hadhere in the Greater Houston area. On

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Interstate forty five going north forward Conroe, We're fourteen eighty eight. The road,
the highway that goes to Magnolia,where it comes in from the left,
you turn right and go across thetracture just south of Conro just a
little bit, and that's where Nature'sWay is. Sherwood Sherbrook. Excuse me,
I always want to say Sherwood.I guess I'm thinking of Robin hood
Brook Circle, Conroad, Texas,one on one, sure circle. If

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you want the website Nature's Way Resourcesdot com, take advantage of that.
This is a a really good opportunity. This past week I began preparing a
flower bed. Now, if youlisten to garden line, what is the
most important thing? I hope youknow this. What is the most important
thing you do to have success withplants? The answer is you're right.

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You prepare the soil first. Andhow do we say it? Brown stuff
before green stuff. Well, you'veheard people say do as I say,
not as I do. Well,this is actually one I did this.
I have a soil in the frontflower bed that is the stickiest, nastiest,
poorest drain clay on earth. Imean, it is horrible, and

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we excavated some of it out todo a drain a French drain along the
driveway there to get that out ofthe bed. That helps a lot,
uh. And so I'm hauling thatsoil to a spot where I just need
some fill in a back corner,a little low spot in there that I
need to basically plug a hole with. We'll we're getting it out of the
bed. And so what am Igoing to do. I'm bringing in already

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got some different kinds of organic materials, decomposed organic matter from compost to bed
mixes. I've got some rose soil, I've got some veggie and herbmic I've
got different kinds of things that I'mputting in there and just building that soil
and building that soil up and creatinga nice, well drained soil. Before
I do that, I'm putting inexpanded shale. And probably don't talk about

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expanded shale enough. A lot ofour you can buy it. Our soil
providers will provide you with expanded shalealso. But what it is the easy
way to think about it is imaginekitty litter that has been fired super hot.
I'm talking about the old gray claybased type kitty litter. That's sort
of what expanded shal looks like althoughit comes in different particle sizes, but

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it's been fired super super hot,so it's a very hard particle that is
expanded and pitted with holes like thelava rock on a barbecue pit, but
on a microscopic level. And I'mputting expanded shale in. Some studies done
by Texas A and m Agrolife upin the Dallas area many years ago found

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that when you put about three inchesof expanded shale into the worst clay soils,
that old black clay that they haveup there that we have along the
Gulf coast, to when you putabout three inches of it in and build
it up, that's enough to whereyou significantly improve the internal drainage of that
soil and it lasts a long time. Compost is a wonderful thing, all

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the decomposed organic matter thing. That'sgreat. We should be using them all
the time, but they decompose away. They don't stay as composts. They
go toward humis and they decompose away. Expanded shale has that structural integrity where
it stays like that. So thefirst thing I'm going to do in that
flower bit is put out a lotof expanded shale and work it into the

(20:03):
soil. Then I'll add some composton bed mixes to the top and work
it into the soil. And whenI'm done, I've got a bed that
drains well, and then when Iput my plants in it, I'll have
success. If I'm not going todo that, I'm going to have to
stick something that likes a swamp,like a Louisiana iris or button bush or
something that can take soggy conditions.But we try to avoid that. If

(20:26):
you have not been to ACE Hardwarerecently, you really need to go in
and check them out. You know. ACE is a place for whatever we
need. During the holiday season,they were the place for Christmas lighting.
During the spring, when we're startingto fertilize our lawns and things, they're
the place where you get every fertilizerI talk about on garden line. We
just went through a horrible time ofweather where they were the place that helped

(20:49):
you with dehumidifiers, with bleach,to clean things up with sandbags and all
kinds of They're always the place.I don't care whether you're going for traditional
hardware items or whether you're trying toturn your outdoor setting into something really beautiful.
ACE is a place for that,and you're going to find it.
Pest control, disease control, weedcontrol for your lawns. I like to

(21:12):
do some of the nice outdoor things, from their barbecue pits to the strings
of lights to create that ambience.To mosquito control. Oh yes, they
have all the products for that aswell. Go to ACE Hardware dot com
and find the store locator to findone of forty stores near you. And
now here's Nikky with the news.Welcome back to Guardline. Hey, let's

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talk gardening today. If you'd liketo do that, here is the number
for you to know. Seven onethree two one two k t r H
seven one three two one two ktr H. Simple as that. If
you've not done your fertilization in yourlawn summer, now's the time to do

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it now. Folks at Nelson PlantFood have created the Turf Star line,
which is now standing line of fertilizersfor our turf, designed for our conditions
here, for our soils here inthe Southeast Texas area. First of all,
they have Bruce's Brew. Bruces Brewis one we think of as an
immediate release fertilizer because it does releasemost of its nutrient early on, which

(22:23):
is good for a quick green up. But it also has two different types
of slow release in it, soit continues to extend release. So let's
just think its front forward. Inother words, you're going to get the
majority of your release early on,but it's going to continue to feed over
time a good while. In fact, over time it's good for quick green

(22:44):
up. It's good when you havenew turf, you're trying to get in
some fast growth, trying to givea lawn a boost that really needs to
get going. It just provides allthe things that your lawn's going to need
in the right ratio. By theway, Slow and Easy Nelson's very slow
release fertilizer. Now it has somenutrient release early on, so you don't

(23:06):
have to wait six months for fertilizerto show up. No, it'll release
some right away, but it willextend release even four months or more out
into the season. So if youdo Slow and Easy by Nelson in the
Turf Star line Slow and Easy,if you do that now, you will
not need to fertilize your lawn againuntil fall. It will fertilize your lawn

(23:26):
between now and fall. It willcontinue to release a little bit over time.
It helps acidify the soil. It'sgot that moderate growth rate release,
which is so important. You gettoo much nitrogen at one time, you
get a lot of top growth atthe expense of root growth. And let
me make something kind of clear here. When people see a number on the

(23:48):
bag that's really high, let's saythat first numbers are really high nitrogen number,
Well, that doesn't mean that you'reputting a lot of nitrogen on.
It depends on how much you putdown. So if you just put a
little bit of it on, you'renot putting much nitrogen on. If you
put a lot of a number that'svery low in nitrogen, you just really
dump a lot on, then you'readding a lot of You see what I'm

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saying. It's a percentage game.So when you use something like slow and
easy, even though the first numberis high, that first number is like
being released over several fertilizations through thecourse of the next few months. So
at each fertilization, essentially you're notputting too much on. So don't let
the big numbers fool you on there. It's how much you apply it's the

(24:32):
concentration and how much you apply.I don't want that to be confusing,
but I do want it to beclear when you follow the schedules that I
put online at gardening with Skip dotcom, when you apply fertilizer at the
proper rate, you're gonna have goodresults and slow and easy and outstanding product
by Nelson Plant Food that'll do justthat. I hope that provide a little

(24:55):
bit of clarity there, because Iknow people sometimes get confused about that.
The real thing we're looking at onthese lawn fertilizers is the ratio of nutrients.
You know that over time, whenyou fertilize with the right ratios,
you're gonna build the right nutrients intothe soil and not have excessive of things
that eventually we'll catch up with you. You know, years ago here on

(25:15):
guard Line, there were years whereyou know, triple thirteen was the fertilizer
to apply, ten twenty ten evenwas put on lawns. And that middle
number does not need to be thathigh. It doesn't for the long term,
doesn't hurt if you do it oncetwice or two years of it,
three years of it, But longterm, you want to stay with a

(25:36):
three one two four win two.And that's why these fertilizers you hear me
talk about are design like that,and that is the best way to do
it. If you're seeing some alittle bit of yellowing on your grass,
that is typically due to an irondeficiency. Now there are different reasons we
have iron deficiency. For example,lack of iron in the soil. That

(26:00):
would be one to have an irondeficiency. But sometimes you have iron but
your pH is so high that theplants can't take it up. For example,
take an azalea and plant it ina high pH soil and you will
see iron deficiency because the nutrients aren'tavailable to that acid living plant. Now,
also sometimes iron can't be taken upbecause the pH is high, but

(26:23):
also phosphorus is very high that midtalnumber, and when the middle number gets
really high, the iron in thesoil is changed into a form that's unavailable
to the plant, and so it'sthere, but the plant can't get it.
Like driving a bunch of nails intothe soil around your plant, there's
a lot of iron in those nailsnot available to the plant, not in

(26:45):
that form. So the goal isto keep the phosphorus in a lower range
in our soils, and over timeit builds up because nitrogen washes away,
it volatilizes away, potassium even willleach away. The third number on the
bag that phosphorus. It sticks tothe soil particles. They hold it very

(27:07):
tightly, and you can have phosphorusleaching, but in general it builds up
over time. So year after yearafter year, fertilizing with high phosphorus can
end up creating a problem because onceyou have that problem, you can't go
and take the phosphorus out of thesoil. It's there. So that's a
whole other issue. But just rememberthat when you see iron deficiency, it

(27:29):
could be due to a lack ofiron, it could be due to the
high pH and it can be dueto very high phosphorus levels. And the
fourth thing, actually there's four andfive. In the spring, when the
soil is cool and we're real rainy, we often have a little temporary iron
deficiency in the lawn and that justsort of goes away, and that's due
to the cool, cool, wetsoil conditions that can cause that. The

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fifth, gosh, five different reasons. Iron efficiency probably more is root disease.
Take all root rot. Roots,as the name tells, you take
all root rot. And when youdon't have growing root tips, you can't
take up iron. Iron is takenup at the end of the growing roots.
So when you stop root growth,you stop iron uptake. And so

(28:14):
that is another reason that we oftensee yellowing in the summertime in our lawns.
Is a little bit of take allroot rot involved. So though that's
kind of in a nutshell iron inthe soil. But when you see yellow,
Saint Augustine, it's probably an irondeficiency. That's the ninety five percent
of the time. That's probably whatyou're seeing. And if you don't know
for sure, grab a leaf bladethat's yellow and pull it off and hold

(28:37):
it up to the light. Andif you see streaks of yellow and green
going down that leaf blade, that'sa sign of iron deficiency. It's called
intravenal chleurosis. That's the fancy wordfor the day. But anyway, you
like to give us a call ongarden line seven one three two one two
five eight seven four seven one threetwo one two fifty eight seventy four.

(28:59):
Hey Jorges Hidden gardens done in AlvinHave you been down there yet, those
of you who live down in thatarea. It's on Elizabeth Street in ALBN
twelfth seven twenty one Elizabeth Street,just south of Highway six. So folks
in Santa Fe and Dickinson, ofcourse, Alvin a'l Gooa Arcadia, Alta
Loma Hillcrest. This is a littlehometown garden center you got going on down

(29:19):
there. Hoy's always got a goodselection of things. I mean he's had
roses, including some nice Peggy Martinroses for a good while. Now.
He got in some citrus a whileback. That is just outstanding selection of
options. You'll find things like vegetableplants. You'll find things like of course
I mentioned the fruit trees and othertypes of fruit trees as well. Horay

(29:42):
carries the three sixty tree stabilizer forwhen you're going to plant a new tree.
Now, he's open on weekends onFriday from eight am to four pm,
on Saturday from eight am to fourpm, and on Sunday from eight
am to four pm. Friday,Saturday and Sunday unless he's changed those times.
I need check with make sure that'sstill going. And I think he's
open some during the week as well, so just give you know, go

(30:04):
buy there and check it out.This is a this is a garden center
that just keeps getting better when yougo. They just keep expanding and adding
to it and making it a betterand better place. And if you're in
anywhere around the Alvin area, thisdefinitely is a place you need to swing
by. They carry the kind ofplants that do well there and they'll get

(30:26):
them planted for you, get themestablished, or they'll sell them to you
to plant. They also have ussome services for taking care of, you
know, planting and things like that. But Jorges Hidden Gardens in Alvin is
one you need to visit again onElizabeth Street in outn south of Highway six.
We're going to take a little breakagain for some news, of course,

(30:47):
and when we come back, we'lltake your calls if you'd like to
go ahead and get on the boardwith the producer. Seven one three two
one two fifty eight seventy four.Is it still over? We still drew
since my pole still ain't bringing nicesoon. Welcome back to the guarden line.
Good to have you with us.We are here to answer your gardening

(31:11):
questions. It's seven one three twotwo fifty eight seventy four. Those of
you out in the Kingwood area,when was the last time you went by
Warrens Kingwood Garden Center. You know, you got two great places out there.
I was out at Warrens not toolong ago, just visiting and picking
up some things for some color plantingwe did. We did a little color
color bed. I got some niceflowers to uh, really set things off

(31:36):
for summer. Some pentas Egyptian starflower. Butterflies love it. And there's the
clusters a little five pedal flowers.That's what it's called star flower. Uh.
And it just beautiful plants, excellentplants. We got some angelonia and
several other things. As a matterof fact, while we're out there,
you know, it's easy to findthings you're looking for, and it's easy

(31:57):
to find the whole complete set memberbrown stuff before green stuff. When you
go out to Warrens, you're gonnafind the airloom soils products. You're going
to find the mulches that you need, everything by the bag, the fertilizers
that you need you hear me talkabout on garden Line. They're there.
They even have the little filling stationfor the jugs. And you're all set
up. Then you bring the plantshome with it and you can have beauty.

(32:20):
And they very knowledgeable staff. Ialways enjoy going out and visiting with
Michael and the team out there atWarren's Garden Center, you know the place.
It looks beautiful. In fact,when I walked in, I was
really surprised at just how much colorthey had. It was like, Wow,
that's great, and it always looksthat way. They take care of

(32:43):
it. They know how to putthings together. They have wonderful combination planners.
They'll help you. You know,if you say I want one of
the I want to be a bigplanner, just full of color and stuff
draping over the side, they'll tellyou, well, grab some of this,
grab some of that, grab someof that, and they'll help you
put that. In terms of choosingshop, put that thing together to take
home and put together. Warren's GardenCenter and Kingwood Garden Center out there in

(33:07):
the Kingwood area definitely worth a trip, no matter where you live. We're
going to run out now to Montgomeryand talk to Brett. Hello, Brett,
how are you this morning? I'mgood, sir. How can we
help? Well, I've lived outhere. A couple of years finally got
the yard turned around. We havea really hard clay soil out here,
and I have my front yard isbasically a hill. It's pretty steep.

(33:31):
Okay. Anyway, the question iswatering, Yeah, and frequency, and
you know, quantity. I guessI've read a lot about it, and
I'm not really sure how to waterthis yard. Yeah, that's good.
On my schedule, the lawn careschedule, I talk about watering and how
much water typically in an average yearwe would have each month, how much

(33:53):
to put on our goal? Ingeneral in the sun, is this Saint
Augustine? You said, yes,it's saying Augustine. And the front yard
faces west, so it gets alot of eating the afternoon. Okay,
in general, about one inch ofwater a week. Now, if it
rains, that could be your water, if it especially a slow rain.

(34:16):
If not, you want to irrigate. If you can get it to where
you're irrigating once a week, that'sbest, No more than twice a week,
because you want when you water,you want to wet the soil deeply,
and it takes about an inch towet the soil deeply in a clay
soil especially now, if you havea slope and if you have a clay

(34:37):
and the water's going to run offbefore you apply an inch, which it
will, it'll run off. Youwant to do what's called cycle and soak.
That means a sprinkler comes on forhowever long it can and when it's
about to run off, that's howlong that cycle should be set and then
let it go off for about fortyfive minutes and then come back on again.

(35:00):
So on a given morning, youmay water two or three times during
that morning. Early early morning.That's the best time to get that good
soaking. And once you do that, then don't water again for a while
as long as you can wait,because that allows oxygen to come back into
the soil and the plant develops agood, deeper, resilient root system.
And as you do that, overtime, you build a grass plant that

(35:22):
doesn't have to be squirted every dayto keep it alive. Yeah, that
makes sense. I currently have itwatering, you know, one day,
but I have it watering at threeo'clock in the morning at nine o'clock at
night. Yeah, but maybe I'lltighten those up and do it all in
the morning. Definitely do it allin the morning. You keep it wet
all night, and you're gonna havemore gray leaf spot, You're gonna have

(35:44):
some other in the fall, youhave more brown patch, large patch kind
of thing. So get it downin the morning so when the sun comes
out it dries up and O.But yeah, if you put all your
water on I'm going to say inone watering, that could be a split
watering, you know, forty fiveminutes apart. If you do that,
you get your what the money youspend on water in the ground as a

(36:07):
bank account. That will help.When you do a little squirt every day,
you wet the foliage and that evaporatesand you lost all that water and
then you just end up not wettingdeep enough to build the root system that
can be resilient, and that's whatyou need when summer comes. Well,
it makes sense. I appreciate yourhelp. Thank you, Brett. Good
luck with that. Thank you youtake care. Sweet Green is a fertilizer

(36:30):
by nitrophiles, a natural fertilizers basedon a molasses type base that microbes have
worked on and created a really qualityfertilizers. Eleven percent nitrogen, one of
the highest nitrogen levels of any organicfurtizer. You're going to find sweet green
is the kind of thing that youenjoy putting out because the smells so good.

(36:52):
I jokingly say, yeah, whenyou buy it, you're going to
want to make another trip around theLoop in Houston just so you can enjoy
the smell on the back of thecar. Anyway, the sweet Green fertilizer
will release into the soil because it'smolasses space, the microbes gun nuts.
That's why organic gardeners put down molassesin their soil for that same benefit to
the microbes, creating that rich environmentand when the microbes are happy, your

(37:15):
plants are going to be happy,in this case your lawn. You're going
to find sweet green in a lotof different places. It's wide, widely
available, like nitrofosh products are.For example RCW Nursery up on Tombaill Parkway,
but Way eight they have it.Growers Outlets outlet up in Willis has
it. If you go out toenchanted forest in the Richmond Rosenberg area,
they're going to have sweet green outthere as well. The storms that we

(37:42):
had that came through and just didtheir number on a lot of our communities
around here, a lot of homestoo. They took a hit on Buchanans
native plants and the Heights and theyhad some tree issues that came down and
stuff, and they cleaned up fromthat reallyzingly fast. And the place is
just they were in full swing lastweekend already. But Buchanans in the Heights

(38:07):
they're on Eleventh Street, is oneof those places that's like you found a
gem somewhere hidden away in Houston.You're going down Eleventh Street and you look
up and you see Buchanans and youjust want to wander in and you should,
absolutely should. They have every kindof plant you could possibly want,
from house plants to the best selectionof natives in this whole region. I

(38:30):
mean, they have natives that arejust native in the Houston area. They
have natives that are Texas natives,excellent selection, and they have things you
wouldn't expect, like maringa for example. I was just out in my garden
this week looking at my maringa plantswere finally waking up from the They kills
them back to the ground in winterwhere I live and down in most of

(38:52):
this area as well. But anyway, the maringa plants were coming back up.
I was just thinking about though.They are very healthy, nutrient A
rich leaves, all kinds of it'sbasically maringas a superfood. It's a tree.
But here again it goes back tothe ground typically, or you cut
it back to the ground. Highvitamin D at a fungal, antemiicrobial,

(39:12):
I mean, just any kind ofthing. But they have those at Buchanans,
so you can put it in.It's a little bit of an ornamental
like mini tree or shrub, andthen you can just enjoy the leaves.
It's not something you find anywhere.How about plants that mosquitoes don't like to
sit in because of their aromatic foliage, like the cinitronella and the rosemary and
lavender and some of the basils,for example. They have those. They

(39:36):
even have combinate. You can puta combination of those together. Really cool.
All of Buchanans Plants eleven Street inthe Heights. Go to Buchanans Plants
dot com. Buchanansplants dot com.You've been listening to garden Line. We
are going to take a break forthe top of the hour in the news
and we'll be back if you'd liketo get on the board and be the
first up when we come back sevenone three two one two five I have

(40:00):
eight seven four seven one three twoone two fifty eight seventy four. I
want to mention, by the way, while we're talking, on the fifteenth
of June. I know that's alittle ways out, but put that on
your calendar. Fifteenth of June,I'm going to be at Wabird's Unlimited in
bel Air, Texas, one ofthe Wilbirds stores here in the Houston area.

(40:22):
Wabird's Unlimited in bel Air from elevenam to one pm. Put on
your calendar, come out and see. Kt RH Garden Line does not necessarily
endorse any of the products or servicesadvertised on this program. Welcome to kt
RH Garden Line with scip Rictor's justwatch him as the world gold so many

(41:00):
pay Welcome back to garden Line.Good to have you with us. We
are here to answer your gardening questionsat seven one three two one two fifty
eight seventy four seven one three twoone two fifty eight seventy four. I
want to tell you about an eventtomorrow that this Memorial Day weekend, there
is a patriotic concert out in Sugarlandhonoring our fallen heroes. Now, this

(41:24):
is the special event is free andit's open to the public. It is
called a Night to Remember, honoringour fallen Heroes. It is tomorrow night,
Sunday night, at seven o fivepm seven oh five pm at the
Sugarland Town Square in Sugarland, Texas, right in front of the City Hall
facade. If you want more informationabout it, you can dial seven one

(41:45):
three eight two four sixty one twentysix seven one three eight two four sixty
one twenty six. They've got alot of talent there, the Houston Tidelanders,
the Fort Ben Brass Band, thedancers from Ballet Grace under the direction
of Cookie Joe and Grammy Awards songwriterssingers Bill and Kim Nash all there.

(42:06):
Part of that tribute to those whohave fallen in their service to our country
certainly something we all benefit from.And while we're talking about that, one
of the reasons we have Memorial Weekend, just taking time to recognize that the
piece, the comfort, just thesecurity that we live in here came at

(42:28):
a price. I'm paying the ultimateprice for it. So if you're interested
in this patriotic concert, it's thirtymember chorus, brass band, dancers,
Grammy winning singers all there. It'sgoing to be at again the Fort Bend
County excuse me, the Sugarland TownSquare down in Fort ben County tomorrow night,
seven o five pm. I hopeyou can make it free. It

(42:50):
can't beat that. By the way, bring some canned food for donation.
They're going to be taking donations ofcan food for the East Fort beIN Human
Needs Ministry, other a good reasonto be part of this great event.
We're going to go now to Magnoliaand talk to Chuck. Hello, Chuck,
Hey, how you doing. I'mwell, sir. How can we
help? Uh? What are youropinions on liquid aeration? What is the

(43:20):
what kind of product is it?What is being injected? What liquid is
being injected in the ground. Idon't know all the compounds. I just
I know it's called liquid aeration.Okay, well, let me let me
comment on it then a little bit. Sometimes a soil doesn't take in water

(43:40):
because it seals up and it doesn'tallow water to percolate in very well.
And there are some surfactant types ofthings that can help break that surface tension
a little bit and help improve theinfiltration a little bit. There are sometimes
I've run across people that were injectingkind of a slurry of humate type product.

(44:01):
And anytime you get humates in theground, you you're benefiting the soil,
improving soil structure and therefore helping alittle bit. But for the ultimate
aeration, you want to be ableto take a core out of the soil,
pop it out onto the top ofthe surface, and then have some
composts top dressing to fall down inthose holes, and that over time is
really going to do the most goodbuilding the you know, the internal drainage

(44:25):
on the soil. So it couldthe liquid aeration could give some benefits depending
on the conditions of your soil andthe product you're using, but in general
I would depend most on the coreaeration for the benefits. Okay, all
right, thanks, all right,I hope that helps. Yeah, there's

(44:47):
there's always a lot of new productscoming out, a lot of new things
and claims and stuff, and Ijust need it. I need to see
some evidence, and I also needor personally try it and see how it
works. Mostly just some proof thatit's actually working. Doesn't mean something new
doesn't work, doesn't mean it does. I keep an open mind on all

(45:07):
these things, but in general,I got to understand how that's working.
And a lot of times things claimsare made that don't that don't hold water.
Oh that was a pun. Ohmy gosh, I didn't even know
I was making that. That's funny. Hey. Nitrofoss has a product called
bug out Max that is an insectcontrol product, and this stuff works fast.

(45:30):
Within forty eight hours, it's goingto kill up one hundred and sixty
different kinds of insects. It alsolasts a long time. Nitrofoss bug out
Max will if you apply it,it will basically protect your lawn over the
coming couple of months against bugs thatmay show up. For example, chinchbug
season starts. It can start asearly as June, typically comes a little

(45:52):
bit later, a little bit furtherinto the summer. We typically if we're
going to have a webworm sod webwormseason, we will start to see it
at that time. Hopefully we won'thave one this year, but you never
know. It's kind of a rollof the dice, it seems. Bug
out Max is very very effective formanaging those kinds of pests that you might
be dealing with and you're gonna findbug Out Max places like plants and things

(46:14):
up in Brenham. You're gonna findit at Plants for All Seasons on two
forty nine. You're going to findit at Aspa's Ace up in the woodlands,
all places where you can find nitrofoss products. We're going to now
go to Dickinson and talk to Linda. Hello, Linda, Hi. I
have a crape mark Mountain Long andthe looks very healthy. The leaves on

(46:39):
it are curling, not like realtight like a girl's pair, but not
a normally very interesting when leaves curlon those kinds of plants, not specifically

(47:01):
Mountain Laurel, butle plants in general, there are a couple of options.
If it's the newer growth that's doingthe curling, sometimes a hormone type herbicide
the drift from it can cause thatkind of damage, or accidentally getting some
on the foliage of the plant,and a very low dose can cause that
kind of damage. There's another thingthat can cause it, and that is

(47:23):
certain kinds of piercing sucking insects thatfeed on the foliage as it's trying to
expand, and it just sort ofgets twisted up from the chemicals in their
mouth parts as they feed. Soit's going to be one of those two
things. If you wanted to sendme a photo of it up close in
good sharp focus, as well asa photo of the plant in its setting,

(47:45):
I'd be happy to take a lookand see if I see anything other
than that. Okay, what isthere a treatment for? Well, it
depends on what you find. Ifit was a hormone herbicide damage, such
as a broadly weed killer apply tothe lawn, then you just wait it
out. It's going to have toin time resume normal growth. If it

(48:07):
is an insect, you could usecertainly an insecticide, but I hate to
send you out to buy and spraya product when we don't really know what
we're dealing with there. But sendme a picture. Turn some leaves over,
if you can take a picture ofthe bottom of the leaves, look
for any insects you see. AndI'm going to put you on hold,
Linda, and if you will,the producer will give you my email address

(48:29):
and then you can just attach yourphotos to that. And it replied,
don't don't embed them in the photo, I mean in the email, but
attach them. Okay, okay,thank you, all right, all right,
there we go. I just justsent you. All right, Linda,
here we go, put on hold. There we go talking about Texas

(48:53):
moun Laurel trees. Now is thetime to get some trees planted. We
still haven't hit summer yet. Iknow it's coming, but with proper care,
you can plant a tree any monthof the year. And Verdant Tree
Farm has a wide variety. Theyhave an awesome website. You need to
write this down and go check itout Verdanttreefarm dot com. There you will

(49:14):
see a listing of trees as youscroll across the page and it'll give you
a nice write up, like what'sthe difference between the Montezuma cypress and a
regular cypress that's on there. Eachone is described that they sell. They
also have their palm trees the samekind of way. Their an outstanding source
of palms. Verdon has trees.If you're looking for a quick shade tree,
they have trees even up to likeseven hundred gallons in size. An

(49:37):
excellent source of trees. You canfind them in West Houston on Barker Cypress.
Down in Paarland on Broadway, Street. You can find them in the
Heights area where Itin and Yale cometogether. They have free in office design
consultation. Take some pictures, sitdown with them, let them help find
the right tree for you. They'llbring it out, they'll plant it.
When they plant it, they giveyou a one year warranty on that installation

(50:00):
because they know how to plant itright. Verdant Tree Farm ten percent discount
for military and first responders. AndPatrick himself is has been military and we
do appreciate him doing that as wellas a service at Patrick at Verdon has
provided for our country as well.We're going to now go up to let's

(50:22):
see you. No, I'm I'malready passing a break. Oh my gosh,
I gotta take a break here.I'll be right back seven one three
two one two fifty eight seventy four. Cause you know, I'm all of
ba dabas ba daves No shob nomallum ba daves By Daves Now shovel,
I'm allum ba daves By Davis.Now, welcome back. Good to have

(50:43):
you with us on garden line.We're all about that green stuff, the
plans, the flowers, the vegetables. That's what we want to talk about.
Here's our number seven one three twoone two fifty eight seventy four seven
one three two one two five eightseven four. Hey, Wildbird's unlimited.
The place to get all of yourwild bird supplies. That's where you get

(51:05):
quality feed. Now you'll find cheapbird seed, and I mean cheap.
I don't mean inexpensive. I meancheap. If I'm cheap, birds seed
a lot of places, and ifyou look at it, it's filled with
those little red bebes. Birds don'tlike to eat that, at least most
birds don't kick them on the ground, and you end up not getting you
know't buy a pound of bird seed, you don't get a pound of bird
food. You get about a halfpound or less. In some cases.

(51:28):
Some of them is almost all thatred stuff. Anyway, wildbirds has quality
stuff like the nesting super blend.Very important to be putting that out now.
We got some barn swallows at ourhouse. We enjoy those things.
They are antics every year and theyare raising a nest right now. But
a lot of birds are nesting.Super blend from Wallbirds is excellent. Now
you're going to find wildbirds in sixdifferent locations around the Houston area go to

(51:52):
WBU dot com forward slash Houston WBUas in Wildbirds Unlimited dot com forward slash
Houston. You can find all ofthem there, as well as quality feeders,
quality bird houses, quality books,and most of all, quality advice
and help so you can have successand enjoy the birds out in your landscape.

(52:15):
By the way, don't forget nextNo, on the fifteenth of June.
I know it's a little far out, but on the fifteenth of June,
I'm going to be at the WallbirdsUnlimited in bell Air. So those
of you down southwest are really anywhere, come see me there at the Wallbirds.
See what I'm talking about when Ibrag about these stores. We'll answer
your gardening question from eleven am toone pm at the Wallbirds Unlimited out in

(52:37):
bell Air. We're going to gonow to Gary and West Houston. Hello
Gary, Hello, Skip, Goodmorning morning. I've got a couple quick,
couple quick questions about a seven weekold Zoisa patch that I put on.
It's rooted well, it's taken invery well, and the residual fertilizer

(52:59):
I'm sure is go on. Theysaid to wait four to six weeks and
early on I had bought a bagof imperial, which I still had,
Yes, and I was fixed.I was going to go and put that
down and then maybe in some certainamount of time follow it up with the
nineteen four. Yeah. Ten,is that okay? Yes? If you're

(53:20):
gonna do imperial, do you havea pin or pencil handy? Yeah?
You would normally put imperial out atseven pounds per thousand square feet. I
would do it at about three anda half, about half of that,
And I know that's a very lowrate, but do it about half of
that, and then about a monthlater, do it about half of that
again, and then after another monthor so, then do your imperial.

(53:44):
Okay, because what we're gonna dois rather than right now, with the
rain and the nice warm temperatures atgrass gloves, it's gonna grow a lot
crazy. And I wouldn't want tooverdo the imperial in one application right now.
So we're gonna make a slow releaseout of it by splitting it in
half, and then then the silverbag will carry you all the way to
the fall fertilization easy enough. Now, I've got a big nuts edge problem

(54:08):
in my backyard. I've had itfor a while I've used sedge hammer in
the past it works, but I'mconcerned there's a you know, some of
it is in the zoysia, andI'm concerned about but treating it with sedge
hammer plus and any effects on thezoizia. I wanted to get your thoughts
on that. Yeah, as faras maybe spot treating or something, there

(54:29):
are several products that are labeled foruse in turf for nutsedge you just have
to read the label on whatever whateveryou apply. I applied to product I'm
trying to remember the name of itnow with Halo's sulfur on Halo like the
Little Angel Halo Love your Head,Halo sulfur on and it was labeled for

(54:49):
zoysia and so but just read thelabel on them. It'll tell you yeah,
yeah, so that that should beokay. But again, when it
comes to chemicals and things, oneformulation of the same chemical versus another,
they're not always the same and they'renot always labeled for the same So just
just check that to be extra sure. And I would definitely do spot treating.

(55:13):
You know, you don't need tohit the hole on with it,
and you're gonna have to stay atit because nuts edge is persistent, and
even stuff that kills it doesn't killit, meaning you may have it pop
back. You may have some nutsthat haven't popped up yet that show up
later. So just the thing isto be ruthless. When it gets about
five leaves on it, you needto spray it. So just as a

(55:37):
general guy, don't spray it whenit first pops out of the ground.
Let it get some leaves so youcan get a lot of that product on
the leaves of the nut's edge,and always add a spread er sticker just
to be sure to make sure itsticks to that glossy nuts sedge leaf.
Yep, we'll do. And Ihad a bag of Heritage G should I

(55:59):
put that out as a preventative orwait for some sort of symptoms? Because
I don't have any symptoms of anyI would not put Heritage G out.
Now that's a very good product.The next you can use it against the
number of things. It's one ofthe best products for take all root rot
and that's something we typically If youlook at my schedule at gardening with Skip

(56:19):
dot com, the schedule I havein October and November two applications for take
all root rot. If you havethat problem in your lawn, and Heritage
g is an excellent one to useat that time. All right, Gardeningskip
dot com. Yeah, there's twoschedules and they're both free and makes it
easy to find fertilizers and pest controlproducts if you need them. All right,

(56:40):
And while I've got you to yourknowledge, do those little stick in
pH readers work? And what isour pH level here? Typically it varies
a lot, typically kind of higheron the on the Gulf Coast clays.
As you get into the East Texaspiny woods, which we also have in
this listening area here, then you'reyou're looking at a more acidic type of

(57:01):
level. But the stick in metersnot that great. Uh, you know,
they're they're reasonably close, but thereare things that can throw them off
a lot. I would it's notthat expensive to have a soil test done.
And if you know, if you'vegot a lawn and you do a
good random soul test or if youhave a garden or flower bed, that

(57:21):
tells you really what's in there,and you don't have the soil test every
year, so that that's right,Okay, all right, excellent, thanks
for you, bet you Bet,take care, good visit with you.
Let's see, we're going to gonow to Sandy in southwest Houston. Hello,
Sandy, Hi, Hi. Ihave some tit some kind of tit

(57:45):
caterpillar that's on my apple tree.Okay, and you know they've just wrapped
them filter on all the leaves anduh do I cut off the branch and
then spray the rest of the tree. Yeah, what's what's the best thing
to do? Now? Don't needto cut it off. The leaves will
regrow from those ten caterpillars. Youcan if they've got the webbing around them

(58:09):
and helps to break it up alittle bit. And then just spray with
a product that contains B t beas in boy teas in tom and spray
it and they will eat it andthat will kill them. It's an organic
natural disease of caterpillars. And it'sreally fine. You're in southwest Houston,
you should just run over to SouthwestFertilizer at the corner Abyssina and runwick.

(58:34):
Bob's got bet there. He alsohas something called Spinosaid, which is good
for caterpillars there as well, andboth either of those you just but you
got to squirt the leaves because youwant them to eat the leaves, and
the webbing keeps the spray from gettingon the leaves. So that's why we
break it up. You know,just stay wellle coat hanger or something up
there and kind of or maybe abroom and just kind of knock the webbing

(58:55):
down a little bit and then andthen spray them and be ready to do
it again. You may have todo it again, you know, a
week later, do it again aweek after that, because it'll always be
a few more that hatch out.But they're really easy to control, and
that stuff is almost as low toxas you can get. So is the
be Is there a preference for theBT versus the Spini set? They both

(59:17):
work well, Spinner said, lastsa little bit longer than BT does,
but they're both good. I don'tlike to over use anyone pesticide because we
tend to see resistance build up sometimes. Uh. And so if you either
way, you're gonna you're gonna dofine. Just know that BT, after
about a day it's not working.It breaks down in the sunlight. But

(59:42):
that's nice. It's natural, it'snot toxic. It breaks down. Those
are all good things. So allright, okay, yeah, just just
go overbut you bet I appreciate that. Yeah, Bob is on Bisinet at
the corner the corner of Bissinet andRenwick. Uh. And you know,
Southwest Fertilizer has every thing. Imean, if ever i'm talking about a
fertilizer, he's got it. Ifever i'm talking about a pest control,

(01:00:06):
disease control, we control by passall of that. But it's not just
product in there. I mean he'sgot an eighty foot wall of tools.
It's excellent quality tools. They gota little motor repair shop in the back
for that as well. It's justthe place to go for anything you're gonna
need to take care of your lawnand garden and make it beautiful. Southwest

(01:00:27):
Fertilizer dot Com is the website.He also has Azamite. You know.
Azimite's the product we put down aboutonce a year. It's a product that
has a lot of the trace mineralin it, the ones, not the
three numbers on a fertilizer bag,but the essential minerals that are needed in
tiny, tiny amounts. You cango to Azamite Texas dot com and whenever

(01:00:49):
you're i usually would say do itwhen you're fertilizing, because you're thinking about
it, then don't put it inthe hopper with your fertilizer. Just fertilize
and then put your asmite down andput it down over the lawn. It
works very well. And again yeah, Bob has that at Southwest Fertilizer.
We are hitting a break here whereI got a head to Nicky in the
news. I see I got abunch of folks out there, y'all.

(01:01:09):
Hang on, We're going to getto each one of you. We'll be
right back. She's mad all missusZimbs, welcome back to Guarden Line.
Good to have you with us today. So if you have not done your
summer fertilization, it is time anda good slow release fertilizer like Nitrofoss Superturf

(01:01:35):
that's the nineteen four to ten fertilizernineteen four ten, the silver bag that's
the easy each Saint halfway across thestore and looking for the wall of fertilizers,
look for the silver bag Superturf nineteenfour ten by Nitrofoss. Half That
nitrogen is going to be in aslow release form, so it's going to
feed for three or four months goingforward. It's a nice long, gradual
feed that helps reduce mowing up totwenty five percent. And it also so

(01:02:00):
we'll provide a good root system foryour lawn by not overdoing the nitrogen in
any one point in time. It'sdesigned for our hot and humid southern climate.
It does well in our soils herein the southeast Texas area. And
nitrofoss is easy fine, and that'san important thing. You're going to be
able to go to Ace Hardware Citya Memorial Drive and find this product.

(01:02:22):
You can go to Katie Ace Hardwareout in Katie and find this product.
You can go to Stanton Shopping Centerand Alvin. They also carry the Nitrofosh
products like this super turf the slowrelease for summertime. Let's see, we
are now going to go to Danand excuse me, Bob and fullsher Bob,
thank you for waiting. How canwe help, Yes, sir,

(01:02:45):
thanks for checking my call. Ihave an issue with webs forming over the
leaves and limbs of my red buds, and they've got hundreds of tiny little
white worms on the leaves and suckingthe lives out of my weeds, I
mean out of these and I've neverseen them on the red buds before.
I've had them on the cons huh. So I was just hoping to find

(01:03:07):
out a good insecticide or some kindof way to control that or get rid
of it. Actually, yeah,well the simplest, easiest, safest stuff
is Bacillus thuringensis, which we justcall BT. BT is okay. I
heard that a minute ago. Iwas afraid you already answered my question,
and I yeah, that's okay.That's a different plan on anyway. Yeah,

(01:03:29):
it's a different planet, different worms, no problem, because they're they're
outbreaking now and a lot of peopleare going to have that same question.
You can go to your full shaAce hardware store on FM three fifty nine
there and they're going to have BTthat are also going to have something called
spendo said s P I no sA D. But with both of them,
the caterpillars need to eat them,so if you have to break up

(01:03:52):
the web a little bit to getit on the foliage that they're feeding on.
That's why they put that web,is to protect themselves. Break up
the web so you can spray theleaves they're eating, you know, if
they're on one side of the treeand you spray the other side, it's
not going to do any good.You have to put it on the leaves
and then within twenty four hours theyneed to be chomping on those leaves to
get the most effect. I see, okay, I see. And the

(01:04:14):
younger they are, the more effectivethese are. When they're just about to
pupate and become a moth, theseproducts aren't going to be as effective.
I gotcha. I got so.Yeah, they're pretty young. I assume
they look pretty young. It's allpretty fresh in the last couple of few
days. Yeah, yeah, Wellit's okay. You can knock them out
real quick and that tree will releafwherever you lost some leaves. Okay,

(01:04:36):
great, great, all right,Sarah, thank you very much. Hey,
thanks for the call. Appreciate that, Bob a lot. We're going
to go now to Hurta in SpringBranch. Hello, Herta, good morning.
Big problem. When they turk downmy trees that they had to after

(01:04:57):
the tornado. They use big tractorequipment, okay, and they have killed
I mean there's no grass. Yeah. My yard is one hundred feet wide
and I have maybe three feet leftof grass. Okay, Yeah, what's

(01:05:20):
the best thing to do. Well, if you've got enough sunlight, which
if you lost the tree, Ibet you got a lot of sun then
any kind of a turf grass,well you can put it back in there,
Saint Augustine, if that's what youhad, you can put that back
in. Uh. And you justneed the fastest way. The easiest thing

(01:05:41):
is to solid side it. That'salso the most expensive. Or you can
put some plugs in there, butthen you're going to be fighting weeds in
the bare spots between the plugs untilthat grass fills in. So that's the
trade off money versus hassle and time. Well, now if I saw the
squares, is it okay to maybea skip for foot? And will they

(01:06:12):
grow together? Or do they will? They will? Oh? They will?
Yeah, if you buy the squares, if you buy those little side
pieces, you can or you justhire somebody to do this. But you
can even take a like a machettiand chop them into maybe three or four
strips, you know, So thinkof them as a doormat and you're cutting

(01:06:34):
the doormat, cutting the longside andyou know, three three or four strips.
Put those strips about a foot apartand get them into the soil and
water them in. You got towater them every day, a couple times
a day lightly the first week,and then about once a day for another
week to get them established. Andby the end of the summer season they're

(01:06:54):
going to have filled in. Butthat's the way to get the most out
of your dollar. It is.You're trading it for work and labor.
All right, okay, all right, thank you very much, Thank you
heard. I appreciate the call.You take care. Moss Nursery done in
Seabrook awesome, awesome place. Ifyou have not been there, I don't

(01:07:15):
care. If you're listening to mein Huntsville, Texas, you need to
drive down and see Moss Nursery.It is an amazing place. Eight acres
to wander through, and it's likeyou've gone into another time, almost in
the jungle or whatever. I mean. You you know, you're walking around,
it's just beautiful. Every time youturn a corner, there's some unusual

(01:07:35):
thing going on. They have agreat selection of plants. I was looking
at some of the elephanteers, thetarot and the allocacia and colocasia. Those
are the two most people would lookat either one and call it an elephant.
Ere they do. They have anexcellent supply of succulents, beautiful cactus,
many of them which are actually bloomingright now. But at Moss you're

(01:07:56):
gonna find everything you're looking for.It is not just an the garden center.
This store is a seventy year oldfamily owned operation where you wander through
eight acres into the beautiful houseplant greenhouse. What do you need? Do you
need herbs? They got him.Do you need flower? Of course they
got them. Do you need maybea beautiful staghorn fern hanging from a giant

(01:08:18):
old tree in the backyard. Theygot that, They got pottery, they
got everything. You just have togo and allow time because you're gonna want
to wander at Moss because it isthat unique kind of place. Down in
Seabrook, Texas on Toddville Road,Seabrook, Texas, Moss Nursery. Stop
in there and check it out.Here's the website Maas Nursery dot com.

(01:08:43):
We're gonna now go to Dan inBeaumont. Hello, Dan, thanks for
waiting. Hey, I enjoy thisshow because I learn aff a lot of
stuff that I just wouldn't normally pickup on. And I appreciate what you're
doing. I've got a question abouta least footed bug. I've got them

(01:09:05):
all over my tomato plants and they'resucking the life out of those things,
and I'm trying to get rid ofthem. Other than trying to vacuum them
off and app them and all thatstuff, there's just is there any easy
way of doing it? Not aneasy way. The real in a nutshell

(01:09:27):
fast answer on the leaf footed bugsis that the leaf footed bugs are easiest
to manage when they're young, andas they get older and get wings and
are flying around, it takes apretty stout insecticide labeled for the plants or
spraying them on to kill them.And there are some synthetic perithroid insecticides that
will kill them, but they're allover the place, so it's kind of

(01:09:50):
like your sprain everything. Trying tohunt down a bug sprain in the morning
is helpful. They're a little moresluggish, but if you can catch them
when they hatch out they look likelittle red with black legs critters that are
hanging together in a herd, youcan. It's as easy as swatting them
into a pail of knocking them offinto a pail of soapy water, because
they can't fly away or spray inthem at that stage. They're very susceptible

(01:10:13):
at that stage. But once they'readults, you gotta you gott to move
to probably a synthetic perihid to knockthem down. I was thinking about attacking
them with the assassin bug and gettingsome some assassin eggs. Yeah, and
trying it that way. The assassinbugs won't eat leaf footed bugs. They
just they just don't now, notnot really now, they won't. It

(01:10:36):
won't be a solution that you areaccept you find acceptable, right, Okay,
all right? What about next,say next year? Is there anything
I can do now to prevent themfrom Yeah, not do now, but
go online and look at what theireggs look like. They look like little
flat shingles, and you may seethem like if they're in your tomatoes.

(01:10:59):
You'll see them on a tomato.When you know what the eggs look like.
When you're in the garden, justalways be checking your plants out and
you'll see these unusual looking eggs andgo ah, you'd take your prunters and
you'll prune that off. And you'llnever see a dozen of those bugs that
were all laid together like shingles.So that's step one. Number two is
learn what the nymphs look like,and again I said, it was reddish

(01:11:19):
orange with black legs. And ifyou're checking, then it's easy to control
them because the earlier you control,the better your effect is going to be
and the safer your options are goingto be for controlling them. So getting
educated is how I would prepare fornext year, and then I think you'll
find it a little bit easier todo, right, Okay, all right,

(01:11:43):
well I appreciate your guys, thankyou appreciate the call out. There.
By the way, B and Bturf Pros is our go to place
for doing core aeration and compost topdressing in the South Houston South and West
area. They cover that area,so if you live in Sugarland or Missouri

(01:12:03):
City or as far east as Pearlandor down south like Fresno, Sienna,
Iowa, Colony, Manville or Cola, that's their area. They do fertilizing
as well for you. But theycome out and they do a quality product
of quality leaf more composts. Theyget it from Cena Molt so you know
it's first, first class stop.Now go to the website bb Turfpros dot

(01:12:28):
com. Bb Turfpros dot com.Here's a phone number. Always listen to
guardline with a pen in your hand. Seven to one three two one or
two three four fifty five ninety eight. I'll do that again. Seven to
one three two three four fifty fiveninety eight. Their number one goal is
customer satisfaction. They do high qualitywork. I've seen their work. I've

(01:12:50):
talked to these folks. It isall about making a personal connection and that
is why they are so highly ratedand people who have hired them to do
work are so satisfied with bnbachur Pro. And there's very little that you can
do to make such a great impacton a lawn is to do a deep
core aeration, especially in these claysoils and with compaction especially uh. Then

(01:13:15):
a deep core oration followed by aquality compost top dressing that enhances the grassroot
system and it will just help thatloan to recover. We're gonna move now
out to belve up. I'm sorryI've gone over break. Chris, your
first up. When we come back, we're gonna take a quick break I'll
be right back. Welcome back toguard Line. Good to have you with

(01:13:42):
us today. We're going to runstraight out to Belleville, Texas and talk
to Chris. Chris, thanks forbeing so patient. Hey, good morning.
Quick question. I've got my wifea bunch of rose bushes, and
our grasshoppers are coming out of thiscoastal field next to us. Oh boy,
yeah, oh boy. What canI do? Well? I mean,

(01:14:03):
you can spray the roses things thatwill kill the grasshoppers, but they
eat it, and meaning they eatsome of the roses to get the poisoned
to die when they're coming out ofa grass field nearby. It's a challenge
to do it. I've talked topeople that tried roe cover fabrics over the
roses, you know, to getthrough that grasshopper onslaught. But I've had

(01:14:23):
other people tell me that grasshoppers willeat through the row cover fabric to get
to to get to the roses.So about all that you're left with,
you know, would be doing justa spray like a seven S v I
N spray over the roses or someother synthetic perrethroid labeled for use on roses

(01:14:45):
by fenthering kinds of products. There'sprobably not a by fenther and it's gonna
be a different synthetic perithroid, butgetting it on the rose foliage, so
when they try to chew on it, it takes them down pretty quickly.
It it'd be nice if you couldgo out and treat that fear yield,
but that's not practical, of course, to go out and do. But
this happens all the time, andthey come in like, you know,

(01:15:08):
a biblical horde coming into your propertyfrom that field height. Wow, you
know I would I would try therow cover fabric even just to see if
it'll hold them off a little bit. Maybe even spray the fabric with with
the product. Then there's an idea, I've never never thought of that one

(01:15:28):
before, but spray the fabric asthey try to eat through it. But
yeah, they're just they're just notaway. They're coming in. They're flying
in, and so your first shotat them is when they're already on your
roses eating. Uh. And it'sit's just not different. And if you
owned a grassy area you know nearby, you could go out there and do
one of the baits that are spreadout on the ground because then when they're

(01:15:49):
nymphs before they get wings, theyeat that bait and it shuts them down.
They never make it to the wingstage. But I just say that
for people that are listening that mighthave at sess to a field. But
yeah, well it's a pretty goodways between me and the hayfield, probably
half an acre. And yeah,I mean I still have I could,

(01:16:10):
I could put some out there,I guess yeah, yeah, but the
bait has to be done before theirwings and flying around there. The bait's
not going to work when they're flyingeverywhere. But that that's the best I
can I can tell you on that. You know, the the Native Americans
used to dig a pit in theground in the great high planes and they
would get in a big circle withsticks and beat the grass, walking toward

(01:16:32):
the center, and all the grasshopperswould go in the pit and they would
eat them. You know, youcan eat oh wow. Yeah, I've
never had a grasshoppers, but Idon't think you are are likely to try
that. Yeah, yeah, Iunderstand. I understand the problem. I
just wish we had a better solution. Thank you very much, Yes,
sir, thank you for the call. Appreciate that if you're outing in Chanted

(01:16:55):
Gardens. Channy Gardens is out inRichmond, Texas, and Katie Fullsher's had
a Richmond. It is on Highwayor It's FM farm to Market three fifty
nine, easy to get to.Real nice. The Londenmann family has been
in that community since nineteen ninety five. And in Chanted Gardens you're going to
find every kind of plant that youmight be interested in. I mean,

(01:17:15):
they carry the wide variety. Itis a nice, beautiful spread out place
people love to go just to walkthrough and look at it. But they're
going to have every kind of thingyou can imagine. Do you need summer
color, mean, I'm talking aboutcolor that absolutely laughs at the summer sun
in Southeast Texas. They got it. Do you need vegetables, do you
need shrubs and trees? Do youwant to create a beautiful container planting?

(01:17:38):
They specialize in that. Oh mygod, you got to go by and
just see the combo containers they puttogether. Enchanted Gardensrichmond dot com. That's
the website. They're open Monday throughSaturday eight to five, Sunday ten to
four pm. And when you're outthere, grab some microlife fertilizer. They
carry all the fertilizers we talked abouthere on guard Line. They have Microlife.

(01:18:00):
They have that the Microlife green bag, the six two four, that's
the one that's a standard for lowand fertilizing. You can use it for
anything. Microlife also, by theway, has humts plus. That's a
zero zero four purple bag, purplebag, green bag. The purple bag
is concentrated compost in a bag.It's like taking a big poly compost and

(01:18:21):
bringing it down to the final stageof humus with all the benefits that humus
has. Humic acid and fulvic acidare very helpful for the soil. Humus
helps open up a clay soil.It is a consistent presence that microbes benefit
from, that roots benefit from.It's what nature does long term to fix

(01:18:44):
and improve soil. Nature does.Humus humates plus by Microlife is that concentrated
compost in a bag to do justthat. We're going to now head to
West University and talk to Jonas.Hello Jonas, good morning, Skips for
getting my call. I appreciated yesterdayI sent you a little email on a

(01:19:05):
plant to scoring a back lawn thatI think is cut Sue. So I
would like to know how I caneliminate it and how in the world did
it come to my lawn. Yes, I saw that, and that is
not cutsu. That's the good news. It's not cuts that is that is
not kut zu. Fortunately. Thebad news is you still got a invading,

(01:19:30):
very fast fining weed. And thereare several different things that could be
from a distance in those pictures,you know, looking at the foliage,
I can't make out specifically which oneit is, but I can tell you
what you can do about it,and that is a broad leaf weed control
product for post emergent control. Nowis is it? Is there any of

(01:19:51):
it in areas where you don't havedesirable plants or is it everything? If
you're covering, Yeah, okay,you're gonna have to just clip those vines
away from the azaleas to get theazaleas sunlight. That that would be one
one very important. I just youdon't have them uprooted or just the time

(01:20:11):
by the vine the weed vine.Yeah, yes, but that's a lot
of digging. Good luck, Imean, but that would be that would
be an option. The other optionwould be to cut them off the azaleas
and then spray the leaves of thevine with a post emergent product using a
very coarse droplet at a low pressure. Don't pump up the sprayer a lot

(01:20:33):
so that you don't have a mistgoing onto desirable plants like your azaleas and
over, and then spray that producton it and stay with it to keep
keep working its way back. I'mgoing to keep working on I've got a
it's kind of a maple leaf lookingleaf, and I need to take a
closer look to to try to nailthat down. I had an idea last

(01:20:55):
night and I can't remember now offthe top of my head what. But
it doesn't matter what the name ofit is is it's a broad leaf weed
and it's got to be sprayed withsomething that will translocate back in. Some
people use glacys say it or roundup type products for that. A wiper
applicator, something that isn't a spraybut that literally like a sponge, wipes

(01:21:15):
it onto leaves. Those applicators arehard to find, but that that would
be another option to increase the safetyto desirable plants nearby. You don't believe
this is something that might be poisonousto the touchboard to handle, right?
No? Yeah, no dermally toxicplan I know of has that kind of

(01:21:38):
leave. I don't think so,now any kind of Some people are allergic
to strawberry foliage, you know,they get another their forearms and it makes
them break out. So there's alot of possibilities. But as far as
it being like a poison ivy ora poison oak or a poison sumac,
No, it's not like that.Okay, okay, good, that's good,
all right, sir. And that'sjust another rule. Brief question.

(01:21:59):
I've noticed crepe berdles, beautiful crepemurdles. Yeah, not yet, blue
me. It's it a little bitlate in the season, a little late,
but summer slow to come on.By the way the music started,
I'm about to lose you, allright, sir. Give it a little
more time, be a little morepatient, and call me back if they
don't. All right, there weare another break. That hour went by
fast. We'll be back. Ktr H Garden Line does not necessarily endorse

(01:22:24):
any of the products or services advertisedon this program. Welcome to kt r
H Garden Line with Skip Richard Crazyjust watch him as Welcome back to guard

(01:22:46):
Line. Good to have you withus. What are we going to talk
about today? You tell me sevenone three, two one two five eight
seven four. Sweet Green. SweetGreen is a product by Nitrofhos. It
is a natural product. It's madewith a molasses base, so it has
a wonderful fresh fragrance. It actuallysmells really good. Eleven percent nitrogen put

(01:23:12):
it down in the ground. Itwaters in and the bacteria that are beneficial,
the microbes that help plants to thrive, really love any kind of a
molasses type substance of sugars down inthe soil. Those carbohydrates very important for
them, and so you stimulate thesoil microbial activity. You also release that
eleven percent nitrogen down into the rootsystem. So if you're looking for a

(01:23:36):
natural based product from Nitrophos, well, there you go Sweet Green. They're
the ones that have it, andit's widely available. kDas Hardware. You're
gonna find Sweet Green at kDa Hardware, Ace Hardware City Immemorial. They'll have
it down there. Stanton Shopping Centerdown in Alveston, Alvaston, Galveston.

(01:23:57):
It's closed. It's on the wayto Galvazton stand Chopping Centered down in Alvin.
There you go. Has got itas well as Fisher's Hardware, both
the one in Southeastern and Southomore andthe one in the port out there on
Broadway Street. Gold places that youcan get a sweet Green fertilizer. I'm
inventing new towns right as we gohere, Let's go to the Heights and

(01:24:18):
talk to Nancy next. Hello,Nancy, Hi, Hi, I'm good,
I'm good. What can we do? Well? I had a question
about Chinese friend r. Laura Headlam, but my husband wanted me to ask
you something else instead. Okay,And you talked about feeding trees. What

(01:24:40):
are they adding exactly to the soilto feed the trees and can that be
done any any time of year?Well, what's added to the soil or
just nutrients in general? Basically,lawn food is a good blend for feeding
trees. So if you're fertilizing yourlawn, you are benefiting the tree that

(01:25:00):
already have an extensive root system.Now, if it's a brand new tree
you just put in the ground thelast couple of years, you want to
focus the fertilization on that area aroundthe tree. We talk about a new
tree or an established tree. No, it's probably about three hundred years old.
Old. We're gonna go ahead andgo out on a lemon and say
that one's established. I think bythree hundred years it's o to be.
Wow, that is incredible valuable tree. However, how you said, yes,

(01:25:28):
yes it is. It saved ourhouse pretty much from extensive damage.
But it got damage severely damaged inthe storm. And so they want to
do some trimming and cutting to kindof balance it out. Okay, And
so he said the tree ARBORA saidthat it may need some mile it's n

(01:25:51):
y C O R R I ZP A. I guess, Mike Horizon,
Mike Eriza, is are things inthe soil that help with the tree.
If that tree has been established thatlong, it's got if it's going
to have, Mike Riza, it'sgot those already on the root system.

(01:26:12):
Now adding them won't hurt anything,but it may or may not be beneficial
in the case of that particular tree. Okay, he was saying. It
wasn't for like the older established routs. It's more for the newer baby ones
that would be coming. Well,it won't hurt anything to Adam, like
I said, though those are atree that's been established has probably got a

(01:26:33):
network of my celia that's already connectedto it. But that's that as far
as fertilizing. Modern amounts of fertilizerthe most. Once a tree gets that
age, it's kind of hit thestage where it's gotten as big as it
needs to get considering our rainfall,our soils and everything. You know,
climates vary across the country. Yougo up to New England and you see

(01:26:57):
giant trees and they don't get thatbig here because it's a differ. But
once it's in the stage, ifthis is about as big as that species
is going to get here, well, fertilizing to try to make it bigger
is not helping the tree. Really. We fertilize to get the tree growing
and to get it up to agood size, and then perhaps some maintenance
at times, but in general goahead. Well, I was gonna say,

(01:27:20):
it's really not to get it bigger. We're just worried about the health
of the tree after the damage,okay, And we're going to be doing
some canopy trimming too. Yeah,and so when you do that, you're
going to have you're gonna somewhat imbalancethe amount of roots with the top because
you know, it was balanced beforeyou lost some of the top. But

(01:27:42):
it'll recover from that and it'll beokay. Just provide. The main thing
it's going to need is as weget into a long, hot, dry
summer drought, if we hit oneof those this year, a rescue treatment
of a good soaking on a veryinfrequent basis, you know, once every
two very frequent. Yeah. Youdon't want to make a dependent root system
up at the surface for squirting itwith water. You want to just when

(01:28:05):
it's like we've gone three weeks andit's one hundred degrees and it hadn't rained,
it would be a good time toget out there and give it one
good soaking to kind of rescue it. That's that's the main thing in your
control. Okay, Oh, greatone. I hate to do this one.
What kind of year would be thebest time to trim the oak?

(01:28:27):
Well, the best time. Thebest time to prune a tree is at
the end of winter, right beforenew growth begins. You can do minor
pruning any time of the year inareas where there is oak wilt. We
try to avoid pruning except in thehottest months of the year and the coldest
months of the year. But Ithink you know, in your area where

(01:28:48):
you're calling from. I don't knowif any active oak wilt centers, so
it's not as big of a dealas it would be if you were in
the hill country, for example.Okay, all right, thank you so
very much. I appreciate it.You bet, thanks, thank you.
I appreciate that very much. HeirloomSoils is a source of a wide variety

(01:29:13):
of quality soil products. Airloom Soilsof Texas has got composted cocoa core.
They have fruit berry and citrus mixfor your fruit trees or citrus trees.
They've got things. Yeah, likewe used to call it the rose soil.
They call it the roses and bloomersblend. Roses and bloomers blend.
They've got that I was talking earlierabout. We need expanded shale and a
heavy clay. They've got bags ofjust expanded shell. They have expanded shell

(01:29:36):
mixed with composts. They have aveggie and herb mix, which also works
for flowers, by the way.They have a cactus and succular mix.
They have a potting soil. Allthis is available by the bag, widely
available all across the Greater Houston area. And far beyond really and they also
have the bulk. You can findthe bulk soils out in the Porter,

(01:29:56):
Texas area. You can go getthem yourself. You can call up Airloom
Salce and say hey, can youdeliver them? Just do this. Go
to Heirloomsoilsoftexas dot com Heirloomsoilsoftexas dot com. There you'll find a calculator to tell
you how much soil you need tofill in a bed. You'll also find
all the contact information and more informationabout all of these really high quality You're

(01:30:18):
not gonna find a better soil mixthan you can find with Heirlooms Soils of
Texas. And remember you've heard ithere on Guardenline a million times, brown
stuff before green stuff. Get thesoil right with heirloom soils, and then
those beautiful plants you put in aregonna make you happy because they're going to
be happy. That's how that works. We are going to take a little

(01:30:41):
break here. It's time for abreak. When we come back, Jim
and Greg, you'll be our firsttwo up. We free mass. Welcome
back to Guardenline. Good have youwith us. You know we love feed
stores here on guard Line, andwe have some awesome feed sourcer in the
Greater Houston area. You live upnorth direction in Magnolia, for example,

(01:31:05):
Spring Creek Feed is really conveniently locatedright there on FM twenty nine seventy eight.
It's just minutes away from Highway twoforty nine Grand Parkway. They're going
to carry the fertilizers that I talkabout on garden Line. If I talk
about a fertilizer, they've got itat Spring Creek Feed. They've got supplies
for your garden and your lawn andyour pond. That includes things like weed

(01:31:26):
killing, preventing diseases or controlling diseases, and pesticides to control insects. Really
friendly, courteous staff there. It'salways a pleasure to go in. When
you walk in the store to stopfor a minute and look around. It
is amazing beautiful, lots of coolbling for the home too, by the
way, when you're in there,they've expanded their garden section and it just
keeps getting better there at Spring CreekFeed. They do special orders if you

(01:31:50):
need them to, and they havediscounts for senior citizens, for military again
here we are a World Day weekendand for FFA and for that are out
there raising projects at Spring Creek feedin Magnolia. On FM twenty nine seventy
eight. We're going to now goto Jim and Montgomery. Hello, Jim,

(01:32:11):
how you doing. I'm good,sir. I got these bees that
seem to love my humming bird feederand they there's millions of them, and
they and they buzz around it.And I've reached up there, got my
hand right close to them and stuff. They don't even sting it. But
they they look kind of like aThey're striped with a spike sticking out of

(01:32:31):
the back end of them, andthey're little, and they make a lot
of noise, and there's millions ofthem, and they they're crowding out my
humming birds. Spikes sticking out ridof a spike sticking out the back end.
It sounds like a wasp. Couldit be a wasp? Yeah,
that could be. They don't theynever sting me. I've reached up right

(01:32:54):
there and waved them out, tryto get rid of them, and I've
used the shop back one time andsucked them all up, but they just
keep coming back, and uh,well, humming birds can't get to the
feeders because there's all these laws forb Okay, I tell you what we
can do A couple of things.You can send me a picture if you
want to get close, since they'renot bothering you, and get close and

(01:33:15):
take a good picture that's in sharpfocus see what they are. But I
tell you what would be better ifyou'll call a Wallbird's Unlimited store. They
have dealt with us before and theycan tell you what to do. That
would be the best answer because theyare the experts on this. Uh.
You can find if you go onlineto w b U dot com, Wallbirds
Unlimited dot com, w b Udot com Forward slash Houston, UH that

(01:33:40):
you're going to be able to findthe Wallbirds stores that are that are closest
to you. I bet the Woodlandsis the closest one. Yeah, just
call uh, Well, I don'toff the top of my head, hang
on just one second. I'll seeif I can find find out. Actually,
I don't have the Woodland store.They're not part of our Wilbirds Houston

(01:34:01):
group, so you would just haveto hunt that one down. But if
you go to WBU dot com slashHouston, there's six stores right there.
You can call any of them.Doesn't matter which one you call, they'll
tell you what's going on. There'sone one up in Cyprus. It's not
too terribly far away from you.But they all know what they're talking about.

(01:34:23):
All right, let them let's seewhat they have to say about that.
All right, I'll do that.All right. You take care,
Thanks for the call. Appreciate thatvery much. Ana Plants and Produce is
up there in Montgomery, speaking ofJim and Montgomery. Ana Plants and Produce
has a supply of anything that you'regonna need to have success with your plants.

(01:34:44):
By the way, Memorial Day weekend, that's this weekend, thirty percent
off all their plants. That's trees, that's shrubs, that's their cacti,
that's their succulence. And it startsyesterday. It started yesterday, and you'll
go all the way to Monday throughthe weekend and the Memorial Day weekend.
Ana Plants and Produce are on Highwayone oh five in Montgomery, Texas.
And when you go to Ana,you're always going to find every fertilizer that

(01:35:08):
I talk about, and I meanevery fertilizer they got, all the nitrofis,
all the nelsons that especially that turfstar line. You heard me talk
about microlife, organic fertilizers, allthe airline, soils, Nature's Way,
composts, like their leaf mol composts. They have it all there. So
if you're looking for example to getyou your microlife, the green bag the
fertilizer, they're going to have itat Ana Plants and Produce, And that's

(01:35:30):
an awesome fertilizer for your lawn.It's a six two four slow released organic.
When something is organic, microbes haveto break it down and to release
those nutrients out, so that givesyou a little bit of an extension of
the release time of it. Andthey'll also at Ana they're going to have
the microlife humates plus that is thepurple bag, the zero zero four.

(01:35:53):
As you add that to the soiltime and again, do it once a
year each year, and you're justgoing to continue to build the soil.
I mean, you can do itmore. You're not going to hurt soil
with too much. It's not likea salt thing that's going to burn your
plan. You put a lot ofit on there if you want, But
if you just do it once ayear, follow the label rate, you're
going to find that over time you'rebuilding a higher quality root zone for your

(01:36:15):
plants, and that's important. Andthe Microlife green bag the six two four
is just it. It's probably oneof the top selling organic fertilizers that there
is see the whole region. It'sit's a quality product, been around,
well known and widely available. Yeah, so go out and visit Ana,
grab you some Microlife, head outwith it. But remember this weekend thirty
percent off all of the plants,including tree shrubs, cacti, and succulents

(01:36:41):
out there at Ana Plants and Produce. We're now going to head up or
down to sugar Land and talk toGreg. Hello, Greg, Hi,
skip enchanted forest. They planted mytrees yesterday, my two trees yesterday.
And as far as they're about thesize of a twelve ounce water bottle the

(01:37:03):
diameter, and as far as wateringthose trees, being that they were just
put in the dirt, how doI go with the water and schedule As
far as alive, Yeah, that'sa good question. Are you a clay
soil there, Gregon combination? Yeah, clay. So what you need to

(01:37:26):
think about is imagine that they didn'ttake the tree out of the pot,
and they just left it in thepot and put the pot in the ground.
That is how your root system isgoing to be for a while.
In other words, the soil allaround it can be wet. But we're
going into some really hot weather herethe next few days hot for the season,
that is when, and that tree'sgonna be pumping water. So if

(01:37:47):
it was still sitting in a poton the ground, you'd go out and
watered every day, just a littlebit, just to wet that soil right
there. And so you need totreat it like that, and then gradually
over the coming three or four months, you can wean it back where you're
not water every day, but you'reyou're just kind of watching it and seeing
how it's doing, and it's gettingits roots into the soil around the pot,

(01:38:11):
and you know, then you're weaningit off. But just the key
thing is to picture underground, allthe roots are still right where they were,
and they're not going to just ina week all of a sudden be
way out past the branches. It'sgoing to take time, so small amounts
of water applied to that area.Now, if we go into heat and
drought, and the soil itself isgetting dry around the whole area around your

(01:38:33):
yard. Then a good soaking toat least as wide as the branch spread
of the tree. I'll set upa sprinkler and I'll wet the whole area
out to the branch as far asthe branches going a little beyond that,
and I'll focus my watering on that. So as the tree gets bigger,
your watering area gets bigger, exactly. So yeah, so start warring today

(01:39:00):
this morning, and then also Sunday. So you're saying every day, yeah,
well every day a little bit andreally really, you know, sometimes
we get into June. You canprobably go every other day really, but
it depends on you know, ifwe have cloudy days, then you don't

(01:39:21):
even need to water that day.It's not using enough water to worry about.
If the soil around it is verymoist some is going to wike in
toward it and things. But justremember that just because it's in the ground
doesn't mean it's getting the ground moisturebecause the roots aren't out there to get
it exactly. All right, Okay, I got it, Thank you so

(01:39:42):
much. You bet, just don'tkeep it water logged. You create an
underground bathtub full of water and it'llkill that treat if you do that.
Okay, small, all right,thank you, all right, thank you
very much. I appreciate that call. Hey, we just went through storms
and one thing we learned is whenstorms come the power goes out, some
people are still getting their power.A good job was. I don't know

(01:40:03):
how on Earth the power suppliers wereable to get so many homes back on
power is considering how many were out. Quality Home Products of Texas. They
sell generac generators, high quality generator, but quality homes of Home Products of
Texas. That is a company thatyou need to go with. And here's

(01:40:24):
why you can buy It's like,let's see you buy a car, a
specific brand a car. You canbuy those in different places, right,
but who's going to give you thesales in the service quality home. In
the case of the generator, they'regonna come out and they're gonna sit down
with you and you can go inthe store however you want to go about
it. They will take time tofind out which generator you need, so

(01:40:45):
you don't buy more than you need. You know, like what do you
need it to control your your freezerand your refrigerator are you working from home
where you need dependable power every day. They have a generator for that.
They work with the regulators in yourHOA has rules and whoever has rules,
and they help get everything set up, get the permits, they put the
slab down, and then after theywalk away with the generator hooked up to

(01:41:10):
your property twenty four hours a day, seven days a week, three hundred
and sixty five days a year.You give them a call and they will
help. That's why they won theBetter Business Bureau's most prestigious Consumer service ward,
the Pinnacle Award, eight times.That's why fourteen thousand and five star
reviews by customers over seventy seven thousandhappy established customers. Listen, it's not

(01:41:35):
just getting a generator, it's gettinga generator with the sales and the service,
a quality generator. And that isexactly what Quality Home does or a
standout organization when it comes to reliabilityand integrity because they prioritize being honest with
you and transparent every single client thatthey deal with. Quality TX. That's

(01:42:00):
a website qualitytx dot com, orjust give them a call. It's seven
to one to three quality. Let'sgo now out to Paarland and talk to
Tracy. Hello, Tracy, Hi, I just want to ask one little
simple thing, If it's simple.I have all these crape myrtle trees with
very few blooms on them. Questioni'd put on them to make them pop.

(01:42:23):
There's nothing you can put on them. But some crpe myrtle varieties they
tend to bloom earlier, are alittle better than others. But in general,
if you just give them time andsunlight. If they are in the
more shade they're in, the lessthey're gonna bloom. If they're in good
sun then that's good keeping the planthealthy. Does it when it needs water,

(01:42:45):
water in it, a little bitof fertilizer to give it some vigor
because the blooms are at the endof shoots, So the more shoots you
have growing, the more crape myrtleblooms you can have. So don't overfertilize
it. Just just keep it growingand give it a little bit of time.
And that pretty much is with whatis within your power. Tracehre.
I wish I could go tell youto spray it with such and such and
blooms would pop up the next morning. But it's not that easy. Okay,

(01:43:09):
all right, thank you so much, you bet, thank you for
the call. Hey, it's timefor a break. When we come back,
let's see Roy and Richmond and Gabeand Friendswood. You'll be our first
two. Up. It's time forNicky in the news, Houston one day.
Welcome back to the Guardline. Goodto have you with us. Hey,

(01:43:30):
I want to remind you this weekend, Memorial weekend is a special tax
holiday if you will. It's anopportunity. If you want more information,
by the way, go to theTexas Comptroller's office. But it's water efficient
products sales tax holiday this Memorial Dayweekend. So what does that mean?
That means when you buy a soacerhose drip irrigation hos or put in a

(01:43:54):
components of a of a sprinkler dripirrigation system. If you need mulch that
counts as well, soil and compost, a rain barrel, maybe a water
collection device. That's that's something weall need anyway. It rains so much
here that boys save in the watersaves the best water for plants that there

(01:44:14):
is. Do you need any kindof a permeable groundcover surface to allow water
to soak in and reach in tothe soil. That's a water saving plants,
trees, grasses, water saving surfactants. Just a lot of opportunities out
there on this weekend. So getout to your local garden centers, get
out to your ace hardware stores,get out to your feed stores. Southwest

(01:44:38):
Ferlile. All those places are goingto have products that qualify for tax free
holiday this weekend. Don't let thatget by. For example, RCW Nursery.
Rcw's the garden center out there wheretwo forty nine Tombo Parkway comes into
belt Wag eight. Well, RCWNursery is going to have those kinds of
products available, many of them atleast. And they also are an ex

(01:45:00):
the source of all the fertilizers thatI talk about here on Garden Line,
as well as the soil based productswhich by the way, soil compost,
mulchis they all count. They alsohave trees, wonderful selection of the best
tree species that you would want togrow here at RCW Nurseries. They have
an outstanding selection of roses. It'salways a good time to go out and
visit RCWN. When you're out there, they will get you the products in

(01:45:24):
your hand to go along with thattree, shrubber rose that you're planting to
make sure you have success. Here'sthe website RCW nurseries dot com. RCW
nurseries dot com. Gohe and checkthem out. We're going to now go
to Gabe and Friends with Hey,Gabe, thanks for waiting. Good morning.

(01:45:45):
How are you today, sir?I'm good, sir, good hey.
I'm just looking for some advice onhow to get rid of the dayflower.
Having a terrible time with it.Yeah. The problem with dayflower is
it's kind of in between leaf andgrass, and so the grass killers don't
mess with it, the broad leafkillers don't mess with it. Oh my

(01:46:05):
gosh. I'm trying to think ofwhat will be effective hand digging them up
when you can, when you've gota big clump, that's that's a good
fast way. It's not going toand they seem to come back. Yeah,
I know, jeez. Let mesee. I've been done a bit
of a rabbit hole online. Youknow, different people say different stuff like

(01:46:26):
my phosphate or I've heard bone eyed. Maybe we'd beater, I'm not quite
sure. Yeah, we'd better ultra. Uh. I have not checked that
label, man, I have notchecked the bone eyed labeled to see if
it's if it's labeled for that,is it growing in your turf or is

(01:46:47):
it growing in what? So abouttwo or three years ago it came in
a little we mulched the whole frontand backyard and it must have been in
the mulch and it's been here eversince then. Okay, oh mands,
Yeah, Dave Flower, I'm tryingto let me see if I can find

(01:47:08):
a thing here that would give giveme an option for on that bonnight the
day fly. I just know,Dave Flower is a tough one to deal
with. Yeah, let's see.So things with two forty in combination,
So that'd be something like trimac wouldbe effective against it. Trimech t r

(01:47:29):
I mac. But when the temperaturesin the upper eighties and above, trimech
is very damaging to Saint Augustine,for example, And so I would like,
right now, you better spray reallyearly in the morning so it drives
off before the temperature starts going up. That would work. There are some
other ingredients that are effective, buta lot of them are pretty tough on

(01:47:50):
your lawn. Carpenter zone is prettyeffective, but just watch the temperature.
Carpenter zone is very effective for that. Please pull that one again. C
A R F E N T RA z O n E carfentral It's an
ingredient. It's either in fertile onweed tree zone or bone eye weed beater

(01:48:15):
ultra. One of those has carfenter zone it and I believe anyway,
but just know that the stuff thatwill kill day flower is going to hurt
your Saint Augustine when it's when it'sabout mid eighties and above. Yeah,
yeah, I can pretty much avoidthe grass where it is, or I
can't pull the ones that are alongin the front of the beds and maybe
spray the ones at the back,and I worry about also killing the other

(01:48:38):
plants that are in the beds.Yeah, you want to be extra careful
with that. I'm going to dosome real research on that, and if
I can find it for the endof the show today, I'll mention it.
I appreciate you stick around. Yeah, thanks, lot appreciate that if
you're planting a tree. And rememberI was just talking about the fact that
lots of lots of tree planting canstill be done because what do we say,

(01:48:58):
the best time planet tree was fortyyears ago. Second best time is
today. Three sixty tree stabilizer.You need to get one of those to
stake your tree. Now you don'thave to put three stakes in the ground
and have the wires and the thingsto protect the tree from the wires and
all of that. Just get youa three sixty tree stabilizer or two and
one iron post one t post.You hammer it in the ground about a

(01:49:21):
foot and a half from the tree, hook up the stabilizer and set the
strap around the tree just a littleloose so it allows movement. That's very
important. I just had a callthe other day about someone had a tree
that bent all the way to theground because the tree was too weak.
It had been kept staked in thenursery and it been like a fishing pole.

(01:49:42):
So what we need is we needto provide a little movement to strengthen
that trunk and tree stabilizer it doesthat. You're going to find him itself
with fertilizer plants for all seasons.Jorges Hidden Gardens down and out, then
Arburgate and Tomba, Buchanans and theheights RCW Nursery where two forty nine comes
into it's easy to find them herein town. They work well. If
you want extra stabilization, do twoof them, one kind of pointing north

(01:50:06):
south, one east west that way, whichever way the wind blows, you're
covered with the three sixty tree stabilizer. We're going to now go to Richmond,
Texas and talk to Roy. Hello, Roy, Hey, good morning
to skip morning. Hey, youjust noticed around the neighborhood these spider looking

(01:50:27):
web on tree and we have somefruit trees and some other feed but we
haven't gotten it yet. Trying tosee if there's any prementous type. Yeah,
that we can put on our treesbefore. Yeah, there are.
There are some products. If youknow they're coming, you can apply.
But if they're going to be youknow, you spram today a week from

(01:50:47):
now. A lot of those productsaren't doing anything, so I would wait
until you see the first sign ofa web. When you see the first
sign, get you either b Tsprays it's containing b T b as and
boy tea isn't tom or spindo saids P I N O s A D.
Both of those are organic. Theywill kill caterpillars when they're young,

(01:51:11):
especially, and if you get aweb, you may want to break it
up a little bit. But ifyou're watching your trees, at the first
sign of a web, spray iton the leaves. Because you get that
on the leaves, the caterpillars eatthe leaf, they get sick, and
they die. It's the fastest,easiest way to shut them down. All
right, great, Yeah, becausethey're starting to pump up everywhere. Yeah,
we typically have an early summer outbreakand then in the fall we have

(01:51:34):
a doozy of an outbreak in someyears. But just be watching for them.
That'll take care, Yes, sir, thank you for the call.
Appreciate that very much. Nitrophoss SuperTurf. Super Turf is the silver bag.
It is the slow release fertilizer fromNitrophoss that if you apply it now,
it'll carry you two or three excuseme, three or four months out

(01:51:56):
into the future before you're going toneed to fertilize again. It is a
nineteen four ten fertilizer. Half ofthe nitrogen a slow release, so you
get a gradual release, which meansyou don't mow so much and your lawn
develops a good deep root system.Not excessive release of nitrogen all at once
cuts down on mowing up to twentyfive percent. It's easy to find nitropas

(01:52:17):
superturf because it's widely available throughout thiswhole area. For example, you're gonna
find it at a Shantic Gardens downin Richmond, Shades of Texas up in
the Woodlands area. And if yougo to Fisher's Hardware both the one on
Southmore on Broadway Street down to thePort, well, you're going to find
it there as well. It's timefor us to take a break. When
we come back, we will begetting to calls from Jonathan and John and

(01:52:41):
we'll be right back in just amoment. Welcome back to Guardenline. Good
have you with us today? Hey? Have you been looking at that landscape
thinking it needs help? I needto do something. I want to create
an outdoor, enjoyable outdoor sitting area, you know, with maybe some rock

(01:53:06):
stone, some hardescapes, with somelandscape lighting, all of that kind of
stuff, maybe a water feature.Even pierscapes can do all that for you,
but they do a lot more.Pierscapes does irrigation work. You need
a little work done in the system. Summer's coming and we're going to be
running those irrigation systems. Get themout there to take a look at it,
do a quick check over it,make sure things are in order,

(01:53:27):
and fix it if it's not.Pier Scapes can do drainage work. Remember
the rain we had some of youhave a little pond water sticking there's so
long you're thinking about calling in afish hatchery to stock the things so you
can go fishing in the backyard.Pierscapes can drain those areas for you.
Pierscapes can do a lot of differentthings like that now. Pierscapes will also

(01:53:49):
do a quarterly maintenance if you like, just call them up. They'll come
in every quarter. They'll change theseasonal color. They'll mult your flower beds,
they'll fertilize, they'll do weeding andtrimming. They'll even do an irrigation
inspection to see if any work needsto be done, all from Piercescapes.
Piercecapes is an outstanding operation. Ifyou go online and look at their website

(01:54:11):
you will see the quality work theydo. Piercescapes dot com. Piercescapes dot
com. Here's the number I alwayslisten to guard line with a pen in
hand. Two eight one three sevenO five zero six zero two eight one
three seven oh five zero six zero. We're going to go now to John
and Katie. Hello, John,Hey, s GiB I appreciate you taking

(01:54:34):
my call. Yes, So,question, how far do you recommend to
planning a peachtree from the utility,like the power line and the gas line
in the backyard. Well, thepower line doesn't really matter. Peaches don't
get big enough for that to bea bother your peach trees. You're going
to keep those at about seven feetten feet somewhere in that range. No,

(01:54:55):
the underground of the underground underground,we'll just remember when they come to
dig them up. If they're closerthan the branch spread of your tree,
you're going to probably lose a hugesection, if not all, the tree
in that process. If they haveto come in and do work. It's
not like the roots of the peachesare going to invade a power line or
a gas line. It's just,you know, if they were to have

(01:55:17):
to come in and do any work, that's the thing. So as far
as the gas line's concerned and thepower line and the peach tree is concerned,
they can all co exist. Okay, appreciate it all, right,
all right, thank you. Butis there a said distance you would recommend
planning away? You know, Iwould just say the branch spread of the
tree would be my gauge. Andthat's just you know, if you had

(01:55:40):
to go out there and do atrench and it's at the outer branch bread,
that's not going to be much ofa damage to the tree. Okay,
okay, appreciate it, all right, you bet take care? Ok
for the call. Wow the storms, did we ever lose some trees?
Just a reminder that we need tomake sure our trees are ready for the
storm seas and by the way,hurricane season starts in June and we're right

(01:56:02):
there on the cusp of it.Martin spoon Moore Affordable Tree Service. That's
what you need to know. Martin'sbeen doing this for a very long time.
He knows how to take care ofHouston trees. Have him come out
do some selective pruning, trimming outdead areas, making sure your trees are
safer in heavy winds. And youknow the funny thing about trees is you

(01:56:23):
can have a heck of a stormthat comes through and your tree's fine,
and then another storm comes through andyou lose a limb and what's the difference.
Well, it's nature. I don'tknow, but it happens that way.
So don't assume if you made itthrough this last storm that you're not
going to have another problem as wego on through the season. You don't
want these limbs to fall on anythingvaluable like your home or your car,

(01:56:44):
or your fence or your neighbor's neighbor'shome. So I can't stress enough the
importance of getting a proper treecare personto come out prior to this upcoming storm
season. It doesn't even have tobe a hurricane. Martin Spoon Moore seven
to one three six twenty six sixtythree. That's seven one three six nine

(01:57:04):
nine twenty six sixty three. Orgo online aff tree Service dot com.
Tell them you're from calling from gardenLine or you heard it on guarden Line,
and make sure you get moved upin that list because Martin stays busy
and he does give a priority tohis guarden Line customers. We're gonna now

(01:57:25):
go to Jonathan in Montgomery. Hey, Jonathan, good morning. I'm a
oak tree in my front yard thathas some lichen on the trunk and spread
to the branches. So you havea gest so I want to do with
that. You know, there areproducts like moss max and some others that
will kill lichen on branches, butthe lichen isn't a disease of the tree.

(01:57:47):
You see lichen growing on fence postsand rocks, so it does.
It's not sucking the living juices outof a tree or anything like a parasite
would. It's along for the ride. It usually is sign that the tree
is not vigorous. When a treestarts to decline a little and the canopy
thins and more light gets through,we always see a proliferation of lichen in

(01:58:10):
there. But the lichen isn't thecause of the decline. It's the it's
the sign that something's wrong, something'sgoing down. So you could spray with
moss max. But my first question, you know, Jonathan, would be,
hey, what can we do toget this tree vigorous? What does
it need? Does it need alittle fertilizer? Does it need? You
know, whatever is is the causeof it lacking vigor? Okay, yess

(01:58:35):
on that route, Well, fertilizer'salways a good idea. What kind of
tree are we talking about? It'san oak tree, oak tree. Okay,
And what's the trunk diameter about?Chest tie? Oh we were talking
about a coke can. Are wetalking about a steering wheel or your car?
Oh, we're talking about at leasta small answer. Okay, Uh,

(01:58:59):
you know, probably a little bitmore. I mean, it's the
tree itself is about ten I probablywouldn't worry about it. I would just
keep invigorating the tree if you wantto give it, one to two cups
of fertilizer for every inch of trunkdiameter. So let's just say let's just
say it was twelve inches, thenthat would be you know, twelve cups

(01:59:23):
a fertilizer would be what six pintsthree quarts a fertilizer, right, a
cup or two per inch of trunkdiameter. Spread it out as far as
the branch, spread evenly, allunderneath the tree, and watered in,
and make sure it's a good highnitrogen fertilizer like a lawn fertilizer. But
don't use something that has weed controlin it. Just fertilizer, and that

(01:59:45):
would help with a vigor We justfind an interior. Like live oaks,
the interior branches tend to die fromlack of light. And then you get
lichens on those and people get alarmedabout it. But again, the lichen
isn't it isn't killing your Yeah,I mean a tree does seem to be
dropping branches, yeah, lens notanything big. Yeah, Well it's like

(02:00:10):
maybe the diameter of your Yeah,that's kind of normal. Is it a
live, live oak or some otherkind of oak that I'm not sure?
Okay, Well, I still feelconfident in what I told you. So
that's the approach I would tell you, and I do appreciate you you calling
us this morning here on guard Line. Medina Products has a new product that

(02:00:30):
I am excited about. It issuper Grow Plus. Now it's one of
their has to grow line. Youknow they have has to grow, They
have has to grow for lawns.This is super Grow Plus. It's designed
as a lawn fertilizer. It's asixteen zero two. Remember my little diet
tribe earlier on too much phosphorus.That middle number, well does not have
any of it, and that's okay. In fact, that's good. Sixteen

(02:00:54):
zero two is a hose end applicator. It takes you about ten minutes to
do your whole lawn. One quartcovers maybe four thousand square feet. Now,
it's got a portion of the nutrientthat's nitrogen in a slow release form,
So that's sixteen zero two sixteen percentnitrogen and about a fifth of that

(02:01:15):
is in a slow release form.So yes, it gives you a quick
release, but it also gradually feedsover time. And you can do this
as a hose in spray periodically.You know, you can apply it off
and on during the whole season ifyou want, just whenever you feel like
your non lawn needs a little boost. It's got kelated iron. Again,
I talked about iron earlier today.A kelated iron is a form of iron

(02:01:36):
that doesn't tie up so fast inthe soil. It's got seaweed extract,
it's got molasses, it's got humicacids in it. It's just a good
concoction for your lawn. From Medina. And by the way, don't tell
anybody, but I've seen some beautifultomatoes that were sprayed and the soil drenched
with that supergroup plus as well.So don't don't just think if it's for

(02:01:58):
being for lawns, anything you wantto give a boost to, it's going
to do good on super Grow Plusfrom Medina. Look for it. You're
gonna find in a lot of placeswidely available here in the Greater Houston area.
Have you been down to Enchanted Forest. Enchanted Forest Garden Center one of
my favorite garden centers here in theGreater Houston area. Enchanted Forest is always

(02:02:19):
let's put this way, it's alwaysan enchanting place to go. It's beautiful,
it's fun to walk around. Theyhave so many beautiful plants. Just
looks great out there all the time. Enchanted Forest is going to provide you
with every kind of plant you canimagine. Remember this is the lawn and
garden holiday tax holiday, Memorial Dayweekend. You're gonna save on plants.

(02:02:43):
You're gonna save on products like compostsand soils and anything that saves water.
Also, guess what's happening today outthere destin Note Texas garden guy is going
to be out there at ten am. So the minute we finished talking at
garden Line, Duston's going to showup and havoc out there at Enchanted Forest
Nursery. They are on FM twentyseven fifty nine in Richmond, Texas.

(02:03:08):
Here's the website Enchanted Forest Richmond dotcom. Why you there, grab me
some Italian ice from the Jello foodtruck. They always have fun out in
enchanted forest, and you're gonna havefun. Go out and see Destined today.
He's a blast. Well. Anotherhour in the books today is flying
by time. Flies when you're havingfun. Except for Kermit the Frog.

(02:03:30):
He says times fun when you're havingflies. I'llbe it. Wabirds Unlimited on
June fifteenth from eleven am to onepm. Wabirds Unlimited in bel Air,
Southwest part of Houston. Wabird's Unlimitedin bel Air next in June on the
fifteenth on Saturday, eleven am toone pm. Put that on your calendar.

(02:03:53):
Come out and see me mainly stickaround. We're gonna be right back.
KTRH Garden Line does not necessarily endorseany of the products or services advertised
on this program. Welcome to katr H Garden Line with skimp Richt.
It's just watching as so many thingsnot a sorry, Welcome back to garden

(02:04:38):
Line. Good to have you withus today. I'm your host, Skip
Richter, and we are here totalk about the things that interest you regarding
gardening. What would be of interestto you. Maybe you have questioned about
turf or a tree or a fruit, trees or herbs or flowers or house
plants. Lots of things we cantalk about when it comes to horticulture and

(02:05:00):
gardening, pest control, disease control, we control. You know that nature
is an interesting thing because we talkabout the balance of nature, and there
is, in a macro sense abalance of nature. There are things that
keep other things in control and soon. But in another sense, nature

(02:05:23):
is forever imbalanced. For example,I grew up in South Texas, and
I can remember a year after yeardriving through the roads, the country's roads
up between ranches and things out there. There were years where there were rabbits
everywhere, and then there'd be yearswhere there weren't many rabbits, and so
was it coyotes, was it somedisease rabbits? Who knows, but they

(02:05:45):
had fluctuated. There was always animbalance going on. Same thing is true
with aphids and lady beetles. Forexample, you got a lot of aphids
on your plants, when lady beetlesfind them, you're about to have a
lot of lady beetles because you mayyou can is a nice crop of lady
beetles on a big fat group ofaphids. And then when there's no aphids
to eat, well, the ladybeetles don't hang around in starve. They

(02:06:09):
go somewhere else. So there's athere's a forever imbalance. It's a forever
rebalancing. And that's kind of thecool thing about nature. It's true with
with weeds. It's true with diseaseand other things as well. But I
know when it comes to weeds,wherever sunlight hits the soil, nature plants
a weed. That's just how itworks. Nature does not like bear dirt
because you know what happens to beardirt. It erodes away, it crusts,

(02:06:32):
and it is just not a it'snot a healthy environment. What is
a healthy environment is an environment coveredwith plants. It's an environment where the
soil is covered with organic material.We call that mault in a garden,
but in nature it's called the forestfloor, for example. And so nature
has a way of fixing problems.You get a scar on the earth,

(02:06:55):
it creates bear dirt, and natureputs weed seeds in it and makes sure
sure that it gets covered back upagain. So although we don't like weeds
from an ecological standpoint, They're justall part of nature taking care of things.
So we have to figure out whatto do. So we can have
a lawn or a flower bed,and there's ways we do that. There's
lots of ways we can manage that. But it's just interesting to think about

(02:07:17):
that. So I'll leave you withthat thought. The imbalanced, forever rebalancing
nature. I find that kind ofinteresting. We're going to go let's see
here. First of all, Iwanted to talk about it. We're talking
about nature and stuff. When youlook at the soil, microbes like carbon.
They need carbon. They don't havea way of making their own carbon.

(02:07:42):
They have to eat it from somewhere, and so they get it from
soil organic matter. But they alsoget it from things like a molasses type
product. That's why organically you oftensee gardeners putting molasses in the soil.
Is a stimulant to microbial activity.Sweet green is a fertilizer by nitrofoss that's
eleven percent nitrogen. It's a baseon a molasses type base, and it

(02:08:03):
smells wonderful and it stimulates the microbialactivity and the soil, creating that rich
environment to promote optimum health and optimumperformance of your turf. At eleven percent
nitrogen, sweet Green can be applied. It will dissolve away and go into
the soil and provide that gradual feedingover time. As what happens is it

(02:08:26):
finds its way into the body ofmicrobes, the microbes de the nutrients released
again, and then it's back inthe soil soup for plants to take up.
It's just that cycle of nature.Now, sweet Green, where do
you find it? Well, Shadesof Texas has it. They're done up
in the woodlands actually Woodlands area.If you go, for example, to
Fisher's Hardware and Laport in South eustonSouthomore and Broadway, they're going to have

(02:08:48):
it. You're going to find itat Shades of Texas which is on Genoa
Red Bluff Road. Kingwood Ace Hardwarealso carries the Sweet Green and other nitropos
types of products, so it's easy, easy to find. Let's go ahead
and run out to who's been waitinghere, Glinda in Parland. Hello,
Glinda, good morning, Skip.I enjoy your show. I'll say that

(02:09:13):
first, well, thank you.I wondered who out there it was that
enjoys it, and now I foundher. So welcome. Oh yeah,
anyway, I have an oak treemy front yard is that obvious seen grass
oak trees. I get them trimmedevery two years, and I've had them
deep fed and everything else from Lesbie'stree service. I don't understand the bark

(02:09:39):
on one tree, the right side, the left side, the bark died
and new bark is coming on.Okay, underneath that where the bark is
gone. Yeah, And I don'tknow if it's squirrels. I don't know
if it's ants. And when Ihad left, he's out here. He

(02:10:00):
just I sprayed it with that blackor feel spry for trees. He said,
I didn't help it, I didn'thurt it. Okay, that's true.
But so I mean, do youknow what that is? Yeah,
I need you to turn your radiodown in the background. What happens is
something killed the bark. It couldhave been one of the freezes we've had

(02:10:20):
in past winners killed some of thetissue. It could be a stress crack.
It could be a lot of differentthings. But it doesn't matter what
originally killed it. What matters isthat it's trying to regrow bark in that
area by putting in callous tissue.That's a good thing. Any bugs underneath
the bark, it's just a placefor them to hide. They're not those

(02:10:43):
ants and things aren't hurting your tree, your ear. I haven't seen anything.
Yeah. Well anyway, well,I thank you so much. Yeah,
the good news is you don't haveto worry about it. Well,
I'm going to go in college.Can get him this in Indie ounce so
he can beat feed all the roots. Okay. Ah, well, I

(02:11:05):
thank you for listening to me.And by the way, I didn't have
I don't have my radio on.Okay, okay, Well, God bless
you. That's interesting. I'm hearingan echo of myself. So I don't
know if the producer can fix thator what. But thank you Glenda for
letting me know. Oh God blessyou, by bye. Very interesting.
Hadn't heard that happen before. Haveyou been out at the arbrogate lately?

(02:11:28):
Oh my gosh, Beverly and thecrew out there have got a load of
beautiful plants. I'm talking about shrubsand trees and color. You know,
they sell fruit trees. You're around, so it's always a good time to
go buy a fruit tree out there. Beautiful selection of roses out at the
arbor Gate. When you're out there, remember brown stuff before green stuff.
So when you go home with allthose wonderful plants, the green stuff also

(02:11:50):
go home with their one two threecompletely easy system. That is a food,
an organic food that feeds anything withroots. No matter what it is,
it works. It's called the organicfood Complete. The Organic Soil Complete
is a product that is a qualitysoil blended with expanded shail. And the

(02:12:11):
Organic Compost Complete. That's the threeof the one two three that is a
quality, high quality compost that alsoincludes expanded shales. So see when you
take those three home and you getthe ground right, and then you take
those Arborgate plants home, you're goingto have success. It's as easy as
that knowledgeable staff quality plants. You'renot going to go wrong with. The

(02:12:33):
Arborgate one of my absolute favorite gardencenters out there in the whole world.
I mean, I travel all overthe country and always love to come home
to Houston. We've got the bestgarden centers in the world right here,
and Arborgate certainly a destination place outthere. On twenty nine to twenty,
remember the parking lot and back offTrishel Road, easy safe access to the

(02:12:54):
arbor gate. Let's see, it'stime for us to take a little break
and we're going to do that.When we come back Scott and Live,
you'll be the first two up.Welcome back to garden Line. Hey,
good to have you with us todayon this Memorial Day weekend. By the

(02:13:16):
way, that reminds me if youwant to put this on your calard Tomorrow
night, Sunday May twenty six,Tomorrow night, at seven o five pm
in Sugarland at the town Square rightin front of the City Hall facade,
the Exchange Club Sugarland is presenting aNight to Remember, honoring our fallen heroes.
This event is free, it's opento the public. There's going to

(02:13:39):
be a thirty member of chorus,a brass band, There'll be dancers and
Grammy winning singers lead the town Squaretribute. It's just a wonderful event,
really enjoyable to be part of.You're going to have a lot of good
things going on and as a result, I also want you to remember to
bring some canned food with you whenyou go, because the East Fort Bend

(02:14:03):
Human Needs Ministry is going to becollecting canned food to help out folks in
need. If you want more information, give Scott a call seven to one
three two or A two four sixtyone twenty six. I'll give you that
number again seven one three A twofour sixty one twenty six again in Sugarland
on the town square in sugar Land, in front of the city Hall facade.

(02:14:28):
Tomorrow night, Sunday night, seveno five pm, a night to
remember, honoring our honoring our fallenheroes. I'm gonna go now to let's
see, We're gonna head out toMontgomery and talk to Scott. Hello,
Scott, Hey, are you observed? Good up? And I'm calling about
my viral lementry. I've got habitfor about food. Ye're kind of our

(02:14:52):
recurrisimas gifts. And I'm getting babylemons producing off on the plant itself of
water bottom three day schedule. Getthat afternoon time for probably about two hours,
and I'm starting to drop those littlebaby lemons. They're not producing and
growing in thighs. The idea is, yes, lemons want to be in
a lot more sun than that.First of all, they need if you

(02:15:15):
could get it six hours of sun, that would be better. Okay,
I know how to do that.Yeah, yeah, you give give it
more sun. Look at the container. The container and the top need to
be in somewhat of a balance.And so if you have a little tiny
container and a big tree, it'sgoing to get stressed. Its probably I

(02:15:35):
would say maybe three four pot probablysaying it's about say putting the half ball
okay, pretty wide. Okay,Well let's just assume that's that's there.
You got good soal make sure thedrain is oh yes, it's sitting on
the concrete, or is it's sittingon the side, sitting on my table
and my back fat oh back fatty? Okay, wow, okay, well,

(02:15:56):
just keep it adequately moist. Idon't know how to tell you how
often you need to be water nowdays, is what I've been around,
and water well in some soils andand you know, a lot of sun
you end up made water more oftenthan that. But but if you're sticking
your finger in to feel it,then that's a good gauge. Uh.
The other thing would be just getit the most sun that you can and

(02:16:20):
maybe a little nutrient boost, nota lot of nitrogen, but just a
moderate amount. Get your quality offertilizer blend that will cover the citrus and
things like that, and it doesn'ttake much in there. In fact,
I would probably go with one ofthe liquids, you know, the microlife
Microlife Products makes a number of liquids. They have one that's a seven one

(02:16:45):
four. I think it's a Iknow it's it's a moat. It's an
orange label bottle and I've used itfor house plants. Mix it in water
and you just pour it right onthere and as you water, just a
dilute solution of that get it bigger. But I think sunlight is the is
the number one key to your solution. I got one of the quick courts.
Then I'll let you go to another'sother people. Oh, I've just

(02:17:05):
gotten this stool terrarium. She usedit like portal plants where she starts her
ceilings from. Yeah, and I'vegot a lot of little stuff come up.
Seeds that she's planted in one ofthe pods. Well, that's because
they're probably about maybe eight a quarterof an inch tall. Can only have
been in that pot longer to moremature, or take them out and put

(02:17:30):
them in a larger container. It'sin a terrarium, you said, Yeah,
it's there's like a little light,like a little forest of light,
probably about two foot long. Andthen she just put her feet in the
pot. And well, you eitherhave to print it back to make it
where it can all get good lightsstill, where it doesn't overgrow, overgrow

(02:17:52):
the little tiny space it's got,or move it out, put it in
a bigger pot and put it outsideof that area. But well, I'm
going to goide on through the plantthis year. I mean that thing all
the time. That yeah, okay, Well, hey, put it on
a timer and just run it aboutfourteen hours a day. That's all it's
gonna need. Uh. I wouldn'tgo definitely, not over fifteen or sixteen

(02:18:16):
at the most, but fourteen hoursmore than enough. Yeah. All right,
Hey you have a great more oldaysir, and thank you for all
your help do you get for thecommunity. Thank you and you as well,
Thank you. I appreciate that alot. Yeah. Microlife has that
that liquid, the orange label.They've also got a seaweed extract. They
got a fish type fertilizer. Itjust really quality products for Microlife. You

(02:18:41):
can find them everywhere. You goto Microlife Fertilizer dot com and when you
go there Microlife Fertilizer dot Com.You're gonna find out about all these products,
many of which I never talk abouthere. We just have time to
do it, but uh check themout and then find out where you can
get them because they're very widely available. And when you're feeding small plant you
need, you don't want to buya big lawn fertilizer sack to feed a

(02:19:05):
little In this case, he hada lemon tree in a pot that switch
over to those soluble products. AndMicrolife is a good qualities producer of those
kinds of things. And you're goingto find Microlife everywhere. Like I said,
for example, Ace Hardware stores theycarry Microlife products and you can find
Ace Hardware all over forty stores inthe Greater Houston area, so you don't

(02:19:28):
have a problem. They carry allkinds of the fertilizer, all of the
fertilizers really that I talk about hereon Guarden Line. They've got him at
Ace and every Ace Hardware store isindependently owned, so everyone's a little different,
but everyone is a great place toget everything you need for your lawn
and for your garden. If youwant to have a beautiful landscape and a

(02:19:48):
bountiful garden. ACE Hardware can getyou on the track to do just that.
If you need to control weeds anddiseases and pests, ACE Hardware is
the place to help you do justthat. And remember this weekend is that
tax saving weekend where those of theyou're probably hearing me talk about earlier.

(02:20:09):
If you're looking for water conserving productslike drip irrigation, mulches, rain barrels,
and ground covers that help water getinto the soil, soiled bags of
soil, and compost. It's alsoa time when there's some other tax saving
things going on, but basically waterefficient products is the one we're focusing on

(02:20:31):
today, on that water efficient taxholiday. It's available there. Ace Hardware
Store is a good place. Justwalk into ACE and say hey, what
products do you have that are partof the tax holiday, and they can
get you all set up. ThisMemorial Day weekend very good time to do
that. We're going to now goto Rosenberg and talk to Live Hello,

(02:20:54):
Live Hire, Hi, what's up. Well, we have a twenty foot
percymon try. It's loaded with forsimmons. But my husband thinks they were
webworms or silkworms all over the treeon the leaves. It looks white at
a distance's beautiful. But he sprayedit with meme oil to try to get

(02:21:18):
rid of it, and I don'tknow that that's working. It's also been
on several redbuds and he just cutthe limbs off. He trimmed out the
tree. They're not neither, andit's on the leaves right. Yes,
the whole tree looks like it's inboom kind of why. Okay, so

(02:21:39):
you need yeah, you need toget You need to get a spray product
that contains either bt B as inboy teas and tom or or spinosaid s
p I n O S A Dspin nose sad that either of those have

(02:22:00):
both of them, either of them. Put them in a sprayer. And
if it's a larger plant, likea like a red bud type that's not
just a little plant, then youmight need to get a little sprayer where
you can set it to shoot astream out so you can kind of break
through the webs, because you gotto get those products on the leaves of
the tree, and when they engulfthe leaves and webbing, it's hard to

(02:22:22):
get the spray to the leaves.And these are things that kill the bugs,
the caterpillars that are eating your leaves. So you get the leaves wet
with it, and then that evening, that that day, and that evening
the caterpillars can be feeding on theleaves and it'll make them sick and he'll
kill them. It's very very verylow toxicity product. Okay, it's cover.

(02:22:43):
So is it too late to reallysave them? No, they'll bounce
back. I mean, if you'dlost all your foliage, it certainly isn't
doing them any good. But thetree has enough energy to put out new
foliage. But you don't want thenew foliage to come out and then the
worms just keep going. You gotto get rid of it. Looks beautiful.

(02:23:03):
I thought it was an apple treein bloom, I said, I
said, no, that's the firstsin. Then. Okay, all right,
well that ought to get you out. Okay, all right, loub
well, good luck with that.Thank you so much. Appreciate your program,
you bet, thank you. Iappreciate you listening. If you've got
insect problems in your lawn. Forexample, Nitrofoss bug Out Max is a

(02:23:26):
product that'll do it control like onehundred and thirty different kinds of insects and
you put it out and within fortyeight hours it has gotten rid of whatever
is eating on your lawn. Socoming up here, well, for example,
you got fire ants. They're noteating your lawn, but you don't
like those. It controls ants.It controls fleas, flee larva, get
in the thatch of our lawn.When the pets run by and they go

(02:23:48):
through their life cycle, hop backon the pet, the cat or the
dog, and they come back inthe house. Please and texts are controlled
by Nitrofoss bug Out Max. Chinchbugseason and then sodwebborm season is coming up.
This product lasts for a long time. When you put it down,
it's going to take care of itfor the entire summer season. Nitrofoss bug

(02:24:09):
Out Max. Where can you findit, Well, it's important today.
Where you can find You can fightit at Lake Hardware down Inclute. You
can fight it in Gym's Hardware upin Montgomery. You can find it at
the Ace at Sinco Ranch. Allof those places carry Nitrofoss products like this
bug Out Max very affect. It'salways good to have products that work.

(02:24:30):
You know that that is that isan important and important factor for sure.
If you live down south of townand you're looking for a quality, quality
soil type product, Ciena Maltch hasgot you covered. In fact, you
know brown stuff before green stuff.Ciana Maltz specializes in brown stuff. Here's
what I mean. You go toCianamltch. You buy bags of their mulches,

(02:24:54):
you buy bags of their soil products. You buy bulk. You can
get it in your trailer. Youcan they have them deliver it. They
deliver within twenty miles of the location. Their website. You need to go
write this down so you can findthe location specifically, cenamultz dot com.
They're on FM twenty one or fivetwenty one FM five twenty one just north

(02:25:16):
of Roast Sharon cienamltch dot com thatthey will also deliver like I said,
for a charge, within about twentymiles of their area. They have the
fertilizers that I talk about on guardline. So what does that mean? That
means you get their soil products,You get the fertilizers that are there,
you bring them home. You getthe soil ready brown stuff checkbox checked.

(02:25:39):
Now bring in your quality plants andwatch them thrive in the products that you
got at Cinmals quality quality products.Love to go out there. I love
the things that they carry. Theyknow what they're doing and the product is
top notch. I can tell youthat firsthand, absolutely know it. Cnamultch
dot com down on FM. I'vetwenty one just north of Roath sharing.

(02:26:03):
Well, Nicky showed up in theroom. That must mean it's time for
the news and here's NICKI. Somepeople think that song came from Guardians of

(02:26:28):
the Galaxy. I think it wasaround a little bit before that, but
it was good, good retro musicalmovie. If you're listening to garden Line,
I'm your host, Skip Richter,and we're here to answer your gardening
questions. Guess what. We gotsome open lines here if you'd like to
give us a call. Boy.We had some traffic gems today where people
are having to wait, but rightnow got a little bit of opening.

(02:26:48):
So if you got a question andyou don't delay in dialing, you can
be right up and we'll help youwith answering that question. Nelson Water Gardens
is out in Katie and it thinkof it as your h let's just say
your West Houston Garden Center because that'swhat it is. And Nelson Watering Gardens
is also, oh gosh, itis a destination center. Trust me,

(02:27:15):
you're going to go there and you'regoing to get inspired. They have beautiful
water gardens if you need them tocome out and do, for example,
a beautiful waterfall or install one ofthe In fact, the things they invented
the big tall glazed pottery with watercoming out of the top, bubbling over
the sides and recirculating back up throughthe container. Again, they've got those

(02:27:39):
and they're gorgeous. There. It'sstunning. It's absolutely stunning. But remember
it's it is also a nursery andthey have some really cool plants stuff that
you don't just see everywhere. Rangooncreeper, that's the one I'm gonna start
talking about more. Rangoon creeper isa vine and it is stunning in its

(02:28:00):
just beautiful. And the color theblooms change color from you know, there's
a red and white, a pinkand a white as it changes its colors.
Wonderful. This weekend, remember MemorialDay tax free weekend. There is
a discount for eligible items which includesplants and trees and grasses and mulch and
soil and composts and underlayment, groundcovers. It's all there. Plus they've got

(02:28:24):
twenty percent off all their plants andten percent off all their bag goods and
their fertilizers at at Nelson Water Gardenand Nursery auting Katie. So what do
you do? You head west onit if you're in the Houston area,
you go out that way and whenyou get to Katie Fort Benroad, you
turn right and it's just a hop, skipping or jump on the right.
In fact, you just about tothrow a rock to it from there.

(02:28:46):
Nelson Watergardens dot com, Nelson Watergardensdot com. Take the kids, they're
gonna love looking at the goldfish andthe koych a bunkin. They just have
a real cool selection of everything fora water garden, but also an outstanding
nursery in and of its own.We are going to now head out to

(02:29:07):
Kingwood and talk to Bill. HelloBill, Good morning Skip. I have
a raised bed here at my farm. It's a foot tall made out of
concrete blocks. It is full ofnature's way roadbed soil. I have a
drift irrigation system on it and I'mtrying to exclusively raise jalapenias. This year,

(02:29:28):
I like cannon jalopenas, so I'vegot a bed full of halopenias.
But I ordered pepper seeds from abouta dozen or about a doffer different varieties
of pepper seeds. Man, youwere into it, yeah, big,
big time. So. But theissue is is that if you've got there
to look at my bed, you'llsee that about a third of the plants

(02:29:52):
are just ridiculously big and tall andjust putting out peppers like it's going out
of style. But many of theother varieties are kind of short and shrunken
and have yellow leaves, and they'rejust not doing all that great. And
yet I have full signed, totallyconsistent dirt, totally consistent watering, totally
consistent fertilization, and yet some dowell and some don't do well. So

(02:30:16):
I was thinking that maybe you're anauthority on pepper varieties toward the Houston area,
and you could give me a listingof them. And many of these,
by the way, are New MexicoPepper Institute peppers, and they supposedly
are the kings of peppers and dovery well. Some of their peppers aren't
doing good. Yeah, is itjust telapenias or is it some of their

(02:30:37):
others because they okay, no,no, no alopedias only. Yeah,
I don't get off it. I'veraised all of those Trinidad scorpions and Trinidad
bread seven pots and all that otherstuff. They're so good for assassinations,
that's true. And there's so hotyou got to spray your malt twenty four
to seven to keep it from catchingon fire, so exactly. So yeah,

(02:31:01):
I've never grown a halopeno that didn'tgrow, So why are some do?
I understand some doing better than others, But what you're describing is strange,
Bill. I'd really like to seea picture of it. If you
can show me the whole bed andthen maybe show close up some of the
symptoms so I can look at maybeI'll see something in the photo. There

(02:31:22):
are some pests that can cause theleaves to twist up. When you see
yellowing leaves, usually we think ofeither soggy wet soil conditions widely fluctuating moisture.
Of course, they were all subjectto the same thing as you described,
and possibly a root rot involved inthose plants. But I really need
to look at some pictures close upattach them to an email rather than embed

(02:31:46):
them, attach them so I canzoom in and I'll be glad. I'll
have to do that another time.I'll think, Okay, okay, well
here's what I'm gonna do. Goahead. One thing I thought of,
how is is that when I builtthis bed two or three years ago,
I put down a thick layer ofcardboard on the ground to prohibit plants from

(02:32:09):
coming up from the bottom. Yeah, and I'm not sure that that cardboard
has yet to degrade completely. Andconsequently, it could be that some of
these peppers are more sensitive to moisture. Yeah, well they get lower down
there. It could be, butdon't worry about it. If you did
it that long ago, that cardboard'sbasically gone. It's not holding any water
at least, it's the microbes havetaken care of it underneath. So I

(02:32:33):
think you're gould. Hey, I'mgoing to put you on hold. Would
you get my email and then whenyou can send me those pictures and let
me try to help you better thanwhat I'm doing right now. Thank you.
I appreciate that call. If youhave not done your long fertilization,
by the way, folks, itis time to get out there and get
you some Nelson's plant food Slow andEasy. It's part of their turf Star

(02:32:54):
line of products. Slow and Easygradually feeds your lawn through the summer season.
And when I say gradually, Imean for a long time. You
put down Slow and Easy. Nowyou do not need to fertilize your long
again until fall. It carries youthrough that far, that slow release,
that slight acidifying of soil, thatgradual release creates the healthiest grass plant,

(02:33:18):
the deepest rooted, most resilient grassplant that you're going to have, and
that is important. Slow and Easyby Nelson's look for it. You're not
going to find a higher quality productthan Slow and Easy by Nelson in the
turf Star line of Nelson products.We are now going to head to Let's
see goodness, boy I said,call and you did so here we go,

(02:33:41):
uh Hockily and Ruthie. Hello,Ruthie, Hey Skip. I've got
a quick question. Like everybody else, I'm having trol with caterpillars feasting on
my plants. I have spen notadHow long will it last when I spray
it on the lead. You know, Spinosa is going to give you a
few days of control. It's intothe tissue of the leaf right, unlike

(02:34:01):
BT, and so it's going tobe present for a while. I've never
seen something that says it's three days, five days, two days, you
know, I know it's over twothough. It's gonna give you a little
bit of a control. Yeah.So if you did it, and I
would wait a week before I didit again, just just because you know
it, it's going to give yousome control and then you'll know within a

(02:34:22):
week if what it missed, andthen then you can reach spray. Okay,
perfect, that's one I need toknow. Thank you, Thank you,
Ruthie. I appreciate that call verymuch. Okay, bye bye,
bye bye. Are you looking fora quality product, equality product for your
soil? The brown stuff? Landscaper'sPride, That's who you need to look
for Landscaperspride dot Com. Just gothere because they're like twenty seven different products

(02:34:46):
that they have. You're gonna findgarden Magic Soil. Gardeners Magic Soil is
a pine based blends got humus,got composted rice holes, a chicken pellet
fertilizer that'll give you three months upto three months of feeding. They've got
bark molts, the most popular onedecomposed it slowly and people love it for
that. Hardwood malts from true groundup hardwood, black velvet, the naturally

(02:35:09):
black malts all from Landscaper's Pride.Just go to Landscaperspride dot com and find
these quality products to get your lawnready, get your landscape ready for the
summer season, whether it's a gardenor flower bed or shrubbed, you got
to get the soil malts. Landscaper'sPride can do it. And if you
go to the website Landscaperspride dot comyou can find out where to get all

(02:35:31):
those quality products. Time for acorrect break. When we come back,
we'll go right back to the calls. Welcome back to Guardline. Good hey
with us today. Hey, ifyou're looking for a quality garden center that's

(02:35:52):
gonna have the products you need,don't forget. By the way, this
is the Memorial Day tax free weekendwhere you can get discount or get tax
free rather excuse me, tax freeon products that help conserve water, for
example, like a quality soil,quality compost materials, A lot of plants
and trees and grasses and mulches andthings. They that's all a tax free

(02:36:15):
weekend. This is a weekend toget it done. RCW Nurseries can get
you set up on that. RCWNurseries is a leader when it comes to
quality plants and quality products. Theyknow how to make sure you have success.
They grow their own trees up inPlantersville. So do you want to
put out a nice quality tree,one that is a species that grows here,

(02:36:37):
a plant that has been grown properlyso that it establishes well and does
well for you. Go to RCWNursery and talk to them about it.
They have all the products you needto go with that tree. By the
way, while you're there, pickup some roadses, pick up their herbs,
pick up all kinds of beautiful plants. How about some color like a
viscus and the boogainvillea is oh mygosh outstand at RCW Nursery. RCW nurseries

(02:37:03):
dot com is their website. Thelocation it's on Tomball Parkway where it comes
into Beltway eight. Easy access gettingin and out of there. And if
they don't have something, well there'sa reason we call them to get it.
Got it Nursery. If they don'thave it, they're going to be
able to find it. I'll betyou if it's available in the market,
they can get it for you andbring it in RCW nurseries. We're going

(02:37:24):
to head now out to Ken andWest Houston. Hello Ken, Hello Skip.
I've got a quick question. I'vegot three great myrtle trees in my
front yard, one of which isjust loaded with ball moss. Okay,
and I tripped off what I couldby cutting the smaller branches that seem to
be more loaded. Yes, theother girls don't have any at all.

(02:37:46):
And I don't know if the ballmoss harms the tree are where it just
looks bad. But is there anythingspecial I need to do? It only
harms the tree by shading the lowerportions. You get enough ball moss in
a tree, and it literally isblocking light just because it's there. It's
not a parasite. I've seen itgrowing on power lines, for example.
If it was a parasite, itcouldn't live on a power line. But

(02:38:09):
when a tree gets a little bitweaker and you start to get light through,
you see a proliferation of ball moss. In some parts of town are
worse than others. It does attachto crape myrtles very well. I would
physically remove as much as you could, even if that matt going up on
a ladder. Now, if yougot a thirty foot crepe myrtle, well
that all bets are off. Butwhatever, you can just physically with a

(02:38:31):
glove on your hand just pull off. I just stripped my hand down a
branch and it just rips right off. Get rid of it that way.
In the spring, before the foliagecomes on. You can spray a copper
based product on the ball moss whereyou have access to get the spray on
it, and it will die andthen eventually it just sort of rots and

(02:38:52):
falls out. So dead ball mosslooks a lot like living ball moss,
but with that copper spray, it'sgonna and it's gonna fall out, but
it's done in the spring before thenew growth appears. In coside kocide is
one product that can be used forthat. For the ball moss, it's
too high to just physically rip out. All right, Okay, very good,

(02:39:16):
thank you, Yes, sir,good luck with that. I understand
the concern about that if you're dealingwith pests in the lawn or you're gonna
be and you may be because herecomes past season in the lawn. Nitrofoss
Bugout Max is a product that lasts, it's got a it's got it insecticide
in it that will control over onehundred and thirty different kinds of insects.

(02:39:39):
And so whether you're dealing with fireants or whether the larva of fleas.
If you got pets and they're goingin and out, you're gonna have flee
larva in the lawn. It willcontrol those ticks, also, chinch bugs
and side webworms, which they're comingup. By the way, go to
my website Gardening with Skip dot com. Gardening with Skip dot Com, the

(02:40:00):
lawn Care Guide and the lawn Pests, Disease and Weed Management Schedules. Both
of those schedules are on there andyou can see exactly when each pest may
appear in your lawn. Nitrofoss BugoutMax, when you apply it, it's
going to give you the whole summerlong of pest control in the lawn.
So you do it now. Ittakes care of what shows up then works
very very well from Nitrofoss, andthose products are widely available. You're going

(02:40:26):
to find Nitrovoss Bugout Max at atask asda ace up in a task ASDA
at Lake Hardware Inclute, for example, or Gem's Hardware up in Montgomery.
We're going to go now to debin the woodlands. Hello, Deb high
skip. Can you hear me?Yes? I can, okay, because

(02:40:46):
I was having a hard time hereand your producer there first couple of times.
So our grass has like a lightercolor green on it along with the
darker color green. And we letthe grass grow a little bit longer and
than most people around our neighborhoods.Most people have long services and they cut

(02:41:09):
it down real short. We don'tdo that. I'm wondering why, if
we've been following the schedule and stuff, why this is occurring. I've never
seen this this early before. Describeto me again what in detail kind of
what it is you're seeing in thegrass. Well, the grass it's growing,

(02:41:30):
but the grass, say, someof it is lighter colored green.
I don't want to say yellow.It's just a lighter color green mixed in
with the darker color green. Andwe've been struggling with this. Somebody ran
over our grass. We had bigold patch we had to put in.
It's just it's been brutal the lastyear. So these areas, are they

(02:41:54):
kind of splotchy here and there,or is the whole lawn just kind of
uniformly lacking green? Or what areyou? You know, as I'm looking
at it, part of it,one side of the driveway is kind of
squashy, on the other side seemsto be like the whole thing. And
I walked around the neighborhood this morning, I only saw like one or two
other yards that had a similar situation. And again they're letting their grass grow

(02:42:16):
longer than most people. Okay,well, so here, here's what I
would do. Go out to someof the lighter colored grass, pick a
grass blade and hold it up whereyou can see the light through it and
see if it's there's some striping ofgreen and maybe a chartreuse to yellowish color

(02:42:37):
in the leaf itself. That's aniron deficiency, and it can be brought
on by a lack of iron.It can be brought on by high pH
and hyphosphorus levels in the soil.You would need to use a keylated iron
product for that. A lot oftimes I found following wet weather, especially
cooler weather, but wet weather,that you go through a little bit of

(02:43:00):
an iron chlorosis like that, andthen it bounces back as microbial activity,
decomposes organic matter and releases nutrients intothe soil. If you do find it,
go ahead, go ahead. Haveyou already fertilized this summer? We
Yeah, I think my husband saidhe's done everything. We put the imperial
I think it was you suggested backin March. We put that on towards

(02:43:24):
the end of March. Yeah,and then he followed up, like I
think in April with the regular fertilizer. Okaycause I asked him yesterday, I
said, are we up today becausewe're getting ready to leave for a couple
of weeks and I want to makesure we're not going to come back to
a dead lawn. Yeah. Well, you know, different things can cause
that symptom, so we're kind ofgoing to work our way through the possibilities.

(02:43:46):
One is the iron. You cando a keylated form of iron application
to the lawn and that helps getthe iron in the plant. If indeed
it's the iron, If you'd liketo send me a picture of it and
then maybe of the lawn so Ican kind of see the pattern and then
go up to one of these lightareas and really close, like you know,

(02:44:07):
five inches away. Take a pictureof the grass or grass blades and
let me look at that. I'llsee if I see anything that helps me
maybe narrow it down a little more. Okay, okay, would we be
doing any damage to it if weput any of that suggested tops, top
soil, top dressing, compost topdressing, that's what I'm talking about.

(02:44:33):
Yeah, and Devin, I'm sorry, I got to run. We're running
out of time. I got acouple more folks here I'm trying to get
to. But good luck with that. I'm gonna put you on hold if
you want to get the email forthat, go ahead and do that.
Let's see, we're gonna go toMario here in spring. Hey, Mario,
can we do this kind of quick? Yes, good morning. I'm
just having trouble with the crabgrass andnut search. Okay, it's coming up

(02:44:54):
in the lawn now and it's likegetting kind of bad. And I did
the l realization and I did thebarricade. Okay, all right, so
the crab grass the barricade would dothat. You got to get it down
early enough. If you go tomy schedule online I have an early to
mid February application of that in yourarea. Probably mid February would be fine

(02:45:18):
to prevent it. You may haveto reapply it about sixty to ninety days
later to extend the preventative. Nowthat you've got crab grass, just mow
it. That's about all you cando with it. Try to keep the
seedheads from farming the nuts set.Will we see in Augustine take over?
Yeah? Oh yeah, oh yeah, yeah, yeah it will. It
will if you mow water infertilize,which is also on my schedule. As

(02:45:41):
far as enough, I did it, and if I just fertilize, should
I do it again? I mean, and I just didn't. Well,
March you could do a yeah,you could do your your slow release fertilizer
now March just was it a slowera fast release? That was the Just
put the slowter on the like repulse. Okay, then then you don't need

(02:46:05):
to do it again. Now you'regood. As far as the nutsedge,
you need to find a product withnutsedge control for lawns. Go to ACE
Hardware near you and they'll have it. Sorry, what we do for a
lot of times