Butterfly and St. Augustine grass talk

Skip takes your calls!

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Welcome to Katie r. H Garden Line with Skip Rictor.

Speaker 2 (00:04):
It's the crazy trim. Just watch him as well.

Speaker 3 (00:18):
That so many people things to see bat crazy you.

Speaker 4 (00:29):
Not a salon, incredit gas.

Speaker 5 (00:34):
Salamon sweet.

Speaker 6 (00:42):
All right, Good Saturday morning, folks, welcome to garden Lines.
Good have you with us this morning. We've got a
lot to talk about, as we always do in horticulture.
You know, when it comes to gardening, we never run
out of things to talk about. Twelve months out of
the year at three sixty five, it is there's always something,
you know. It's the plants for the seasons, the problems

(01:05):
for the seasons, identifying bugs and insects or insects and
diseases and all kinds of things. There's always something going
on out in the garden. That's a fun part about it.

Speaker 1 (01:15):
You know.

Speaker 6 (01:16):
One of the things I enjoy most about horticulture is
the fact that it's always changing and there's always something new.
You don't get bored. It's not like silk flowers.

Speaker 1 (01:25):
You know.

Speaker 6 (01:26):
If you and I saw a landscape the other day,
it was loaded with silk flowers and just all along
the road and up the sidewalk and everything. And that's
going to look the same three hundred and sixty five
days a year until the sun fades them. But that's boring.
That's boring stuff. We love the changes. We love to

(01:47):
see the perennials go through their seasons and then go
out and putting new annuals in and doing just different things.
Spring brings, bring spring blooms, Summer bring summer blooms, fall
brings fall blooms, and a landscape like that is always evolving,
and it's just an ongoing work of art. In my opinion,
I like that about it. I think that is really

(02:08):
cool that it is an ongoing work of art. And
as I've said before, don't worry about failing when it
comes to gardening. Just don't give up. Because you may
plant something and it doesn't do well, well, pull it up,
put something else in there and it probably will. Hopefully
you picked a plant that was adapted to the area.
But listen, this is our fund. It's like, I don't know,

(02:32):
finger painting in the first grade. Get you get to
just take your fingers, dip them in paint and smear
them all over the place. And hey, mom and dad
thought it was gorgeous, right what you came up with
This is for your own esthetic pleasure, So just have
a good time. If you're someone that want to get
out and mess with the garden, you just want done, well,

(02:53):
you can have it done for you. But I think
part of the real healing and just mental health benefit
of gardening as well as physical is just getting out
there and having fun doing it all. Right, Well, you've called,
you're listening to the right place.

Speaker 1 (03:10):
Now.

Speaker 6 (03:10):
If you'd like to call the right place, we're gonna
say seven to one three two one two ktr H
seven one three two one two k t RH give
me a call. Let's uh, let's talk about the things
that are of interest to you. One of the most
important things that we do in the garden is to

(03:30):
get out and make sure our soil is good, that
our soil was basically built up for good drainage and
enriched for good nutrient content and good oxygen depth into
the soil. A heavy clay air just can't move down

(03:52):
into that, nor can water very fast. Right, But as
you break it up at organic matter at expanded hill,
those kinds of thing, you increase the amount of air
that can move down deeper and deeper into the soil
and therefore the root system thrives. So that's how we
do it. That is what I would say would be
an organic approach to soil care, because when it comes

(04:15):
to organics, it's all about the soil. People think, well,
something's organic, so I'm going to use an organic fungicide
or an organic pesticide or an organic herbicide. No, that's
not where organics begin. Organics begin and still is in
the soil. You get the soil, right, that's number one. Now, yes,
there are organic controls for diseases and pests and weeds

(04:38):
and things. We have those options, but it's not just
changing the bullets in the gun. Organics is not just
changing the bullets in the gun. It is a whole
system approach. It begins in the soil. That's why Microlife
when they design their products, they included a lot of
soil microbiology. The product itself is former plant material. I

(05:02):
mean it is materials that were taken from nature to
create the fertilizer in the first place. But whether it's
the green bag, the six two four, the one that
most people put on their lawns, I use it all
over the place. It's not just launs or the purple bag,
which is hum makes plus the final decomposition stage of

(05:24):
compost is humous, so it's concentrated compost in a bag.
All of those are done not just to put the
nutrients out there, but to help continue to build the
soil better and better. And when you do that, plants thrived.
That's what it's based on, as simple as that. By
the way, if you're interested in Microlife fertilizers, you can

(05:45):
find them. If you go to Microlife fertilizer dot com,
you can find out all the places where you can
get it in and it is so widely available. Off
the top of my head, I can't think of a
place that I talk about a source, A feed store,
a garden center, and Southwest fertilizer, ace hardware stores all right,
everybody carries micro Life, easy, easy to find. So anyway,

(06:06):
I was talking about the importance of, you know, starting
with the soil, getting that right. That is a mantra
that we do talk about here a lot on the
garden line because it is the foundation for success. It's
where we want to begin. It just makes things easy.
And so if you look at a landscape and you

(06:27):
see beautiful flowers and you go, oh, my gosh, I
wish my house looked like that. I can promise you
one thing. Go to the go to the below the flowers.
Go to the ground level, dig down in that soil
and look at it and feel it. And I'll tell
you this. That is the reason those flowers look good.

Speaker 1 (06:46):
That is it.

Speaker 6 (06:47):
Somebody has put the nutrients in and everything else to
have success. Now, of course it's important. It's very important
which which flowers you plant, and when you plant them
and so on. We this is a big country, and
there are all kinds of blooms all over the place,
or rhododendrons growing wild up in Oregon and Washington. Stage.

(07:07):
You've got a lot of things like lilac in the
Midwest and other places you know that just do so well.
Blue spruce and Colorado looks so beautiful. And those are
plants for another place, not for here. But I can
tell you this. We have our plants for here, plenty
of them. You just want plants that want to be
happy here, all right, If you would like to give

(07:29):
us a call this morning, it's always good.

Speaker 7 (07:31):
You know.

Speaker 6 (07:32):
One of the things that happens every show is early on.
It's real slow, and that's fine. It gives me a
chance to just jabber. But late in the show, then
everybody tries to call, and we're trying to get through
all the calls. So just a word to the wise
for those of you that are early birds, this is
usually the beginning of the show. Early on in the show,
the first hour is a time when it's real easy

(07:53):
to get in or you just don't have to wait
very long at all if you do so. There it
is seven one three two on two. I was out
enjoying the birds that are at my feeders, and I
every time a new bird comes to the feeder, I
have to go look it up because I'm not a

(08:14):
bird specialist, but I go look it up. And when
I come back, I'm gonna take a little break here.
I want to come back. I want to talk a
little bit about some of the some of the things
I've been noticing that I've learned from uh regarding backyard birds.
We'll be right back seven three two two five eight
seven four. We're going to go now out to Richard

(08:37):
and Katie. A good morning, Richard, welcome to guard Line.

Speaker 5 (08:40):
Hey, I appreciate you taking my calls. It's kind of
a silly little question but I raise a few cows
down Lavaca County, and I noticed the farmers in their
corn fields always morning glories coming up in their corn fields.
Is the seed just mixed in with the corn or what?

Speaker 1 (08:58):
No?

Speaker 6 (08:58):
Probably not. Its morning glory is a perennial weed, so
once it gets established, it's got a little underground tuber.
So it's it's it's hard to get rid of. I mean,
they have access to chemicals that'll do it, but uh,
it just it's a very common noxious weed. It's it's
one that deal with, Yeah, in at home garden, you know,

(09:19):
you kind of focused on it when you got several
hundred acres to deal with. You know, it's kind of
hard to worry about pinpointing each weed. And once one
gets away, now you just sentenced yourself to another decade
of dealing with those seeds.

Speaker 5 (09:35):
Is that playing noxious to cattle?

Speaker 6 (09:38):
No, No, it's just a it's not toxic. It's just
a well, I don't know, let me take that back.
I don't know if it's I've never heard it being toxic.
But it's just a weed that infests in it climbs
up on stuff, and so yeah, it's a it's a problem.
For farmers.

Speaker 5 (09:56):
Well, yours pretty though, Well, I appreciate that. I didn't
want I didn't want to have as my farmer friends.
I didn't want to know how to tell them I was,
so I appreciate your answer.

Speaker 6 (10:06):
No it Yeah, it's pretty. And boy there's some especially
bumblebees and things that really love those flowers. But I'm
not trying to talk anyone into leaving it around the
landscape or farm that's for sure.

Speaker 5 (10:20):
Well, no, they are beautiful.

Speaker 8 (10:21):
I appreciate that.

Speaker 1 (10:22):
Thank you godle yes.

Speaker 6 (10:24):
You bet as well. All right here, let's see we're
going to go now to sugar Land and talk to Gary.
Good morning, Gary, Good morning.

Speaker 9 (10:34):
How are y'all doing?

Speaker 6 (10:36):
We're great, We're great. How can I help to day?
What do you think about Flora tam grass? Florida tam
is an older variety. It's been around a long time. Uh,
and when it came, you know, we've got a lot
of new varieties on the market, and each time they
breed new varieties, they improve on what used to be.

Speaker 10 (10:58):
Uh.

Speaker 6 (10:59):
Florida TAM's biggest strength is it's tough.

Speaker 1 (11:02):
Uh.

Speaker 6 (11:02):
It is has a good deep root system, it's got
it's very resilient. The original Flora Town was very resistant
to chinchbugs, and I think maybe over the years, uh,
you know, insects tend to change when they have to,
and and probably some now the resistance of chinchbugs is
not what it once was. It is it is somewhat,

(11:25):
uh somewhat but not fully. The negatives of Florida Town
is it's a kind of a big rangy grass. People
like a really tight, nice dense lawn, and Saint Augustine
already is, you know, big old fat leaf blades and
runners and everything. Florida Town was even more that way.
So if you wanted, you know, if you wanted the

(11:48):
maybe you came from the north and you know a
nice little bluegrass lawn or something. You want something nice
and tight and everything floor toown was a little bit
rainier in its growth habit, but it was. It was
a good grass and and developed by Florida and Texas
and m together many years ago.

Speaker 11 (12:03):
But it has lost its resistance to change budge for
the most part, somewhat. Yeah, I would no longer say
plant Flora tam and you won't have chinchbug problems at all,
But there there is some there. And again it's not
that the plant lost its resistance. It's that the chinchbugs

(12:26):
have changed, have evolved and changed. That happens all the
time with insects and diseases.

Speaker 1 (12:30):
You know, they.

Speaker 6 (12:32):
You know the question.

Speaker 1 (12:34):
I go for it.

Speaker 9 (12:37):
Probably seven eight ten years ago A and M came
out with a new line of citrus trees that were
supposed to be more cold hardy.

Speaker 6 (12:46):
And I don't hear them mentioned too much anymore, Okay,
So yes, sir, yes, sir. What they did is they
they due to some good cold freezing temperatures unusually cold,
that cleaned out a lot of varieties of satsuma that

(13:06):
weren't quite as hardy. There were a couple that they
found out. Most of the results were out in the Uvaldi,
but other places it was we saw this, but Miho
m I h O and Cito s E t O.
Miho and CTO were two of the hardier ones that
they had. After that really cold weather came through. Then

(13:31):
a fellow named doctor Moy and San Antonio developed arctic frost,
and oh gosh, the other name is it's another frost.
It's escaping me at the very moment. And those we
were more cold hardy as well, and so we really
have several varieties. There are a lot of other citrus
varieties that are good, and I'll make it through the
vast majority of your winners down in this area. But yeah,

(13:55):
I think that's what you're referring to.

Speaker 9 (13:59):
Yes, sir, I just don't hear the poor already frost
or anything mentioned anymore. And I didn't know if they
did not worked out as well as they thought or
what situation was.

Speaker 6 (14:11):
No, they worked well. One of the two frosts is
a little more cold tolerant than the other. The other
one's a little bit better fruit quality than the other one.
It's kind of a trade off between those two. I
still see them around. They are on the market. It
just you know, I don't you would have to ask
for them, and if you did, I'm sure the garden
centers would be able to get them in for you

(14:32):
if they don't already carry them. Okay, thank you very much.
I really enjoy your show. Thank you, Gary, appreciate your call.
I appreciate that a lot. You know, I'll tell you
one place that you're going to be able to get
things like the hardy types of citrus, and a wide
variety is up at the arbor Gate in a tumble.
Beverly prides herself on carrying plants that are adapted to here,

(14:57):
getting plants that maybe are not as that people would want.
And so I guarantee you they can get those kind
of plants for you if they don't already have them.
She carries fruit trees year round up at the arbor Gate,
and I'm talking about peaches and other things. I mean,
they always have something there at the arbor Gate, and
so you just go if you haven't been there. It's
on twenty nine to twenty west of Tumbull, just a

(15:19):
little bit outside of town, and there's a road called
Trishel t R I c ch e L Trishel Road.
It goes behind Arburgate. Think of it as a loop.
So as you're heading west on twenty nine to twenty,
you'll you'll pass Trishel Road, then you'll see Arburgate, then
you'll see Trishele Road again. So before or after, if
you miss it, you're going to be able to just
turn back and get to the back parking lot. And

(15:41):
I'd recommend you do that. While you're out there, just
first of all, take friends with you and you go
This is a fun place. This isn't like you know,
the grocery store. You walk in, I load your basket
and run out because it's all just meat and potatoes.
That's a good knowledgy. But this is a place where
you're gonna want to hang out and shop and look

(16:02):
at the displays and look at the yard arts, the
beautiful things they have there and the gift shops and everything.
So grant a friend, run out there to the Arborgate
and you're going to see what I'm talking about. I
always love to go. I always see plants I haven't
seen before because there's always something new coming in to Arburgate.
And the folks there know what they're talking about. They'll
point you in the right direction. They absolutely you go

(16:25):
in and you need help, and they can help you
because they know what they're talking about. And that is
so important when you go to a garden center. That's
for sure. See I'm going to head out now to
North Houston and we're going to talk to Paul. Hello, Paul,
welcome to garden Line.

Speaker 12 (16:42):
Well, good morning, thanks for taking the call. Hey, here's
my question, pleasure. I've had for years of Virginia button
wood on my front lawn. I face the west, and
it comes kind of in the I'll say the late spring.
It's not in the very beginning, but then it appears

(17:04):
on the lawn and then it kind of proliferates over
the year and then come into the fall, it just
goes goes away, or at least you can't see it.
I know it's probably still down into the on the
base of the dirt. But this year is the worst

(17:25):
I have ever had. And picking it as an orkan, no, no,
you can't.

Speaker 6 (17:33):
You can't pick Virginia button weed. That that is true.
Virginia button weed is a difficult one to control. So
bottom bottom line on it is you got to get
a product that's going to work on it, which they
don't all work equally well. You know, things like trimech
for example, control a lot of different broad leaved weeds.

(17:55):
Aren't as effective against it as we need them to be.

Speaker 1 (17:58):
Uh.

Speaker 6 (17:58):
There is a product called Celsius, like the temperature celsius.

Speaker 1 (18:04):
It is.

Speaker 6 (18:07):
Cel s i us celsius. If you apply it to
Virginia button weed, as it gets growing and stay on it,
you're going to have to make a second application to it.
So what you'd like to do is when it begins
to green up the grass, the virginia button weed is

(18:29):
starting to green up, you're going to want to treat
it with celsius, and then about four to six weeks later,
you're going to want to treat it again once temperatures
get up above eighty five degrees. A lot of our
broad leaf weed control products are stressful to the Saint Augustine.
They weaken it, they injure it. They don't kill it
out right, but they weaken it. And so what you're

(18:52):
going to want to be able to do is apply
it early on. You can apply these earlier during the
lawn spring green up period, uh than a lot of
other products without damaging the lawn. But it's going to
take more than one control. You don't have to treat
the whole long. Just where you see the virginia button,
we'd treat that. And again, these aren't cheap. It comes

(19:12):
in a little packet of like a dust and an
envelope that you dump in I think it probably usually
they make about a gallon of spray, which is your
spot reading. So that's more than enough. But that is
the one that is going to work. But again, don't
expect one application and don't wait until the end of
the year to try to treat it. Catch it early

(19:34):
and then about four to six weeks later.

Speaker 10 (19:37):
Okay, I will try it. I guess next next spring.

Speaker 12 (19:41):
Thank you very much, yes.

Speaker 6 (19:42):
Time, all right, you bet, Paul, thank you. We're going
to run to break. I'll be right back. Folks question today,
we are happy to help at seven to one three
two one two kt r. H seven to one three
two one two kt R.

Speaker 13 (19:58):
H Uh.

Speaker 6 (19:59):
You know, I I wanted to mention Buchanans Plants, which
is in the Heights on eleven Street. Buchanans has just
so many native plants. In fact, that's in the name
Buchanans native plants that you're going to find all kinds
of things that you can grow. For example, someone who's
asking me the other day about what are some good

(20:21):
plants flowers for hummingbirds, Well, I don't know. I think
Buchanans probably has about two or three dosten different plants
that will attract hummingbirds, because a lot of native plants
are very good at that, things with long tubular flowers.
Some of the ones that aren't native but do very well,
very well adapted here. They'll attract them. By the way
hummingbirds are here, they're coming back. Buchanan's got you covered

(20:44):
on those kinds of things. They always have a good
stock of everything. They've got knowledgeable folks and points in
the right direction. And if you're going to do any
kind of native plant gardening, you need to talk to
them because it's more than just buying a plant. It's
how do I use this plant, how do I include
this plant? It's what plants would be good for hummingbirds
and whatnot. There is also today at Buchanans Plants, August

(21:08):
twenty fourth, from twelve to one pm over the noon
hour is a Midsummer Flower Grown workshop. I would call
them first make sure it's not full. But a Midsummer
flower grown workshops. It's a cost because you're going to
get a lot of you know, there's a lot of
materials that go into this that you get and get
to do. It's eighty five bucks a person. But that's

(21:31):
today from twelve to one. I would give them a
call to find out more about it and find out
what you're interested in. While you're out there, you know,
all the other plants you want, from vegetables to herbs
to house plants, do you name it. You're going to
find there at buchanans Plants again there on Eleventh Street
in the Heights. But you really ought to go check
them out. Also check out the website Buchanansplants dot com.

(21:53):
And the reason is there is a ton of educational
material on the website and that's where you can sign
up for the newsletter that is so informative. Really that
alone is worth the price permission. As they say so earlier,
I was talking about birds. I just mentioned hummingbirds, about
the birds at my feet aer and I noticed this
spring that my birds are looking scruffy. I mean when

(22:15):
I say scruffy, it's like they had a fight with
a weed eater and lost. I mean, they're just like
a red bird is only about fifty percent red because
all the a lot of feathers have fallen out, the
outer pretty feathers and stuff. They just look horrible. And
so I sent a picture to Rich who is a
Waldbird's Unlimited store owner, and I know, when I go

(22:37):
to one of the Wallbirds store owners, I'm going to
get really accurate answers. And he goes, yeah, they're still
molting and This was very late in the season. I thought, gosh,
I think they'd be through by now. But they are,
and they're about to get their new feathers in and
look beautiful. If you are interested in birds, you need
to go to Warbirds Unlimited and learn and ask questions

(22:58):
because they can absolutely you get right on the right track.
And you don't have to, you know, go get the
whole nine yards of all the supplies and everything at once.
Just go out there and get your feeder, or get
you a bird house, or get mainly get some of
the quality feed that they have. Their feed is not
filled with stuff the birds won't eat, like cheap bird
seed is cheap bird seeds full of red bebies. Red

(23:20):
bebies get kicked off on the ground. It's milow and
they get kicked off on the ground, or sort them.
The birds don't care about them. So you buy this
bag of feed, you get about what half of it
that's actually stuffed birds eat other than maybe some doves
that pack around on the ground. You need to go
to Wildbirds and get quality products and quality advice. And

(23:41):
I'm going to tell you, I'm warning you it is
at an addictive hobby. I was never a bird person
until I got my supplies at Wildbirds. And now suddenly
I'm hearing a song and I'm I got a little
app that it listens to the bird and it tells
you what the bird is and is this cool stuff?
Wb dot com Forward slash Houston. That's all you need

(24:03):
to know. W b U dot Com Forward Slash Houston
helps you find the six war Birds unlimited stores so
you can find the one that is nearest to you.
And birds are a lot, a lot of fun. I
I have a number of them that I use an
app called Merlin m R L I N. It's a

(24:24):
free app from Cornell University. They've got an outstanding ornithology
department up there, by the way. That's the fancy word
for I'm learning about birds or anthology. Okay, let's head
out to Manville, Texas and we're gonna talk to Kurt
he Good morning morning. What's up Menville?

Speaker 12 (24:51):
Oh?

Speaker 13 (24:52):
Nothing much, man. I just bought a property and it's
got fig trees on it, a couple of Magnoli trees.

Speaker 14 (24:58):
Uh.

Speaker 13 (24:59):
And I'll told a wild back man. I think I
might have been at the casino in Louisiana and this
guy that works at a nerdy tree with overheard him
telling this lady that she poured some dust and salt
around the trees. I guess the magnesium in it what
have you would make them grow more fruit and have

(25:22):
hepta trees grow.

Speaker 6 (25:25):
Yes and no is the answer to that. Magnesium is
one is one of the secondary nutrients. Plants don't need
as much of it as they need nitrogen, phosphorus, and potassium,
the three numbers on a fertilizer bag, but it's the
next level of nutrients, so they do need magnesum. Typically,
if the plant is lacking magnesium, if you look at

(25:46):
the older leaves, the older last, you'll start to see
a green Christmas tree in the middle of the leaf.
In other words, as in the center, it stays green
the main the veins in the center, and then as
it gets out towards the edge of the leaf, it
kind of loses color, and so it looks like you're
looking at a green Christmas tree and a leaf. That's

(26:07):
the best way I can describe it, because it's that
same shape. If that's the case, then any magnesium fertilizer
epsom salts does have a lot of magnesium in it
would help. But if a plant already has all the
magnesium it needs. Giving it more isn't going to help.

Speaker 4 (26:25):
Okay, okay, all right, So is there any fertilize out
there that you, you know, much to think of that's beneficial.

Speaker 6 (26:38):
In general for fig trees. For fig trees, I'd just
use my lawn fertilizer on them. It just a good
lawn fertilizer because you're already buying it, you know, for
a long and you just use it on those big
trees and they'll be fine. You know, if you had
a soil test and it said, hey, you're low and
I don't know potassium or some other thing, it may

(26:59):
be that you would shift a little bit. But in general,
figs are pretty good. If you just use a standard
kind of fertilizer on them, they'll do just fine.

Speaker 15 (27:08):
Well alrighty, I appreciate you guys man, and have a
blessed stake.

Speaker 6 (27:12):
Alright, good, thanks for the call. Appreciate appreciate that if
you're looking, you know, for fertilizing. I do use lawn
fertilizer on a lot of different things.

Speaker 1 (27:24):
You know.

Speaker 6 (27:24):
For example, Nitrofoss has their super turf. I've been talking
about it all summer because it's a slow release fertilizer.
You put super turf out and you're going to get
months out of that application of fertilizer because it it's
designed for the nitrogen to release slowly, which is what
you want. You don't want it all at once. I mean, imagine,
think about yourself when you eat. Can you imagine the

(27:45):
first thing Monday morning eating all the food you need
for the week. That would be ridiculous, right, And well,
sometimes we think about we're gonna put some nutrient on
the ground and expect, especially something volatile like nitrogen to
last for months at a time, and it doesn't. But
in a slower lease form it can. And that's what
that's what super turf does. But there's nothing wrong. I mean,

(28:06):
it's made for lawns, that's the main reason we use it.
But you know, if you want to use that on
your fig tree, that would be just fine. It would
give you a gradual feed all through the summer. There's
no problem with that. Again, I'm not saying it's made
for fruit, but still it works. It does, and you
can find you're going to find it where you find
other nitrofoss products. Hide and feed hiding and feed up

(28:27):
on Studient Airline. They carry it up there. I think
you can also find it at Bearings Hardware, both the
one on Bissinet and the one out on West Timer.
It's easy to find Plantation Ace Hardware. Another place. Adam
Richmond Rosenberg carries nitrofoss products like Superturf. By the way,
that's a silver silver bag if you're going by bag color,
which makes it really easy easy to identify. I've mentioned

(28:52):
before that you know gardening in fact, first thing this morning,
first thing this morning, I was talking about gardening being
a a h that we grow into and we learn
and we change things, and it's just it's enjoyable and
you can do that yourself, but you can also hire
somebody to do it. And Pierscapes peerscapes dot com is

(29:14):
the website. They can take care of everything for you,
from design to hardscapes, to fixing irrigation to landscape lighting,
to quarterly maintenance, trimming, weeding, fertilizing, checking the irrigation, doing
seasonal color changes, making sure the mulch is kept up.
They can keep those flowerbeds looking really good. So maybe

(29:35):
you don't want anything added, you just want it maintained. Well,
they can do that too, Pierscapes dot com two eight
one three seven oh fifty sixty. I'll be right back. Hey,
Welcome back to Guardline folks. On what is gonna be
a nice Saturday. I'm looking forward to getting out and
getting some things done after the show today. For those

(29:59):
of you who you know, I don't know if how
you listen to garden I'm always curious that you know,
are people listening on the radio or they're listening on
an app that they're listening on their computer. And there's
a lot of ways you can listen to garden Line.
One of the ways I think makes a lot of
sense is to get a radio app like the iHeartMedia app.
It's free and you can just put in garden Line

(30:21):
on there and you can listen to past shows a podcast.
Once I finish a show, they put it online so
that you can listen, re listen if you missed the
show for the first time listen, and you can also
listen live on that app. And so you know, if
I were not in here in front of a microphone
talking to you. Once you get a little sunlight outside,

(30:42):
I'm going to be outside getting some gardening done.

Speaker 1 (30:44):
This.

Speaker 6 (30:44):
Take my phone, turn it upside down and listen to
the garden line while I'm working in the yard, because
this is the season where we like to get that
stuff done early in the day, right unless you just
enjoy a sauna sweating outside. By the way, fall is coming.
Fall is coming, and when fall gets here, there is

(31:04):
a lot going on. So now would be a good
time to build your soil. Whatever you're going to do
to build your soil, get it done now. Maybe you
want to plant broccoli this fall, or maybe you're looking
forward to planting some cool season flowers like between our pansies. Well,
build the soil now, because whenever the soil is not wet,
or when it's moist not soggy wet, is a great

(31:27):
time to mix in organic matter and make it better
to bring in mixes and stuff. Then when planting season occurs,
even if it's rainy and wet, you're ready to go.
What did they say, make hay while the sunshines, right, Well,
make garden beds while the sunshines while it's not rainy
and things. That's just a little tip for you to
think about. We've been talking about fertilizers and you know,

(31:50):
we were discussing magnesium with the previous collar and I
mentioned it had a little Christmas tree shape in the center,
and it was a secondary nutrient. You know, we have primaries.
It's nitrogen, phosphorus, potassium. Those three, the three numbers on
a fertilizer big are primary nutrients, and all primary means
is not they're more important, it's that they're needed in

(32:10):
more quantity than other nutrients. There's twenty something nutrients that
are all essential. They're all important, they're all essential. The
secondary group would include things like magnesium and calcium for example.
Those are secondary nutrients. Then we have the trace minerals,
the ones that are in azumite. I've talked about asmite before.

(32:33):
Those be things like molybdenum, manganese, copper, zinc, iron. Those
are trace minerals. And we put the azamite out on
our soil to build up the trace mineral content, and
a soil test will tell you exactly where you are
on all the different nutrients. And I always recommend starting

(32:54):
with the soil test because that way you fertilize intelligently
based on your soil. You know your soil and your
neighbor's soil can be different, even though originally they're probably
the same type of soil there, but they've been fertilized
and amended in things, so the nutrient levels aren't the same.
And soil tests a good way to do it. But
as mite is those trace minerals, and generally I'll say

(33:17):
just you know, once a year, do an as and
mite application to your lawn to provide a bank account there.
You know, those trace minerals don't make the grass grow.
You know, nitrogen pushes new growth. That's pushes is not
a good word, but it it basically, it stimulates the
new growth. But these trade minerals they're not going to
do that. But to support new growth, you have to

(33:39):
have them. And so think of it as a bank account.
You put the money in the bank account so when
you need it you can make a withdrawal. That's what
asamite is doing for your soil. It's putting trace minerals
in the bank account. You can go to asimite Texas
dot com find out more about it, and it's widely available.
It's all over the place. It's much if I talk

(34:00):
about some feed store, garden center, ACE hardware stores, you
know Southwest fertilized all those places, or you're going to
be able to get asamite there. They are set up
to do just that. But soil building while the sunshines.
That is something to remember. And I know you know,

(34:20):
when you're having temperatures that are forecasts to be really
hot outside, it's kind of hard to get excited about
going to get soil or bringing soil in and going
through all the amendments and whatnot. But this is a
time to do it. Get it done in the early morning.

(34:41):
You can take you can take a better part of
a week just working just a little bit in the
mornings to get those those things done, because then later
you are going to have success. Remember it all begins
in the soil, brown stuff before green stuff, and what
that means is decomposed organic matter and fertilizers in the

(35:02):
soil to create the best possible soil condition you can get.
That's it I'm talking about. As mit Ace Hardware stores
is a great place to get anything you hear me
talk about here on Guardline. The fertilizers, including as might
the micro nutrient or trace mineral application. If you have

(35:23):
pests and diseases and weeds go to ACE Hardware. They've
got it. They carry it all there, and you know,
we've got forty of them in the Greater Houston areas.
So close your eyes and throw a rock and you're
probably going to get an ACE Hardware store. There's the
minium around here. But seriously, you can go online to
ACE Hardware dot com. That's the website Ace Hardware dot
Com and find the store locator and you get a

(35:46):
little map with the red dots all over it, and
you can find every Ace Hardware store around you. Maybe
you're you know, you're out visiting family and some other
outside the Greater Houston area, you can find the ACE
Hardware store near you. That I mean, they're everywhere, and
they carry all the things we're talking about. Especially our
Houston group. Those stores around here, we work together, and

(36:09):
you know, so that I don't just start naming some
product that they've never heard of. They are going to
carry the things that I talk about on Guarden Line,
and that's important. It's a one stop shop. And you
know when you go onto ACE, you're gonna have You're
gonna have everything else you could possibly need for setting
up that beautiful area. You know, barbecue pits. It's still

(36:30):
barbecue season, and hey, here comes football season, and what
do we do. We have to put some burgers and
hot dogs on the grill. Well, Ace Hardware can get
you set up with grills, including grills on steroids like
the Big Green Egg and the Traeger grills and the Weber.
Weber's a great brand of grill and all the supplies
that you need. Of course, I love outside to have

(36:53):
those little strings of lights that create the ambiance.

Speaker 16 (36:57):
You know.

Speaker 6 (36:58):
I call them beer garden lights because you know that
kind of gives you that outdoor setting under the trees,
you know, kind of picture. Stringing some of those around
outside just creates a beautiful ambiance. We start to get
a little cooler weather and the little more pleasant to
be outside late in the day, and you need to
be set up. And that's just one of the things.

Speaker 1 (37:17):
You know.

Speaker 6 (37:17):
ACE is the place. What do you need? Ace is
a place They're going to have it. That is kind
of nice to know. Alrighty, well, it looks like we're
about to have to put this hour in the books.
I believe I'm running out of time on it. Appreciate
you staying with us through the first hour. We're going
to be back for a second hour. Got planning more

(37:38):
things to talk about. I got a few things I
want to tell you about today as we get through
the show. It's always a good time. I'm going into
a break if you want to give us a call,
if you're even to be right up on the boards
there when we come back. Seven to one three two
one two k t R seven to one three two
one two k t R H. I want to remind

(38:00):
you that if you're interested in the second annual Strawberry
Jamboree and Lake Jackson, Texas, you're going to have a
day full of speakers. You know, October is the best
time to blent strawberries down here in our area. And
if you go to this, it's September twenty first, from
eight to noon, so all morning, September twenty first, Lake
Jackson Civic Center. Want more information, here's a phone number

(38:23):
nine seven nine eight six four fifteen fifty eight. Nine
seven nine eight six four fifteen fifty eight are called
the Brazoria County Extension Officebus taken Welcome back, Welcome back

(38:46):
to Guardline. Good have you with us today. We've got
plenty things to talk about today. If you'd like to
give us a call, if you have a question or
want a plan identified or whatever. The question is seven
one three two one two kt r H. Seven one
three two one two kt r H. It's as simple

(39:07):
as that. I'd be glad to help you have a
I like to put it this way. We want you
to have a more bountiful garden and a more beautiful landscape.
That's kind of a goal here on garden Line to
guide you in the right direction. And if I can
just rant for a minute, I just we allow me
just a real quick rant here. Social media is not

(39:28):
the place you need to get all your gardening information
unless you really know the source. Unless you really know
the source here. Here's why. What I find is that
when you go on social media, anybody who has a
computer can be an expert. And you see stuff. There's

(39:50):
several categories. There's stuff that is just clickbait and it's
a waste of your time. You know, put beer on
your lawn. That was an old one, used to be
real popular, and if it's weird, it's going to be popular.
The second category are people that kind of know what

(40:11):
they're talking about, but not really and so you know,
you can start with the truth and end up in
a lie. Okay, that because it's been or it's applied
in a way that it doesn't apply, or you know,
anything like that. That's that's the second category is like, Okay,
I know why you're saying that, but what you're saying
is wrong, or it's wrong for the Houston, Texas area,

(40:34):
or it's wrong for a different version of the planet
you're talking about or whatever. That's the second hutter. And
then there are people that just wing it. And I'm
always amazed when I see things posted and someone says, oh,
what bug is this? And these people are just throwing
out all these answers, and it's like, what where do

(40:56):
you even come up with that? It's good to I've
had to learn this. It's good to know when to
keep your mouth shut right and just not be the
expert out there. But that's social media for you. And
so I always cringe at it, and I can. Boy,
I wish we had a slide show I could put
up right now for you to see of all the examples.

(41:18):
A cluster of tomatoes where one tomato is primary blue
and another one is primary red, and another one is
primary purple. I mean not Cherokee purple tomato. I'm talking
about purple tomato and another one is yellow and they're
all on the same cluster. That doesn't happen. It's a lie.

(41:40):
And they're selling seeds for this, and you know people
are going to buy it. It's like, Oh, wouldn't they
be cool to have that plant? Don't do it, don't
believe it. It's just does that mean there's no truth
on social But of course not. Of course not. Guardline
has a Facebook page. I mean, so I'm there and
I have an Instagram to you, but it's just saying

(42:02):
that in general, it's it almost seems like the people
that most don't know what they're talking about have the
loudest boys, or at least they're they're ubiquitous and everywhere,
and that that's just not a good a good way
to get good gardening advice. You have a number of options.
We've got garden Line Radio, we have got your local

(42:24):
county Agrolife Extension office. Where in the greater Houston area
you got, like I mek six different horticulturists. There's one
in Montgomery County, Brises County, Harris County, Fort benk County,
Brazoria County, Galveston County, Orange, out in Orange out there?
Who am I leaving out? Don't want to leave anybody out.

(42:44):
But anyway, there's a lot of horticulturists done here in
the greater scenario too. There's way garden centers, the mom
and pops, the independent garden centers. You go in there
with your your picture or your question, or maybe you
saw something on social media, you know, take it in
on your phone and show it to them and say
is this true? And just wait a minute, because it's

(43:06):
gonna they're gonna have to get up off the floor
where they were rolling around laughing. Answer your question, but seriously,
don't don't be fooled by all that stuff. All right,
Well that was my little soapbox. Thank you for allowing
that to Hope you didn't turn off the radio. Uh
A word of the wise, though, I'm telling you, what

(43:29):
did Pt. Barnum say there's a sucker born every minute? Yeah,
don't be that one when it comes to gardening. Uh,
Martin Spoon Moore. Someone is asking me the other day
whould I recommend for? And I can you know, I'm
not going to finish the question, but it was a
tree question and I just set Affordable Tree Service Martin
spoon Moore. It's as simple as that. You need somebody
that knows what they're talking about to deal with your trees.

(43:51):
When someone shows up on your property with a chainsaw
or any kind of saw and they don't know what
they're doing, they can do damage that never gets fixed.
Once you turn a big beautiful tree into a hat
rack or some other version of that, it'll never be
the same. I mean, and it's you gotta you gotta

(44:12):
have somebody who knows what they're talking about. That's Martin
spoon Moore an affordable tree. You can go to the
website aff Tree Service dot com a fftree Service dot com,
or you could just give him a call. Give Martin
a call at seven one three, six nine nine twenty
six sixty three. You know you should always listen to
Garden Line with a pen and paper around, because I'm

(44:34):
gonna give out websites and brand names and products and
plant names and things that you want to write down.
So hopefully you've grabbed it by now here. It goes
again seven to one three six nine nine two six
six three Affordable Tree Service. Uh, get ready for storms.
When when storms hit, if a tree is properly pruned,

(44:57):
it's less likely. Doesn't mean it guarantees you want have damage,
but it's less likely to have damage. Have them properly proved,
Have your trees trained right, anything you need done around
a tree, trees living the roots. You put a trench
by a tree and you have cut a huge section
of the roots off. Call Martin first, how do we
go about this? Have him come out. He charges for

(45:18):
a consultation to come out. If you hire him to
do some work. That consultation fee goes into the price
of what you hired him to do. But have him
come out and take a look at it before you
make a mistake that you're gonna definitely regret later. It
always I cringe driving around town and seeing the kinds

(45:39):
of damage that had been done to trees, because I know,
you know, so one the other day took a picture
of it and it was like, that tree, just go
ahead and take it out. It's over. It's over. I
don't know, you know what kind of two jerks on
a chainsaw tree service drove by. You know you own
a pickup and and a chainsaw. You can call yourself

(46:00):
a tree service. Anyway you get the idea. Well, let's
take a little break here. I'll be right back. The
number if you'd like to call in seven one three
two one two KTR eight. Then if you would like
to ask a gardening question, you can give me a
call seven one three two one two k t R
eight seven one three two one two k t R
h nightro fives has a product called Sweet Green, and

(46:24):
I've talked about it before. Here here's the thing that
I think is really cool about sweet Green. Sweet Green
is a molasses based product. That's where that's what it
began with is molasses, and molasses is basically a bunch
of carbon. Sugars are basically long chains of carbon, and UH,
microbs need that, especially some of the beneficial backter we're

(46:45):
talking about. That source of carbon is very important for
them in order for them to proliferate and grow, and
Sweet Green does just that. Organic gardeners have known for
a long time that molasses can be beneficial for the plants.
There's products that are just molasses that you put out.
Sweet Green is eleven percent nitrogen fertilizer for your lawn

(47:06):
and it releases those nutrients pretty quickly into the soil
where microbes then do their work and the plant roots
get access to that nitrogen that they want. Well, sweet
green can be applied. It's about a ten or eleven
percent nitrogen. So you put about let's see, ten pounds
per thousand square feet. But right now, how I would

(47:28):
recommend you use it. Listen to me here please, as
I would put half of it down now, and then
I'd weigh about a month and put another the other
half of it down, so about five pounds now, about
five pounds about a month, and kind of spread that
out a little bit over time. After that we're going
to be you know, it's really time to be doing
our fall fertilization here, so you can go ahead and

(47:51):
follow my schedule. And by the way, if you haven't
seen my fertilizing schedule online, it's at Gardening with Skip.
There's a schedule for mowing, watering, and fertilizing. That's the
how to take care of your lawn schedule. Then there's
a schedule for insects, pest diseases, weeds, all those kind

(48:12):
of things, the things that want to attack our lawn
or infest our lawn. That's a different schedule. Both are free.
They're both there and if you look at them you'll
see when we do fertilizing and the different products that
I think will do a super job for you. So
sweet Green from nitrofoss it smells wonderful. I like to
kind of half tongue in cheeks say it smells so

(48:33):
good you want to throw a bag in the back
of your car and drive around the Loop in Houston
one more time, just to enjoy the fragrance on the
way home. Hey, where do you get sweet green? Well,
you're gonna get it in Channa Forest Adam Richmond Rosenberg
Growers outlet up and Willis carries it as well as
RCW Nursery on Tomball Parkway right where it comes into

(48:53):
built Way eight. Sweet Green. Our phone number is seven
one three two one two fifty eight seventy four seven
one three two and two five eight seven four if
you would like to give us a call. I'm a
broken record on garden line about preparing the soil.

Speaker 14 (49:13):
Right.

Speaker 6 (49:13):
It's because I know that that is the single most
important thing you do to have successive plants, single most
important thing that you do well. How do you do
that well? One of the basic ways we do that
is we put decomposed organic matter into the soil to
create better structure, to improve internal drainage, Water drains down

(49:37):
through the soil to improve aeration, Oxygen gets down deeper
for a deeper, more resilient root system. All of that.
And the place that's been doing this longer than about
anybody is Nature's Way Resources. John Ferguson Ian Ferguson out
there at Nature's Way, uh for a long time now,

(49:57):
Nature's Way has been producing quality materials I'm talking about.
You hear me talk about rose soil. Well, Nature's Way
is where rose soil was born. You hear me talk
about leath Moore composts for a lot of things, including
top dressing a lot. Nature's Way is where that was born.
They've been long. John is a walking encyclopedia and has

(50:19):
been for a long time of all things soil. And
all you need to do is head out there there
on Sherwood Circle up as you're going up Interstate forty
five where fourteen eighty eight comes in from Magnolia, you
just exit their turn right instead of turning left toward Magnoia,
turn right, go across the tracks that sherwood. Circle back

(50:39):
in there, and that will be Nature's way. Take a truck,
take a trailer, call them to make have them deliver
it for you. Go buy and pick up bags of it,
bags of composts, bags of these different soil mixes, bags
of mulches to go on top of the soil surface.
But here's something you need to do. You need to
tell them that you heard about it on garden Line.

(51:01):
All of these products, all these soil based products are
on a special if you will a really good special
if you will tell them that you heard about it
on garden Line. So don't forget that. Make sure and
mention that when you talk to them. Here's the phone
number if you just want to give them a call.
Nine three six three two one sixty nine ninety nine
three six three two one sixty nine ninety Right now

(51:25):
is the time to get your soil ready because if
you're gonna plant herbs this fall, perennials this fall, woody
ornamental shrubs, trees, vines, if you're gonna plant vegetables, flowers,
whatever it is, do the bed prep now. And Nature's
way resources helps you do the bad prep so that
when it's time to plant it doesn't matter if it's

(51:46):
been raining for three days. You can get right out
in there and get your plant in the ground because
you've prepared good soil using nature's way resources products. I
think about this a lot. I always think about things
that are hard to convince people of. For example, fall

(52:06):
planting in spring. Everyone's a gardener. Everybody wants to be
a gardener in spring. And when it comes to planting, though,
the best season of the year for planting is in
the fall. That means it's the only season we can
plant twelve months out of the year here. But if

(52:27):
you plant in the fall, let's say October November, for example,
the plant has all winter when there's essentially no demands
on it at all to speak of, to get that
root system growing out of what was the cylinder roots
and the container into the soil around it. So when
next June comes, or when it may, when summer begins

(52:49):
here in our area, when it heats up, that plant
has a better root system than one that was planted
in the spring. It's just a way to get there
faster and easier. The recommend that you do your soil
prep and you're planting, get that done in the fall.
It's the best season of the year to put these

(53:09):
things in. And I wish I could convince you that,
just like trying to convince people to buy brown stuff
when they're staring at all these plants with big, beautiful
blooms on them, Well, just make a new Year's resolution
and at the end of summer, and that resolution is

(53:31):
if I buy a plant, I'm going to buy something
to make the soil better. With that plant, go and
fix the soil better, but always better. It's not a
one and off. You're always improving it, fertilizing, compost, things
like that. And then when you put that plant in,
it's going to thrive. And you know, you go to
a place like Plants for All Seasons, which is on
let's see Tumball Parkway Highway FM two forty nine. Going

(53:56):
up the Tamba Plants for All Seasons, you exit Luetta
and it's just path past Luetta, just north of Luetta
on two forty nine Tumbo Parkway. They have tons of
plants there, but they also have all these soil products there.
I mean, when you walk through the you know the
stories you're heading toward checkout, they just all around you.

(54:16):
There's soils there's fertilizers, there's everything you need to make
the brown stuff right. Don't just grab a plant and
head to the car. Grab something else to so that
that plant is happy. If it's happy, it'll make you
happy with blooms and fruit and whatever you're wanting to
get out of that plant. Plants for All Seasons is

(54:38):
the website, by the way, is Plants for All Seasons
dot com. The phone number two eight one three seven six,
sixteen forty six. Listen, when you go into there and
you bring that stuff home, the plants and the soils
and things, your brown thumb is going to get really green.
And they also are experts on helping you with any
kind of question that you might have for success with

(54:59):
your plant. We're going to head now to Cyprus, Texas
and talk to Ed. Hello, Ed, welcome to garden Line.

Speaker 1 (55:07):
Good morning.

Speaker 2 (55:09):
I'm assuming you receive the photos I sent you.

Speaker 6 (55:14):
Uh, let's see here. I probably did find them. Tell
me what the photos were of.

Speaker 2 (55:23):
Okay, there were of some mullygrass that got a why yes, yes,
growth on the or I.

Speaker 6 (55:32):
Don't know what it is, absolutely yes, I did, okay,
So Ed, there were two things. There was the wild
morning glory was the vining beautiful flowered vining weed growing
in there, and you need to follow it to where
it comes out of the ground. There's gonna be a
tuber underground that you can just dig that up, or
you can apply a product to it. But you want

(55:53):
to be real careful because the morning glory crawls all
over your desirable plants, so if you spray it, you're
probably gonna hurt the desire marble plants too. But that
is one morning glory. The white stuff is a meai
bug UH, and it's probably the mealy grass meaie bug.
It attacks a lot of different types of mealy grass
and other ornamental grasses too. By the way, UH and

(56:16):
meali bugs are very difficult to get rid of. They
hide and so products don't get to them. They have
that protective fluffy coating, so your spray doesn't get down
there to the bug. You know, it gets caught up
on the outside. So what I would recommend is, if
you've got those in there, which you do in the pictures,
I would cut that grass all the way back down
to the ground and I would get all the debris

(56:38):
out of there, put it in a trash sack and
get it off the property because it's going to be
full of meai bugs. Your grass is going to send
new growth up out of the base the crown of
the plant. And then I would use a product that's
a systemic insecticide to get in the plumbing of the
plant so when those mealy bugs suck juices, they get

(56:58):
the poison. It's like your that becomes a bait station.
Now with a lot of plants, I don't recommend the
systemics because we got bees coming to the flowers. With
newly grass, we don't have that concern, So I would
use There is one called Immido Cloak Bred some welcome back.

(57:20):
Good to have you here with us on Guardenline. Hey,
we're looking forward to talking to you about the things
that are of interest to you. We also direct you
to good sources for the various supplies that you need
for your success, whether it's lawns, gardens, tree shrubs, vegetables
all that.

Speaker 11 (57:38):
Well.

Speaker 6 (57:38):
Leake City Feed down in Leake City, Texas is a
great source. We love feed stores here on Garden Line
and down at Leake City. You're going to find all
the fertilizers I talk about. You're going to find the
products to help you have success, whether it's a fertilizer,
controlling pests, diseases, weeds. All of that League City feed
is on Highway three, just a few blocks of Highway

(57:59):
ninety six in League City, Texas. All of those communities
down there. I mean, I'm talking about not just a
League City, but Santa Fe, Clear Lake City, Elkaemeno, Reale,
San Leone, Lamark, Webster Bay Club, all of those communities.
This is your hometown feed store and they're open Monday
through Saturday from nine to six. Are closed tomorrow, closed
on Sunday, but with the nine to six. If you're

(58:22):
at work all day and you're swinging by on the
way home, just stop in and grab what you need.
It's that old time service. They carry the sacks out
for you and they carry everything that I talk about
on guardline, as well as quality pet food supplies for
your backyard chickens, whatever you need. Here's a phone number
two eight one three three two sixteen twelve two eight
one three three two sixteen twelve to get to get

(58:44):
a hold of the folks there at Leak City feet
I'm going to head now out to Cypress again. I
believe we're going to talk to Ed.

Speaker 10 (58:52):
Hello, Ed, Yes, so.

Speaker 2 (58:56):
Can you spell that systemic and sect the side again
for the.

Speaker 6 (59:00):
Multigrass, Yes, it's I AM I.

Speaker 10 (59:06):
D O.

Speaker 1 (59:10):
C L O.

Speaker 6 (59:13):
P R I D Okay, got no prid. And if
you come even work close to that and you say
this is a systemic insecticide, they're gonna be able to
They're gonna be able to tell you just if you
just see the I M I D O part. That's
the only in sex side I know that begins with
those letters.

Speaker 2 (59:32):
Okay. Then one other thing, I've got armadillos. How do
I control those things?

Speaker 1 (59:41):
You know?

Speaker 6 (59:42):
They they're bumbling little things and they tend to come
along and like if you've got a privacy fence or
the side of the house, they kind of bounce along
that and then go out into your yard and do
the little digging. A live have a heart trap is
a good way to do it, you know, one of
those live capture traps. But you almost have to funnel
them into it, like a couple of boards at the

(01:00:02):
mouth of the trap pointing outward in a V shape.
You see what I'm saying. So as there are bumbling,
they're they're not smart, and so you kind of force
them in. Here's a little trick that wildlife management specialists
told me a long time ago works, and that is
to get elbow macaroni, little elbow pasta and boil it

(01:00:25):
in a beef boo yon. I guess that makes it
taste like a tasty grub or something. I don't know.
And you can don't put too many of them. You
don't want to fill up the armadilla, but you can
kind of put one and then a little further forward
put another one, and you can kind of lead them
into the trap that way, and once they get in there,
then it closes behind them and you have to relocate

(01:00:46):
them somewhere else. All right, thank you, all right, Okay,
I was going to offer you recipes for armadilla, but
I figured that probably wouldn't go over it. All right,
take care of it. Thanks for the call. Appreciate that. Yeah,
I'm told people eat those things. I cannot imagine that.

(01:01:08):
That just doesn't work for me. Mental block. I'll try
a lot of things. I'll try a lot of new things,
but that one I'm gonna die domb on that impossum.
You know, you can call me if you if you
love either of those, to tell me why that's wonderful,
But I'm not gonna go there. All right, Uh, we've

(01:01:29):
had storms, this sprank, we had one heck of a
one that put power out for a very long time.
Then comes hurricane Barrel power out for a very long time.
People are interested in getting a generator, and you by
generators a lot of places, and you know, Generak is
an outstanding brand. But I'm telling you, if you're going

(01:01:49):
to get a generator, please listen to this. Quality Home
Products of Texas is where you need to get it.
They carry Generac as well as another brand of generators,
but Quality Home it's all about the way that you're
treated and the service you get before and after the seale.
You walk in there you go, hey, I need a generator.

(01:02:10):
They're not just going to be like, well here's the Cadillac,
go buy this one. They're going to ask you what
do you need it for? I mean, are you just
trying to keep a refrigerator going? Is it a whole
house that you need to get going?

Speaker 10 (01:02:21):
What is it that you need?

Speaker 6 (01:02:22):
And they designed that make sure you get the right generator.
They come out and they pour a pad, not bringing
in a little cheap pad that's going to crack that
The generator comes all the way out to the edge
of the pad, so you hit it with the lawnmar
Now they have a they pour a bigger pad than
the generator so that it protects that valuable piece of equipment.
And they go through all the hoops of the permissions

(01:02:45):
that you got to go through to get all that done,
and the city codes and whatever. They do all that.
All their technicians are in house. They don't have to
subcontract out to some electrician to come in or some
other technician to come in. They have those in house,
and then after you they're there for service after the sale.
That's why they've won the Pinnacle Award, the Better Business

(01:03:06):
Bureau's most prestigious award for customer service eight times eight
times over five fourteen thousand, five star reviews. Last time
I looked. It's a family owned business since nineteen eighty nine,
right here in Houston, Texas. Quality tx dot com. That's
the website. Quality tx dot COM's really good website. You
can learn a lot, but you need to call them.

(01:03:27):
Ay it's seven to one three quality, seven one three
quality and find out they have financing options right now.
If you trade in an old portable generator, any brand
or size, five hundred dollars off of what you are
about to purchase, so you can't go wrong. And if
you're going to get one, talk to the folks at Quality.

(01:03:48):
They know what they're talking about and they do take
care of their customers. You're listening to Gardenline and we're
here to answer any kinds of gardening questions that you
may run across, for example, tables, lawns, weeds, trees, shrubs,
whatever your questions are, just give us a call. Seven
one three two one two kt R H seven one

(01:04:10):
three two one two k t R H.

Speaker 2 (01:04:14):
Uh.

Speaker 6 (01:04:14):
I was talking with Joey from Enchanted Gardens out there
in the Richmond area. In fact, Channed Gardens is actually
on the north side of Richmond, that Katie Fullscher side
of Richmond. They're out there on FM three point fifty nine.
I was visiting with Joey a little bit over at
the Texas Nursery and Landscape Association show in San Antonio.

(01:04:35):
That was a little bit a week or so ago. Uh,
and uh, you know, I always like going out to
in Channa Gardens because it is such a wonderful place.
It is enchanting number one. You get there and it's like,
oh my gosh, this is big, and there's there is
every kind of plant you can imagine, and the best varieties,
new varieties, things you've never tried. Do you want to

(01:04:57):
bring in hummingbirds? They've got every kind of hummingbird thing
you can imagine there at Enchanted Gardens and Richmond. They
have beautiful pottery out there, gorgeous pottery. And I think
pottery is an investment. And if you buy cheap pottery,
you get what you paid for, get you a quality piece.
You have to buy it all at once, but gets

(01:05:17):
you some quality pieces of pottery. And there's pretty is
the plant you put in them out and Enchanted, you're
going to find things that aren't so common, like, for example,
creeping wiregrass or wire vine. Excuse me, creeping war vine.
It is a really cool little groundcover that you don't
just find everywhere. They've got that. Do you want to
bring in butterflies? They have every kind of butterfly plant

(01:05:39):
you can imagine there at Enchanted Gardens and much much
much more beautiful garden. Blame everything all of the above
at Enchanted Gardens. Here's the website, Enchanted Gardens Richmond dot com.
Enchanted Gardens Richmond dot com. Go out there, but take
some friends when you go, because this is a destination

(01:06:01):
place to visit. I'll be right back. Hey, welcome back in.
Good to have you with us. Good to have you
with us here on garden Line. Looking forward to visiting
with you about the things that are most interest to you.
I did a post to our Facebook page the other
day where I'm talking about Medina has to Grow supergrow Plus.

(01:06:22):
Now Medina products, you've been familiar with them since the
nineteen fifties. I believe they may even go further, but
I believe that's when they begin, in other words, a
long time, and they've been on garden Line for just
about that minut of time too. Medina has to grow,
there's the has to grow lawn, and there's the has
to grow supergrow Plus for lawns. Also, the supergrol Plus

(01:06:44):
has a sixteen zero two fertilizer content. A lot of
things have fertilizer content in them. This one also includes
a keylated form of iron. Now, when your long grass,
when you're Saint Austine starts a yellow that's an iron
deficiency and it can be due to various reasons. But
by applying the supergril Plus, which by the way, it's
a quart bottle, hooks up the garden hose, covers four

(01:07:06):
thousand square feet. It takes about ten minutes to do it.
By applying that, you're getting the folier nutrient on the plant,
the grass plant, the grass blades, but you're also getting
it done in the soil and it really helps with
that iron chlorosis. It also has molasses. I was talking
earlier about molasses and why we like that. It also
has humic acid for example, and seaweed extract that is

(01:07:29):
just a concoction. Now it's made. You know, it's promoted
as a lawn fertilizer, but you can use it on
a lot of other plants and gain the same kinds
of benefits from it. Widely available like all Medina products
here in the Greater Houston area. We're going to go
now to the phones. I'm going to head out to
Kingwood and talk to Bill. Hey, Bill, welcome to garden Line.

Speaker 1 (01:07:51):
Good morning.

Speaker 8 (01:07:52):
I have a question about box woods. The Okay, the
problem we have is we have boxwoods around our and
occasionally one of them will just turn bright yellow and dye.
And I heard from rumor that there is some kind
of fungus or something that invades the soil that will
kill the box woods, and then if you plant another
one in that location, it'll die too. So you probably

(01:08:17):
know the whole story. So would you please at number
eight for me?

Speaker 6 (01:08:22):
Yeah, boxes have several problems. Two of them are root problems.
One is a vascular wilt. It plugs the plumbing of
the plant and so it's like you cut the branch
off and threw it on the sidewalk. The results are
fast and they look like that, like what you're describing.
There's not a spray or a drench for Verticillium or Fusarium,

(01:08:43):
which are two common vascular wilts. Boxes. Secondly, in the
soil get nematodes on the roots, especially in a sandy soil,
but it can occur in other types and those make
it less and less efficient. So it just looks like
it needs to be watered and fertilized as it declined down.
Typically that doesn't kill it. Boxwoods are pretty tough and

(01:09:04):
they're able to survive with the nematods, but they don't
look good then there's a boxwood blight, which is a
disease and it can cause the complete death. And so
I can't tell you what you're seeing on this one.
You would have to have somebody take a look at it.
One thing you can do is if you have one
that's dyed the plant is it, but right before it's

(01:09:26):
completely gone, while there's still some green in it, you
can take a knife and slice the trunk. Slice into
the trunk vertically like down the direction of the trunk,
and underneath the outer bark you'll see some brown staining.
The way I describe it as it's almost like a
cigarette filter, you know, that has that tar staining in it.
That's what it looks like. That's an indication of the

(01:09:48):
soil born fungus problem. Now the blight itself, that's going
to be something that's attacking above ground, and it just
is what it is. Occasionally you get broken branches. Occasionally,
had we just had a row coal winter, I would
suspect coal damage splits to the trunk as well, which
can happen. But so in other words, the answer to

(01:10:12):
your question could be several answers, but those are some
ways you can try to just tell between the two nematodes.
You wash some soil up with a good strong blast
of water, and the roots will have little bumps and
knots on them, almost like an ugly sing string of
pearls or the michelin Man kind of look.

Speaker 8 (01:10:30):
So, all right, those are a systemic thunge side that
would treat one of those conditions.

Speaker 6 (01:10:38):
No, the systemics, there's just not one that's going to
do a good job on verticillium and fusarium. It's a
matter of just pulling them out, you know, And I
know that is a horrible answer for someone who's spent
money on a bunch of boxwoods. But they'll gradually work
its way from one to the other across the plant.
You'll see more and more because again, think of it

(01:11:01):
as all those root tips are like the opening of
straws that bring in water, and the straws take the
water all the way up to the top. It affects
some and then it affects others, and as it affects them,
everything that those roots are feeding starts to turn ten
and die. And if it's the blight again, you would
need you can take a sample of a box would

(01:11:24):
and that's probably the best thing to do. Get one
that is dying but not dead. The plant clinic at
an m will do diagnosis, but they can't do autopsies.
So get one that's sick and you can see this
one's going out. Pull it up, shake some soil off
the roots, get some good roots with it, put it
in a bag box. You can drive it up to

(01:11:44):
the clinic. That's probably the easiest way. It's about an
hour and fifteen minutes up the road and the clinic
address is plant Clinic, Plant Clinic dot t a m
U dot e edu, plant Clinic dot HAMMOU dot edu.
And that way you can have them diagnosed. It's not

(01:12:06):
that expensive to do. And if you're looking at a
lot of boxwoods, it's cost effective to do that because
then you know what the next step to take is
instead of meet giving you all the possibilities.

Speaker 8 (01:12:18):
Okay, so that's just another example of nature developing a
new disease that we can't control. Basically, well, well, some of.

Speaker 6 (01:12:30):
These have been around, Yeah, yeah, well that's yeah, that's
what nature is. Hey, Bill, thanks, I'm gonna have to
I'm gonna have to run, but thank you very much
for that call. I appreciate that if you live up
in the Conroe area, the Lake Conroe area, the Montgomery area.
Ana Plants and Produce is a garden center that you've

(01:12:50):
got to visit. It's your hometown garden center up there,
that whole Lake Conroy area. A and A Plants and Produce.
Right now, they have a hot summer sale going on
any plant forty percent off, thirty percent off all their
metal and pottery. And if you've ever been to Ana,
you know they got tons of cool blaying up there.
Metal and pottery, thirty percent off. Ana Plants and Produce

(01:13:13):
on Highway one oh five on the east side of Montgomery, Texas.
You got to go visit if you haven't been there,
because this is a really cool place and there's always
something new coming in at Anta Plants and Produce, And
boy do they ever have a great selection of all
the fertilizers I talk about, I including soil amendments as well.
Let's see here, I'm going to Greg and Trinity. Greg,

(01:13:36):
we're gonna hear music in a minute, and if we
have to quit talking, I'll finish with you after the break.
But how can I help?

Speaker 13 (01:13:43):
Great?

Speaker 1 (01:13:43):
Got a problem?

Speaker 13 (01:13:44):
Good morning?

Speaker 15 (01:13:45):
Hey, I planted some hybrid poplars.

Speaker 13 (01:13:48):
Can you hear me?

Speaker 1 (01:13:50):
Yes?

Speaker 15 (01:13:52):
Okay, I planned some hybrid poplars a few years back.
Quick growing tree. They do about eighty eight a year. Uh,
And I get the staff plan FuMB them off their
root lines. They run a real shallow root line. And
when I took those out, they grew pretty well in
a bucket, and then I transplant them. My question to you,
he is, should I plant them this year? They're about

(01:14:14):
three feet tall in the buckets right now?

Speaker 6 (01:14:16):
All right, let me let me get there.

Speaker 1 (01:14:18):
Good.

Speaker 6 (01:14:20):
Now, you want to plan them this fall in November?
Pull them out of the bucket. You're not going to
want to do this, but cut the roots that are
circling in the pot. Put them in the ground in
November and they'll have the best chance possible. Plan them
if the same depth they were. Don't put anything in
the planning hole, just the SOI you dug it out.
This is the end of our segment. I'm gonna go
ahead and put you on hold, but if you need

(01:14:40):
to stick around, I'll be back. Welcome back. So good
to have you with us. Glad you're listening in today.
I'm going to take you about thirty minutes here and
I'm bringing a special guest in that is a wealth
of knowledge when it comes to things related to monarch,
butterflies and milkweed. And I say that because, well, I'm

(01:15:01):
talking about Howard and Amarov. Howard and I have been
I guess, penpals in a sense in terms of, you know,
communicating through our emails and whatnot over a number of
years now. Howard's a certified master gardener text here in
Texas with an advanced entomology certification. So when he's not

(01:15:22):
research and Howard's out in his garden, his yard, the laboratory, right, he,
like me, is forever curious, wanting to learn more and
learn a good information. As part of his entomology research,
Howard has read a number of peer reviewed papers, recent
peer reviewed papers about monarch butterflies, about their migration, and

(01:15:44):
about this plant, tropical milkweed that you've heard a lot
about and you hear people say, don't plant it. You
hear people say cut it down and the end of
the year and it carries some disease of the monarchs.
We're going to get to the bottom of all that here.
I'm holding calls during this next thirty minutes. Once you
get past about eight thirty or so, we'll be taking
calls again. But first of all, I want to go

(01:16:07):
to the phones and welcome Howard to garden Line. Hey, Howard,
it's good to talk to you again. Welcome to garden
Line Radio.

Speaker 10 (01:16:15):
Oh, thank you for having me on SKIP.

Speaker 6 (01:16:18):
Well, looking, I'm really looking forward to this. You know,
I've picked your brain before on this issue. But we're
talking about a disease that affects monarchs. Can you can
you go a little bit into exactly what is that
disease and how does it affect monarch butterflies?

Speaker 10 (01:16:37):
Okay, Well, the disease is Afrio sistus electroscira, and from
here forward we will call that OE. It's acronym.

Speaker 6 (01:16:45):
I think everybody's thanking us for having a brief a
brief oe for that long word.

Speaker 10 (01:16:52):
Yeah, yeah, I understand. And it is a It's a
parasite that commonly builds up primarily on tropical milk weed,
and it gets consumed with when the moner caterpillars consume
the leaves, they ingest this oe and it starts this

(01:17:17):
replication cycle that results in when they come out of
their chrysalis, they have these spores on their wings, and
then when they fly off, they will spread those spores
to other milkweed, and that could include native milk weeds.

Speaker 6 (01:17:37):
I see. It's like coronavirus spreading around the country. Huh,
from one person to another.

Speaker 10 (01:17:44):
Yeah, there with people who are not isolating or you know,
and when they're sick. Yeah.

Speaker 6 (01:17:52):
Okay, So you mentioned that they come out, but a
lot of times doesn't it affect the development of the
butterfly in the crysalis itself.

Speaker 10 (01:18:01):
It does in many of the monarchs emerged deformed and
they can't fly, but there is a small percentage that
remain healthy enough to fly off and spread these bores
onto other milk weeds.

Speaker 6 (01:18:15):
Wow, okay, well, so actually I guess that I'm not
making it is a good thing for the sake of
all the monarch population. But that's correct. Well, why are
we talking about tropical milk weed, because you know, that's
the one you see most in garden centers. I know
a lot of people have promoted the milkweeds, but it's
basically the tropical that everybody's planting. And what's wrong with

(01:18:38):
that plant? Why aren't other milk weeds just as bad
as that?

Speaker 10 (01:18:42):
Well, tropical milk weed has it's well adapted to our climate,
so it stays evergreen. And that's the challenge because plants
like tropical milkweed that keep their leaves all and into
the fall will continue to have those spores on their leaves.

(01:19:06):
Native milk weeds generally go dormant once or twice during
the growing season, so when they do any any spores
that were on those leaves fall away to the soil
and disappear from this cycle. So when they push new
leaves out from their roots, those leaves are clean, and

(01:19:28):
if a monarch comes along and eats those leaves, then
they won't get infected.

Speaker 6 (01:19:36):
I see, well that that makes a lot of sense,
And I think is there some other stuff about tropical
milk weed where just feeding on the planet itself, aside
from the spore concern, may be an issue for the monarchs.

Speaker 10 (01:19:53):
And I'd like I like to preface this that I
used to grow tropical milk weed until I read a
lot of research that all pointed in the same direction
from slightly different perspectives. Researchers have found that the monarchs
who feed on the tropical milk weed as larvae have
less effiicient metabolism and shorter and smaller wings. Now, both

(01:20:16):
of these mutations make it harder to fly long distances,
which damages the migration. Basically, these monarchs are less likely
to complete the migration. And that's really what we want
to support, is that migration that's been going on for
thousands of years, right.

Speaker 6 (01:20:35):
That and the fact that we would not like them
to be carrying the spores around. You know, when they
go back to Mexico, there's all the pursures of them
in the forest, just as like solid butterflies there in
the fourth Yeah, okay, so even the planet itself has
some issues. You know, I've had tropical milk weed for
a very long time and I love the plant, you know,
for a number of different reasons, and so this is

(01:20:57):
kind of interesting to put it in a spotlight here
and talk about it a little bit and some of
the issues that maybe people weren't aware of. That's one
reason I wanted to have you on, just so people
get a chance to hear a little bit more, a
little bit more about that. So now, what what what
is a gardener?

Speaker 1 (01:21:18):
Uh?

Speaker 6 (01:21:18):
You know, can can we do to help this issue?
I know, planting the natives is important. Uh, and and
there are a number of species around they're often kind
of hard to find.

Speaker 10 (01:21:34):
Yeah, that's that's a problem, Uh that the natives are
not available at the wholesale level, so the retailers couldn't
find them for sale. And there's uh this, there's a
lot of people who are concerned. And one of these

(01:21:55):
concerns is they're they're promoting is well, plant more milkweed.

Speaker 1 (01:22:01):
Ford.

Speaker 6 (01:22:01):
I'm sorry to interrupt. I'm sorry to have to interrupt.
I'm not looking at my clock, and I got this
hard break here. We're going to come right back. Stay teen, folks,
We're gonna come right back to this point with Howard.
I'll be right back if you will come back. I'm
gonna jump right in here into the music. We want
to get right back out to talking with Howard Nemoroff,

(01:22:22):
Howard Numerff, Certified Master Gardner, Advanced Entomology training and we're
talking about monarchs and tropical milk weed, and Howard, I
kind of cut you off there in the middle of
a native milkweed a spiel. We've got some great nursery
Sharon Houston that really focus on native plants, and we
can find a few of the natives here. They're a

(01:22:42):
little bit of a challenge though. You kind of have
to adjust your thinking in that. You know, they don't
sit there and look pretty all year. You know, they
like you said, they do their bloom and then they
drop leaves, and so you may want to elaborate just
a bit on that.

Speaker 10 (01:22:57):
Yeah, they do, and their best planted it amongst a
number of other plants. So think think a pocket prairie.
Think of of a space where you have a number
of native plants that work together. So when the milk
weeds go dormant, it doesn't really impact your your visual appeal,

(01:23:17):
and it doesn't stop the pollinators from visiting your gardens.
So everything keeps rolling along and then the milk weeds
will do their thing.

Speaker 6 (01:23:27):
Yeah, and that's a that's a very good point because
you know, we have our standard Saint Augustine. Half the
plants in the landscape originated in Asia, you know, those
kind of landscapes, and then we have the natives, and
the natives it's a different look. It's a beautiful look.
But I think that's a is a very very good
point to make. I want to go ahead, No, go ahead,

(01:23:52):
I'll come.

Speaker 10 (01:23:53):
I was just going to say that you don't really
need to plant milk weeds. The research is showing that
the population monoch populations and the stable for the last
decade or more, and that there's enough native milk weed
in the summer breeding range to maintain the population.

Speaker 6 (01:24:10):
Go ahead, skip, Okay, all right, Well, what can a
gardener do to help support monarchs other than not planning
the tropical milkweed? What are some things you can do
to really support the monarch.

Speaker 10 (01:24:28):
Well, what we need to support here in Texas is
the migration. They come through here from their Mexico overwintering
site in the spring and then they come back from
the north in the fall and they pass through Texas.
They all pass through Texas. So what they really need
is fuel. They need nectar to refuel so they can
complete their migration. So a simple but powerful contribution that

(01:24:53):
everybody should be able to make is to grow nectar flowers.
And they could be betting plants that you can buy
in spring. It could be Zenya's for example, that you
buy at the stores. It could be popular natives like
Greg's mist flower, or verbinas or echinaesia, the you know,
purple cone flower. There's there's a lot of options that

(01:25:15):
are really doable for pretty much any gardener.

Speaker 6 (01:25:21):
And then you still are attracting them to your landscape,
so you get to enjoy them and you are and
everything like that. That makes sense. That's just what we
do with hosaft. You know, we we fuel them up
so they can The fact that a hummingbird can fly
across the Gulf of Mexico is still blows but we
have to feel that kind of true. Yeah, I would

(01:25:42):
exactly a mile out from shore, I would run out
of energy and turn around.

Speaker 10 (01:25:50):
It's amazing what they can do. Yeah, and the monarchs.
Remember is some of these monarchs coming from southern Canada,
so they are traveling three thousand miles in the fall
to get to Mexico.

Speaker 6 (01:26:02):
Yeah. Wow. And you watch a butterfly fly and it's
not exactly like a homing pigeon. That's you know, like
a bullet shutting past. It takes some few capes to
get there. Well, it's good. You know some other good
native plants that we would talk about, and I think
you included this in a program I saw that you did.
The latrous which is called gay feather. It's a native species.

(01:26:25):
Maximilian sunflowers another one I think that you had on
the list. That is one that blooms in the fall,
late summer fall season, so it spreads it out. Verbinas
Joe pieweed, golden rod another full blooming plant. Purple cone
flowers another native plant that does well. And then you

(01:26:46):
mentioned the misflower, the Greg's missflower, and another one called
shrubby bone set that's another type of misflower that does well.
I just want to get some names out there for
people to consider.

Speaker 10 (01:26:57):
Yeah, and then when you go to these go to
the gars. You know, they may have some other suggestions.
But we need to remember that monarchs have been coming
through here for thousands of years, so they have been
finding native plants to refuel on. And so it gives
us a lot of options if we just look up
and find out what's native to our local area, which

(01:27:19):
are our county.

Speaker 13 (01:27:20):
Or you know our.

Speaker 6 (01:27:25):
Yeah, that's true. In fact, I think this you'll find
this interesting.

Speaker 12 (01:27:30):
Well.

Speaker 6 (01:27:30):
One of our garden centers of Buchanan's Native Plants in
the Heights of Houston, they actually have a table where
it's just Harris County natives. You know, it's just natives, right,
here as opposed to be in a Texas Native which
is much broader range, which I think is kind of cool. Well, so, people, I.

Speaker 10 (01:27:48):
Definitely agree with that principle. Good. Yeah, No, I definitely
think you try and find county label level natives. And
I've heard about Buchanans. I don't live there, but I
know a number of people gardeners that really think highly
of the set they're promoting the local natives.

Speaker 6 (01:28:06):
Well, when you're ready to jump in the car and
head this way, I have to give you a list.
We have more of these centers that I've ever seen here,
you know. I know over in Austin area and in
San Antonio there's a lot of great garden centers, but
oh my gosh, North, South, East West ones that you
go into and it's like, why can't I have something

(01:28:26):
like this where I live, you know, because they're they're
interesting and cool. Well, okay, so now I'm gonna I
kind of, I guess a little bit put you on
the spot in that. Uh And we talked about this before,
but uh, I'm aware of the fact that people listening
to the show, everybody's not gonna go out and pull
up their their tropical milk weed. It just doesn't quite

(01:28:48):
work that way.

Speaker 10 (01:28:49):
Uh uh.

Speaker 6 (01:28:50):
And while that I know for you, that's a passion
and a concern for sure, for reasons of your research.
If someone has a tropical milkweed plan, uh and they're
just like, you know, okay, what can I do to
minimize the issue, especially the issue with the disease on
the plant? What what would you recommend? I know you're

(01:29:13):
going to try talking and pulling it out and putting
a different milk weed in bute to at least make
it less of a concern.

Speaker 10 (01:29:22):
Yeah, I'm not a garden nazi. I'm not going to
come and harass people or break in and pull out
pull out their tropical milk weed. I do recommend removing it, however,
best practices if if you're going to keep it. If
you're going to keep.

Speaker 6 (01:29:40):
It, go ahead, I'm sorry.

Speaker 10 (01:29:45):
Oh no, it's not good in Texas to crash into
somebody else's property. But anyway, if there's two times a
year when you you should cut it down to the ground. Remember,
tropical milk weed is a perennial, so we'll come back
from the roots. So if you cut everything down to
the ground in late winter, early spring, before the monarchs

(01:30:07):
arrive from Mexico, they'll have fresh leaves. And if you
cut it down to the ground again in late September
before the monarchs arrive on their way to Mexico, you
will also help the migration because research has also found
that some of the females drop out of their reproductive

(01:30:31):
dormant cycle to lay eggs when they find tropical milk weed.
What we really want to do is we want those
females to travel all the way to Mexico, where they
will come back from in the spring and lay eggs
as they start their natural journey north.

Speaker 6 (01:30:52):
Okay, so just to in a nutshell, you said, cut
it to the ground at the end of winter, cut
it to the ground again at the end of September,
and that's right, I'm not correct. Okay, all right, Well,
I know you you know your your your main concern
is is looking toward native milkweeds and recognizing the fact
that probably we do a better benefit to the monarchs

(01:31:16):
by getting the flowers that fuel them. But I know,
we got a lot of different versions of gardeners out
there that that uh uh, you know, are going to
to one degree or another change the way they garden
or not. Wow, well, we got about three minutes left here.

Speaker 10 (01:31:36):
Uh.

Speaker 6 (01:31:36):
So one thing that Lincoln that I got from you
is from the Native Plants Society in Texas and it's
bring Back the Monarchs to Texas. And uh, of course
they're going to come here whether we bring them back
or not. But the article is really good and it's
at the website. I'm not going to give you the
whole thing to this article, but it's n P s

(01:31:57):
o T dot org. So n P s o T
is Native Plant Society of Texas dot o r G.
And the article is bring Back the Monarchs to Texas.
And it's a very very helpful article.

Speaker 2 (01:32:15):
Yeah it is.

Speaker 10 (01:32:19):
I can't remember exactly right now every detail, but they
do give people a lot of good tips on how
you can do it. And like you said, you have
you have gardeners at different levels of knowledge and experience.
So it gives people an opportunity to read up on

(01:32:43):
what they can do and then figure out what works
best for me and my garden that I can do.

Speaker 6 (01:32:54):
Well. And that's that is really true. And I know
you you know as an aster gardener, uh and just
a lifetime gardener.

Speaker 1 (01:33:03):
Uh.

Speaker 6 (01:33:03):
You recognize the importance of things that that we grow here,
choosing things we go here, designing our landscapes appropriately, whether
we're looking at water conservation or you know, taking care
of our beneficial insects and all of those. There's a
lot of practices. Yeah, and it all begins one garden

(01:33:26):
at a time.

Speaker 10 (01:33:28):
Yeah, it does. And you made a good point, and
I'd like to make make this point that what you
do that that benefits other pollinators. I got a will
benefit monarchs. Yeah, it'll benefit monarchs. And what benefits monarchs
benefits all of our native pollinators that live here all
year round.

Speaker 6 (01:33:48):
Yeah, that's that is true. That is absolutely the case.
I Uh, I lost part of what you said my
my audio uh clicked out a second there. But talking
about with all the other important native pollinators and taking
care of them, and there is so much that we
can do in order to do that. Well, Howard, I

(01:34:12):
really appreciate you taking time to come on today. It's
been wonderful. I know, I'm gonna I'm gonna hear a
lot about you know, the talk, the information that you provided,
and one thing that I just wasn't aware of was
the issue of just feeding on that plant is not,
as I'm gonna say, not as nutritious, not as helpful

(01:34:32):
for the butterfly development or whatever is specifically that and
that that was kind of interesting as well. I'm gonna
have to run to a break, but thank you again.
I appreciate look forward to future corresponding with you on
this and a lot of other topics as we have
in the past. So thank you for being a guest
on Guardline.

Speaker 10 (01:34:53):
Well thanks for having me skied.

Speaker 6 (01:34:56):
Yes, sir, you you enjoyed that segment. I thought it
was very informative and very helpful when it comes to,
you know, our dealing with butterfly gardening and the monarchs
and some of the issues that we've heard before. I've
always heard bits and pieces of it, but I got
a little bit bigger, bigger picture, I think in visiting

(01:35:19):
with mister Nemrov, I want to remind you, or not
remind you, tell you for the first time. Actually, the
Montgomery County Fall Home and Outdoor Living Show is coming up.
It's two weeks from today and it's over the weekend
two weeks from day, September seventh and September eighth, and
this is always a great show up there. In the

(01:35:40):
Montgomery County area. It is at the Lone Star Convention
and Expo Center and I'm going to be there on Saturday,
So all of you listening up in the like Conroe
area up Conroe, willis just that whole direction, come on out.
I'd like to meet you. I'm going to be given
a talk on fall gardening, not just vegetables, but fall

(01:36:01):
gardening in general, and then I'll be answering your gardening questions.
I'll be having a lot of different kinds of products,
supplies and stuff. We're going to be given away some
different things that I think you would be very interested in,
and just there for the Q and I always like
to meet the folks that listen to garden Line. That's
the Montgomery County Fall Home and Outdoor Living Show September

(01:36:22):
seventh and eighth at the Lone Star Convention Center and Expostcenter.
Now you can find out more by going to techswood
Shows dot com, Textwood, t exwod Shows, all one word
dot com. I'm going to be there on Saturday, and
i'll get there I believe about noon. I believe that's

(01:36:43):
what I've got scheduled to show up and be there
for a couple hours actually out at the show, so
twelve to two. Yeah, that's correct. All right, folks, I'm
going to head straight out to the phones now. No,
we had some folks that have been waiting to talk.
We're going to go to Cyprus and tuck to Nick. Hello, Nick,
Welcome to garden Line.

Speaker 10 (01:37:04):
Hello.

Speaker 17 (01:37:04):
How are you?

Speaker 6 (01:37:06):
I'm well, thank you? Okay, okay, yes, sir, I just
want to check in on about I have two.

Speaker 18 (01:37:14):
Texas sage bushes growing in the front yard and I'm
about to cut back. Yes, I want to cut them
back to give them some shape. I was curious about
what time. What's the best time to do that?

Speaker 6 (01:37:25):
Before any time? Yeah, it's a it's a shrub. It's
an evergreen shrub. So, I mean people share their shrubs
all the time. Depending on what the goal is, you
can share Texas sage. It affects its bloom. Show to
do that, I mean, it doesn't mean it keeps it
from blooming. It just means you've you've created a wall

(01:37:47):
instead of a I when I trim my Texas sage
in the past, I will go in and do what's
called thinning. So if you imagine this kind of bushy
plant that has never been trimmed, and you got a
gangly shoot going out here on the left side, and
so you go back and you cut it off where
it joins another shoot. And so when you get through pruning,

(01:38:07):
it doesn't look sheared. It just looks smaller. Do you
see what I'm saying? And so, okay, there's two ways
to do it. One is shearing, which is kind of
unnatural and I don't like the results. The other is
to bring things back by cutting a long shoot back
to where a side shoot occurs, and you just kind
of bring it into a little better shape that way.

(01:38:28):
So those are your options.

Speaker 18 (01:38:31):
Okay, excellent, Thank you.

Speaker 6 (01:38:32):
I appreciate it. All right, So thanks for the call.
I appreciate appreciate that very much. We're going to go
now to Larry and sugar Land.

Speaker 1 (01:38:41):
Hello Larry, Hello Sarah. How are you.

Speaker 6 (01:38:45):
I'm well. I'm well. You sent me some pictures of
some unhappy grass.

Speaker 1 (01:38:50):
Yeah, only the one section, the one rectangle there. The
rest of my yard front and back is beautifulest and
great shape. What do you think is going on?

Speaker 6 (01:39:00):
Let me tell you, yeah, let me tell you what
I see. Number one, My first question is does that
front area between the curb and the sidewalk get watered
as efficiently as the rest of the lawn does. And
that's rhetorical. You just kind of do with that as
you wish. I'm to ensure that the fact that the
grass looks good in the yard and bad between the

(01:39:23):
curb and the sidewalk. The first thing I think of
is chinchbugs. Now, chinchbugs make it look like the grass
hasn't been watered. It shrivels up, it starts to die
back slowly as the chinchbugs just more and more increase
their population and march out into the lawn finding new

(01:39:43):
grass runners to suck the juices out of. That's kind
of how they work, so they almost always start in
the sun next to a curb. One specific thing I
noticed in your photo is that there's a couple of
places where the tree branches probably tend to shade more,
and the grass looks better there. So that makes me
think not so much chinchbugs, but maybe the watering isn't

(01:40:06):
as good, so the demands are less where they're shade.
But my bottom line is my best guess is you've
got chinchbugs out there, and they will cross over the
sidewalk and start into the rest of the lawn. You
need to part the grass, get on your hands and
knees in the zone between healthy and dead. You know,
once they kill grass, they move on. They won't be
in dead grass, they'll be in living grass. Part it.

(01:40:29):
Go online. Look at a chinchbug. What they look like.
They're really tiny. They're very small. They're like an eighth
of an inch long, black and white. The younger ones
are kind of a bronze red color with a white
stripe across their back. But once you see them. Another
way to check for them, Larry, is to get some soap,

(01:40:51):
like a dish soap ivory liquid kind of thing, or
better than that, actually better than that is the lemon
scented soaps that you wash dishes in and put it
in a watering can with water. Just squirt a little
soap in there, you don't need a lot, and then
pour that watering can into that zone between healthy and
dead where we think the chinchbugs are most feeding, and

(01:41:15):
you'll see them come crawling up out of the truck.
They hate that wet soapy material. It brings them crawling
straight up out of there.

Speaker 1 (01:41:23):
That's another way to check Okay, now I put on
bug out a couple of weeks ago, you know, with
an anticipation that maybe something was going on. And you know,
of course, you know, well the dead is dead.

Speaker 6 (01:41:37):
It works. Yeah, it works, it works, and so you
may be that some damage was done and you've shut
it down. That's why I always say check for them,
because I hate to send people out with more and
more pesticides when the problem doesn't need that. So you'll
check that first. But that'd be my suggestion.

Speaker 1 (01:41:56):
Okay, well you've got a shot. Take it question. I'm
sorry this some bug this. Uh, We've got some hibiscus
in the backyard that are just doing great. Should I
bet they're of course blooming all the time. Should I
kept them back? And you know what, what what do
I do? They're getting they're getting big.

Speaker 6 (01:42:17):
Okay, is this a tropical hibiscus shinier leaves and really
beautiful colored blooms, or is this the perennial hibiscus that's
got either red, pink or white blooms that dies to
the ground and comes back.

Speaker 1 (01:42:30):
No, these don't don't die back. Of course we protect them,
but no, they are tropical.

Speaker 6 (01:42:36):
I guess what what what color are the blooms.

Speaker 1 (01:42:41):
Oh lords, got some yellow red? Yeah? Okay, okay, got
more red, pink okay.

Speaker 6 (01:42:51):
Okay, yeah, tropical, that's an issue. Look, I'm gonna have
to hit a break here and come back. Can you
hold on and we'll finish. Yeah, I'll be happy to
side of bright all right, We'll be right back, folks.
The number seven one three two one two five eight
seven four. I'll be right back to the guardline. We're
glad you're with us. Appreciate you listening in. Have you

(01:43:11):
been RCW Nursery before those of you listen? You know
that's the garden center. That's where Tumble Park, Wind Bilt
Way eight come together. RCW Nurseries dot Com is their website.
RCW Nursery dot com. Right now, they have an August
sale that you need to listen to. This fifty percent
off select roses. And they carry more types of roads

(01:43:32):
than anybody I know. They've got certain ones that are
off fifty percent and that is unbelievable. Fifteen percent off
all the trees and then include citrus trees. So if
you've thought about putting in a citrus, now's a good
time to get it in because you wanted to settle
in and establish before winter comes. Fifty percent off all
Cajun hibiscus, my favorite type of hibiscus. Really, I just

(01:43:57):
I love my Cajun hibiscus. And ten percent off all
the shrubs. So what kind of shrubs do you need
to replace in your landscape or do you want to
add to your landscape. This is all part of the
August Island Listen, August is almost over. Don't delay if
you want to take advantage of this really really good deal.
It's got to happen either this weekend or next week.

(01:44:19):
And RCW Nurseries is a place to go for that
and a lot of other things. What a deal, What
a great time to get that done. Let's head out now.
We're going to go to Larry and sugar Line. Hey Larry,
we are back now, and I think you kind of
had a follow up question. Could you repeat that for
folks who just joined out.

Speaker 1 (01:44:37):
Yeah, We've got some hibiscus in the back that are
just doing great and I'm just trying to They're almost
out growing, They're getting so big. When do you trim them?
Their you know, blooming beautifully. Everything is super, But when
do I need to trim them back? A little bit.

Speaker 6 (01:44:59):
Yeah, you can do the pretty much anytime. Being a
tender species, we try to avoid pruning them after August.
And here's an example. You know, you get into late
September or October and you prune them back, and here
comes all this fresh new growth. Pruning stimulates new growth
to come out. And now this new growth, it doesn't

(01:45:20):
have a chance when we get frosty, freezing wheather or whatever.
It's even more susceptible than the planet itself. So I
would get that done now. If you need to do
some trimming back, that would just be fine. A lot
of people will cut them back because they bring them
into the garage or some greenhouse or something in the
winter and they'll prune them back just so they can
get them in the door and not take up so

(01:45:41):
much space.

Speaker 1 (01:45:43):
Right right, right, okay, all right, very good, Thank you
so much. Welcome. Go ahead, go ahead, No, I go ahead.
That kind of pruning.

Speaker 6 (01:45:54):
I'm just going to say, yeah, I was just said,
that kind of pruning right before moving them in. That's
fine too, said to it now, not later. But if
you need to print them right before you bring them in,
that that is also okay. They're going to try to
resprout in the garage or wherever, and typically there's not
a lot of light in those places, but that's that's
just it.

Speaker 1 (01:46:17):
S Thank you so much. Welcome to you.

Speaker 6 (01:46:22):
Thank you very much. Appreciate the appreciate the call a lot.

Speaker 1 (01:46:25):
Uh.

Speaker 6 (01:46:27):
We were talking, you know, we're talking about with Larry,
you know, you sent the photos of the lawn and
he said he'd use nit Fross bug out Max and
bug out Max is an excellent, excellent product. It's granules.
You put it out and then you have to water
a little bit, not a lot, just a little bit,
and it dissolves that pesticide off the granule and it
goes into the thatch area and that's where chinch bugs

(01:46:48):
are living. They hide in the thatch.

Speaker 4 (01:46:51):
Uh.

Speaker 6 (01:46:51):
Also sid web worms during the day are down there
in the thatch. So this will work against fleas, ticks,
and a lot of other things. Within how about forty
eight hours, it's pretty much done what it's going to do.
It's very very quick to get to work, but then
it lasts. You don't have to apply it every a
few weeks. It's going to last for a good while.
So applying it now takes care of that whole lawn

(01:47:14):
insects season, which basically is mid to late summer primarily
that we deal with those. Now you're going to find
bug Out Max at Ace Hardawar City of Memorial Drive,
a hiding and feed up on student or Airline has
it plants for all seasons. On Highway two forty nine.
Talk about Parkway is another place that you can find
that bug Out Max when we're when I'm talking about

(01:47:36):
all these things today. By the way, I hope you
enjoyed our visit with Howard Nemerov on monarchs and tropical milkweed.
I think it's really good to learn about that and
to understand that we try to have some guests on periodically.
That's something I'd like to do a little bit more.
I know, you know we're all about calling in and
things like that, but I think guests really help bring

(01:47:59):
in a new person, effective and some new information to
the show. So I hope you're enjoying that that we do.

Speaker 10 (01:48:05):
I know I do.

Speaker 6 (01:48:06):
I enjoy getting to pick their brain as during that time.
Remember when you're watering your grass, your lawn grass, this
is like my public service announcement. When you're watering your
lawn grass, during this hot summer weather. A good deep,
infrequent watering is best. Just two words to remember, deeply

(01:48:28):
and infrequently. So if you take an inch, let me
do this. If you take an inch of water, and
you were to say, I'm going to water four times
next week, because skip says put an inch of water
a week when you're Saint Augustine lawn. Okay, so I'm
going to water four times. I'm going to a quarter
inch on each time. That quarter inch of irrigation would
what the grass blades that thatch and not even get

(01:48:51):
into the surface of the soil, and then when the
irrigation goes off, it all evaporates away. But by doing
that four times, you've increased the problems with diseases on
any plant. Wetting the foliage repeatedly is not a good thing.
If you put that inch on it one time, and
that may require what we call cycle and soak so

(01:49:12):
that it doesn't run off. Most soils, especially clays here
in the Houston area, you can't put an inch on
at one time. It starts to run off faster than
can soak in. So you water for a while, let
the irrigation go off for forty five minutes, and have
that cycle come back on again and water again, and
you can cycle it soak two or three times and
get that inch in the soil. Now, the surface is

(01:49:34):
still going to dry out the grass blades of thatch
and all that. That water is always going to evaporate
away no matter how you water. But you've put the
rest of it into the soil and wet the soil deeply,
and that creates a deep, resilient grass plant. And you
are using drinking water to put on your lawn. When
you irrigate, you waste less money on your drinking water,

(01:49:56):
which also saves you in most communities on your sewer
bill as well, because it's tied to the water build
in most communities. So that's just a tip of the wise.
A good deep soaking on an infrequent basis, deep soaking
on an infrequent basis, that is the secret to proper watering.
And I've explained the reasons why it's so important. I

(01:50:19):
used to live in Cypress area and I had a neighbor.
The water came on, I don't know three times a week,
which is way too much, and it he just was
watering too often, and the irrigation heads were so misaligned.
That one head was spray in my car and my driveway.
So I'd park backwards on some days so I could
wash the other side of the car. But that's not

(01:50:41):
the way to water well. I talk about bronze stuff,
and you're not going to find a better place to
get quality things to make your soul the best it
can be than Cienamulch. Cienamult is down north of Roe, Sharon.
It's on FM five twenty one. Here's the website. Just
just write this down Sienna dot com. They carry the

(01:51:02):
best soil mixes. They have things like the Veggie nerd
mix from Heirloom Soils for example, many many others soils
and mulches and blends and bed mixes and composts and
they just you can buy stop bulk. You can buy
stop by the bag. I think they deliver within about
twenty miles for small delivery fee of the area. But
ever fertilizer I talk about is there at Cienamultch and

(01:51:26):
including a lot of other things composts and whatnot by
the bag. Now, so when you go into Cienamltch and
you drive away, or when you call them and have
them bring it, if you're close by. You have taken
care of the brown stuff, and now you're ready to
put plants in and have success. Cienamltch sets your garden

(01:51:46):
beds up for success. That's as simple as that. I
was driving past D and D Feed up there in
Tumble the other day, and D and D Feed is
just it's an awesome food store. Their phone number if
you like to get them called two eight one three
five one seventy one forty four. They carry every fertilizer

(01:52:07):
I talk about on guardline everyone, and you need to
swing in there to see it. They also have a
great selection of everything you need to take care of
your lawn. You hear me say, we'll use this for
ince X, or use this for diseases and use this
control week. Go to D and DE feet they get
you set up there. They carry age leaf, more composed
and rose, soil and fruit, very citrus, very veggy, and

(01:52:29):
irg sails all from airloom sauce. It's a great place
and they have plants out fine too. Go by and
say hi to them in there, and you got to
go inside that that is it is really really cool. Well,
it looks like I'm about to put another hour in
the books here, So I'll just say see in a

(01:52:49):
minute if you'd like to give us a call. We
got the phones open again here seven one three two
one two K.

Speaker 10 (01:52:56):
T R H.

Speaker 6 (01:52:59):
If you're looking for finding here, we are back again.
You're listening to Garden Line. I'm your host, Skip Richter,
and we're here to answer your gardening questions. What kind
of question? Do you have something identified? You want something diagnosed,
I want a suggestion for a plant, or I don't know,
you tell me. We're happy to entertain those because we
want you to have a bountiful garden, a beautiful landscape,

(01:53:22):
and I want you to have fun out there in
the garden gardening. It is fun and it promotes our
health in any ways. I talk about that all the time,
but it should be fun. You know people that It
just breaks my heart when I hear somebody go, yeah,
I got a brown thumb. I can't grow anything. I
tried that it died.

Speaker 1 (01:53:41):
You know.

Speaker 6 (01:53:42):
It's like no, no, no, no, no, here, come here,
let me talk to you. We can fix this. There
are no such things as brown thumbs. There are uninformed
thumbs and will inform your thumb. That's why Granny could
grow stuff. You think, anything Granny put in the ground,
it just grews. She had all these beautiful flowers. Rannie
just knew the right things to do. It's as simple

(01:54:03):
as that. I talk about preparing the soil and how
important that is. I talk about picking plants that want
to grow there, planting them properly. If it wants sun,
give it sun. If it wants shade, give it shade.
Do you see what I'm saying, All of those aspects,
that's just the basics. And that's how you have success
with plants. And you can too. You can too. And

(01:54:25):
gardeners are always trying to do stuff that's outside the box.
And that's okay, that's part of the fun of it.
We're here to help you have success. That's what we
want to see because it's fun. It's a fun thing.
Something that's not fun is mosquitoes. You know, all that
rain we had a while back, Oh my gosh. I

(01:54:46):
walked outside and it was like any of you ever
see the hitch Alfred Hitchcock movie The Birds. If you haven't, well,
it probably probably doesn't hold up over time, because now
things are so much more horrific in the movies in
a scary movie. But oh, that one was frightening. Back
in the day birds it flocks of birds attacking. Well,

(01:55:08):
I thought it was in the movie the Birds, except
it was the mosquitos was the name of the movie.
They were coming in from everywhere. Mosquito dunks is what
you need to always have on hand. Now, there's a
lot of ways to manage mosquitos. You know, people have
foggers that they go out there and do that and
all that. Mosquitoes breed in water, and they don't need
much water. A thimbleful of water is enough for certain

(01:55:30):
species of mosquitoes to be able to do their life
cycle in And it's just a matter of days. They
lay the egg turns into a larva. The larva's there
for a bit, it comes out, and here we are
another mosquito. You put mosquito dunks in water, and mosquitoes
cannot grow up. They will die. It is a disease
only of mosquitoes. Won't hurt birds, won't hurt pets, it

(01:55:53):
won't heart beneficial insects water. It's a disease of mosquitos
and fungal fungus knots. By the way, it Lossoo kill
fungus nuts. So you take a dunk, it's a donut.
You throw it out there in the pond and it'll
cover one hundred square feet and last a month. Or
break it up, or just buy the granular form of
mosquito dunks from Summit Responsible Solutions and throw those into that.

(01:56:17):
Maybe you got a hollow up in a tree where
water stands and mosquitoes are breeding up there, a saggy
roof drainage channel. I can't even say the properly. Throw
them up in there, underneath the catch basins, underneath the
pots where water stands. Throw it in there, a bird
bat throw it in there, won't hurt the birds. Mosquito

(01:56:39):
dunks easy to get, available in a lot of different places.
For example, they're almost all independent nurseryes, feed stores, and
ace hardware stores carry those mosquito dunks, so just keep
them on hand. I mean, welcome to Southeast Texas. Mosquitoes
are part of life. It rains a lot here. If
you were in Elpaso, you wouldn't have so many mosquitoes.
But who wants to live in Opaso? And you can

(01:57:01):
live here and grow all kinds of good things. Here
in the Houston area, a mosquito Duk's what you need
to know. I mentioned Ace Hardware. Ace Hardware. There's forty
stores in the Greater Houston area and that is so convenient.
No matter where you live, there's an ACE Hardware store.
So for example, you know, go to Acehardware dot com,

(01:57:21):
forward sled, go to Aceharbor dot com and find the
store locator and you can find the stores near you.
I want to tell you this though, for those of
you anyone out west, kind of west northwest. Langham Creek.
ACE Hardware is on Highway five twenty nine in Cypress,
that's near the Copperfield neighborhood. It's at the intersection of Barker,
Cypress and FM five twenty nine. Langham Creek Ace Hardware.

(01:57:44):
You can find it by going to Acehardware dot com.
On Friday of this coming week, Friday the thirtieth, they're
going to have a giveaway of an Ego Power String
Trim or two hundred and fifty dollars machine. They're given
away because this is part of their grand reopening at
Langham Creek Case Hardware. They're going to do demos on
Weber grills Saturday, they'll be giving away a four hundred

(01:58:08):
and fifty dollars Weber gas grill. That's a big giveaway.
They'll be demonstrating Big Green Egg and the Goseny Picha
pizza oven. Those are cool. You got to see that.
They'll have fifteen percent off all still units only on
Saturday thirty first. Hear me clearly still open house only
on Saturday the thirty first for the still unit fifteen

(01:58:29):
percent off. Then on Sunday they're giving away a painting
room makeover worth two hundred dollars and they'll be demoing
trigger grills. So it's going to be a lot of
cool stuff. I was there earlier this year and we
had a great time there, and then they just they
kind of shut things down a little bit, did a
complete revamp, and they're opening up again at Legham Creek

(01:58:49):
Ace Hardware, one of the forty eighth hardware stores here
in the Greater Houston area. Well, you were listening to
Garden Line. Our phone number is seven and three two
one two k t r H. Seven to one three
two one two k t r H. While I was

(01:59:09):
out at the TNLA show, I got to meet a
lot of different folks. You know, a lot of our
sponsors go out to that show, and then there are
a lot of folks there's really from all over the country.
Just about people are coming in. People that wholesale plants
of different types and products and all kinds of things, equipment.
It's a great, great for horticulturists. It's a great, great show.

(01:59:31):
I was out there visiting with Dean Nelson and Shelby
and some of the team out at Nelson Fertilizers, Nelson
Plant Foods. Nelson's has been making quality plant food for
a long time and they have a number of really
good good products. I wish, I wish I could talk
about all of them, but that would take about three shows,
I think, to really do a good job of that.

(01:59:51):
But Bruces Brew is something you can use as part
of the turf Star line. It's grand or fertilizer anytime
grass is growing for a quick green hu Now it's
not just quick. It does have a gradual release component
to it also. But you can do bruces brew right now.
If you have not fertilized this summer, go ahead and
do the Bruces Breu. Now, I just do a light

(02:00:12):
application of it and it'll carry you forward. It's an
excellent fertilizer. But while you're purchasing products from Nelson, nutri
Star and the color Star line lots of different options
for tropical plants, for viining plants, for flowering trees and shrubs,
for just general trees and shrub The nutris Star Tree
and shob will give three to four months per application

(02:00:35):
of release of that nitrogen in the nutrients, and that
helps get your trees and shrubs growing faster, helps the established.
All of these plus a couple dozen of the products
available from Nelson Plant Food which are available widely throughout
the Greater Houston area. Okay, here, let's see. I was

(02:00:55):
gonna what was I want to tell you guys. Oh,
just another reminder. I know what it was before I forget,
because I tend to get the end of the show
and forget something. The Fall Home and Outdoor Living Show
September seventh and eighth. That's two weeks from today, September seventh.
I'll be there on September seventh. This is the Montgomery

(02:01:16):
County Fall Home and Outdoor Living Show. It's at the
Lone Star Convention Center up on the North side Airport
Road in Conroe. I'll be there from twelfth to two
and I'm going to be given a talk on fall gardening,
and then I'm going to be entering. I'll answer garden
questions to the cows come home. So bring your questions,
bring me samples, bring pictures on your phone. Let's talk.

(02:01:36):
I'm giving you a two week warning there the Fall
Home and Outdoor Living Show September seventh and eighth. I'll
be there on the seventh Montgomery County Fall Home and
Outdoor Living Show. Hope you'll come see me. That's always
a fun time. A lot of folks up there in
that region that really love gardening. Time for me to
take a break. When we come back, I'll be talking

(02:01:56):
with Randy and Richard first and your call as well.
We're gonna go straight to the phones and just get
down to business. Right here, We're gonna head out to
let's see Randy. Hello Randy, and welcome to Garden Line.

Speaker 17 (02:02:13):
Hello, sir, I have a question about some I have
a question about some oak trees that we plan in.
Back in April May, we got two hundred gallon live
oats and four fifty gallon and got them planted and stuff.
But the one hundred gallon are.

Speaker 1 (02:02:31):
Not doing good.

Speaker 17 (02:02:32):
One of them's already looked like it's dyed, and now
the other one hundred gallon is starting to get a
lot of brown leaves falling and stuff. It's still got
new leaves on it, the baby leaves. But I was
wondering if there's a something that I can you know,
blend with water to try and help them or And
the second question is about the deep water in some

(02:02:56):
PCD down beside the two pieces beside each tree, and
I've tried that.

Speaker 10 (02:03:03):
Is that good?

Speaker 17 (02:03:04):
Or should I just top water them? Or all the
middle woods are doing.

Speaker 6 (02:03:10):
Yeah, I would water them from the top down with
a slow, deep soaking and focus your watering on where
the original roots cylinder was that went into the ground,
because when you plant a tree like that, like a
live oak, it takes a long time for the roots
to really spread out and make a resilient plant. And

(02:03:33):
this is several years and so especially during that first summer,
you were just imagine that they didn't take the container
off and they just dropped the container with the tree
in the ground. You would know then all the water
and has to be done right where that cylinder is right,
because there's no reats can get outside that container. Well,
that's kind of how it is, is it slowly spreads out,

(02:03:55):
so it'll pump that cylinder dry. Even though the soil
around it is kind of moist. It can't wig in
fast enough, and so you've got to continue to water
that cylinder area. And that's the best thing you can do.

Speaker 8 (02:04:08):
Now.

Speaker 6 (02:04:08):
Now you don't want it to be submerged underwater soggy swamp,
you know, but you do want to just recognize that
every day that tree can pump that cylinder dry, I
mean on a hot, hot summer day.

Speaker 1 (02:04:24):
And so.

Speaker 6 (02:04:28):
Okay, well it's a matter too of the quantity. I
don't know how much you're putting on, and it's hard
for meat over the area, you know, kind of go, well,
put this many gallons on or whatever. That's the main
thing you can do. There's no special concoction at this
point to do it. I'm about ninety five percent sure
that the die back is due to it using water

(02:04:49):
faster than it can take it up in that root zone.

Speaker 10 (02:04:53):
And so.

Speaker 6 (02:04:55):
You know that that would be my suggestion or Randy
on trying to bring those back A disease wouldn't hit
it that fast. Insects not the cause of that. It's
got to be just due to the water, heat and
the heat. Yeah, and the heat. Oh yeah, and the
heat absolutely. But remember it's a it's essentially an evergreen species.

(02:05:16):
So when it cools off, the demands go down, but
it still has leaves and it's still using water. So
you back off the watering a little bit. But it's
just as important to be watering in September and October,
for example, November, even if we're not getting the rain
to supply an adequate amount.

Speaker 17 (02:05:35):
Yes, sir, how long should I wait for the one
hundred gallon to determine whether to dig it up? Or
how long should I give it to say? Yeah, I'm
back the other one?

Speaker 6 (02:05:45):
You should. You should see a re sprouting coming up
here in the next few weeks or months if it's going.
If you wanted to give it until spring, you could
do that. If you've bend twigs and they are there's
no moisture in them, you know, they're is dry, like
like you're bending a toothpick and it snaps, Uh, then uh,

(02:06:06):
it might try resprouting from the trunk.

Speaker 1 (02:06:09):
Uh.

Speaker 6 (02:06:09):
You may get some new sprouts in there, But then
you've got a whole different tree, and you just have
to decide if you would prefer to just go ahead
and replace it. So it comes down to aesthetics and
money and the trade off between those two. All right, Randy, Hey,
I got an I don't have to run, but you
bet wish you wish you very very well. We're going
to go now to Kingwood, Texas and talk to Javon. Hello, Yevon, Hello, Hi,

(02:06:36):
you're on a guard line. How can we help? You're
on guardline? Jevon, I turn off the radio if it's on.

Speaker 14 (02:06:44):
I moved into a house with existing knockout roses that
have I think never been trimmed.

Speaker 19 (02:06:52):
Can I trim them now?

Speaker 14 (02:06:53):
Or do I need to wait till February.

Speaker 6 (02:06:56):
Now's a great time with you. Trim them now. You're
gonna get reg like crazy and you'll have a beautiful
bloom show in October, late September and October. Okay, thanks,
all right, you beat you bad. Take care. Let's see
let's do another one quick.

Speaker 7 (02:07:16):
Here.

Speaker 6 (02:07:16):
We're going to go to Sherry and Hello, Sherry, welcome
to guardline.

Speaker 16 (02:07:22):
Hi, Hi, Skip, can you hear me?

Speaker 6 (02:07:25):
Yes, ma'am Hi there.

Speaker 16 (02:07:27):
Okay, we really enjoy your show. Thanks for taking my call.
So what I'm talking about are mealy bugs. I have
been dealing with them since June. They it's a terrible
infestation right now.

Speaker 7 (02:07:39):
And back in June, somebody else had called into you
asking about the mealy bugs and you had mentioned that
they have a coding of protective coating and to use
pesticide on them.

Speaker 16 (02:07:51):
So that's what I've been doing. I've been using this
bio Advance three and one in sect disease and my
Control so it says to apply every thirty days, of
which I've done since June because they come back and
I mean they're just ravaging at this point. They're on everything.
It's terrible. So and I've also been out there and

(02:08:13):
I've wiped off the hibiscus like with the alcohol. But
the thing is is they're on everything, and I just
have too many plants to do that. So I'm kind
of I don't know what to do.

Speaker 6 (02:08:28):
Okay, Well, if a plant is blooming, I tend to
not like to use a systemic on it because that
can get up in there and affect pollinators that are
coming to the blooms. But stomachs are a great way
to control meai bugs because they're sucking the juices out
of the plant and you're basically putting a poison in

(02:08:49):
the plumbing of the plant. Yeah, so that you know,
they thought, like a lady beetle could crawl across the
surface and not be affected because there's not a spray
on the surface. It's drenched in the roots. And so
I think that you know, probably those options get real
limited for mealai bugs. They're difficult to kill. It's hard

(02:09:11):
to get them all. So things like soaps and sprut
and oils and whatnot, that all just you know, it
just you just can't get it on all of them,
and that that is one of the problems with you
using any kind of a product on the mealy bugs.
Cutting back the top growth, like on an ornamental grass
or something that's invested, you can just cut the top

(02:09:33):
growth off at the ground just a few inches above
the ground and get all that out of there with
all the old meea bugs and eggs and larvae that
are in it and kind of start over coming up.
You're still going to have them, but you kind of
gotten it under control. Where then spring is a little
easier because you have better access to them. For some
plants that you can't do that with, sometimes people just

(02:09:55):
go ahead and make the decision to pull the plant
because they're not going to be able to get get
good control.

Speaker 16 (02:10:02):
Really, so, is there a time in a year where
they or they disappear or are we in an environment
where I've never have dealt with the million bucks before.
This is the first year. So here it go away
and then.

Speaker 6 (02:10:22):
Well they're there, but you don't really see them all
out like that when it's freezing weather and whatnot. But
they'll they'll overwinter and they'll come back. That bio advanced
by the way that you use that does have the
systemic in it, and it will get in the plumbing
and kill the plant, I mean killed the insect, but.

Speaker 16 (02:10:39):
Right, but yeah, but they come back, and it seems
like this last time I applied it, it seems like
it didn't work the entire thirty days. I mean, it
maybe worked twenty days. So I'm like, well, I wonder
if you know it's just it stops working earlier, kind
of like it stop working. So my plants really aren't

(02:11:06):
even blue me now because I don't want Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Speaker 6 (02:11:13):
Okay, well, that that's an option. You know, if you
can get a spray to the mealy bugs uh the
and the horticulture loyals uh in sexidal soaps, those can
be somewhat effective. They're a physical killer, not a poison,
but you just can't reach them all with the spray
and so you're just you're just addressing the part that's

(02:11:36):
you know, it's like chopping a weed off and it
comes back from underground. You just chump when you do
those kind of sprays. So, uh, the product you mentioned
is fine. Uh, just just stay with it, uh and
and realize that there's the decision. It's an effective product.
But mealy bugs are difficult to get control over and

(02:11:58):
get ahead of, and you may have to reapply it.
And there are times when pulling a plant is the
best thing just because you can't get ahead of them,
and there's times when cutting it off and getting all
that old growth out is the best thing. Is there's
not a one size cuts all, but you can win.
And that BioAdvance should that should do it. That should
help a lot.

Speaker 12 (02:12:17):
Okay, okay, all right, well, thank you so much.

Speaker 16 (02:12:21):
For your time.

Speaker 6 (02:12:22):
You bet I hope that hope that helps. We're going
to go now to Tomball and talk to Michelle and
Michelle I got about one minute before we hit break,
but let's see how far we can get.

Speaker 14 (02:12:34):
Yes, sir, so, I was calling because we have what
we what they call carpet grass in our backyard. We're
trying to get rid of it. That's one question. Second,
as we have some crab grass we want to get
rid of as well. And then third, we just lost a.

Speaker 19 (02:12:49):
Fur baby from a coral snake bite, which because they
don't make anti vanom for coral snakes, and we've learned
that they live in the ground, so knowing what to
do to keep snakes so other babies don't get harmed
or us.

Speaker 6 (02:13:03):
All right and all all right, good questions, they're telling me.
It's sign for a break in my ear. I will
be right back and we will tackle those. Thank you
very much. We were right back fors Hey. We are
glad you are with us today. We're got a board
full of calls here. We'll head straight out to fair Field.

(02:13:23):
Oh no, excuse me, still working with Michelle there. Hey, Michelle,
you were talking about carpet grass and crabgrass, getting rid
of those first, both of those can be controlled with
anything that kills the top of the plant. They don't
have a underground system to bounce back from like bermuda
grass would for example. So there are you know, burn

(02:13:45):
down products that things like vinegar would be an example
of that, but there are others that you can purchase
and sprown and mchillum, or you could just use a
grass killer. There's a couple of grass killers. If you
go to my website Gardening with Skip dot com Gardening
with Skip dot Com, there is a publication that says
herbicides that you use with my weed wiper, and there

(02:14:09):
it lists weed killers by the kind of weed they kill,
and there's a group for grasses and they're all listed
right there. That would work on life with those if
it's if what you have is crabgrass that is going
to come back from seed every year, it's an annual
so using a pre emergent in the spring, which is
on the same website on my Pest Disease and Weed

(02:14:32):
Management schedule for lawns, it tells you what and when
do you do it that'll prevent the grab grass from
coming in next year. So that would be that. Now
as far as the coral snakes. I don't know a
great way to control those. There are some products that
you put out that are they they smell to the snake.

(02:14:58):
One of them. One of them have oh gosh, what's
the ingredient. It's like essentially mothballs kind of thing, that
kind of odor. Another one is based on the napthalene,
is what I was trying to say. Another one is
based on like oils like clove and cinnamon oil, cedar
oils and things. They're going to give you a certain

(02:15:18):
amount of repellent. But they mainly work on pit vipers
like rattle snakes, and I guess watermarks and snakes. I
don't think they work on coral snake. You don't have
to get a label and look at it. I'm definitely
not a snake expert, as I'm proving on the air
right now.

Speaker 10 (02:15:35):
Okay, okay, well this is helpful.

Speaker 2 (02:15:39):
Thank you.

Speaker 6 (02:15:40):
Yeah. Yeah, keeping things trim back so you can see
them that that will be another thing they liked, do
you know.

Speaker 14 (02:15:49):
Yeah, we keep our yard cat every week. It's it's
a thick yard. My husband, it's it's super thick. It's
Saint Augustine. But we only have the problems in the backyard,
not the front.

Speaker 6 (02:16:03):
Well, the good news on coral is, unlike the pit vipers,
they got these big fangs and they strike you and boom,
they've got you. Corals have to kind of bite and
be able to actually grab. Like you know, if you
look between your thumb and forefinger, you got some extra
skin right in there that they could get their mouth
around and bite. They more need to go at it
that way. But they are very poisonous. It's just that

(02:16:25):
there were things to inject the venom in the same way.

Speaker 14 (02:16:28):
Yes, they got my dog on her lip. She was
a thirty five pounds healer mix and they don't make
into venom anymore.

Speaker 6 (02:16:38):
Oh my gosh, I'm sorry. I'm sorry. Well, Michelle's that's
the best I can do on the snake one. But
I appreciate your call. Thank you very much. I know
I'm giving you guys the hebgbi's listening talking about snakes.
But here we go. We're going to go to Fairfield
now and talk to Marty. Hey, Marty, welcome, regard.

Speaker 10 (02:16:55):
Line, Good mornings.

Speaker 3 (02:16:57):
Get I'm sorry that her little dog. Understand, Hey, I
had I needed all purpose food for my potted plants.
On a patio that gets full sun all day. I'm
watering a lot.

Speaker 10 (02:17:12):
But there it's a mix.

Speaker 3 (02:17:13):
I've got the videos, I've got firecrack crap, I've got
high buscus is. Short of putting every different food on
each different one, is there an all purpose that I
could use instead?

Speaker 6 (02:17:26):
You know, all of those would be okay to use
those kind of specifics. You know, Nitrophis and Nelson's makes
specific little jars for all those kinds of plants and things.
Just the color star would would work fine. Some of
Nitrofhoce's products you know for color plants and things, would
would also work. It we put these certain ratios on

(02:17:51):
a label and say this is a food for citrus
or four tomatoes or whatever, and it's it's just a
good general guess on those kinds of things. It's not
like you can't use the tomato food on a citrus
for example. I mean they're nutrients and they will help.
It's just and if you're trying to cover your bases
and not buy ten products for ten different plants, I

(02:18:13):
would just go with a standard like that.

Speaker 3 (02:18:15):
Like I mentioned, well, I have ten different products for
all my plants. I have micro you already got I've
got for fox Farm, I've got Ozma cut, I've got
every color food you can imagine. But I just sort
of put in each individual one on and do I
use full strength right now? Or do I use partial

(02:18:38):
strength because of the heat.

Speaker 6 (02:18:40):
Yeah? And you're talking about containers of flowering plants right, yes.

Speaker 3 (02:18:45):
And I've got the mulch to put on the top,
and now I want to feed them.

Speaker 6 (02:18:50):
Yeah, you can do it now. I would do it
at a moderate rate and make sure you keep them
adequately watered. If it's a synthetic, it's a salt based
and if you overapply, you can get root burn from
the concentrated salts. But if it's organic, it's going to
break down slow, it's going to release. It'll be a

(02:19:11):
little slower to release, but you're not going to get
the burn. But either way you can have great success
with plants. It's just sometimes well we have operator error
as they call it, you know, where someone gets a
great product and they'll dump it on and do damage
when the product is not the product's fault, right.

Speaker 3 (02:19:33):
Okay, Well I'll just keep using the individual one. Then
I've already lost my mandavilia and I just gave it
some Boolavilia food, so I just thought maybe there was
an all purpose. All Right, I'll keep plugging in.

Speaker 6 (02:19:48):
Well, I would consider color Star a pretty good all
purpose in general.

Speaker 13 (02:19:53):
On that.

Speaker 6 (02:19:53):
All right, that's got a big I was talking about
Nelson's products.

Speaker 3 (02:19:58):
Yeah, I've got a big jar of I just bought
a couple weeks ago. We would use that instead.

Speaker 6 (02:20:05):
There, you go follow the label. Anything that you're using
it on that might be an overwintering plant like a oh,
especially a shrub, or something that might be a little
cold tender, don't fertilize late in the season. Go ahead
and get it done now, because you don't want to
push something tender into late season growth, because that just

(02:20:26):
makes it more coal susceptible. Okay, very good, Okay, well,
thank you so much. All Right, you bet appreciate your
call very much. Landscaper's Pride produces quality soils and mulches
and they have many many types out there. Every month
of the years is a good time to maltz. You

(02:20:47):
should always keep bear soul covered with mult and Landscaper's
Pride has twenty something products, including several quality multch products.
But they also have soil products and now's the time
when whether you're putting a container for a fall color,
whether you're putting in a new landscape bed. Things like
Gardner's Magic. It's an organic pine based product. It's got

(02:21:08):
humus screen, pine composted rice sools and a chicken pullet
fertilizer that's going to feed for about three months out
as it decomposes a way in the soil. It's good
for raised beds, good for containers. They're mushroom compost I mean, gardeners, No,
mushroom compost is rocket fuel for plants, and they have
a mushroom compost product that provides a wide variety of nutrients.

(02:21:28):
They've got healthy soil compost that is an excellent recycled
composted plant material. And then the black humous, beautiful, dark,
rich composed. It's basically composted pine bark and some loamy
topsail mixed in together. It's good for creating a new
established bed or even just kind of building up an
existing bed that you have. All from Landscaper's Pride. You

(02:21:50):
go to Landscaperspride dot com and they'll tell you where
you can find these and they are widely available here
in the Houston area. We're going to take a break
right now. When we come back from break, Shay and
sugar Land, you'll be our first show in this today.
Looking forward to I don't know, it's a few more
calls here, maybe maybe certainly plenty of things we need
to be talking about here as we go forward. I'm

(02:22:12):
gonna first I just wanted to talk a little bit
about a company I haven't talked about in a good
wall and that's green Pro. Green Pro is a company
that will come out and they will do core aeration
of your lawn and compost stop dressing, and they basic
service the service the area. Basically service the area, oh,
let's say between I ten and Interstate thirty five. They

(02:22:33):
kind of handle the northwest quadrant in a little north
central as well. But Greenpro is one of those companies
that does it right. I don't care if it's heat
or dry spells, or foot traffic or take a root
rot or chinch bugs or whatever. When your turf is stressed,
getting a good deep time aera to get pull that
plug a core arash and pull the plug out of

(02:22:54):
the sole, leave it on the surface, and then follow
that up with the compost top dressing. It's an It
costs to do that, but it's still cheaper, especially than resotting.
And when you're trying to take the grass you have
and bring it back as best you can. This is
a regimen that I would recommend. Aerating and compost top
dressing now right now through fall. They've got a deal

(02:23:15):
where they will aerate your lawn for free when you
purchase the compost top dressing service. Now there's a two
yard minimum, so they can't come out and you know,
I just want one yard to compost and then aerrate. No,
it's a two yard minimum to do this, but they'll
airate for free when you purchase a compost top dressing.
Prices start at about five seventy five plus tax. It

(02:23:38):
depends on how big of an area, how far they
have to drive. You know, they're carrying a big multi
product all over the place. But Greenpro knows how to
do it, and they do it right. Greenpro always does
a proper job. So one I was, you know, visiting,
I think I was talking to you guys. Somebody called
the other day and we were discussing the whole idea

(02:24:01):
of compost stop dressing and why that, why that helps
and why that's important. And I'm telling you it just
really really matters that you get somebody that knows what
they're doing and that you get it done, because you
can improve it a lot that way. If you want
to go to the website, it's greenpro dot net, greenpro
dot net. If you need a phone number, it's two

(02:24:21):
eight one three five one. Let's see forty seven, Yeah,
forty seven thirty three two eight one three five one
forty seven thirty three. I'm going to head out now
to sugar Land and we are going to talk to
say hello, sh and welcome to Gardenline.

Speaker 20 (02:24:38):
Hi Skim, thanks for taking my call. I have a
I know I'm not using the actual name, but I
say they're elephant ears. They they're call and they have
the heart shaped leaf, and I just I cannot get.

Speaker 15 (02:24:54):
Rid of them.

Speaker 20 (02:24:54):
We will pull them out at the root, and sure
enough they just come right back and they've just taken
over our garden in the back. And they started in
the backyard and now we see them in the front yard.

Speaker 14 (02:25:07):
So is there anything.

Speaker 12 (02:25:11):
Go ahead?

Speaker 6 (02:25:13):
I never tried approaching it that way. They have underground
storage structures and so you know, whatever you do at
the top. If there's a piece in the ground, it's
gonna come back out. They proliferate that way. So hand
digging is an option, but you're probably have to come
back because you may miss the piece or two. But
that is an option. As far as sprays, I'm going

(02:25:36):
to give you my best guess idea here and I
have not tried these, so I'm not saying anybody listening
that I know this will kill Ala famire, But I
would think that one of two things would work. Either
applying a general purpose week killer to them. That would
include like a glyphosate type ingredient. You know, people are

(02:25:57):
all familiar with that and have different opinion about using
that product that but the key to it is having
a spreader sticker. And wherever you go shopping for your products,
like you're in sugar Land, you're not too far away
from Southwest Fertilizer on Businet and Runwick, Bob's got spreader sticks,
all of our garden centers, all our ace hardware, stort

(02:26:18):
they got spreader stickers and stuff. But put that on
there because if you've ever noticed, when it rains, the
water just balls up and rolls right off the leaf
and you need the spray to spread out and stick,
and the other thing would be a triclope here ingredient.
And if you go online to my website Gardening with
Skip dot Com, I put something up about how to

(02:26:39):
build your own weed wiper, and with it there's a
publication on herbicides to use. And what it does is
it says, if you've got woody weeds, use this product.
If you've got grassyweeds, use this product. You know, if
you and so on and on. There you'll find out
what are the products that contain life, I'll say, or
what are the products that contain trici peer we People

(02:27:02):
used to always just say, well round up glycas Well,
round Up's not glyphs it anymore. For most home and
garden centers where you go in when you buy roundup,
you're not buying glavasate most of the time. So that's
why I've made that where you can find the products
that contain either of those ingredients. So Gardening with Skip
dot Com.

Speaker 20 (02:27:22):
Okay, all right, well, thank you appreciate it.

Speaker 6 (02:27:24):
Okay, bad, all right, by bye bye bye.

Speaker 10 (02:27:30):
Yeah.

Speaker 6 (02:27:30):
That that kind of reminds me I need to I
need to look into that. I want to. I need
to check out on elephant ear come up. It's always interesting.
I've been answer your question for thirty five years. He's
a County Agrolife Extension horticulturist and as a radio host
and now's a radio host of Garden Line. Uh, and
I have not had that question before. So that's that's
always fun. Keeps me young, keeps me on top of

(02:27:53):
my toes. But they say part of me in sparts
and knowing what you're dumb at. I'm learning that I'm
dumb at a lot of things as I get. When
I was young, I knew everything all right. Hey, if
you're out in sugar Land and you haven't been to
Chanted Forest, you ought to go. Enchanted Forest is an
outstanding garden center. If you're in let's say you're in
rosenbur I said sugar Land. That it's near sugar Land too.

(02:28:16):
If you're in the Richmond area and you go towards
sugar Land up up fifty nine, it's off to the right.
The actual road is FM twenty seven fifty nine, twenty
seven to fifty nine. Awesome garden center. Their selection of
plants is unbelievable. Coming up on September twenty eighth, Danny Linderman,

(02:28:37):
owner of the Chanted Forest, is going to be talking.
He's giving a talk call the Fall Kickoff. There's going
to be all kinds of festivities. I'm going to be
speaking out there this fall. They have something almost every
weekend from September twenty eighth all the way, I don't know,
maybe November two. There's something going on every weekend out
an Enchanted Forest. The ninth thing going on there is

(02:28:58):
great plants, great selection, just outstanding. And if you're looking
for a pottery, if you're looking for blame for the garden,
you know, a herd, a bird bath kind of thing.
It's it's fall planning season. They're loaded up on shrubs
and herbs and perennial him in and Chanted Forest before

(02:29:18):
you need to go and all you need to do
if you want to you want to go out there
is remember en Chentedforest, Richmond, TX dot com