Interview with Enchated Forest

Skip takes your calls!

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:01):
Welcome to Katie r H. Garden Line with Skip Richard's.

Speaker 2 (00:07):
Crazy here.

Speaker 3 (00:10):
Gas can trip.

Speaker 4 (00:14):
Just watch him as well. Go There are so many
good things to.

Speaker 2 (00:22):
Super brasy gas cans back again.

Speaker 4 (00:30):
You're not sorry the sun beamon of.

Speaker 5 (00:38):
A dreams.

Speaker 2 (00:41):
Can starting.

Speaker 3 (00:47):
Hey, good morning, good morning on a good Sunday morning.
Glad you're listening to us today on garden Line. Okay,
t r H. I'm your host, Skip Richter, and we've
got plenty to talk about today. First of all, let
me get right to business here. If you would like
to give us a call today to ask a gardening
question seven one three two one two five eight seven

(01:10):
four seven one three two one two fifty eight seventy four.
I have been working outside in my garden taking care
of some things, battling some nutsedge. I know we've talked
about that a lot lately, but you know, if you
stay on it, you can win the battle. If you
happen to be struggling with nuts edge or also called

(01:32):
nut grass, although it's not a grass. You just go
to my website Gardening with Skip dot com. I've put
some free stuff up there for you to read. Understand
the enemy if you will, We're going to go ahead
and call this a battle. You are at war within nutsedge.
And as you understand the different types of nutsedge, how

(01:53):
they grow, what they do, it helps you to get
ahead of it and control it. That's the problem most
people now here. All the time people say things like,
well I've tried that, it didn't work. Well, there's a
reason for that, and it's either because you're using the
wrong product or at the wrong time, and or not
sticking with it. Those three things are the things that

(02:16):
help you lose against nutsedge. And this is the deal.
No matter how good you control it, no matter what
you do, great product, great timing, it's like it all
goes away and you know it's going to pop back up.
If you don't stay on it, it just replenishes its reserves.
It even creates more nuts underground, more tubers underground, and

(02:37):
you just get to start over. So go online, go
to gardeningwiskip dot com. There is a couple of nuts
edge publications there. One of them is a one page sheet,
another one it says nuts edge that it's like a
three page sheet. It's more of an in depth look
is the title. And then there's one called Herbicides for

(02:58):
use with skips weed wiper and how to build a
weed wiper, and in some situations when that says that
weed wiper is important, it is effective in helping you
manage that saige without hurting the plants around it. So
just some things to think about for those of you
dealing with that particular particular pest. And I do feel

(03:19):
your pain. Another thing I've been running into a lot.
Really this is something that just goes on all the
time during the growing season, but lately it just seems
like I'm getting even more questions about take all root rot. Now,
they don't always come as a question about take off sometimes,
you know, it's just like my lawn's dying. Wise my

(03:40):
lawn dying, and but it ends up being take all
being the cause. And I'm going to talk off and
on today, probably through some of your questions as well
about what what do we do, what's going on there,
and how do we battle it, Because there are plant
diseases that weakened plants, that disfigure plants brown patch or

(04:04):
large patch, for example. It will rop the leaves off
the runner, creating those big circles, but the runners are
still alive and they regreen when the weather worms up.
Would take all root rot. It kills, it takes all
and it rots the roots. And a plant can't live
without roots. And so that's one of probably the elephant
in the room when it comes to turf health, I

(04:26):
would say is take all root rot, much more widespread
and ongoing and a bigger concern even than things like
side webworms and and chinchbugs. For example. It's a biggie
and we're still dealing with it a lot around here.
Our phone number is seven one three two one two

(04:46):
k t r H. If you'd like to give us
a call. I want to make a couple of statements though,
also about tree issues. People are concerned about the health
of their trees, and they should be. You know, a
tree adds a lot of value to your property, and
a tree is a can be a huge, huge plant
that grows slowly over time and develops either a strong

(05:09):
or a weak structure. If it's prune properly, you can
have a tree that lives for decades upon decades upon decades,
goes a very long time, longer than we're around. But
if it's pruned improperly, or if it's not cared for
right or other issues that can happen. Training trained right
in a good strong form, then that what I just

(05:31):
said about it being a long lived changes and it
suddenly becomes not so long lived and you're spending a
lot of money on it because a limb is broken
off following the house or just you know, ruined the
structure of that tree. Well. Affordable Tree Service Martin spoon Moore.
He is our go to guy for dealing with tree issues,

(05:54):
from pruning him properly to begin with, to dealing with
prune so that storms don't have the same effect that
they might have had on that tree, creating a stronger structure,
helping with the effects of wind, and helping a tree
be more resilient against that. Martin Spoon Moore's number, and
you ought to write this down, just keep it with you.

(06:14):
It's seven one three six nine nine twenty six sixty
three and I'll give that again seven to one three
six nine nine two six six three. Don't wait until
a fall storm, you know with high winds, takes down
a stress tree. Give Martin a call. There's a lot
that can be done ahead of time. And you also

(06:35):
go to his website. Aff Tree Service dot com. Afftree
Service dot com. He does all kinds of things with trees,
not just pruning them. He can advise you on a
lot of issues that help you maintain good, healthy trees.
And that again, it's not just the value to your home,
it's it's the value to your lifestyle. You know, that

(06:55):
beautiful tree that's shading the roof and maybe saving on
the electric bill, or shading that patty area you're enjoying,
and now the blazing sun is baking down on it
because of the loss of a tree or a major limb.
We're going to avoid those things, and proper care along
the way is one of the key elements in avoiding
those sort of things. I was at at the Arburgate Nursery.

(07:18):
Oh gosh, this has been a couple of weeks now,
I guess a couple of weeks ago. I always stopped
by our garden centers and see what's going on, what
they have and how things are going. And boy, it's
beautiful out there. I mean they are set up for fall.
They've got all kinds of you know, Arbrogates always got
their gift shops and all the I call it lens
Gate bling. You know, when you walk through you see

(07:38):
all the kinds of things you can put out in
your yard to beautify or to signal the seasons, like
we're coming into the fall season with all harvest themes,
with Halloween themes, you know, Thanksgiving things. They've got all
kinds of stuff like that all the time. And now
Arbrogate is up there in tom Ball. It's west to
tom Ball about half a mile from Tomball Parkway two

(07:59):
forty nine on twenty nine to twenty. I just encourage
you to go buy and check it out while you're there.
Get their one two three completely easy system. That's a
soil for anything with roots, that is a compost, and
that is a very quality mult as well. And I
think that if you start with that and bring it home,
when you bring home your plants, you're going to have

(08:19):
good Sunday morning, Welcome back to Garden Line. Good to
have you with us today. We have plenty of talk about,
you know, going into commercial ops some of our Arbigates
one two three completely easy system. And I think I
heard myself echoing in my head after I went to
commercial that I said, the one two three has a
is one of the of them is a multch and
it's not I said that wrong. We're talking about an

(08:40):
organic food Complete. That's a fertilizer that is a slow
release organic type fertilizer loaded with microbes as well, including
the microhizal fungi that work in connection with plant roots.
It's the organic soil complete and the organic compost complete.
One thing that's kind of cool about those last two products.
You know, whenever you or adding good quality organic matter,

(09:02):
whenever you're including things that like expanded shale and that's
in and arburgates one two three system, the soil benefits
go longer term, and so it's not just like you're
doing something that is good right now. It's like you're
doing something that builds the soil and it gets better
and better, and it's like a snowball going down a hill.

(09:23):
When you start to open up the soil and you
start to get oxygen in, it invigorates microbial activity down
in the root system and roots thrive better. And when
roots thrive better, it improves the soil. Just in that way,
toots exude substances that feed microbes and the roots themselves
open up the soil. So it's like you begin doing
things that are helping and it just gets better in

(09:45):
other ways. Do you see what I'm saying? And so
anytime we're working with our soil, we can have that
effect on plants. You hear me all the time say,
you know, spend a dollar on your soil before you
spend a dollar on your plants, or spend a dollar
on your soil at the same time you're spending a
dollar on your plants.

Speaker 6 (10:04):
Uh.

Speaker 3 (10:04):
And anytime that you're going to take a wonderful plant home,
whether it's a tomato, a flower, a tree, a shrub,
whatever your plant is, make sure you're also before that
plant goes in the ground, improving the condition of your soil,
because that's the secrets of success. It really is. I
like to say it this way. Plants live in their roots,

(10:26):
meaning as the root system goes, so goes the plant.
And if you've got the most wonderful plant in the
world and its roots cannot expand cannot get oxygen, don't
have the nutrients that they need to take up, that
plant is not going to go anywhere. And it's so
easy to fix up. If you'd like to give us
a call here on garden Line, it's seven one three, two,

(10:48):
one two, five eight seven four seven, one three, two
one two fifty eight seventy four. You know, talking about
improving things in your garden, and you're looking at one
place kind of a one stop shop for everything you
could need for insects, diseases and weeds, for nutrients, for fertilizer,

(11:12):
nutrients for tools. Southwest Fertilizer in Southwest Houston is that place.
If they don't have it, you don't need it. That's
kind of how I like to put it, because I
don't care what you need. You hear me talking on
gardenline and I say, well, this fertilizer is what you need,
or go buy this product, or go you need to
kill that weed with this, or you need to you
know whatever, organic or synthetic. They have it all at

(11:35):
Southwest Fertilizer. Bob has you know, made sure that his
store just continues to be the one stop shop. Pardon me,
and in the Southwest been around since nineteen fifty five.
I mean that's a long time for a business to
be around, and yet it's still going strong, stronger than ever,
I would say, And it's because of that. In the service,

(11:58):
you know, you walk in there with a sam you
walk in there with a picture and you show it
to some of the team there and say, hey, what
is this? What do I do? And they can help
you and provide you with the thing that's going to work,
as well as advice on how to use it and
what to do, And that alone is worth it. You know.
They have that kneeling bench I keep talking about there.

(12:19):
It's one of my top five favorite tools. It folds up.
You can flip it one way and sit on it
and work in the garden. You can flip the other
way and kneel down and the legs willcome handles for
getting back up. If you're north of forty you know
what I'm talking about. When up and down, the up
and down, it can really make you soar the next morning.
It's a great twet. You got to check it out

(12:39):
while you're there. Southwest Fertilizer dot Com is the website
that's easy. Southwest Fertilizer dot Com the location corner of
Bissonette and Runwick, easy to get to. I don't care
where you live in town. It's worth a trip over
to Southwest Fertilizer just because they have it all right there.
We're going to head out now to Cyprus, Texas. And

(13:01):
I believe we're going to talk to Melanie this morning.

Speaker 5 (13:03):
Good morning, Melanie, Good morning, Skip. How are you today,
I'm doing well, good day.

Speaker 7 (13:10):
Good day.

Speaker 6 (13:11):
Well.

Speaker 8 (13:12):
Thought i'd catch you first thing this morning because we
bought a couple of lots up in the hill country
in Atlanto, Texas, and they, you know, haven't had any
activity on it, but the thorns or stickers or whatever
they are, they are just covered in these lots. I
don't even know where to begin.

Speaker 3 (13:31):
What do you recommend when you tell me a little
more more about the plants. We're probably talking about a
lot of different kinds of plants when you say thorns
and stickers.

Speaker 8 (13:43):
No, they've had it mode. They've kept it mode down.
But it's just I mean, I walked out. There's a
little house on it too, and we're working on it.
I walked out in my socks, and oh my goodness,
they became full of stickers, craspers, grasspers, yeah, grassbers yeah.

(14:04):
And I've never dealt with this before.

Speaker 3 (14:07):
Okay, Graspers yeah, grasspers thrive and droughty soil in poor
in poor soil conditions, and if it's if it's like
a yard area, fertilizing is one of the steps toward
getting out of grasspers, you know, getting your lawn thicker
if it's out in the pasture. Uh, you know, depending

(14:27):
on the grass, it's probably not going to be practical
to try to fertilize a pasture. But premer pre emergent
herbicides can prevent that. They sprout in the in the spring.
They're a little bit later spout than some other weeds.
I'm thinking here, Atlanta, I'm going to give you my
best guests for Lanto. Knowing where that is, I would
say you probably need to get the pre emergent down

(14:48):
by by the first of March, probably up there, just
to be sure you're ahead of them. But emergent for
grassy weeds, you know, stuff like the barricade that U
nitroposs has here, spreading that out over a large area.
There are other pre emergent ingredients, so we'll control grasspers,
but getting ahead of them before they sprout, probably going

(15:12):
to need to, maybe sixty days after you do the
first one, do it again, because graspers will sprout all summer,
and any product breaks down in time and it doesn't
keep working all year.

Speaker 8 (15:23):
So what happened to them, what happens in the winter time.
Do they just go away or watch it?

Speaker 3 (15:29):
They die? They do die after spending after spending the
season making a lot more graspper seeds for next year.
And so that's why preventing is so important, because if
you mow the grasppers that are up high, when you mow,
the plant starts to set the grasspers down lower and
so it still has seed heads. And so I would

(15:52):
I would recommend that if there's anything you can do
to improve that area, like I said, fertilizing or or whatever,
that that is helpful. Because the things that compete with graspers,
like like grasses, you give the grasses the head start
on the birds. But that would be it. You have
a County Agrolife Extension office there in Lantouh, and I

(16:16):
don't know the agent's name, but you have an ag
agent there who deals with pastures and things, and if
you talk to him guide you a little bit further.
My timing might be a little bit off that. That's definitely.
You know, spring comes later up there than it does here.
But it's pretty pretty close to Austin, and I used
to work in Austin, so I'm thinking which first is

(16:37):
a good time.

Speaker 8 (16:38):
I will certainly try that. Nobody has grass in their
yards very much up there because it's so dry, so
I don't I used to I have beautiful grass, and
I don't know what I'm going to do with this,
but I'll try that. Calling the County Extension and see
if I can get some help from them too.

Speaker 3 (16:55):
Yeah, they're doing you can. You can have beautiful grass
up there. You know, it depends on if you want
the kind of lawn you're used to down in the
Houston area. That would be something like Zoezia or Saint Augustine. Okay,
if you want to cut back on watering a little bit,
then or Bermuda might be your best choices. But just

(17:18):
know that even a drop tolerant lawn, when you don't water,
it doesn't look good and so it may survive, it
doesn't look good. And if you want to go more native,
you know, there's things like buffalo grass that that could
be planted. That's a whole different monster. And think of
it more as kind of a Western native looking mini meadows.

Speaker 8 (17:41):
Describe buffalo Okay, I'll try to figure out which one
may do the best up there. May have to do
some research on it, but I appreciate your help. I'll
try that pre emergent.

Speaker 3 (17:52):
All right. While you're up there, you got to go
eat dinner or lunch at the Badou House. That's stop
by Cooper's Barbecue. You're not gonna find oh Cooper.

Speaker 8 (18:00):
I know they got a lot of barbecue up there.
Between Cooper's and inman Boy, they get a lot.

Speaker 9 (18:05):
Of business there.

Speaker 8 (18:07):
You go, all right, thank you, Skip, Okay, bye.

Speaker 3 (18:10):
Bye, Thanks for the call. Appreciate that you're listening to
Guarden Line. I'm your host. Skip Richter our phone number
seven one three two one two kt r H. Seven
one three two one two kt r H. If you
haven't done your summer fertilizing yet, you still can put
down nitrofass Superturf. Superturf is a slow release fertilizer. It's

(18:30):
a nineteen four to ten ratio product, nineteen four to
ten and that nineteen it's nitrogen. It's going to gradually
release over a long time, and that slow release spreads
out the mowing. It avoids the flushes of nitrogen that
can cause issues with our turf when we overdo it.
You're going to find super turf in places like Growers

(18:52):
Outlet up there in willis Enchented Forest Nursery down in
the Richmond Rosenberg area and RCW Nursery up on I
five North, Night five super Turf. It's easy to find
in the store because it's the silver bag. I mean,
walk in the front door, look at all the fertilizer
from across the store, and you know right where the
superturf is with that silver bag really really stands out.

(19:16):
Makes it easy. If you had thought it, not thought
about a vegetable gardening this fall, I would encourage you
to do that. And a lot of people, you know,
they when they think of vegetable gardening, they think of, well,
I've got a big this build this big garden and
rototil and all this kind of stuff, and I don't
have room for it. There's not a big enough sunny spot.

(19:37):
A vegetable garden can be like a little race bed somewhere.
It can be a container on your patio. You can
grow broccoli and all kinds of healthy grains for salads
and smoothies and any however you go about your cuisine.
You can do all that on a patio. You just
need a good container of good size that drains well.

(19:57):
With some quality soil mix, and you're in business, and
I encourage you to try that this fall. That would
be the challenge of the day on garden Line. All right,
we're going to take a break and we'll be right back.

Speaker 5 (20:12):
Houston's News. Why there, we're traffic plus breaking news.

Speaker 3 (20:15):
Welcome back, Welcome back to the garden Line. I'm your host,
Skip Richter. We're here to answer gardening questions. In other words,
we're here to help you have a more bountiful garden
and a more beautiful landscape. That is what I would
like to accomplish. Oh and one other thing, to have
fun in the process of doing it. Gardening should be fun. Listen,
this is not a life or death thing. You know.

(20:37):
It's not the days where if we had crop failure
we starved to death. But you can have a lot
of fun and improve your health with gardening. You it's
exercise outside. We know now that just our sedentary lifestyles
are a major cause of long term health problems that
we run into. We also know that if you work
in a cubicle in an office, just getting up every

(20:58):
thirty minutes, walking around a second, sitting back down has
a huge benefit. Well, gardening gives you that and more.
It also gives you fresh sunshine, a peace of mind.
There's just a connection with nature that benefits us. It
also can give us. I was just talking about do
a fall garden this year. It can give you fresh
healthy produce. Just eating more good, fresh, healthy produce is

(21:20):
very helpful to our health. I have a number of
different things in my garden. I'm always experimenting with something. Well.
Some people would say something weird, but I don't. I
I like making smoothies in the morning. That's my breakfast
of choice. I've got a little, great little blender that

(21:40):
can chop anything up, and I make a smoothie. You know,
throw some fruit in there, protein powder, whatever kinds of
supplements you want to throw in it. And then I'm
always throw in some stuff from out in the garden.
Right now in the garden, I've got some things that
I met a lot of you haven't even heard of.
I have some malabar some people call it malobar spinach,
and it is very summer tolerant that goes into a smoothie.

(22:04):
I have some okra, and yes, I'll put a little
okra pot or two into a smoothie. It helps thicken
them up. Oka has that effect when it touches water,
and you don't taste okra when you have your smoothie.
You just don't. I have some maringa. Maringa is a
little tree that is kind of a I would call

(22:26):
it a perennial here, and that it often can die
way back in a cold but it then comes right
back out of the ground the next year, and leaves
are kind of a nutty, nutty sort of flavor. I
like them anyway, Throw some of that in there. Oh gosh.
There's a lot of other things, certainly in the cool season.
You know, Kale and whatnot can go into a smoothie

(22:48):
and improve on it. Spinach can go into smoothie and
improve on it. But I just am always trying some
different things. Molekhia is a green that trop popular, especially
in the Middle East and other in that general region
of the world. There's a lot of popularity for it.
It also can thicken up a smoothie and goes really well.
So there's a lot of things you can grow. And

(23:09):
you know, if you think about it, I could make
a smoothie with just protein powder and maybe some strawberries
or blueberries or something. But by throwing in all those greens,
it doesn't mess up this moothie. It does make the
color a little less appetizing. When you mix green and
red together, you get brown. That's how the colors work.
But I don't care about that. You know, turn off

(23:30):
the lights and drink your smoothie. Hush, turn off the
lights and drink your smoothie. It's good stuff. It's good
for your health. That's just what I'm saying. Gardening is
good for your health, and it should be fun. If
you're driving up to your place and you have to
close your eyes driving in the driveway because of the
way it looks from the road on the front. And
I know, sometimes our places get looking kind of rough.

(23:53):
You got to get piercescapes. To call piercescapes is. They're
professionals at turning landscapes into something real, beautiful and magical.
They do all the stuff that you need done. Do
you need a hard, hard escape? Do you know a
rock pathway? Do you want an outdoor barbecue? Ay? Do
you want outdoor lighting? You would you like to create

(24:14):
a better drainage in an area that drains poorly? Is
your irrigation system on the blinky all that and more.
Go to pierce Scapes dot com pierscapes dot com. That's
their website and you can see pictures of the kind
of work that they can do. So whether you just
need a little bit of work done, or whether you
want to revamp the whole place into something stunning, you

(24:37):
can call Pierscapes and they can do it. Pierscapes dot com.
Here's a phone number right this time, give them a
call this week two eight one three seven oh fifty
sixty two eight one three seven oh five zero six zero.
They also do quarterly service, so if you when you
drive up at those flower beds are full of weeds
or the mult is getting thin or anything, they can

(25:00):
come in for a quarterly service. They meltch, they get
take care of weeds, they check the irrigation, they do
any trimming that's necessary. When the seasons change and you
need some new color plants in there, they'll do that
seasonal change. They'll melt all at Peerscapes perscapes dot com.
Go see them. We got to be proud of our places,
you know, and whether we whether you do it all

(25:22):
at once or whether you do things a little bit
at a time. Get out there and continue to improve
your landscape in ways that you like. This is your place,
what do you want to look at? If you need
some help with that, you can certainly there's a lot
of places where you can get designed suggestions, design help.
If you're doing it yourselfer, we can recommend plants here

(25:45):
on guard Line for you. In general, our landscapes should
have a very natural, balanced look. Evergreens not just all
on one side of the house. So in the winter,
oh that's lopsided. Same with blooming plants, blooming trees. You
should think about the four seasons when you landscape.

Speaker 8 (26:06):
What is your.

Speaker 3 (26:06):
Landscape going to look like? That's fall? I mean just
ask yourself that. Do you have anything that hasn't bloomed
all year but in fall it takes off in blooms.
That's part of that four season approach. Maybe I'll talk
about here a little bit some of the things that
you can plant that are good fall blooming plants. So
stay tuned for that. I'll come back to that one.

(26:28):
And Chanted Forest is a garden center down in the
Richmond Rosenberg area that you will love visiting. And Chended
Forest is out on FM twenty seven fifty nine. So
if you're in Richmond and you're going to head up
towards sugar line of fifty nine, it's off to the
right on twenty seven to fifty nine. It is a
wonderful place. They always have whatever the latest plants are

(26:52):
for the season, they're going to have that. So like
right now, herbs for fall planting, the fall vegetable garden.
They're stocked up fall color and flowers, fall decorations for
the landscape. Fall is for planting, so shrubs and trees
and ornamental grasses and perennial flowers. They've got all that.
They're at Chended Forest. They always have programs going on

(27:14):
in the fall and spring season. Just go to their website.
It's Enchanted Forest, Richmond TX dot com. Enchanted Forest, Richmond,
TX dot com. And when you go there, first of all,
it's a wonderful website, but you'll be able to connect
with what's going on, what's in season. You know what

(27:37):
do they have right now? It's always the new shipment
coming on out there, more great decor for fall, you
name it, they've got it. Enchanted Forest. And you haven't
been there, you owe yourself a trip out there this
afternoon be a good time to do it, as a
matter of fact. And when you go, take some friends
with you because it is a fun, fun place to visit.

(27:57):
I always like going out there visiting with Danny and Clay
and the whole team that enchanted for us. You are
listening to garden Line phone number here if you'd like
to give us a call. We're about to go to break,
but you can get on the on the board and
be first up when we come back. Seven to one
three two one two k t rh at seven one
three two one two k t r H. You know

(28:19):
yesterday was National Hummingbird Day? Did you know that? That's right?
Hummingbirds asked me to remind you. I'm just reminding you again.
So it is past time. It's time to get your
hummingbird feeders out there. Uh, get them set up and
they will show up. If you build it, they will
come well. Wibirds Unlimited is the place to go for

(28:40):
anything birds and certainly for hummingbirds too. You know, do
you need a bird bath? Do you need a certain
kinds of bird feed for In the case of hummingbirds,
they have some special little mixes that are slower you know,
when you put sugar water in a hummingbird feeder after
a few days in very warm temperatures, it gets kind
of nasty, and so we always have to put something
rush in there. Well, they have those kinds of feeds,

(29:02):
and they have a feeder that you really need to get.
It's my favorite hummingbird feeder and I have several the
high perch hummingbird feeder from Wallbirds Unlimited. Go try it out.
WBU dot com forward slash Houston. That is the website
where you can find the six Wabirds Unlimited stores near you.
And I guess what I'm going to be doing. I'm

(29:23):
going to be going to a wild Bird's Unlimited store
this next Saturday. I'll be at the Wallbird's Unlimited store
out in excuse me, pardon me, good night, Warbird's Unlimited
store on El Dorado Boulevard out there in south east

(29:44):
part of Houston. I'll talk about that more when I
come back. Good morning, Welcome back to the garden line.
Going in to break there. I was talking about birds
and hummingbirds specifically, but you know right now, not just
hummingbirds are coming through, but Baltimore orioles on their migration
as well. They'll be migrating through our area the entire
month of September and really on endo October. Beautiful little

(30:08):
birds with their yellow and black markings or almost orangey
yellow and black. They are gorgeous and you can track
those to your place with the proper bird seed and feeders,
so be on the lookout for those. By the way,
the Wolbird's next Saturday, I want to remind you again,
Wibird's next saturday'll be there from clear Lake City Wallbird Unlimited,

(30:29):
clear Lake City, southeast of Houston. I'll be there from
eleven thirty to one thirty. Now, if you don't know
where that is, you can go online to whatwbu dot
com forward slash Houston to find all the stores. But
this particular one is clear Lake Boulevard and El Dorado Boulevard,
that intersection clear Lake City Boulevard and El Dorado Boulevard,

(30:51):
so it's really easy to find. They're going to be
given away a number of different things. They've got that
hummingbird nectar with the nectar defender I was talking about,
So I didn't go back so fast out there in
the warm conditions. They'll be drawing for a number of
products of a variety of bird seed blends, and even
more so, I hope you come out. Number one. It's
fun to go to wilbirds. But number two, we'd love

(31:12):
to have you come out and see us next Saturday,
eleven thirty to one thirty. By the way, thanks for
being that came out to the Home and Outdoor Living
show up in Conroe yesterday. That was fun getting to
talk to folks. You guys wore me out. We were
answering questions, as they say, till the cows come home
up there, but that's always fun. Saw a lot of

(31:33):
baggies of all kinds of stuff. One guy said he
brought me bags a bag full of weed, and I said,
you might want to rephrase that, just say a bag
full of weeds, and it doesn't sound quite as curious
as the other. I'm easily amused. All right, let's go
out to Humble. We're going to talk to Lee this
morning on guardline. Hey, Lee, welcome, Thank you.

Speaker 10 (31:57):
I have a patio facing west and I need to
know what kind of flowering plants I can get to
put on it.

Speaker 3 (32:05):
Okay for going into the fall season, yes, or do
you want things that are plants that will be perennials
and just live here after year after year. What are
you aiming for?

Speaker 10 (32:15):
I would rather have lived year after year.

Speaker 3 (32:19):
Okay. We have a number of plants that are very tough.
If they get enough sunlight, they bloom really well. Some
of ours Salvias are very good for that. There is
Salvia garnitico the which is a taller maybe four foot
high sage a beautiful blue to purple colored blooms attracts hummingbirds.
That's a good one. Salvia greggy I greg sage states

(32:42):
down a little bit lower and it comes and all
kinds of colors like pink and coral, and white and
red red some most common color, and others. How tall
do you want these plants to be?

Speaker 11 (32:55):
Oil?

Speaker 10 (32:56):
Not very tall. I have to put them in potts
because I'm handicapped and I have to move the pots around.

Speaker 3 (33:03):
So okay, all right, Well that's that's good information to
know right there. So, by the way, just a tip
by the way on moving pots. If you have a
little like a dolly thing that you can put a
strap around the pot, it is so easy to stand
upright and just pull back on the dolly and roll
it to a new location. And that is the way

(33:24):
I move pots so that I don't hurt my back
bending over trying to move something a little too heavy.
But any tip, yeah, that works really really well. Might
have a dolly that just has a little strap always
attached to one side because I slip it underneath the
edge of a plant, and strap goes around and hooks on,
And that's how I'm move it. Some of the plants

(33:46):
for hot afternoon that are perennial. First of all, let
me just say something about annuals. This fall. You should
plant some some alyssum. You should plant right now. You
could be putting out petunias. You can be putting out marigolds.
Maragoles look great in the fall, but once we hit
the first frost, those are all gone. And then we

(34:08):
switched to things like a Lissa, We switched to pansies,
Viola's snap dragons. They all look good in the fall
season and the cool season and early winter. For things
that are going to come back year after year, I
would consider to think of there's a oh gosh, I

(34:31):
just went blank on the name of what I was
trying to to name jumped right out of my head. Yeah,
that's a lot of those. That is true. I do
have a lot of those. Oh gosh, I'm gonna have
to I'm gonna have to think on it just a
second and come up with some other ideas for you.

(34:51):
It just jumped right right out of my head. I
can't believe I did that, but yes, I did. I
did that. Oh, there are some. There are some compact
boodleias or butter fly bushes that would be really good
in a container, and they bloom all through the summer
with spikes of beautiful blooms. But they're more compact types
of that. There is actually a crate myrtle that only
gets about two feet tall, maybe about three feet wide,

(35:14):
but they can grow in a container, which would keep
it even a little bit smaller, And that would be
another good one. You're out there in Humble, and if
you go up to Warren Southern Gardens and ask them
to see their great myrtle crate myrtle. I know that's
almost confusing, but great as in wonderful great myrtle crate myrtle.
That's nice. And if you go in there and ask

(35:35):
them that same question, they're gonna be able to show
you all the different flowers that would fit the bill
for the exactly the spots you're looking at.

Speaker 10 (35:44):
Well, that would be wonderful. Well, thank you for.

Speaker 11 (35:47):
Helping me, you bet, you bet.

Speaker 3 (35:49):
Thanks for the call. Appreciate that.

Speaker 12 (35:51):
Lee.

Speaker 3 (35:51):
You take care all right. Let's see here, Oh, I
wanted to mention you know, micro life. I talk about
a lot of microlife products, and certainly all the dry
fertilizers we're talking about those. We'll soon be telling you
all about the brown Patch, which is a fall fertilizer,
fertilizer for your lawns. Getting close to the time to
put that out. But microd Grow Liquid is a wonderful

(36:13):
product that you can use and it contains a lot,
in fact, eight very beneficial microbes specific it's got more
than that in it, but eight specific ones that are
just outstanding that help support plant growth. They also help
protect plants against some of the problems that could come
against them. Then there's the h I gave away some

(36:35):
of this yesterday out at the home show, the Biomatrix.
It's an orange label. It's just a good nitrogen fertilizer.
They have seaweeds, they have fish and molson products. They
have a lot of things for microlife. And with microlife,
pretty much wherever you go, you're gonna find it. It's widespread, widely,
widely available. You can go to Microlife Fertilizer dot com
if you really want to drill down to exactly where

(36:57):
is it available in your area. Uh, I'm going to
head now to pair Land and talk to Pam. Hello, Pam,
i' good morning, good morning.

Speaker 13 (37:11):
Every year for the past five years I've gotten brown patch.
I just heard you talk about the microlife product, and
with the rains coming again this week, I was trying
to figure out what I could do to get ahead
of that, and then after the rains what I could do.

Speaker 3 (37:29):
Okay, you can avoid brown patch a couple of different
ways there. You know, micros micro life makes a fertilizer,
a fall fertilizer for brown patch that you would put
down and sometime this month later later in September is
a fine time to do that. That is a helpful thing.
Anytime you have a lot of microbial activity that is

(37:50):
helping to defend the plant against other microbes. Is that's
a good idea. There are fundericides that will fight brown
patch as well, and you know the e is one
That night frost makes that is very effective against that.
But with brown patch or now called large patch, you
have to take care of it ahead of time. If
you wait until the circles up here, it's a little

(38:11):
late to gain much benefit. You'll stop additional circles, but
you've got to get ahead of it.

Speaker 13 (38:17):
So I could preemptively put down eagle or a bunch
of size.

Speaker 3 (38:22):
You could. Yeah, if this is an annual problem in
your lawn, this is one time where I would say
preemptively to do something like that. Just know that the
more often you water, the more fertilizer you put down
that's really green makes a lot of fast, lush growth.
That sets it up for brown patchissues too. That's why
we like things that release a little bit slower over time.

Speaker 13 (38:45):
But yeah, I followed for your program this year and
it's made a huge difference because I've had that forced
growth issue. But now with the reins concerned that it
may come back.

Speaker 3 (38:58):
So okay, Well, if you will just go to gardening
with Skip dot com and look at my pest, weez
weed and disease schedule, it tells you exactly when to
apply and what to apply for brown patch.

Speaker 14 (39:11):
Okay, Okay, very good.

Speaker 3 (39:13):
I'll do that. Thanks Skip dot Com. You bet. Thanks
appreciate it, Pam, all right, I hear music. That means
we're going to a break Greg in Northwest Houston. You'll
be our first up when we come back. I just
want to remind you this next Saturday, eleven thirty to
one thirty, I'm going to be at Wabird's Unlimited in
Clear Lake. That is just think a corner of El

(39:34):
Dorado and Lake Clare Lake City Boulevard. Also a reminder,
poor we are this is right upon us here. The
Brazoria County Extension Office is having their second annual Strawberry
Jamboree September twenty first. Too far away. You need to
get in touch with them. I find out more about it.

(39:55):
It's from It's in the morning from eight till twelve
on September twenty first. It's at the Rec Center, Lake
Jackson Rex Center in Lake Jackson, Texas. They're going to
have a strawberry shortcait contest about pot of great speakers
and even the ability to sign up for some strawberry plugs.
If you would like to add them to your garden,
be right back.

Speaker 5 (40:15):
Hey, garden line with Skip Richard.

Speaker 2 (40:18):
It's just watch him as.

Speaker 11 (40:30):
Hey.

Speaker 3 (40:31):
Welcome back to garden Line. Glad you're listening in today.
Looking forward to talking to you about the things that
interest you. If you would like to give me a call,
ask a question seven one three two one two k
t r H seven one three two one two k
t r H plans for all seasons up there on
Highway two forty nine, tom Ball Park.

Speaker 6 (40:50):
Wee.

Speaker 3 (40:51):
They've been around since I guess nineteen seventy three when
the Flwerdi family established that place, and they just keep
going strong, and everybody in the whole region knows about it.
Go in there and shop from all over that area
because they know when they go in there, they're gonna
get good plants. They're gonna get things that want to
grow here, and good products to go with them too.
But they're also going to get good advice and good guidance.

(41:13):
You know what would grow in this situation? What do
you think about this planet? Can you suggest some things
to go in a combination container? Do you see what
I'm saying all of that kind of advice. Here's a problem.
I got it at a picture, I got a sample
in a bag. Can you help me what do I
do with it? All that kind of stuff. These folks
are professionals, They know their stuff, and when you go
in there, you're going to get that kind of service. Excellent,

(41:36):
excellent service. Plants for All Seasons is on two forty
nine just north of Luetta Road. The websites Plants for
All Seasons dot com. The phone number right, write this
one down two eight one three seven six one six
four six Plants for All Seasons dot com. They're true
lawn and garden experts. Start now on the phones. We're

(42:01):
going to go out to Greg in northwest Houston. Hey, Greg,
how can we help?

Speaker 12 (42:08):
Yes, good morning, thanks for the taking my call.

Speaker 3 (42:11):
Sure, so this is all up to.

Speaker 14 (42:15):
Calling me.

Speaker 12 (42:16):
They when that big windstorm event killed an oak tree
in the front yard and the combination of our family
and another tree service removed that tree. We had a
stump and we had them grind the stump for us,
and now we have a pile of dirt and and

(42:39):
then we're going to have a tree plan pretty soon
to replace that tree. And gentlemen came out in the
nursery to check it out and take down a bed
and pointed out that the stump grinding didn't really get
every bit of the stump, and proposed that we moved
the center of the tree a bit to the side,
maybe about I feed if I remember quickly. Anyway, So

(43:03):
the main thing is he he cautioned us on leaving
the sup grindings. They're saying that it would bring termites
to our property. And I had said we were planning
to kind of use it as an multi in the gardens,
and he said that wasn't a good idea. So I
wondered what your thoughts were on that.

Speaker 9 (43:24):
Oh, okay, hit. The proposal was.

Speaker 12 (43:26):
That they remove the mixture of sawdust and dirt and
then replace it with dirt and grass. What do you
think about all that?

Speaker 3 (43:35):
Well, if you can get a good quality soil that
matches what your soil is, then that would be fine.
I mean it. Let I'll just use an extreme example.
If your saw was a heavy black clay and they
brought in a very fine sand, then you have this
kind of strange spot where things don't grow the same
as in the rest of the art. But if it
match is pretty good, that'd be okay. Termites are ubiquitous

(44:00):
out there in nature, and they are all around decomposing wood.
That's what they do. So just having some wood out
is not a big deal. It's not like urmites are
going to fly from across town to come over to
your yard because you have wood, but urmites that are
there will inhabit it. I would not use it as
malts around the flower beds around the base of my house,

(44:23):
especially piling it up over the wheepholes, because that's where
termites gain entry with one of the places and gain entry.
But as far as just using it somewhere as a
multi that's okay to do. It's not the best quality malts,
but but you got it on hand. But if they want,
if you want to have them just hollowed away and
bring something else in, that's fine. One of the problems
with piles of stump grindings is you've got fluffed up,

(44:47):
loosened soil filled with wood that is going to decompose away.
So if you leveled that area off where it was
perfectly level in a year or two especially, it is
going to have sunk down a lot just because the
soil is going to settle, and then as the wood
decomposes away, then that the soil level is settling even
more so. That would be One advantage of getting it

(45:10):
out of there is to kind of decrease that. Whatever
you do, they need to leave it a little bit
mounded up from where the normal soil level is, because
it is going to settle no matter what. Some so
those are just some thoughts to kind of guide you
as you make your decision.

Speaker 12 (45:30):
Okay, as far as gardens, I have a garden that
is out in my backyard that is adjacent to a
fence and behind a pool and not really close to
a house. Would that be a suitable place for some
of the Yeah.

Speaker 3 (45:44):
You could use the mulch out there. Yeah, it would
be fine.

Speaker 12 (45:47):
Okay, As far as you mentioned replacing the soil, what
would you recommend, I mean something like a roast soil
or or something different.

Speaker 3 (45:59):
Now you know things. It's like, all these wonderful soil
mixes for beds are mostly organic matter, and they're great
for growing plants in. But if we're trying to re
establish a firm soil grade across your yard, it's better
to have just pretty much soil that goes in a
top soil kind of thing. If your soil is a

(46:19):
heavy clay, then you know something that's clay would be
fine to use in there, but that if there were
a way to sift out a lot of that wood
from the grindings, then you could just use the soil
that was there. But it's not going to fully fill
the hole because there is there's just a loss of

(46:43):
soil when you do that. The composition, Yeah, and what
was what was wood and a trunk underground or major
roots underground that's been ground up, and then as you
sift it out and all that wood away, what's going
to take its place? You don't have the soil there
to do it, So you're probably gonna have to bring
some soil in.

Speaker 12 (47:04):
Well, that was part of the proposal. Well, would like
an enhanced top soil or what what would what would
it be?

Speaker 3 (47:11):
Then I would just get a quality top soil. Just
just find a good quality top soil. I don't know
this company, don't need to know who it is, but
they need to bring you a good a good quality
so mix in there. That if you can buy a
sandy loan soil, that'd be wonderful. But again, if you
have a clay something that's a little closer to matching,

(47:32):
that would be best. If if you can do.

Speaker 5 (47:34):
That Okay, so.

Speaker 12 (47:40):
Do you think that would be worth doing or or
just leave the pile there the way it is and
add add dirt as needed, and well, you know, we're.

Speaker 3 (47:47):
Out there look at Yeah, I'm out there looking at it,
you know, so which would help a lot in advising.
But if if I had a stump ground out and
a big pile of wood chips and stump, I would
try to screen it out as best I could, and
you know, into a wheelbarrow to get those wood chips
in there with this, taking as little soil as I could,
and go do whatever I'm gonna do with those wood chips.

(48:09):
And then I would rake the soil in. If it's
not enough to fill in, I'd bring in a little
more to top it off and create a little bit
of a mound because it is going to settle over time.

Speaker 12 (48:21):
Okay, okay, thank you. My other question that I've added
after listening to a previous call regards brown patch.

Speaker 7 (48:29):
My backyard.

Speaker 12 (48:29):
Every year, about three fourths of that yard gets attacked
pretty severely by brown patch. I've tried different techniques. Sometimes
I'm successful a little bit, but usually not. And like
last year, I tried all right, the micro life approach
including that extra enhancing uh okay, or you know organisms
and it just it just it may slowed it down,

(48:50):
but it didn't really solve it.

Speaker 3 (48:51):
Okay, And I'm gonna I have to run to break.
I'm after I'm pick of my time, but let me
go to gardening with Skip dot com on my schedule.
It tells exactly the things to use and when to
apply them. That's the best ncher it and give you
on the brown patch. I'm sorry, I have to run,
but we're way over time here, Greg, thanks a lot.
I appreciate it for I started using it last year.

(49:12):
This is a new product and it really really works.
Here is what you need to think of when you
think about Genesis. You need to think of the fact
that it is a fertilizer designed for transplanting plants. So
if you grew some plants in a small container and
you're going to move them to a larger pot, the
soil in that larger pot mixed Genesis with it. If
you've got a plant that you bought at a garden

(49:33):
center and you're going to take it home and put
it in a container or in the ground, mix Genesis
into the soil. That's there it is. It's got micro
rhizo fungi in it, it's got bacteria in it, a
lot of things that help the soul microbiome, and it
just works. I was really impressed with the results of Genesis.
I did it on some tomato transplants that I was

(49:55):
bumping up at the time, and there was a marked difference,
very very nice difference. Now you can still go on
after that fertilizing with you know, the nutri Star, Color Star,
Nature Star, whatever you're going to use. But for that
transplant process, Genesis. It's a neutral star line from Nelson
Plant Food. They got a lot of great products and

(50:16):
this is an exciting new one that they put on
the market. We're going to go out now to West
Houston and talk to Jonas. Hello Jonas, Welcome to guard Line.

Speaker 15 (50:25):
Hey Skip, thanks for getting my call. I am having
my azilia bids. We did after many many years, and
I have a few questions. Number one, it's just a
good time for me to fertilize the acilias, and if so,
what fertilizer should I use? And then the fellaw who's
helped me with this, I suggested that I apply a

(50:46):
biodegradable breathable material on that surface before moulsh so as
to prevent the weeds from coming back up. And then lastly,
what kind of mulch should I apply?

Speaker 3 (50:57):
All right, fertilizer going into fall here, you don't want
to push them with too much nitrogen. You want to
go a little easy on them. So I would go
with Microlife's got a great product for acid loving plants.
To organic product that you put out, sprinkled out and
it's going to slowly be available to the plants. It's
kind of a pinkish, pinkish color bag, but it's a
Microlife for acid loving plants. I would use that, follow

(51:20):
the label on how much to apply. I don't like
the fabrics on the surface for weeds. Initially they work
and then they become problems and they're hard to get out,
and the weeds go land on the seeds land on
top and go through the fabric with the roots and
it's just a mess. I would use a good quality mulch.
There's a lot of good mulches out there on the market.

(51:43):
You know, you can do it. Can do one that's
pine chips, you can do one that is shredded hardwood.
That's fine. All of those mulches will work well, even
pine needles or a decent mulch, you know, for around azaleas.
But just just a covering over the surface that kind
of prevents those weeds heats from getting light, and that
that ought to be good.

Speaker 15 (52:04):
That'll be good enough. You often say that we should
not use dye colored mulch. I don't like it.

Speaker 3 (52:11):
It's just that it's just the artificial nature. It's adding
another chemical in to a die, and I don't know,
it looks artificial to me. I just don't care care
for the appearance of it, and I'd rather do somethings
a little more natural around that plant setting.

Speaker 15 (52:28):
And the fertilizer as long as it's say, for acid
living plans, it doesn't have to be specifically micro life.

Speaker 3 (52:34):
Well yeah, I mean, yeah, it doesn't have to be
micro life, but that that's a good one and a
good slow release, and just don't overdo the fertilizer in this.
We're kind of at this doorstep of fall season, when
in another month or two you're wanting those plants to
begin to slow down their growth, and so that that's
why we don't overdo it.

Speaker 11 (52:54):
All right, Well, thank you, so much for us.

Speaker 15 (52:56):
I appreciate you, bet you.

Speaker 3 (52:58):
Bet Jonas, thank you. I appreciate your You know, all
these kinds of products like we're talking to Jonas about,
you're gonna find them at ACE Hardware. Microlife, fertilizers. You know,
they got Microlife, they got nitrophoss, they got Nelson's, they
got many many more, and they have all the products
you need to control pests and weeds and diseases and
other things in your landscape. ACE Hardware is just a
go to place for everything you need. And the nice

(53:21):
thing with forty stores around, it's easy to find an
ACE near you. And when you walk in there, you're
going to come out with the products you need to
have success in your lawn and your flower beds and
your vegetable garden, or for just creating that beautiful patio environment,
for finally enjoying the outdoors again. Now that the weather
is on the verge of breaking. I know this is
false fall. We call it that meaning it's it's cool now,

(53:44):
but it's yeah, it's gonna get hot again. It will,
but we're there. Summer has to give up, whether it
realizes it or not, and that's coming really soon. Go
buy Ace Hardware, Acehardware dot Com, find the store locator,
find your ACE Hardware store and you can and really
enjoy it and have success. It's got to Cyprus, and
I believe we're going to talk to moist Am I saying.

Speaker 5 (54:05):
That right, mois close, Maurice.

Speaker 3 (54:09):
Maurice, Okay, good in the guard line.

Speaker 14 (54:13):
Hey, thanks taking my call. So this a quick question.

Speaker 16 (54:16):
I restarted my yard last year right before summer HOA requirements.
But everything turned out really well, best yard in the
fuld A sack. But the last few weeks I'm having
some yellow patches that are forming. I'm trying to figure
out what's going on. Funny to put something down or
what's going on with it.

Speaker 3 (54:36):
Get down on your hands and knees and look at
the yellow leaves and sometimes you see green leaves, and
then there's a leaf that is pretty uniformly yellow all
the way across. That could be the first start of
some bron patch. It could be other things nutrient wise.
If the leaves are striped green and yellow. When you

(54:58):
pick up grass blade and hold it up to the
light and you see vertical lines of green and yellow alternating,
that's iron deficiency and you can control that by putting
down an iron supplement, you can also anything you do
that improves the soil and root system, from correoration, accomplished
top dressing, to additions of fertilizers that contain iron, to

(55:23):
just improving drainage. If the drainage is an issue and
this thing can help that. It typically if it looked
green earlier and now it's turning yellow, it's probably a fluctuation.
It may fluctuate back. And then the final not good
news would be if it was take all root rot,
and that's a very different thing. There you're seeing the

(55:43):
not just yellowing but continuing to go downhill. And on
my schedules on gardening with skip dot com, I address
take all root rot and what to do about it
if you see that the roots themselves on the runners
are dead.

Speaker 7 (55:59):
Okay in Augustine.

Speaker 16 (56:00):
So basically, just look at the blade of grass and
see if those vertical lines or not.

Speaker 3 (56:05):
Right, vertical lines of yellow and green mean it's iron deficiency.
But that could be for a lack of iron in
the soil, for iron that's there but is locked up
and unavailable, or for lack of roots to take up iron.
All three could be causing the yellow.

Speaker 9 (56:20):
All right, all right, I appreciate time.

Speaker 3 (56:23):
Thank you you bet Maurice, thanks to the call. Appreciate
that a lot Nature's Way resources up on Interstate forty
five toward Conro. It's right where fourteen eighty eight comes
in from Montgomery that goes off. If you're going north,
that goes off the left. You turn right across the
railroad tracks and you're right there at Nature's Way Resource,

(56:44):
just another right after you cross the railroad tracks. They
are busy right now stocking up there making compost, soils, mulches.
They're stock bringing it forward for that fall season when
we are going to be using a lot of those
kinds of products. And boy do they ever have some
great products on hand. You know, they've been doing this
for a very long time. If anybody knows how to

(57:06):
make composts, mulch, bed mixes, whatever, it's Nature's Way Resources.

Speaker 6 (57:11):
You know.

Speaker 3 (57:12):
John Ferguson started that long time ago, being an expert
on soils ian running the place right now. They just
keep on with that tradition. Here's a deal. Fungal Friday
sale is still on. You can save twenty percent on
their fungal compost and that's okay for top dressing too.
You know, we talk about leaf mo composts, but their

(57:32):
fungal compost works well for top dressing as well. Just
a quick heads up on October the twelfth, I'll be
out there. They're gonna have their Fall Festival on October
the twelfth. They're gonna have Latin food, local vendors, plant sales.
I'll be there doing Q and A from eleven thirty
to one thirty, live music, children's activities. It'll be fun.
We've done this before and it was a blast. Hope

(57:53):
you'll come out. Put that on your calendar October twelfth
and be looking for that. In the meantime, get out there.
Now's the time to be preparing your soil for fall planting.
Go by Nature's Way, go by on a Friday and
take advantage of that twenty percent off fungal compost. That
is a quality, quality product that they produce. I was

(58:16):
at a one of my kid's house. They bought a
new house over in the hill country, and there are
some issues with the foundation, some cracks, and so what
did I do well? The first thing I do is
called ty Strickland. It fixed my slab. I know he's
not going to drive the hill country. But I asked him,
I say, Ty, this is what I'm seeing. What do
you think? And and he gave me advice. He told
me what to look for, what to do, you know,

(58:38):
those kind of things. Fix my Slab Foundation Repair is
it's the go to place for this because number one,
they are honest. They'll tell you if you need something
or you don't. In fact, in this house situation I
was talking about, he said, you know what, if you're
not seeing more movement than that, probably not a big deal.
And so I appreciative of that. Fixmyslab dot com is

(59:00):
the website. If you see cracks in the brick on
the outside, the sheet rock in the inside, you got
doors sticking, you got a sidewalk that's cracked, a driveway
that's cracked. He can do all of that. He's been
doing it twenty three years. Here's the website again, fixmislab
dot com or you can give Tie a call two
eight one two five five forty ninety nine two eight

(59:21):
one two five five four nine four nine. Remember when
you hire Tie with Fix my Slab Foundation Repair, you
know it's going to be on time, it's going to
be fair priced. And it's going to be fixed right.
And that is very very important with any kind of
service you have done, especially the foundation of your home.

(59:42):
You are listening to your garden line. Our phone number
is seven one three two one two k t r H.
Seven one three two one two k t r H.
I was talking with David from RCW Nurseries, David Williamson,
and we were talking about trees yesterday morning, and they

(01:00:05):
have the Williamson Tree Farm up there in Plantersville, and
I'm telling you they grow quality trees, have a long
list of trees, and they know how to grow them right.
So when they get in your yard, they perform right.
They pick the right varieties and species so they will
grow here. They know this, They've been doing this a
very long time. You can swing by RCW Nursery and

(01:00:26):
talk to them there. Of course, at RCW you got
herbs and perennials and annuals and shrubs and native plants.
You've got fertilizers that we recommend here on garden line
and other products for the soil. We recommend on garden line,
great rose selection and so on. But if you need
a tree plant at this fault, they'll actually come out
and do that. Give them a call, talk to them

(01:00:47):
about it, or go to the website first. It's r
cwnurseries dot com. That is the garden Center. That is
where Beltway eight comes in connection with Tambol Parkway two
forty nine. It's the intersection between those two. It's easy
to get to RCW down there. Just go check it out.
And fall is for planting, so the woody ornamentals they

(01:01:09):
carry from roses to trees. Give them a call. Let's
get this done right, and let's get it done now
so that you can enjoy that in the years to come.
Quality trees, quality work, quality plants in general. From RCW.

Speaker 17 (01:01:25):
Uh.

Speaker 3 (01:01:25):
Well, you're listening to guard Lines. Time for me to
take a break, So I'm going to quit talking here.
If you want to talk seven one three two one
two kt RI to give us a call. Chris will
get you on the board and when we come back,
we'll talk with you.

Speaker 10 (01:01:40):
You are No.

Speaker 3 (01:01:41):
Houston's News Traffic plus Preck Welcome back to garden Line.
I'm your host, Skiprechor. We're glad to have you listening today.
We've got plenty to talk about on this wonderful Sunday morning. Uh,
just a reminder for those of you who have some
things to do out in the lawn and garden, which
we all do. By the way, day is another sunny day,

(01:02:01):
and tomorrow is another sunny day. But as we get
to midweek, we're going to go into some rain and
it's going to rain for a while. Now's the time
to get things done, get your soil prepped, get your
plants in the ground, you know, do whatever it takes
to move things forward, because when we go into the
rainy periods, well then you're ready to go when the

(01:02:22):
rain does stop and we get back out in the gardens.
Wren Southern Gardens and Kingwood Gardens Center. There are two
garden centers in Kingwood. Warrens is on North Park, Kingwood
is on Stone Hollow Dry. Both of them are open
seven days a week. I would highly recommend you subscribe
to the newsletter online or you can go in the
store and do it. They have exclusive discount savings and

(01:02:43):
gardening tips. But I tell you right now, they're getting
some of that cooler season fall color dianthus and snap dragons,
for example, but also things like petunias that will carry
you all the way up to the first freeze. They
got fall veggies and herbs and strawberries. And fall is
for planting strawberries, the best season of the year. Don't
wait till spring if you can get them in in
the fall. They got a plethora of herbs out there,

(01:03:05):
and all the perennial herbs. Great season to be planting
perennial herbs. Do you need some shrubs Laura peddlum, which
is called Chinese witch hazel, the encrazalias sunshine lagustriums. They
have crape myrtles, but you know I have a crate myrtle.
Only at Warren's Soevn Guarden Center. They've got this crape myrtle.
It's called the great myrtle. That great myrtle. Crpe myrtle

(01:03:26):
is a little sounds a little confusing to me, but
you get the idea. It's very compact. It only gets
two feet tall three feet wide. Yes, this is a
crate myrtle. You think of crate myrtle's is big tree
like things. This is a little short shrub to twenty
four inches tall thirty six inches wide. It's got disease
and insect resistance. A beautiful old plant. I was telling

(01:03:46):
Lee earlier out of Humble that this would be a
good one to put in a container on the patio.
Makes it easy and it's you know, we call crp
myrtles the tree of one hundred Days, meaning a blooms
for one hundred days basically three months oft of the year.
You're gonna have ballooms on a cranpe myrtle, and that
there are not many plants that can do that well. Anyway,
while you're out there, you can get all the different

(01:04:07):
fertilizers that you're going to want to be putting down
that I talk about here on Guarden Line. You're going
to get them all out there. We've got some special
pricing going on with those. But just one last thing.
Both locations have a tree sale thirty percent off any tree.
I don't know how. I don't know what else you
could ask for. It's all out there at Warren Southern Gardens,

(01:04:27):
Kingwood Garden Center out in Kingwood, Texas. I like going.
I need to get back out there. I've been out
there in low Wall, go back out and see. I
love going to our garden centers and seeing what's going on.
You know, I talk about Houston being a destination city.
For garden centers, and it really is. When I say Houston,
I mean the greater Houston area. I have been to

(01:04:49):
garden centers and cities all over the country, starting here
in Texas, Dallas, Fort Worth, Austin, San Antonio. There's some
great garden centers in Texas, but there's not a city
that has this many unbelievably great garden centers. There's just
not you know, travel all over the place, DC, Atlanta, Richmond,
wherever I go, I go to garden centers, and I

(01:05:11):
always come. I see some cool ones, but I always
come back and go. If you're in Houston, north, south, east, west, central,
any direction you want to go, there isn't a garden
center worth taking family when they visit to see it's
that good. And Warren Southern Gardens is exactly that, that
kind of garden center. We're fortunate here, so take advantage

(01:05:35):
of our great fortune. You know, when it comes to
fall planting, and fall is the best planting season of
the year. If you live south of Houston, you've got
a outstanding place to get everything you need to get
the soil ready for fall planting. And that is Ciena Malch,
Cienamulch pristine. I love going in there. I mean about

(01:05:58):
molt place is pristine. It's beautiful, they take it. It's
just well organized. It's just attractive place with quality products.
I love going in. And you're not going to find
friendlier staff, then you get it. Ciana Malts. Those folks
are just wonderful with customers. They're outstanding. They're open Monday
through Friday, seven thirty to five, Saturday seven thirty to two.

(01:06:18):
They're closed today, but they'll be back open on Monday.
They're north of Roast Sharon on FM five twenty one.
The website, just if you do nothing else, write this
down cianamaltch dot com. Go check it out. Do you
need raw do you need composts? Do you need maltz?
Do you need bed mixes? Do you want some of
the airrooom soils, veggie nerd mixed? They have that there.

(01:06:39):
And then every fertilizer I talk about on Guardline, all
of them are there at cnamals. So when you drive
off by the way, they deliver within about twenty miles
for a small fee. But when you leave Cianamlts, whether
you're they're bringing it to you or you're you know,
going there to get it. You have what you need
to set your plants up for success this fall. First

(01:07:00):
soil then comes plants. Don't delay, make hey while the
sun shines. The sun will be shining tomorrow. Go buy
Ciena mulch and get some good stuff so that you
have a wonderful fall planting season. That's about the the
best way that I can put it. I was like
going in there. It's a fun place. You know, you

(01:07:21):
know you're a horticulture racet. You know you're a gardener
when dirt is fun. I know, I know it's called soil,
not dirt, but some of you call it dirt. That's okay,
you can do that if you want. But and I
get excited about the dirt, and I'll go to a
place like animals. I'll go up to the piles, scratch
in there, grab a handful and smell it, because I

(01:07:42):
love the smell of fresh quality mulches and composts and mixes.
In fact, one of these days, I'm gonna post a
picture to Facebook of me making compost angels. You know
about snow angels, right, I can lay down and compost
and make compost angels. I think that would be a'd
be fun. Get in touch with your enter microbe here

(01:08:04):
on garden line. All right, enough of that silliness. Hey,
seven one three two one two k t rh. That's
our phone number. Seven one three two one two kt
r H. I uh in my garden in the back.
I was out, I was away for a while. And
you know okra. Okre's kind of like zucchini. Uh, it's

(01:08:28):
ready today, and it's big enough to build a canoe tomorrow,
and it moves fast, and so uh there is. I
had some ochre that I just dropped on the head
to drop on the ground. Some of it that was
in between edible and just totally woody. I pick and
I dry it. And I don't know if you've ever

(01:08:49):
done this before, but if you got okra, when it
starts producing, you have sometimes more okre than you know
what to do with. Well, if the ones that are
a little past top quality for eating, I bring them inside,
slice them and dry them. I got a food dryer,
and I put them in a jar, a sealed jar,
and keep them. And so this winter, when there's not

(01:09:10):
a lot of okra in the garden, you can go in.
You can take that okra, put it in a soup.
It reconstitutes pretty well and it works really well. I
also grind it up. I've got a little VitaminX type
thing that has a one of the containers grind stuff
up really well. And I have powdered okra that I
will use by the tailspoon in soups and things to
thicken soups. And plus you get all the benefits of okra.

(01:09:32):
Okra has you know, two different kinds of spiber, the
soluble and the insoluble, and both have their own health benefits.
All right, I'm not going to go back into don't
get me started on okra. You know how that goes.
Let's take a little break. I'll be right back. Here's
the number in the meantime seven one three two one
two kt r H. Be right back, Scott, you doing,

(01:09:55):
I'm well, thank you.

Speaker 6 (01:09:58):
Hey.

Speaker 18 (01:09:58):
I have a with like a ground covering weed of
researted and it seems to be a spurred weed or
something like that or red sam green leaf. And I've
tried a different spray that's trying to get rid of it,
not kill my grass. Nothing swerved so far.

Speaker 3 (01:10:17):
Okay, Uh, you said spurge. I think is that right?

Speaker 18 (01:10:22):
Yes, I believe it is.

Speaker 3 (01:10:25):
Have you noticed when you have you noticed when you
break it, a white, milky sap comes out. Yeah, you're
trying to pull it sticky. Yeah, that is spurge, and
it's very difficult to control. The best way to control
spurge is to don't let the seeds come up. And
so first step is getting all the seeds out as
soon as you can. Uh, it does grows, you know,

(01:10:48):
comes out and goes horizontal flat, all in all directions.
And if you can find that center part, if the
soil is soft, you can pull it. If you've got
a whole lot of area, you can get a very
thin hoe. I was talking to some folks up in
the Conra at the home show yesterday about this. But
you slide that hole right under the surface horizontally. You're
not chopping at all. You're just standing upright and just

(01:11:10):
sliding the whole unto the surface and it just clips
that single route coming down. And then carefully lift it
up and throw it away or carefully rake it because
there's a ton of seed on it, and the more
you shake it and jostle it, the more seeds get
back into your soil. So getting the old plants out
of there and then throwing mulch over the top to
completely block the sunlight is probably the best way to

(01:11:33):
deal with spurge. There are pre emergent herbicides that can
be used, but in garden beds, we moved the soil
around so much that the pre emergence we sort of
mess up what they would have done by changing the
soil around physically. In a lawn, it means your lawn
is too thin, and you got to get that turf thicker,

(01:11:54):
and it'll show spurge is not a problem in a
dense lawn. And so if it's in a lawn, and yeah,
just mow, water, fertilize your way back to a denser lawn.
That's long term. That's long term.

Speaker 18 (01:12:08):
All right, Yeah, we'll start pulling in I guess like
Scott's bomats or something like that.

Speaker 3 (01:12:14):
For surf builder, now I would use I would use nitrophoss. Barricade.
It took me a second to get the word barricade
in my head. Barricade is pre emergent. You put it
down for spurge. You can put it down mid to
late Let's see where you located. You were up in Connry, Yeah,
mid to late February would be fine. You may have

(01:12:37):
to do another application about sixty days later to extend
that further along, but you apply it watered into the
surface and that prevents both grassy and most broad leaf
weeds as well.

Speaker 18 (01:12:53):
Okay, thank you very much.

Speaker 3 (01:12:56):
All right, Donnie, thanks a lot, appreciate your call. I
want to tell you a talking about lawns. The folks
at nit Fross have Sweet Green. Sweet Green is that
molasses based fertilizer that smells sweet because it's molosses. Molasses
is a sugar, it's a carbon chain and microbes eat
it up. That's why organic gardeners have always talked about

(01:13:16):
putting molasses in the soil. Well, you can do that
and add eleven percent nitrogen, which is what's in Sweet Green,
to your soil as well. Works good for the lawn
for giving a little boost to your lawns. And it's
just an outstanding product because it also does help with
the organic the microbes, the things that are helping you

(01:13:37):
in the soil. And it smells the good as I
like to put it. You just want to take another
loop around six ' ten on the way home, because
just to enjoy the smell in your car all right,
Sweet Green joking aside, It's available to Katie Ace Hardware
out there on pin Oak Katie and Single Ranch also
on Mason Road is another place that you can get
sweet Green or up and down in a tescasita at

(01:13:59):
the It's hard run timber forest. All places that carry
that product. We are going to now go to Susan
in League City and Susan, how can we help?

Speaker 19 (01:14:10):
Goodrying skip? How I am?

Speaker 3 (01:14:13):
I'm doing well, thank you.

Speaker 19 (01:14:15):
I'm outside running beautiful weather. But I have a frustrating
problem with my plans and my planter, and I was
hoping you can give me some hints. So about months ago,
I swap out everything that I had just start planning

(01:14:36):
for the fall, prep the soil, everything, and I put
down some seat and I put also a young plan,
a few squash and some bardishes. Something overnight and just
keep repeating something overnight would.

Speaker 11 (01:14:56):
Eat all the leaves.

Speaker 19 (01:14:59):
And celimoniall come out. See full of sticks, well sometimes
not even a stick.

Speaker 20 (01:15:04):
The whole thing's gone eating.

Speaker 19 (01:15:07):
The weird thing is it won't eat the radish. I
guess the radish. I eat it. That's a talent. Be leave, okay,
the radist leaves go a little bit spicy. I'm wondering
that why it's not eating that.

Speaker 3 (01:15:22):
I don't know. So things that eat leaves at night
like that. It could be a beetle, it could be
a caterpillar, but it also could be deer. And so
I don't know which did it, but you're gonna have
to catch the culprit in the act. I'd go out
with a flashlight at night when you have plants like
that and just look around see what's on them. Some
catapillars are nocturnal. Nocturnal they hide during the day and

(01:15:43):
come out at night. I can't tell you what did it,
but I do know if things with mouths that can
eat leaves are caterpillars and beetles and deer, they are
also grasshoppers, but grasshoppers don't feed at night like that.

Speaker 19 (01:15:56):
Okay, I didn't know capitilla has come out at night.
Some of my some of my friends told me to
go ahead and spray everything as I put them on
the ground. Is that a good idea?

Speaker 3 (01:16:08):
Well, I mean you could that would take care of
the insect part of it, uh and and put if it.
If that fixed it, then you know it wasn't dear
it was an insect.

Speaker 19 (01:16:17):
Oh, we'll fix the cind of pillow.

Speaker 3 (01:16:20):
Yes, they're insects too.

Speaker 6 (01:16:22):
M h.

Speaker 14 (01:16:25):
O.

Speaker 3 (01:16:25):
Thanks, have a good run. You take care. Bye bye.
We're gonna let's see here. We're gonna go to Marty
in Fairfield. Hello Marty, Welcome to Gardline.

Speaker 5 (01:16:35):
Well, good morning.

Speaker 17 (01:16:36):
I have a question about my My opra is like
going gang Investors too. And you had a couple of recipes.
Did you put those on Facebook or anything?

Speaker 3 (01:16:48):
Like?

Speaker 17 (01:16:48):
I roasted them?

Speaker 3 (01:16:50):
I love them? Okay, yeah, all right, Yeah, roasting is
my favorite way because it cuts down on the slime sun.
But I put them on the barbecue pick because we
like to cook out a lot. Just brush them with
olive oil, sprinkle in with sea salt, and two minutes
on each side. That's the whole recipe for roasting, okra.

Speaker 17 (01:17:08):
Yeah, I've been trying all different kinds. Okay, my basil
is bolting and I've pulled the dead bolts off.

Speaker 3 (01:17:17):
I cut them off.

Speaker 17 (01:17:18):
Can I plant those next year?

Speaker 14 (01:17:22):
Well?

Speaker 3 (01:17:22):
I would. I would take those off and then some
branches that haven't bolted, I would cut those, put them
in water and they'll root in your kitchen window. I
mean you can get roots on those things that you
could carry through the winter and reach brout. Now, if
you want to save seed from your Okra, I'm okra, basil.
That's fine. You could and they will come up next

(01:17:45):
year if it's a special variety like I've been growing evergreen,
everleaf emerald towers very upright, Okra, that's a special bread variety,
and so the seeds aren't going to come back true
to form. Just Okra, you can save.

Speaker 17 (01:18:01):
The seeds, okay, And then saying Okra, Marty, I know
it's ok I am the same way.

Speaker 21 (01:18:11):
It's okay, it's okay.

Speaker 17 (01:18:13):
I do the same thing all the time. And then
I went to the TIMU, I mean the website for
the eed U Texas A and M. Their seed planting
times are not really complete for what I like. Is
there another website that would be good because I've got
spinach seeds I want to put out too.

Speaker 3 (01:18:36):
Yeah, we had a number, Yeah, we have a number
of good sources around here. When I was in Houston,
I put together a little green chart for planting that's
at the Harris County Extension Office website. I planning on
taking it and it needs some more work and working
through it and then putting it back up on my
Guardenline Website's not off there yet.

Speaker 17 (01:18:58):
Uh.

Speaker 3 (01:18:58):
The folks at Gosh I just wan to Arburgate have
a really nice listing online for seats. A lot of
our garden centers, do you know, intended gardens I know
has that kind of thing, So I would look in
those kind of places. I think you'll find you a

(01:19:20):
real good success.

Speaker 5 (01:19:22):
Very good, Thank you.

Speaker 3 (01:19:24):
You bet, thanks a lot, Marty. I appreciate the call.
All right, I hear music gardens. So we're going to
have to talk. Let's see here, I'm going to get
my producer to speak with you a little bit. We
may have to have you call us back here in
a minute. I'm about to have a special guest on
and we are going to talk about fall gardening, all
vegetable gardening and some other things as well. So don't

(01:19:47):
go away, stick around. We'll be right back and I
promise you you will enjoy this one.

Speaker 1 (01:19:55):
Welcome to kat rh Garden Line with Skip Richards.

Speaker 3 (01:20:06):
Welcome, Welcome, Welcome back to the guarden Line. Hey, it's
good to have you with us today. Thanks for listening
on a wonderful Sunday. We had a great day to day.
I hope this afternoon you will get out visit some
of our garden centers, get some soil to get ready
for fall. Fall is the best planning season of the year. Compost,
bed mixes, mulchz. You're gonna need all that stuff, so

(01:20:26):
make sure take care of the brown stuff and so
your green stuff will end up being a whole lot
happier as a result. I've got a special guest coming
on right now, and we are going to talk about
all kinds of things. Specifically, we're going to aim ourselves
at some vegetables for fall, talk a little bit about
fall gardening. And that is Joey from the Enchanted Gardens

(01:20:51):
Garden Center in Richmond, Texas. That's just up on toward
the Katie fullsher direction, Upper Richmond. Joey, Welcome to garden Line.
Good to have you with us.

Speaker 14 (01:21:01):
Good morning everybody. Thanks for having me.

Speaker 3 (01:21:04):
Well, it's a pleasure. And you and I were visiting
over at the Texas Nursery and Landscape Association show a
few weeks ago, which, by the way, wasn't that a
fun place. We were talking about some different topics and
I think fall vegetables came on the list, and I
know you are enthusiastic about growing your own groceries if

(01:21:24):
you will on fall vegetables. You guys have a lot
of great plants and soils and products to help with that.
So I just kind of want to turn you loose
a little bit to give some tips for people that
are listening that you've learned are important for success with
a fall vegetable garden. What are some things that you
would say people need to know.

Speaker 14 (01:21:44):
I got you. Yeah, it's hard not to be enthusiastic
on a day like this. It is beautiful out there.
If you hadn't been outside, get out there and enjoy it.
This is one of the best days of the year
in my opinion.

Speaker 3 (01:21:54):
Yeah it is.

Speaker 14 (01:21:55):
But yeah, it's time for the actual cool weather plants
to go in. We're talking about broccoli, cabbage, cauliflower, swiss
charred mustard, greens, collar greens, things of that sort. There
will be more things to come in the next week
or so. Lettuce and other types of leafy greens will
be available soon. One thing that I like to do

(01:22:18):
when planning the fall vegetable garden is if you have
enough room, I like to stagger crops. You know, if
you're gonna plant twelve broccoli plants, don't plant them all
at one time because you don't want all that broccoli
to become ready at the same time. What are you
going to do with it? All? Right, So if you'll
go to plan you know, three, three or four plants
every you know, week to ten days, then that'll stagger

(01:22:41):
your production some and you won't have broccoli coming after
your years.

Speaker 2 (01:22:46):
You know.

Speaker 3 (01:22:46):
I tell gardeners all the time that just because there's
a hundred seeds in a pack of lettuce, doesn't mean
you need one hundred lettuce plants all at once eat
in a week, right let us.

Speaker 14 (01:22:59):
Let Us is one of the easiest things to grow
because you can go out, you don't have to harvest
the whole thing. Uh, you can go and you pick
pick enough leaves for you know, one one evening salad
and leave the rest to grow, and you know it'll
replace itself in no time. That's Uh, that's one of
the most used things in my garden for sure.

Speaker 3 (01:23:18):
Yeah, that's a great one. And uh it's so easy
to grow healthy stuff here, you know, this far south
in Texas, It's like we have twelve months of growing.
In fact, summer is a bigger dormant season than winter
is for us.

Speaker 14 (01:23:31):
Yeah, you're exactly right.

Speaker 3 (01:23:32):
It's uh, you're exactly right, and so boy we can
garden like crazy. Hey, before I forget this, I want
to mention on your website in Channa Gardens, you guys
have a great spring and fall planting schedule. So people
will go to the website that fall planning schedules there
and you list the dates, uh to begin I guess
planting some of those things, or the ideal dates to

(01:23:53):
kind of aim for.

Speaker 14 (01:23:54):
Yes, yeah, somewhere in that in that range. You know,
within a week or two. Nothing's totally sitting stone. Who
knows what our weather is going to do around here.
I sure certainly didn't expect it to be this cool
on September eighth. Generally it's still in the upper nineties
at this point. So we are well certainly lucky to.

Speaker 3 (01:24:12):
Have Yeah, we are. And and just to be honest,
this was an incredibly overall cool and rainy summer. You know,
compared to especially last year what we went through, this
has been a it's been you know, if this was
a tough summer for you, will tough en up a
little bit, but yeah.

Speaker 14 (01:24:30):
It was as far as I'm concerned.

Speaker 3 (01:24:34):
It sure was. It sure was, which is a good thing.
So you're talking about don't plant too much at one time,
that's really good advice. Planting at the right time is
important too, because you know, we have things that we're
like you're talking about planting on your schedule. You've got
things like the beans that you would put out, or
our cucumbers or things that you put out. If you

(01:24:54):
wait too long on those as it cools off, they
slow growth so much that you're not going to get
a harvest. So timing is important, and I think that's
great that you all have those planting dates on there.

Speaker 14 (01:25:04):
Yeah, it really helps because going into it, especially for
a beginner, you know that you know, these poor beginners
that come in, you know, they're looking for, you know,
cool other stuff in may you know what you don't
you don't know, you don't know. So that's why we
listened all that on our website. We also, of course,
have lots of knowledgeable people here to help answer any

(01:25:25):
questions you might have.

Speaker 3 (01:25:27):
Yeah, that's true, you do. So as far as gardening,
the old way of gardening was we kind of had
a little mini farm in the backyard. You know, we
plowed up and we had rows that looked like farm
rows and stuff. And now with most of people living
in an urban or suburban setting where there's not so
much space, we've sort of shifted to some other ways

(01:25:49):
where we get more production even in a small area.
And like raised beds. I think you I've seen you
doing some videos on vego bed or some other kind
of bed talk a little bit about the raised beds
and the convenience of that.

Speaker 14 (01:26:03):
Yeah, raised beds are just taking over the whole gardening
world in our area. In my opinion that the best
parts about raised beds. They're up high so you don't
have to bend over so much when you're either planting
or harvesting or working the soil, working your amendments in there.

(01:26:24):
And also having them raised high that makes it less
likely for weed seeds to blow into the bed. So
it's just all around left maintenance.

Speaker 3 (01:26:33):
Yeah, and of course there, yes, yes, yeah, I was
gonna say you can grow a raised bed anywhere. Years ago,
when the Galveston Master Gardener County Extinch office was in
a basically in the middle of a parking lot, the
Master gardeners went out on asphalt and dropped raised beds
on the ground, filled them up with the good stuff,

(01:26:54):
and put mulched between the road between the beds, and
when you walked out, you just thought, well, I'm in
a garden soil underneath me, and you didn't realize there's
literally asphalt underneath it. So they turned asphalt into a
garden with a nice quality raised bed. Yeah, it is
a good thing.

Speaker 14 (01:27:10):
Yeah, they're really versatile, and if it doesn't work out,
you can always move it. If you have trees that
eventually grow and shade that area too much to where
your vegetables aren't thriving, you can move it.

Speaker 6 (01:27:20):
You know.

Speaker 14 (01:27:20):
There's just so many options with raised beds.

Speaker 3 (01:27:24):
Yeah, that's that, that is true. You know. The something
I'm often trying to encourage people to do is to
consider containers too. Now, a raised bed technically is sort
of a container, but a lot of people just don't.
They don't want to plow up the ground. They don't
put a raised bed on their lawn. They have a
patio though, and you can grow a lot of vegetables

(01:27:45):
in a nice sized container on the patio. Do you
have any thoughts on ideas on tips.

Speaker 14 (01:27:51):
Maybe you certainly, yeah, especially for a beginner somebody wanting
to dip their toes in it. They don't want to
buy a four y eight raised bed, so we sell
lots and lots of fifteen gallon twenty five gallons, just
the black plastic pots. You know, plants don't care what
they're growing in. They can growing up.

Speaker 3 (01:28:09):
That's true.

Speaker 14 (01:28:10):
One pot or a seven dollars pots, and that is true.

Speaker 3 (01:28:15):
That is true. Guy named color Rushing from Mississippi says,
you can't embarrass a plant with a pot. Hey, Joey,
I got to take a break. Can you stick around
for the next segment? Sure I can, all right, Thank
you very much. Folks will be right back. Slenderman from
Chandy Gardens out there in Richmond area, Joey, welcome back.
We're glad to have you, and I want to continue

(01:28:36):
our discussion about fall veggies, but I'd like to stretch
it out a little bit. Herbs kind of go with
vegetables being another edible, and boy, fall is definitely the
season for herbs other than basil. You know, fall planting
of our perennial herbs is just such a wise idea.
And I know You guys carry a lot of different

(01:28:56):
types of herbs, don't you.

Speaker 5 (01:28:58):
Yeah, that we do.

Speaker 14 (01:29:00):
We've got a good selection right now. Mints and time
and chives and rue gil regino, sage, rosemary, lavender, lots
of that stuff. There's you mentioned the basil. Basil is
a warm season plan. It's really sensitive to the cold.
So it'll do fine until uh, you know, maybe late October,

(01:29:21):
mid October. It just depends on how the weather goes.
But it does not like the cold. Animal just like me.

Speaker 3 (01:29:27):
Right right, Well, you know, basil, I ran into a
basil this year. I don't want to sidetrack our conversation,
but basil actually I grew at last year and this
year everleaf emerald towers. I believe. It's a very vertical,
upright basil. And as far as culinary, probably geneviees I
like a little bit better. But it is so attractive

(01:29:48):
ornamental with that plant form. I mean, it's just like
a little upright yopon or something growing in the garden. Yeah,
our vegetables can be attractive as well. And so I
know you guys really are into the containers you guys
are having. Maria always built outstanding containers out there. But
you could do a container with vegetables that may have

(01:30:10):
some alyssam around the side, you know, to make it attractive,
or some chives at the room in the center. Oh yeah,
there's a lot of there's a lot of ways.

Speaker 14 (01:30:18):
Yeah, go ahead, Yeah, nothing wrong with doing a mixed container.
It can be pretty and edible.

Speaker 3 (01:30:25):
So yeah you can.

Speaker 14 (01:30:25):
Yeah, And even a lot of the herbs are pretty.
They're not just for culinary uses, you know, the orangos
and some of the rosemary will trail. You could do
something upright in the center like chives or lemon grass
or cilantro or something like that.

Speaker 3 (01:30:41):
There you go, and we're being in the fall season
where the daylengths changing, things like pineapple, sage. What was
the other one I was just thinking of. I just
just went through my mind. I can't remember now. Oh,
Mexican met marigold. They bloom in that cool season, and
so they're both attractive and edible as well.

Speaker 14 (01:31:00):
Yep, yeah, that's a great fall bloomer.

Speaker 3 (01:31:03):
Yeah, cool stuff. Well, what do you have any vegetables
or or herbs that you know, kind of have caught
your fancy recently that you kind of really like this one.
Maybe it's new, maybe it's just one. You just kind
of worked your way back around.

Speaker 14 (01:31:18):
To one of my favorites. And it's very simple and
I'd never grown them before a couple of years ago.
But the Valentino bush green beans, that thing will produce.
For a little bitty plant, I think produces like crazy.
I got to tell a quick story about it. We
were going out of town one time at the end
of spring and my wife said, Okay, after work, you
go pick the green beans. And you know, we're heading

(01:31:40):
out before you. So I was like, Okay, five minutes,
I'll be done picking the green beans. It took me
forty five minutes to pick them all. They were so many,
it was I was blown away by the production of
those Valentino green beans.

Speaker 3 (01:31:51):
You know, I've never grown that one. So now you've
given me something to look forward to spring for. Yes, yeah,
all right.

Speaker 14 (01:32:00):
Yeah, and that that one is one that I'm going
to stagger crops on because I don't need to spend
forty five minutes picking green beans one day. Oh yeah,
very very surprising. That a good problem to.

Speaker 3 (01:32:12):
Have, Yeah, it is. It definitely is.

Speaker 9 (01:32:15):
Well.

Speaker 3 (01:32:15):
I have not always been a big greens eater. But
since you know gardening, it causes you to try things
you wouldn't have tried before. And I've been getting really
excited about our close seasoned greens. We have so many
good greens and whether you're making a salad or a smoothie,
and I put a lot of greens and smoothies. Uh,
there are a lot of ones that you can grow.

(01:32:36):
I mean things like a regular everybody knows let us
and spinach, but a regula and you know baby kale.
You mentioned collars earlier. A good green. Uh, there is
a plantain. There is a sorrel Srel is kind of cool.
I like the little red stripe leave one kinds of
lemony flavor that you can add to soups and salads. Yeah,

(01:32:57):
but it just goes on and on and on of
healthy things that the way I like to put it
is you can make a really tasty salad without them
to slather at in a thousand island dressing. If you'd
like to cut back on some of that stuff.

Speaker 14 (01:33:12):
Yeah, definitely the regular and you know a lot of
the greens have kind of a spicy taste to them,
so it adds natural flavor. It's great.

Speaker 3 (01:33:20):
Yeah, And then well, we could just keep going on
and on talking about those things. Tell us about some
of the other things that are going on as we're
changing seasons now heading toward the fall. For you guys
out there at in China Gardens.

Speaker 14 (01:33:35):
Lots of things change in every week. More fall color
coming in, more fall vegetables. Of course, it's a great
time to plant evergreen shrubs or replace some of the
trees that were knocked out by Hurricane Barrel. That way,
if you plant them in the fall when they're about
to go dormant, then they'll have all winter to get
established before the heat next summer comes along.

Speaker 3 (01:33:55):
All right, Well, that's good.

Speaker 14 (01:33:57):
And we'll start some of our events at the end
of September and those will go through mid December, So
be sure and check our website in the next week
or so. Those will be listed on there. Lots of
exciting things that we're going to have going on up
here in Chinna Gardens.

Speaker 3 (01:34:14):
That's good, that's good. It's good to know, you know.
I since we're talking, you know, about fall planting and stuff,
I'd like to shift. We got a little bit of
time here, about five minutes left. Let's talk about the
flowers that bloom and fall. And I'm not talking about
you know, like a petunia that you plant which would
then bloom and fall. By the way, I didn't know
you guys had Lara bush petunias and I just saw

(01:34:35):
that online. That's exciting. I like that petunia. Yeah, but
the fall bloomers, things like I mentioned Mexican mint marigold
that blooms in the fall. We have the bush salvia,
the Salvia leucantha that blooms primarily in the fall, and
their fall aster is good. You know, I was talking

(01:34:59):
earlier on garden Line about the four seasons. Plant for
the four seasons, and there's always something that looks good,
and so we often forget to plant for fall blooms.
Would you talk a little bit about things that you
like for color in the fall.

Speaker 14 (01:35:15):
One of my favorites for the fall, not necessarily color,
but for the texture and the height. All the ornamental
grasses they you know, this is the time that their
plumes come up and really show their stuff. One of
the most popular ones for our area is the Gulf
Coast muleiue that has the little pink flues. Starting this
time of years, you'll see even growing on the sides

(01:35:37):
of the roads in some of the native fields, and
it's just beautiful when the sun's going down and the
sun's shining across those pink plumes, they are gorgeous. But yeah,
all the the ornamental grasses, this is a great time
of year for those.

Speaker 8 (01:35:52):
M hm.

Speaker 3 (01:35:52):
It is.

Speaker 14 (01:35:54):
General. Perennials generally take a break into each of the summer.
So if you you know, trum them by back this
time of year or maybe a couple of weeks ago, good,
just a ten percent haircutter, so so that will encourage
new growth come out and more ballooms and make them
more full and dense.

Speaker 3 (01:36:12):
So this is a very goods Yeah, that that is
a good, very good tip on that. I like Copper
Canyon daisy too. I wish they would come up with
a more compact form of it. But people it sort
of splits the masses on whether they like the scent
or not. To me, it's a citrus slash pine scent
and I like it, but some people it's a little

(01:36:32):
a little too strong. But boy it blims oh well
when when these days start to get shorter. That's a
good n By the way, you mentioned ornamental grasses, and
I think it's good for people to know. You mentioned
a light coming through. If you if you put them
in places where you see them with the sunlight coming
through the seat heads, it's even more beautiful. Like that
gulf Newly, you go stand on the sunny side of it,

(01:36:54):
it's not as impressive as it is when you go
stand on the other side, the opposite side. In this
sun is coming through those kind of ruby colored seed heads.

Speaker 14 (01:37:05):
Yeah, that's exactly right. If you do a little planning,
it'll work out great in the long run.

Speaker 3 (01:37:10):
M Yeah, maiden grass another good one. Penacetums another good
one for dishes. So many good enough ornamental grass grass.

Speaker 14 (01:37:18):
Yeah, there's there's lots of great ones out there.

Speaker 3 (01:37:21):
That's cool. Some other things. You know, we get into
the into the fall season. Uh, the fall aster is
just and there's a bunch of them. There's the native
asters and then there's there's others, uh that just look
out standing. You know, everybody thinks that chrscentemums in the fall,
but boy, we have a lot more fall color than
just that.

Speaker 11 (01:37:41):
Yeah.

Speaker 14 (01:37:41):
The fall asters will just sit there all summer and
just green and not much to look at, but they
really light up in the fall.

Speaker 3 (01:37:49):
Yeah, planning for all of the four seasons that are
out there. Uh, tell us a little bit where you
guys are located for the people that may be going, Okay,
I want to come out there. How do I get there?
I mean I give out the dress all the time.

Speaker 5 (01:38:03):
But yeah, we're at the corner.

Speaker 14 (01:38:06):
Got to weare at the corner of seven twenty three
and three fifty nine in Richmond, near Foster High School.
We're just five minutes off of ten ninety three, seven
minutes off of Highway ninety nine and the Grain Park Way,
so we're between Richmond and Pulster basically, so pretty easy
to get you from any tricks you're coming from.

Speaker 3 (01:38:27):
Okay, all right, Well that that is all really good
information on it. Any last thoughts in terms of we're
entering fall and just some things you think would be
good for people to be thinking about as they go forward.

Speaker 14 (01:38:41):
One thing that we didn't talk about was the things
that you plant from seed versus planning from trainsplants. So
definitely all the root crops like rabits, shoes, beets, and carrots,
you'll want to do those. From seeds, you don't want
to do those. Some there are some places I've seen
that sell those plants and containers. But it's not worth
buying one or two beat plants in a pot. Those

(01:39:02):
things will germinate within you know, five or six days
once you once you plant them in the rear garden.
So do those those three things by seed. Any root
crop need to be done by seed. But then they're
very easy. Don't be afraid to jump in and try it.

Speaker 3 (01:39:19):
That's a that is a very good point. And remember
with the root crops, folks, one of the mistakes I
see most often is not thinning them out. They plant
them too thick, and so think about how big that
carrot's going to get, and the plants ought to be
at least that far apart down in your rows so
they can form a good carrot. And don't over push
them with nitrogen either. But it is so easy. I

(01:39:41):
grew carrots in a container a couple of years ago
for the first time. I just had never tried it.
And they do really well in a container too.

Speaker 14 (01:39:49):
Yep. Yeah, as long as you got a big enough
container and you're able to keep up with the watering,
then nothing wrong with it.

Speaker 3 (01:39:56):
There you go. Hey, we're talking to Joey Linderman from
in Channet Gardens Nursery out in Richmond. Joey, thank you
so much. Time flies when you're having fun and I've
been having fun. Thanks for being on. I really appreciate it.

Speaker 14 (01:40:08):
Yes, sir, I enjoyed it. I hope everybody has a
great day.

Speaker 11 (01:40:11):
All right.

Speaker 3 (01:40:11):
You take care, folks. All right, I'm going to go
to break here. We will be right back. I hope
you enjoyed it visiting with Joey Linderman at Ingena Gardens
about all kinds of things vegetables, you know, mostly vegetables,
a little bit of herbs, and in general fall fall advice. Again,
I hope that was helpful to you when you're looking

(01:40:34):
at products that will provide you with a good boost.
You've heard me talk about Genesis talk about a little
bit earlier today. But Nelson plant Food, part of their
nutri Star line is a product called Genesis. It's the
newest one that they have, and think of it as
a transplanting fertilizer. And I was using it last year.
I had some tomato plants that I needed to bump

(01:40:55):
up to a bigger pot, you know, before they went
out in the garden, and I mixed some genesis into
that soil for the next pot, and oh my gosh,
they took off growing. That's what genesis is made for,
and not just bumping up, you know, from one size
to another, although it's great for that. But if you're
going to put something out in the garden, like maybe
even plant of rosebush or one of these fall ornamental

(01:41:15):
grasses or fall perennials that we were talking about earlier,
put some genesis into that soil as you dig the
hole and then plant the new plant, and you will
give it a good head start. It's got microhizel fungi
in it which helps work with our roots. That whole
soil microbiome is a very important thing on plant success
and genesis. Just a head start on that and then

(01:41:37):
you continue on with your fertilization, whether it's nutrastar products
or color Star all from from Nelson Plant Food. They
also have of course the Nature Star, and I just
encourage you to give it a try. Anytime you're going
to put a plant from one pot into another, or
from one pot into the ground, think about genesis. Just
have a jar of it on hand on the shelf,

(01:41:57):
and whenever you're going to plant stuff which year round,
you're going to be ready to go. Makes it really
really easy. You're listening to Guardline and we were talking
about vegetables, and I want to continue that discussion with
you just a little bit here. You know, the people
often ask questions about, you know, what, how do I

(01:42:22):
know should I use seed or should I use transplants,
or what's the best way with this or that? And
I'm going to just give you a few tips on that.
First of all, you can as a general guide, you
can do either way. You have the plant seeds a
little earlier, and with transplants, you know, you can wait
until it's the time to get those in the ground
to plant, and so seed there's more time of things

(01:42:44):
that can go wrong between seeds and let's say broccoli,
for example, plant broccoli seeds earlier, then you would go
ahead and then put the transplants in later. And so
with transplants it's faster results and it's a little higher
chance of success because things can go wrong with seedlings.
With seeds, it's way cheaper, a lot less expensive than transplants.

(01:43:06):
You can go either way. One thing that you don't
want to use transplants for are things that have long
roots like carrots, for example, the carrots are going to
go down no matter what happens, that root is going
to get We call it burned, but it hits air
in a container and it kills the end of the root.
And now you have carrots that have two legs or
three legs or whatever. They're mouformed. So with root crops,

(01:43:29):
I generally like to use those as direct seeded for
that and for other reasons too. It's just I mean,
can you imagine you want to a whole row of
beats or something and you're going to buy that many transplants.
That's not really practical to go with most things, though,
you get to choose either way that you want to
go about it. For another advantage of seeds is that

(01:43:50):
with seeds you can get varieties you can't get as transplants.
You know, there may be a bunch of tomato varieties
available at a garden center and that's wonderful, But with
seed you have access to hundreds of tomato varieties should
you choose to want to try something different. So that's
another advantage of the seeds versus the transplants. In general,

(01:44:12):
we're going to take our root crops we're going to
take things like sweet corn and green beans, the big old,
big seeds types of things, and we're going to plant
those as seeds. And then for the things that may
take a little bit longer, like tomatoes, for example, or
peppers or whatever, it's better just to go in with
a transplant because that way, let's say we're well, let's
talk about tomatoes. You know, you get a tomato in

(01:44:34):
the ground end of August, early early September, and you
got to have you got to move fast before the
first frost or cool weather shuts it down, and so
a transplant gives you that head start. That's another important
thing because here we have a short spring season, a
short fall season, and there's long summer season in between,
and then some freezes in the winter. So while we

(01:44:55):
live in an area with twelve month gardening, our actual
individual garden seasons can be a little bit shorter. You
go farther north and you can grow stuff all the
way through the summer that just fries here. So faster
moving with transplants is an advantage of that. So there's
a few thoughts for you to think about. Hopefully that'll
be helpful to you. If you'd like to give us

(01:45:16):
a call our phone number seven one three two one
two k t r H seven one three two one
two k t r H one. Last tip on seeds.
This is stuff's going through my head here as I
think I'm finished talking with seeds, you want to plant
them at the right depth. That's very important. And if

(01:45:36):
you don't know, if the package should tell you. But
if you don't know, plant a seed about three or
four times. That's with deep, so a small seed wouldn't
be planted very deep. A pento bean three or four times.
It's with You're going to put it in an inch
or so deep and the soil in order to in
order to have success with that. There are a few

(01:45:59):
seeds that need to on the surface, and I'm not
going to try to name all of them, but the
ones that are most practical to mention for the fall
garden or lettuce and carrots. They need light to germinate,
specifically the red wavelengths of light, which you don't penetrate
down under the soil. So you put those on the
surface and you miss them and keep them moist. First

(01:46:19):
of all, the soil should be wet. Put them on
the surface and then miss them and keep them moist
and they will sprout there. Now, carrots, you bury just
that tiny, tiny bed, but not too deep or they'll never,
as they say, see the light of day. But with
most seeds, if you don't know three or four times
the width of the seed deep is a good estimate.
And final tip. If you soak seeds overnight that are

(01:46:42):
the larger ones that are more practical to soak overnight,
you get a faster germination because they start to pull
water in and swallow up and that starts the biochemical
process that makes that seed sprout. So you got okra
seeds we were talking about ochre earlier today. Put them
in warm to even hot water and let them sit
on the counter overnight, and then go out the next

(01:47:04):
day and plant them. Even spinach seed, you get a
better germination stand if you'll soak it overnight and warm water,
and then the morning go out and plant those things.
Just a tip. Ace hardware stores are all over Houston,
which makes them very convenient. Ace hardware stores carry every
fertilizer I talk about. They carry all the products you're

(01:47:26):
going to need to grow insects, diseases, and weeds, which
makes it very convenient. It's like a one stop shop.
I mean, you need a garden hose or a tool,
Aces got it. You want to sprush up your patio
with some lighting, or a nice barbecue pit. Who fall
gotta have fall barbecues? Right this good time to get
buy Ace. Ace Hardware is local, They're convenient, they have

(01:47:48):
great help that can help you find success. And it
doesn't matter what you know. Of course, it's a hardware store.
You know, they got plumbing, they got electrical, they had
all that kind of stuff that a hardware store has,
but they have so so much more. Each is independently owned,
so when you walk into an ACE you will be
surprised at some stuff that I didn't know they had
that in here. I promise you you will feel that

(01:48:10):
way walking into one of our forty Houston area Ace
Hardware stores yesterday. Stopped in to say, hello, I'm going
to be out there a little bit later this fall
and or this month actually anyway, I was just checking
out what all they have. And you know, when I
think at Ana, not only do they have great plants,
which they do, lots of them, but they've got landscape

(01:48:30):
bling like you just wouldn't believe I mean beautiful arches,
and I mean like artwork and stuff to hang.

Speaker 6 (01:48:35):
On the wall.

Speaker 3 (01:48:36):
They've got that. They've got chimineez to put out on
the fall patio to enjoy. They've got all that kind
of stuff. But when you go in, you get good advice,
you get good service, and it's just a fun place
to shop. It's just kind of like every time you
turn a corner there's something new and cool. I was
looking at their asters that they had a new shipment
in and oh my gosh, they're gorgeous, gorgeous, plenty of

(01:48:58):
annuals to go into your fall color. I was telling
you earlier. You know, you need to be planting marigals
for fall. It's the best season for fall. We think
of them this summer, but fall is better for miragles.
And they got those there A and A plants and produce.
They're on the east side of Montgomery on Highway one
oh five. I mean, you can't miss it when you're
going down one oh five. And if you live up

(01:49:19):
around Lake Conroe, all those great neighborhoods out there, this
is your backyard garden center, and you got to go
by and check them out. They also have a landscape
crew that does some work in that area around the lake.
So you may want to talk to them about that
if you'd like a little bit of assistance. But just
go in and say hi, and I'll be seeing you
there a little bit later this month. I'll tell you
more about that in a little bit. Let's go to

(01:49:41):
the phones here. We are gonna go to Magnolia and
talk to Rudy. Hello, Ruddy, Hey, how you doing.

Speaker 14 (01:49:49):
Thanks for taking my call.

Speaker 22 (01:49:52):
Well, first of all, I'm really happy to know that
garden line continued after Randy Lemon left us too soon.
I was pretty down about that buddy of mine, and
Katie said, no, no, they're still going and they got
a great new guy.

Speaker 3 (01:50:04):
So here I am calling, and uh, all right, thanks
for calling and hanging around Scott.

Speaker 22 (01:50:09):
Yeah, but I'm asking about wax myrtle propagation. I have
a buddy in my neighborhood who's got a bunch of them.
And from when I understand, you can get the seeds,
you know when they kind of start blooming or not blooming,
but you know, showing themselves here between now and like October,
and I really, I mean, yes, I could go and

(01:50:29):
buy them, but I want the satisfaction of growing on
myself to be honest, so I have any thoughts, tips,
and any references that I can go to.

Speaker 3 (01:50:38):
First of all, first of all, I apologize for Conye
Scott radio very well looking at the board. So yes,
wax myrtles, southern wax myrtles can be propagated from cuttings.
Sometimes they will sucker up around the base too, and
you can divide those away with a sharp sharp shovel
and separate the plant and get another one. But you

(01:51:00):
can use cuttings. I would let the wood. Okay, new
growth starts off very succulent, like a bean stalk, and
then it becomes semi woody, and then it becomes like
a wax myrtle branch, a regular woody shrub. If you
can catch it in that semi state it is, that's
the easiest to propagate. Take a cutting about four inches long,

(01:51:21):
strip the leaves off the bottom half of it, dip
it into a rooting hormones. Very important to get a
good rooting hormone. There's liquids and there's powders. If you
use a powder you want, then when you stick the cutting,
don't just shove it into the soil rooting mix because
that wipes off some of the hormone. Make a little hole, slight,

(01:51:43):
set the cutting in it, and then press the soil
gently around the cutting. Okay, just a little quick tip there.
Cover it with something clear so light can get in.
Do not put it in full sun. Put it in
very very bright light. But when you let full sun
shine through something clear, well, let me put this way.
Go out to your car on the sunny day when
the windows are rolled out, it gets hot in there, right,

(01:52:04):
don't do that. Your cuttings so but they do need
light and it takes a while, but they will root
that way. That's one option. Another option, if you've got
a low growing branch is to bend it down to
the soil and bury a section of it out near
the end of the branch, very near the end, kind
of like the cutting I was talking about. Pin it down.

(01:52:25):
I've used I've used a brick to hold it down.
I've used a bent coat hanger to hold it down underground. Again,
rooting hormoned on it, and while it's still attached to
mom roots can form where you cracked and bent that branch.
And when I say crack it, I mean like if
you bend a woody branch, it cracks and it becomes
like an elbow. It's hinged, but it's not broken off.

(01:52:48):
That's right, I mean, And so that's called a tip layer.
That would be another option. You just don't make as
many cuttings that way as you do, I mean, as
many plants as you do with cuttings.

Speaker 22 (01:52:59):
What's your opinion of using the actual like seed, like
the little I should say, the berries that come up
in the fall to propagate.

Speaker 14 (01:53:05):
Is that a more difficult process?

Speaker 3 (01:53:07):
Well, I don't I don't know. I've never tried propagating
a Southern magnolia from seed, but I can tell you this,
plants that are grown out Southern magnolia good night. We're
talking about the I'm talking about the wrong plants. Wax
the wax myrtle.

Speaker 11 (01:53:25):
Yep.

Speaker 3 (01:53:26):
Yeah, I've never tried it. But when you grow a
plant like that from seed, it takes a long time
for them to get established and grown, whereas with a cutting,
you're you're getting a big head start on it. So
that would be the only thing, but you certainly should
be able to try it. I just have never tried that.

Speaker 22 (01:53:45):
Yeah, Well, it sounds like it sounds like the easier
method is the cutting. Last question, I appreciate it is
timing wise. When would you say, is it the fall
now to be you know, get those cuttings and start
it in the garage or something or yeah, fall fall.

Speaker 3 (01:54:01):
Is often a good time for doing that. I would
say you could probably also do it in early summer.
But if you can get some growth that just recently
started getting some wittiness to it, you could do that
in the fall. But just make sure and get a
good strong rooting hormone to do that. To have some

(01:54:24):
it's gonna be a little bit of a it's a
little bit of a challenge, you know, if you end
it to do it.

Speaker 14 (01:54:30):
Like I said, I could go buy them, but I
want the challenge.

Speaker 3 (01:54:32):
So oh well, well okay, I mean, if you want
the challenge of seed, when you pick the seed, put
it in moist sand or moist ground up peat moss
in a bag and the refrigerator for two or three
months and bring it out in spring and planet it
needs to go through that cold treatment in order to germinate. Okay,

(01:54:53):
thank you so much, have a great weekend, all right, man,
Thanks a lot, appreciate your call. You're listening to guardline
number seven one three two one two kt r H
seven one three two one two kt r H Nitropos
has a product called bug out Max. Bugout Max is
an insecticide that kills one hundred and thirty different kinds

(01:55:15):
of insects. I mean, if you put it down watered
in the the ingredient comes off those granules. It gets
in the thatch and if you got chinch bugs hiding
in there, it'll get them sideweb worms hiding in during
the daytime and the thatch come out at night to
feed on the on the grass leaves. Uh, And it
works on that as well, and it lasts. It's gonna

(01:55:35):
last through the whole season, so you don't have to
apply it and reapply it and reapply it. You're gonna
find it at RCW Nurseries. If you want to go
to the Arbor Gate, they've got it there.

Speaker 8 (01:55:43):
Uh.

Speaker 3 (01:55:44):
If you go down to Stanton Shopping Center and Alvin,
you're gonna find it there and Lake Jackson, Lake Harbor
Clute on Dixie Drive they've also they carry my uh
nitrophs type products there, including that bug out Max. Well,
let's see here we are looking Okay, I'm too short
on time to go to the next call Scott in

(01:56:05):
Spring and Mary and Pasadena. You're going to be our
first two up when we come back. Appreciate you hanging
on with us, and we will we will make you
our first two up. I want to remind you that
this next Saturday, I'm going to be in clear Lake
at the Wildbird's Unlimited store there in clear Lake, and

(01:56:26):
I hope you'll come out and see me. Uh. They're
gonna be given away like a hummingbird nectar with nectar defender,
a variety of they're really good seed blends, and I'm
telling you, nobody makes a seed blend like Wildbirds Unlimited.
Does you know all that junk those red bebes that
cheap seed has that birds kick out on the ground
and don't eat. You think you're getting a good deal,
But if if they are more personable ends up on

(01:56:50):
the ground, how good of a deal was that?

Speaker 11 (01:56:52):
Right?

Speaker 3 (01:56:52):
They're gonna have all kinds of giveaways more as well.
If you haven't been there before, you can go to
WBU dot com for slash Houston to find all six stores,
including the one in for a Lake. The one in
clear Lake is on clear Lake City Boulevard and El
Dorado Boulevard, then down there before. I love that store.
It's a great one to come to. Come there, and

(01:57:15):
by the way, while you're there, you're gonna want to
get some bird stuff, but not just that. I mean,
bring me some samples of plants, bring me some pictures,
or just come in and brag on your garden. I'll
listen to it for lo fa. I love to meet
folks that listen to guarden Line, and here's a chance.
So I hope all of you done that whole southeast
region down there. Come on over to clear Lake next Saturday.

(01:57:37):
I'll be there from eleven thirty for one thirty. I'll
tell you more about it next Saturday morning on the show.
But mark that on your calendar, hey, and we'll be
right back to the garden.

Speaker 5 (01:57:48):
Line services advertised on this program.

Speaker 1 (01:57:53):
Welcome to KTRH Garden Line with Skimp Richt.

Speaker 11 (01:57:57):
It's so.

Speaker 4 (01:57:59):
Amazing just watch as the world. So many good things
to set.

Speaker 3 (01:58:17):
Welcome to garden Line. So glad you're listening. Look forward
to talking to you. If you'd like to have us
called seven one three two one two k t r
H seven one three two one two k t r H.
You know, Landscaper's Pride has been making quality blends of
soil and mulches and things for a long time, and
right now it's fall and it is time to get

(01:58:39):
the soil ready for all kinds of things. Some of
the landscapers Pride rose mix, for example, it's excellent for
not just roses, but shrubs, even perennials. Using the rose
mix to help build and create a bed. Make sure
it's high and well drained. Outstanding choice right there. The
Premium potting mix UH is again to use the word outstanding.

(01:58:59):
It fits, that's it because it includes everything you need
to have success with something you're growing in a container,
whether it's an indoor plant, something out there on the patio.
Landscaper's Pride Premium Potting makes as good topsoil that they have.
Excellent for filling in low areas. You know, if you're
if you've got some holes in the yard or low spots,
you just kind of want to fill them in a
little bit. That is a good choice. It doesn't it

(01:59:21):
doesn't have the high organic matter content level because organic
matter decomposes away and you're trying to bring the soil up,
not bring it up and have it go back down.
Outstanding choice topsoil and then black velvet molts. What more
can we say? It's not dyed. Had that conversation with
someone yesterday out at the Conro Home and Garden Show. No,
it is not dyed. It's naturally dark colored and beautiful.

(01:59:44):
All from Landscaper's Pride. You can find out more at
Landscaperspride dot com. Like where to find it and I
tell you this widely available in the Houston area. You
will not have trouble locating a quality product from Landscaper's Pride.
I want to go out to the phones. Uh, I think, Uh,
we've Scott from Spring. I believe you been holding a bit. Scott.
Thanks for being patient and welcome to Guardenline.

Speaker 11 (02:00:06):
No problem. I'm being my yards and tested with Sarginia
button weed and dove wheed. I was just wondering, can
I spray now because of the rain stop? It seems
to be cooler?

Speaker 3 (02:00:17):
It s you can? Okay, time, yeah, yeah, but sooner
than later. I don't know how many hours it is.
They say like four hours before rain, but I would
do it a day before rain if I could. So
whether it's this afternoon or tomorrow. Go ahead and get
that done so it has plenty of time to kind
of soak into the tissues to uh to control those weeds.

Speaker 11 (02:00:39):
Okay, And I can use can you use the pump
spray and should just use the spray hose in sprayer
for this.

Speaker 3 (02:00:46):
I would use I would use a pump sprayer so
you can direct it really well and not put so
much volume out there. The goal is to barely what
the foliage of the weed, not to drench the soil.
So get a product called Celsius like the got it,
all right, and Celsius Celsius the one you want to use.

Speaker 11 (02:01:04):
Okay, all right, thank you, all.

Speaker 3 (02:01:07):
Right man, good luck, thank you. All right. By We're
going to go now to Mary and Pasadena. Hey, Mary,
welcome to guarden Line.

Speaker 6 (02:01:17):
Good morning. I do believe you've already answered my question
in your commercial. I have a little white the little
white moths all in the yard when i'm mode, and
I think you should bug out.

Speaker 3 (02:01:31):
Bug Out max is from nitrofoss and it will get
down in the thatch. And if those moths are side
web worms, it is pretty effective for that. There's other
ways to go about it. I mean, you know, they're
sprays and things, but that is a good one. Now,
there are a lot of kinds of moths out there, Mary,
and so we kind of want to know that they

(02:01:51):
are side web worms.

Speaker 6 (02:01:53):
I'm pretty sure we've yeah, we've had them before. Uh,
and I do believe that's that's what it is. My question, though,
was with the rain coming, is now today tomorrow?

Speaker 3 (02:02:06):
Shut up with it out? You know, that's a good question.
That does the product does wash off the granule? And
I don't know how many inches of rain are going
to occur over than the rest of the week. As
we get into rainy with right, I probably would hold
off and then put it down, But then you're gonna
need to water maybe a half inch of water just

(02:02:27):
to get it off the granules and into the thatch area.

Speaker 6 (02:02:29):
Okay, okay, okay, So we're trying to get it down
in the root area or the lower.

Speaker 3 (02:02:36):
Part of the grass. Yeah, more the soil surface and
thatch is the most important area for them to encounter. Okay,
said web worms don't go they don't go underground.

Speaker 6 (02:02:50):
Okay, okay, I didn't really think about that. Okay, Well,
thank you so much. You have a blessed Sunday. Thank you,
all right as well, appreciate the color. All Right, here,
let's see, I wanted to tell you a little bit
about some of the products from Microlife that you probably

(02:03:10):
have not used before. Now you hear me talk about
the Green bag, the standard fertilizer of the lawns through
the summer, which is by the way, good for all
kinds of different plants, not just lawns. You've heard me
talk about the purple bag hu Mates plus, which is
concentrated compost in a bag.

Speaker 3 (02:03:25):
But they have some really quality liquids that you need
to give a try. Micro Grow liquid AF is stocked
with eight specific microbes that help benefit your soil. There's
basically a two kinds of microbes and the soil. You've
got the kind that are causing plant disease and that

(02:03:46):
you've got the kind that are helping fight against problems.
And these are the good guys and they're in this
product MicroG Liquid AF. It's like you're putting the natural
soil biology back to work for you. They also have
a micro Life soil and plant Energy. It's an all
organic soil. You can spray plants with it too. By
the way. You can use it as a foldier if
you like, over sixty three different minerals. And again, like

(02:04:09):
all microlife products, when you enhance the microbial content of
the soil, you enhance plant growth. Micro Grow is a bioinoculant.
It's a dry granular product that just is loaded with
trillions of microbes that are part of colonizing the plant
root to protect it. Did you know plant root exudes

(02:04:30):
substances to attract and support microbes because they are the defenders.
Imagine like you are in a fort and you've got
the infantry all around the fort protecting against the invaders.
That's what the microbes are doing. And when you use
products like these microlife products, you are enhancing that support
level outside the walls of the fort. That is exactly

(02:04:52):
what's going on. That's the one way to put it,
and I think it's a good analogy that works for me.
All Right, let's go to Cyprus, Texas, and we're going
to Nick. Hello, Nick, welcome to Guardline. Hello.

Speaker 14 (02:05:04):
Can you hear me?

Speaker 6 (02:05:04):
Okay?

Speaker 3 (02:05:05):
Yes, sir?

Speaker 14 (02:05:06):
Hello, Okay, great.

Speaker 23 (02:05:08):
I had a question about I'd actually called before about
the uh purple stage and actually cut it back in
a real well, so thanks for that. But I had
a question about replacing common common box would bushes with roses?
And do I need to turn up that soil or
do anything special getting rid of what what the box
was growing in?

Speaker 3 (02:05:30):
No, not really. Did the box would run into a
problem or you just wanted to get rid of them.

Speaker 22 (02:05:35):
I just want to get rid of them.

Speaker 3 (02:05:36):
They just don't okay. Yeah, you know, if you run
into some big roogs underground, just pull them out. But
get you a good quality mix like a rose blend,
you know, a quality rose blend, and build up that
soil a little bit, enhance it because you know, once
you get the roses in, they're gonna be there for
years and you're not gonna be able to get back
down in the soil to do stuff. Is your soil

(02:05:57):
a heavy clay or is it a pretty decent soil?

Speaker 23 (02:06:00):
Uh, it's pretty decent now I've been I've been mixing
it over the past couple of years, so it's been
doing topressing on top of it, so it's pretty it's
pretty condensed. I don't you know, it's probably like too
foot down to get to the clay.

Speaker 3 (02:06:12):
So that's I don't think that's Okay, well you're you're good. Then, yeah,
you're you're good. So just a good quality rose rose
blend mix would be the way I would go with that.

Speaker 14 (02:06:22):
Okay, and then and then just can you keep them?

Speaker 3 (02:06:28):
Yeah, you can buy it by the bag, you can
buy it by the bulk. You know, Airloom Soils makes
an excellent one that's available in your area and Cypress,
you can probably find it up at the Ace hardware
stores up there. I know our garden centers in the
Cypress region, both uh Let's see uh RCW Nursery, the
plantrol Seasons and Arbigate all three are going to carry

(02:06:48):
mixes like that to enhance the soil. So you know,
you you don't have far to go to find some
good stuff. You're lucky to live in that area. Yeah, yeah,
I got all those all the time. It's kind of funny,
so I appreciate it. Thank you. It's funny, but it's
fun too. Thanks Nick. Appreciate the call, appreciate having you

(02:07:09):
having you around. Hey, we're gonna go to Tony now
and hello, Tony, welcome to Guardline.

Speaker 24 (02:07:15):
Thank you, Good morning.

Speaker 3 (02:07:18):
All right, Hey, Tony, guess what I just did? I
messed up? I went to a call right when it's
time for me to take a break. False alarm. Can
you hang on for one second. I'll be right operator error.
All right, Hey, welcome back, Welcome back to Guardline. Good
to have you with us, Glad to have you with
us today. It is my pleasure to get to visit

(02:07:40):
with you and answer questions about various kinds of plants,
various kinds of diseases and pests and things like that.
That is what we're here for. We're going to go
back to the phones now and talk to Tony. Tony,
thanks for hanging on through that false alarm. I get
to go in having so much fun here. I forget
to look at the clock. So I did get. I

(02:08:02):
did get the pictures that you sent, and you've got
You've got two different plants there. One's variegated and one's
not okay. And so the one I just want to
make one statement first part I talk about how to
control them, or I mean, how to prune them. Uh,
the one that's variegated, it's got the white leaves. If

(02:08:25):
you look in the planet, you'll see some leaves that
are all green. That plant is notorious for reverting back
to its all green form. So when you see that,
you want to follow that green branch all the way
back to where it attaches to another branch and prune
it out there, or the green will in time take
over the white of the bush. All right, So you

(02:08:45):
have to surgically remove the green because it continues to
revert its way back. It is a it is a
lagustrium type plant, and the pruning of it is you
can do two things. Most people will share them into
some form that is appealing. So I would take it
in the stage it's in right now and cut it

(02:09:07):
back maybe by about thirty percent, not much more than that.
It will sprout back out, and as it does, we
just have to share them periodically. Now we're going into winter,
so a lot of succulent new growth that will occur
after you cut back could be winter killed, and so
we want to go easy with it. But starting next
spring we can begin to print it more heavily. Because

(02:09:29):
that sidewalk, that plant will take over and your guests
will have to walk out in the yard to get by.
It'll run them right off the sidewalk there, So don't
trust it. Yeah, Okay, how long have those been on
the ground? About a year, about a year, okay, all right, yeah, well, yeah,

(02:09:51):
I think it's a great it's a great plant to
have and I like those, but you just got to
watch for them. Also watch a little bit for mealy bug.
Sometimes they're a little bit prone toward meetleabug type issues.

Speaker 24 (02:10:06):
Well, I know during the spring, I got attacked by caterpillars,
which I believe they were the Eastern tent caterpillars. Oh yeah,
a couple of those bushes. They completely ate the leaves
off of them, but they came right back.

Speaker 3 (02:10:25):
Yes.

Speaker 24 (02:10:26):
The other thing was when we had the freeze and
it got thirteen degrees and we had ice out here.
When I looked at those bushes, I thought, and they're gone.
There's no way they survived that. But you know, once
it heated up, they came right back. So they made
it through thirteen degrees and ice and did good.

Speaker 3 (02:10:47):
Wow. Well that's impressive. Yeah, they did a good time. Yeah. Well, anyway,
those are the gustrooms. Another name for him. By the way,
a lot of people call them privets, but variegated privet
and not variegated privet. But anyway, yep, just the more
you share them, the dnsure they get. Now, the alternative
to that is to do thinning cuts, which means you

(02:11:09):
go in and you take a gangly shoot and you
cut it back to where it joins another shoot and
you sort of reduce the size that way. But that's
a lot more tedious, and I think in the setting
they're going, you're probably gonna need to share them to
keep them in bounds with the space.

Speaker 24 (02:11:23):
That they're Okay, okay, sounds good.

Speaker 3 (02:11:27):
Thanks for thanks, yeah, thanks thanks for calling. Good luck,
good luck with those uh with those bushes. Appreciate that
you're listening to Guardline folks. Our phone number seven one
three two one two fifty eight seventy four seven one
three two one two five eight seven four. If you
can just plants in the heights. I was there the

(02:11:48):
other day visiting with Zach and Heather and just taking
a look at the place, and you know, they are
set up and ready to go for fall. I mean
they got fall mums in. They look outstanding, really really nice.
A lot of annual flowers for color. You never have
an excuse to not have color around here. Buchanan is
always going to keep you stocked up on everything that

(02:12:09):
you need. If you are interested in native plants. I
don't know a place that has a bigger selection than
Buchanans Plants. One plant I was talking to somebody the
other day. They have it at Buchanans by the way,
button bush, button bush. If you've got an area that's
poorly drained and you don't want to spend the money
on increasing the drainage in that area with subsurface drainage

(02:12:32):
plant of button bush. It can grow in a swamp.
I mean, it is very tough, very tolerant of wet conditions.
It is a butterfly attracting plant, has very unusual little
spiked balls as flowers. It's kind of like that you
know that skyscraper up in Dallas. It's got the little
round looks like a dandelion head up on top. That's
kind of what button bush looks like. And they've got

(02:12:52):
it at Buchins as well as a lot of other
native plants. They all that's what they specialize in. That's
why the name is Buchanans Plants. Again, Eleventh Street in
the Heights. Go by there. And the other thing you
need to do is when go online to be Cannonsplas
dot com and sign up for their newsletter. It is
outstanding and there's a lot of information on the website

(02:13:16):
as well, tips and tricks. For example, they are always
putting educational material up. If you want to have success,
trust the folks at Buchanan's Plants on Eleventh Street and
the Heights. I'm going to go back to the phones
here and check my clock, make sure I'm making the
same mistake again. Mary lou and Northwest Houston, Welcome to

(02:13:37):
garden Line.

Speaker 19 (02:13:39):
Good morning.

Speaker 21 (02:13:40):
I wonder if you could tell me how to save
or revive a dying climbing rose.

Speaker 3 (02:13:48):
Well, what why is it dying? Why do we think
it's dying?

Speaker 21 (02:13:52):
Mostly he he and neglect.

Speaker 3 (02:13:57):
Okay, uh, Well, roses need good drainage, they need good
quality soil with good drainage. They need good nutrition. They
are heavy feeders, and they need good sunlight. And sometimes
over the years an area that with sunny becomes less
and less sunny. And if that has happened, then either

(02:14:20):
some pruning to open up light or move in the
rose would be the two options. If you've got good
sunlight and if you have good drainage, I would cut
that rose back after it blooms the bloom season. Buds
are already forming on that plant, and if you prune
it now, you're not going to have a bloom show
in the spring because you're cutting away the bloom buds.

(02:14:42):
So if you can wait until after it blooms and
then cut it back pretty severely and get fresh new
growth and train that growth in the direction you want
it to go when it's in your power, Mary, if
you can orient, we call them canes the shoots of
a climbing rose. If you can anto shoots horizontally back
and forth, they bloom better that way because if you

(02:15:05):
let it go just straight vertically up in the air,
you'll get more blooms up on top, but not as
many up and down around the branch. But as they
kind of go horizontal, you get more bloom forming all
along those branches. So some people will weave them back
and forth on our trellis. If you have the time
and inclination to.

Speaker 21 (02:15:21):
Do that, I don't think it's going to bloom much
because now it really looks ragged.

Speaker 3 (02:15:29):
Okay, what is the what is the sunlight? How many
hours do you think it gets the sun.

Speaker 21 (02:15:36):
It gets?

Speaker 10 (02:15:37):
Uh?

Speaker 21 (02:15:38):
Oh, it probably gets enough sunlight. There are trees not
too close to it, but I think it gets because
it has the past bloomed.

Speaker 3 (02:15:49):
All right, well, let's let's do this. Uh Ragged, you know,
is a general term. I can kind of picture ragged,
but there is a ragged from lead water right, go ahead?

Speaker 10 (02:16:01):
Dead?

Speaker 21 (02:16:02):
Some of the branches look dead. I think it may
have a little bit of life left in it.

Speaker 3 (02:16:08):
All right, Well, as we go through this conversation, I'm
more and more thinking that I need to go over
there and do last rites on your rosebud. It keeps
getting worse sounding. I think that probably diseases have played
a part in that. And it could be spider mites.
It could be great. It could be a black spot
on the leaves. It could be there are others gosper

(02:16:29):
spot can attack on. There's insects that can chew the leaves. So,
you know, ragged. I want to know why it's ragged.
Is a soil well drained? And if not, can we
fix that? Are you watering it adequately?

Speaker 21 (02:16:42):
I've just started watering, but but well ahead, I'm sorry
vines have grown around it, on the soil around it,
and I have to go and get those out of there.

Speaker 3 (02:16:57):
Well, okay, so either you or someone you bring in
to do it. I would have them clean up all
the competition around that thing, all the vines. Let's throw
some rose food down on the soil. You know, get
your good quality rose blend nitrofoss has in canisters, real
quality rose soil. You'll find that with Nelson's as well.

(02:17:17):
They've got that sprinkle it around the plant, working into
the surface of the soil, watered and really good prune
out all the dead branches. And then I still would
wait on the serious pruning until spring, because you don't
want to force a lot of succulent growth that were
we to have a good coal winter snap, it would
kill that growth. And because it's not hardened off, so

(02:17:39):
let's hold off on serious pruning until springtime. And that'd
be my best suggestion. Okay, hey, I've got a run.
We're taking up against a hard break here, but good
luck with that rose. And if you need more help,
call me back, send me some pictures next time and
we'll talk further. All right, folks, I'm going to take

(02:17:59):
a little break seven one three two one two kt
r H. And when we come back, Divana out and
Katie you will be our first up handle here and
help people with In the meantime, I want to tell
about as mite. Azamite is the micro nutrient source that
we recommend here on garden Line to provide those essential

(02:18:20):
nutrients that are needed in small amounts. Just the fact
that they're needed in small amounts does not change the
fact that they are essential. And the way I like
to put it is, if you could take every molecule
of manganese out of the soil, a plant cannot live.
Any plant cannot live. If you take every molecule of
zinc out of the soil, any plant cannot live. Do
you see what I'm saying. Asimite provides those nutrients. It

(02:18:41):
builds the bank account. You can do it when you
fertilize in a separate hopper. Fertilize and then come back
and fill up with azamite and do that, or you
can do it any month of the year. It does
not have to be done at the same time you fertilize,
and let's you just want to save the time because
you already out there doing it. Asamite Texas dot Com
is the website. But remember asamite. When you are looking

(02:19:01):
at my schedule, you will see that I have on
there micro nutrients supplements can be done during a wide
time of the year. Now is find time to go
ahead and do it with azamite. If you got a
vegetable garden to you throw some out there. It takes
about I think it's about ten pounds per thousand square
feet and a vegetable garden and that way the produce
that you're eating, you want it to be chalk full
of all the different nutrients, that nutrients that our bodies

(02:19:24):
need to and Asamite Texas can do that. I want
to go now to let's see Divanna in Katie. Hello Divanna,
and welcome to guard Line.

Speaker 20 (02:19:33):
Good morning, thank you for taking my call. I tacked
a zucchini yesterday that had it was mature, but it
still had the flower petals on there, and it was
kind of bulled out at the end and at the
end I looked at it and inside it looks like

(02:19:54):
two or three more zucchinis were trying to grow out
of that. Have you ever seen anything like that?

Speaker 3 (02:20:00):
That is a condition called the vippery, not a weird word,
the vippery, and basically what it means is the seed sprouts.
Occasionally you'll see pecans on a tree with a sprout
coming out and the pacan nut hadn't even hit the
ground yet. That can happen with a number of different things.
Tomatoes can do that you'll see hit tomato and piercing
through the skin or little little tomato seeds. It's sprouded

(02:20:20):
inside the fruit. Different kinds of stresses can cause It's
it's not a big concern. You just pull that zucchini off,
cut away the parts that have it, and keep going.
You know, it's not going to ruin ruin the other
parts of the fruit. But yep, that's what it's called.
Nothing really for you to do about it other than
provide good care. And I think I don't think it's

(02:20:41):
going to be an ongoing problem for your zucchini.

Speaker 20 (02:20:44):
Well, it was just real unusual looking.

Speaker 19 (02:20:47):
And thank you so much for taking up off all right, Katie,
thank you very loud.

Speaker 3 (02:20:52):
You know, normally I say, when I help you with
a plant, there's no charge, but you got to drop
half the produce off at the gart at the KRH studio.
I can eat too, I think. With zucchini, though, I'm
going to make an exception to that rule. You know,
when zucchini starts producing, it's like what do you do.
That's why the neighbors close the blinds and one answered
the door. When you're carrying the tenth the basket of

(02:21:13):
zucchini across the yard to gift them. Some more said,
have fun, have fun in the garden, Divanna, thanks for
the call.

Speaker 14 (02:21:22):
Thank you.

Speaker 3 (02:21:24):
All right by by, let's see, we're gonna go now
to Larry and Alvin. Hey, Larry, welcome to garden Line.

Speaker 25 (02:21:31):
Good morning.

Speaker 14 (02:21:32):
Hey.

Speaker 9 (02:21:32):
Before I ask you my question, I've been curious. I
don't hear Nicky Courtney on there anymore.

Speaker 3 (02:21:40):
No, Nikki's retired. She's moved on having a happy, happy,
happy retired life. Yeah. Yeah, we missed enjoyed her being there.
Oh yeah, hey, how can I help you help you
with your question?

Speaker 9 (02:21:55):
Well, I'm going to sower rise a long flower band
all the way across front of my house. But I
also I was wondering should I put some barricade down
first or wait till get the solarized and then I'm
on a put down molt on top of it? And

(02:22:19):
should I put the malts down before solarize it?

Speaker 11 (02:22:22):
Does it matter?

Speaker 24 (02:22:22):
It's just a weed bed.

Speaker 3 (02:22:27):
Here's the quick answer on that solarizing heats up the
soil to a point where it kills all the weed
seeds and the surface not five inches down but the
top four if you do it right, if it's got
good sunlight. Now, if that works, you don't need to
use barricade because you've killed the weed seeds that are
up there.

Speaker 5 (02:22:45):
What I reckollec do.

Speaker 3 (02:22:47):
Do your soil prep and get the bed ready to plant,
and then solarize, and then when you take the plastic
clear plastic is what you after you when you take
that off, you've killed the weed seeds up there, so
you shouldn't need to do that the barricade. Now, then
plant your plants and then throw multch down on the surface.

(02:23:07):
That's kind of the overall answer to what you're asking.

Speaker 11 (02:23:11):
Got you got you? Well?

Speaker 9 (02:23:13):
That's good. That's good to know. I didn't know which
way to go, where I needed to do or in
what order I needed to do well.

Speaker 3 (02:23:20):
And if a solarizing was not fully effective for whatever
reason lack of light or whatever, if it wasn't fully effective,
by getting the plant in right away and getting that
mulch on top, now you've blocked the light and those
weed seeds are't go be able to come up through
the mulch anyway, so that's a double insurance.

Speaker 9 (02:23:37):
I'm probably going way a little bet spring and a
plant to plant then, so I got plenty of time
to solarize it. And it gets you.

Speaker 3 (02:23:48):
Yeah, what are you going to grow in that bed?

Speaker 9 (02:23:54):
I'm just gonna I think I'm on plant all naighties?

Speaker 3 (02:23:58):
Okay, all right, yeah, well ad it from you. Yeah,
you're done in Alvin down there. And I know that
airlom Soils has bag products at Ace Hardware stores and
they sell all over. They've got some really good mixes
and and I would I would seriously consider using their

(02:24:18):
landscape bed mix for example. I mean you could also
even use like a rose and bloomers blend. Even though
it's native plants, it doesn't mean you can't use roasto.
Roast oil is for good for woody shrubs of all kinds.
And so yeah, i'd get some of that stuff and
mix it in.

Speaker 9 (02:24:33):
Yeah, I've used your product. I really like it, so
I'll probably get quality.

Speaker 3 (02:24:40):
Yeah, you got some Ace Hardware is done in Alvin too,
that that I bet, I bet will carry it for you.

Speaker 9 (02:24:46):
And also carries it.

Speaker 3 (02:24:50):
Oh yeah, yeah, all right, Well hey man, thanks for
the call. I appreciate that very much. Appreciate you being
on guarden on. Yeah, Airlom Soils folks. Airloom Soils of
Texas dot com. Go to that website and look at
all the stuff they carry. Also look at something called
the soil calculator. It's a calculator and it'll tell you, like,
if you've got a bed that's this wide by this

(02:25:12):
long and you want to make it that deep, how
much soil do you need? And if you're gonna buy
a bulk, it'll tell you. If you're gonna buy in bags,
it'll tell you, you know, some of these bags or
one cubic feet from heirloom, some er two cubic feet,
it'll tell you. He'll even tell you how many five
gallon buckets it takes to do what you want to do.
It's a great calculator. And at that Heirloom Soils of
Texas site, that's where you'll find it. I'm gonna go

(02:25:33):
now to uh, let's see here Corey in. We've got
about a minute. Let's see if we can get started.
We'll finish up after a break.

Speaker 7 (02:25:44):
Okay, first question, but Grandpa died a couple of years ago.
He used to take care of the palm trees in
the yard. I'm taking care of my grandma now, trying
to take care of.

Speaker 11 (02:25:54):
The palm trees.

Speaker 7 (02:25:55):
So I've cut all of the dead limbs off, but
some of them were like ligong, And I don't know
if I'm like stripping the protecting bart or if it's
already dead and it's okay to come off. I'm just
trying not to like let the bottom of the tree
roun again.

Speaker 3 (02:26:13):
Yeah, I know, pull on it and it comes If
you pull on it comes off. That's fine. There's different
kinds of palms. Some of them the whole the palm
leaf has something called a petiole. That's the branch and
the palm leaf out there, and it attaches to the trunk.
And some of them strip away right there. Some of
them we cut them off and leave that stuff on there.

(02:26:33):
Just the nature of that.

Speaker 7 (02:26:35):
So if it's these are the ones with the sharp teeth,
these the ones with the sharp teeth, I'm on that thing.

Speaker 14 (02:26:42):
So I was cutting down I.

Speaker 7 (02:26:44):
Noticed a couple of the other palm trees, you know,
cutting them down to that little short stuff. But I
was also noticing the bottom doesn't on some of the
neighbor's trees don't look that way. They're like, I don't know, smoothish,
they're not, you know, jagged and layered.

Speaker 26 (02:26:59):
Is that good?

Speaker 9 (02:27:00):
Bad?

Speaker 7 (02:27:00):
Do I need to do that?

Speaker 9 (02:27:01):
How do I do that?

Speaker 3 (02:27:03):
Well, let's come back to that. I'm gonna have to
hit a break here and I will come back. We'll
continue with this discussion. But that's a good question. All right,
folks will be right back with us. We're going to
run back out to the conversation we had begun with Corey. Corey,
we're talking about palm trees and you had some branches
you have, or some palm leads that you've cut off,

(02:27:24):
and we're talking about whether or not to lead that
base on the trunk or not.

Speaker 12 (02:27:27):
Right, correct?

Speaker 3 (02:27:30):
Okay, Well, like I said, some palms depends on the
style of palm. They lead those stubs and issue drive
around down and you'll see that, and some it just
strips off. They cut it loose right at the trunk,
and that's fine too. I wouldn't worry a lot about it.
If it's gonna pull off. The older ones is are
decaying away, you know at the base that they're gonna
put a loose and if that works that way, that's fine.

Speaker 6 (02:27:53):
Just do that.

Speaker 3 (02:27:54):
That's not a problem. There are a lot of different
species of palms out there, and just the fact that
you mentioned it had the little darns or teeth on
the side, there's several types that have that, so that
characteristic alone doesn't really distinguish.

Speaker 7 (02:28:10):
Gotcha, Okay, Sorry that we use some of the dead
limbs for the top of the gazebo, and I'm using
a hatchet, and I just was wondering. I didn't want
to cut too deep into the tree, and so I
didn't know pulling that extra bark off with you know,
allow too much hair or something to rock the tree.

Speaker 3 (02:28:28):
No, just kind of cutting it loose at the surface
there of the plant. That's what you're doing. You don't
want to chop down deep into the trunk, for sure,
but you could. You could cut those things off if
you need to, just by more slicing. I guess your
swing is more in the direction of the trunk, parallel
of the trunk, more than it is at a right

(02:28:50):
angle directly into the trunks.

Speaker 7 (02:28:51):
You know what I'm saying, Right right, I'm trying to
give them that because the other trees that I see
people eating chainsaws with. They're like a nice bevil kind
of cross ditch live and so I'm trying to equal that. Yeah,
but I, like I said, at the bottom of the
tree sometimes it looks grated, and I see they am
using a tool or whatever to kind of grind the

(02:29:13):
tree there. And I didn't know if that was healthy
or if I needed to do that or in mind
to just leave alone that don't.

Speaker 3 (02:29:18):
Have a big budget, I'm not seeing that. I wouldn't
over overthink this one. The palm trees, you know, in nature,
nobody's doing anything like that to them, So it's not
gonna affect life of your big tree what you do.
It's just a matter of cleanness. And the other thing
is when you get a big top on a palm
tree that's full of all those dead leaves and things,

(02:29:40):
rats will hide up in there and nest and then
they'll fall out and hit you on the head with
that serrated edge of the leaf that can do a
lot of damage. And that's the main reason why I've
been friending them for aesthetics and.

Speaker 9 (02:29:50):
For someone.

Speaker 25 (02:29:53):
Okay, do I need to do anything to love then,
or can I just lea alone, the ones that are
still like half or three quarters green, No, you can
leave those on.

Speaker 3 (02:30:07):
Think of it this way. When you look at a
palm tree, the leaves in nature will form a complete circle.
There'll be green leaves going up to the sides, and
at some point, as they get down to let's say
five o'clock and eight o'clock on a clock, the ones
below that are all dead hanging around the base. You
want to prune all dead out, but you never want

(02:30:29):
to raise that up until where more than half of
that ball has been removed. So, in other words, look
at the pod and think of a clock, and don't
prune higher than three o'clock and nine o'clock. Does that
make sense if I do it that way?

Speaker 12 (02:30:43):
Perfect?

Speaker 7 (02:30:44):
Yes, yeah, it's perfect that I've always wanted to be
a college. How you keep your thinking my call?

Speaker 3 (02:30:51):
Oh? Well, thank you for being a caller. Call back sometime.
Take care?

Speaker 11 (02:30:54):
Yes you do at.

Speaker 14 (02:30:56):
All?

Speaker 3 (02:30:57):
Right, folks, there you go. It's as simple as that. Hey,
I'll I want to tell you about Medina products. I
have talked about a lot of different ones over the weeks.
I want to tell you about one. This is something
you need to know about for fall and that is
Medina Plus and Medina Liquid Humus. Both of them are
excellent products. But when you're going to be doing transplanting
and watering something in a Medina Plus I would do it,

(02:31:19):
and the Medina Humate liquid humus, which is constantrated compost
basically in a bottle, follow the label. Put those together
in a watering can and drench that down over your plants.
Now that Medina plus, you know, you can use it
as a folier on all kinds of things. You put
in a hose in spreader on all kinds of plants.
You can do it on flower pots and whatnot as
a sprinkling can over over the plants. But I'm talking

(02:31:42):
about for transplanting. This is another use of it. It's
a very good product. And fall is for planting. You're
going to be planting vegetables. You're gonna be planting herbs,
You're gonna be planting shrubs and trees and vines and
grounds covers, ornamental grasses and all of that. Whatever goes
in the ground, give it a good drench with the
Medina plus. The contents of that product are going to

(02:32:04):
be very beneficial for your plants. For example, the Medina Plus.
It's got what is in Medina Soil Activator plus, forty
different trace elements. It's got growth hormones in it, things
like magnesium and iron and zinc and a lot of
the things that enhance plant growth. And the list is
a mile long that all benefit plants. So if you

(02:32:25):
want better blooming, better leaf growth, better fruit set. If
you want transplanting success, even seed treatment, Medina plus and
throw some of that humate you maic acid in, especially
when you're doing watering in of a transplant. All from
Medina and Medina products are widely available. You can find
those all over the place. You hear me talk about

(02:32:45):
a garden center, a feed store, ace hardware store, Southwest fertilizer,
all those kind of places or where you're going to
find Medina. We're going to go now to Spring and
talk to Bill. Hey Bill, welcome to Guarden Line.

Speaker 26 (02:32:57):
Hey, Skip, I've got I'm got an infestation of meeae
bugs and I can't get rid of them. I was
listening two weeks about two weeks ago, and a lady
had called in and you told her just to chop
everything down and start over. Well, I've been trying to

(02:33:17):
spray them off and pick them off, and yeah, I've
got they're on my turks cap, they're on my hostas,
they're on my airing.

Speaker 3 (02:33:30):
All right, Well, hey Bill, I'm gonna I'm gonna cut
your question short because I don't want to run an
out of time right to run out of time on
the answer. So I want to give you that. If
the plant is just covered with meadaie bugs, sometimes the
best thing is to get rid of it and get
a new one, or cut it off. If the house
plan especially, get a new one. You can use things
to control them. You can spray them if they're small

(02:33:52):
meea bugs you know on a house plant kind of thing,
a little Q tip with alcohol and just every time
you see anything white, just get in there and kill
it and do that. If it's an outdoor plant, systemics work.
You put them in the soil. They're an insecticide. They
go into the plumbing of the plant. The mealea bug
sucks the juices and gets the poison that way. The
only drawback on systemics is if it's a flowering plant

(02:34:15):
that bees come to, well it's in the plumbing of
the plant and that's not good for the bees. So
that's the drawback on that horticulture oil and sexile soaps.
When the meadia bugs are young, that works. It's just
with that cotton you're covering, It's hard to get a
pesticide to the meai bug. That's why I like to
go through the plumbing of the plant, because they can't
survive without sticking their mouth then and sucking juices out

(02:34:38):
of the plant.

Speaker 14 (02:34:39):
Are they in the soil? Where do they come from?

Speaker 3 (02:34:43):
There are some Meaia bugs that can be down in
the soil area, in the root area, but in general,
I don't know that oftentimes they come in with the plant.
There's a lot of ways bugs can get into our landscape,
but they are a problem and the natural enemies. As
we try to kill them bugs, we kill their natural
enemies and then.

Speaker 14 (02:35:02):
Yah light bugs.

Speaker 11 (02:35:04):
Yeah yeah, thank you.

Speaker 3 (02:35:05):
Yeah yeah, all right, man, Bill, good luck with those.
A lot of people in Houston definitely feel your pain
when it comes to me with don't we just did
another garden line. I'm glad you're with us. It's a
great weekend. We'll be back next weekend six to ten
Saturday and Sunday. You can listen to the podcast for
listening back over shows. You can listen to us online.

(02:35:29):
You can listen to us on the radio. Of course,
you can get your iHeartMedia app, put one on your
phone and take your phone out in the garden and
garden on a Saturday and Sunday morning. Listen to Garden
Line while you're doing it. We can do all the above. Hey,
don't forget. Next week on Saturday, eleven thirty to twelve thirty,
I will be at the wild Birds Unlimited in clear Lake.

(02:35:51):
It's on the corner of El Dorado and clear Lake
City Boulevard. There's gonna be lots of giveaways. I'll be
there answering any kind of gardening questions you have. I
hope you'll come out and see me.

Speaker 5 (02:36:03):
Did you know your life insurance is an asset