Never give up on the tree's

Skip takes your calls!

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Program.

Speaker 2 (00:02):
Welcome to Katie r h Garden Line with Skip Rickard's.

Speaker 3 (00:08):
Crazy Shrimp.

Speaker 4 (00:15):
Just watch him as many.

Speaker 3 (00:23):
Supray not a sorry.

Speaker 1 (00:37):
Good morning, Good Sunday morning. We are glad you have
joined us this morning, and we're gonna have some fun
talking about gardening today. What kind of questions do you have?
Something about vegetables or herbs, or flowers or fruit, or
lawns or trees or shrubs, or let's see soil preparation
that'd be my favorite topic. Or maybe house planned something

(01:00):
inside whatever you question, whatever your questions are, just give
us a call. We'll be happy to visit about them.
Seven to one three two one two k t r
H seven one three two and two K t r H.
I've been preparing for a future show, a long future show.
It's gonna be during the holidays. I'm gonna do something

(01:21):
on the most common mistakes that I see people make
in their gardens or landscapes or lawns and everything. It's
gonna be a I think a list of about fifty things,
so it'd be kind of interesting. So during the holidays
we will play that. And uh, you know, having done
this for decades now, I've I've seen it all. And

(01:43):
as far as mistakes that folks make, and just between
you and me, since it's just doing me listening right now,
I made them too. I've made the mistakes, not all
of them, thank goodness, but I've made my share of
mistakes in the garden. And we learned from mistakes. And
you know, I always say that you don't fail at gardening.
You quit, you give up. And so if you stop trying,

(02:05):
stop learning, well, yeah, okay, you fail to gardening. But
there's no need to do that. It's just a matter
of starting over gardening again. To use another analogy that
works for me. Maybe if you're somewhere over forty years old,
you may remember the etch a sketch. Do they still
make those things? Where you know, you try to draw
with two knobs and one goes up and down and

(02:26):
one goes left and right, and inevitably your brain tells
your hand the wrong thing and you mess up your picture.
What do you do? You turn it upside down, you
shake it, and then when you look at the screen again,
it is blank, and you get to start over drawing again.
That's how gardening is. If you plant something that dies,

(02:47):
if you plant something that doesn't belong here, something that
pests and diseases get. Or if you just fail to
prepare the soil properly, maybe the drainage is poor and
you have problems. It's okay, can start over, or you
can move. In some cases you catch it soon enough.
You can dig the plant up center to the side,
get the bed right, and then put that plant back

(03:08):
in there. It's a learning process, and it really is fun.
You just need to not take it in yourself too seriously,
be willing to learn even the hard way. A very
well known, nationally known horticulturist out on the East Coast
said that to be a good horticulturist, you got to
kill a lot of plants. That is true, because I

(03:33):
learn a lot from my mistakes. Someone said, learn from
the mistakes of others. You don't have time to make
them all yourself. Well, I think you should learn from
both of them, because that's how gardening it is. So anyway,
have fun out there in the garden. That is very important,
and let's learn every day. Of course, that's what we're
doing here on garden Line every day. Nitrofoss has come

(03:57):
up with a Texas three step program. They've had it
for a while, but the Texas three step is basically
a fertilizer, a pest control product, and a disease control product.
Here's how it works. Step one nitrophoss Fall Special Winter Riser.
It's the balance of nutrients in it are to create

(04:19):
winter heartiness and to have your long come out stronger
in the spring, because early spring growth is based on
what's stored in the plant, not what the roots are
taking up right at that moment, but what's already stored
in the plant. So go into fall strong, go into
winter strong, you come out in spring strong. Secondly is
nitropos barricade an insecticide, excuse me, a herbicide. It prevents

(04:43):
weeds eachs from sprouting, so you put it down in
all those winter weeds you don't really see them in
the fall or really even in the winter much, and
then in spring they take off growing. They're like our native,
our Texas native flower, the bluebonnet. They sprout in the fall,
they kind of sit there, poppies, and then when spring comes, boom,
they take off, they get big, they grow. That's what

(05:04):
our weeds are doing. And barricade stops at And the
third step is nitrofoss eagle turf fungicide. This is a
systemic fungicide. It will work on brown patch now called
large patch. It will work on take all root rot
as well. It's an important third step in this process.
And you're going to be able to find these products

(05:26):
from nitrofoss at war on southern gardens. You're going to
find them at the Ace Hardware out there on Sinco
Ranch or even at Growers outlet up in willis Well.
We already got folks here trying to call in this morning.
Let's go ahead and go to the phones. I think
we'll start out here in Montgomery talking to Albert. Hello Albert,
welcome to garden line.

Speaker 5 (05:46):
Oh hello, Skip, good Sunday morning. I hope you're doing well,
very well. Thank you, Yes, sir, I got a some
brown patches. They look like brown patch, but I don't know,
could be chitchbug or how do I tell the difference?

Speaker 1 (06:04):
Well, brown patch officially has not hit in our lawns
just yet. It will when we get a little coal
front through and some rain and things will start to
see it. It could be chinchbugs. They typically start in
a sunny spot as opposed to shade, and they typically
start next to concrete, sidewalk or you know, some sort

(06:28):
of masonry, maybe a curb or driveway. That's usually where
you see them beginning, and they then they gradually move
out in the lawn. It could also be you know,
drought conditions. It could be due to compaction in the
soil and the plant just doesn't have the resilience and
the root system to be able to hold through things

(06:51):
like a minor drought. So I guess it could be
a number of things going on there. August Saint Augustine.

Speaker 5 (07:02):
Yes, sir, Saint Augustine is by.

Speaker 6 (07:04):
My dryway, like you're talking about so thick.

Speaker 1 (07:07):
Well if it is what I love to Okay, well
here's let's do this. Go get out there and find
the zone between healthy and dead. You know, dead, there's
not going to be any chinchbugs in it. They've moved on.
There's nothing to eat. Uh and and of course perfectly healthy.
They're not there yet or or we'd be seeing symptoms.

(07:29):
So go in that zone between healthy and dead. Drop
down on your hands and knees and look. I want
you first look at the grass blades. Are they normal
or are they missing? Or have they had the sides chewed?
Out of them, like something is chomping from the side
of the grass blade in that would be sid web worms. Uh.
If you don't see that, then go down into the
thatch and sort of pull it apart. And you kind

(07:51):
of pull it apart and hold real still and watch.
And if you see some little black and white bugs
crawling around in there. Sometimes they are also a brick
red with a white band to cross their back, that's chinchbugs.
And that would be the sign that you need to
use something for the chinchbugs, which would uh knock them out.
We still have some chinchbugs around that are giving some

(08:14):
trouble to our lawns.

Speaker 5 (08:16):
Okay, and it is chinchbugs.

Speaker 1 (08:19):
Kind of what do I hit it with?

Speaker 4 (08:21):
What did I spray with?

Speaker 1 (08:22):
Their granule or spray or nitrofis bug out max is
a granule, You put it out, you water it and
it washes off those granules and goes into that thatch area.
And then when that's where chinchbugs are hiding because they're
feeding on the on the runners, not on the leaves,
and uh, and it'll knock them out and it'll last
for a good while too. But anyway, let's find out

(08:44):
what we're dealing with first, and you know it may
not even be an insect at all. Okay, okay, well,
thank you sir. All right, yes, sir, all right, appreciate
your call. We're gonna have to run to a break here.
Mike and Huffman, you'll be first when we come back,
skip Rictor and rear to talk about the things that
concern you and interest you regarding your garden. You're having
problems you're trying to deal with. Give us a call

(09:07):
you want some suggestions for a plant or how to
a little quick discussion. We'll be happy to visit about
all those things. I do want to mention a while ago,
I was talking about the importance of the Nitropos Texas
three step, and then we talked about the Nitropas bug
out MAX for some insect issues that are going on

(09:29):
that would be an additional thing outside of that three step.
ACE hardware carries all of those every fertilizer you hear
me talk about, such as nitrophos, they're going to be
at ACE hardware. If you're synthetic, if you're organic, do
you need pest control? Synthetic or organic? Do you need
disease control? Same thing? Do you need weed control. They're
all there at ACE Hardware along with the tools you

(09:51):
need to get the job done. If you want to
have a beautiful lawn, if you want to have a
bountiful garden, Ace Hardware Store, in addition to being an
outstanding hardw store, has all of that to turn your
outdoor space into something special, and including those little outdoor
sitting areas. I'd love to go outside later in the
day when it's a little cooler and just enjoy the
patio and you know, just enjoy that out there. Ace

(10:14):
Hardware has all the things you need to turn that
place into something special as well. All you have to
do is go to Ace Hardware dot com and find
this store locator and there are like forty stores here
in the Greater Houston area that you can find something
really close to you so that you can get set
up at ACE Hardware. I'm going to run now out
to see Huffman, Texas and we're going to talk to Mike. Well, Hello, Mike, Good.

Speaker 7 (10:40):
Morning, Skip.

Speaker 8 (10:42):
I need to know the best time, the best way
to prep the soil for a wildflower garden, the best
seed almost some quality.

Speaker 1 (10:50):
I got some one time and all I got out
of it.

Speaker 7 (10:52):
And that don't get me wrong, I enjoyed it.

Speaker 8 (10:54):
But just giant sweet basil plants came up.

Speaker 7 (10:57):
That was all that came out of it.

Speaker 8 (10:59):
And I need to know how to protect the seeds
from the birds.

Speaker 1 (11:07):
Okay, well I haven't run across that being a problem
before wildflower planting. So here's here's what I would do.
First of all, you want to give them a spot
where they can come up without a lot of competition.
You know how I always say, get a good dnsealon
and it chokes out the weed seeds. Well, if you
have a if you've got a bunch of stuff growing
in the spot, weeds and grass and other things, those

(11:30):
wildflower seeds aren't going to get sunlight to come up.
So you want to mo real low, get the debris
out of the way. If you can, uh, if you
can scratch the surface of the soil a little bit,
go ahead and do that. Some situations, it's not practical,
you know. If you're going to do are you talking
about a little area of your yard. Are you talking
about like a field that you want to plan in. Yeah,
it's an area in the front yard.

Speaker 8 (11:51):
I've got a little bitty tiny tiller I call it
Taz because this thing's crazy.

Speaker 6 (11:55):
It goes off, but he does, okay, thing about killing
up the.

Speaker 8 (11:59):
Lane and then raking out the dead grass and whatever else.

Speaker 1 (12:04):
Yeah, yeah, you could. You could do that. Just remember
that once you turn the soil, every weed in the
world is going to come up along with your wildflowers.
And that's okay. They all have the same start. But
get yeah, I get that cleaned out, uh, and then
sprinkle your wildflower mix out there and very lightly break
over it. You don't want to bury the seeds deep,

(12:26):
but just just a little soil seed contact there would
be good and then a good watering if if rain
doesn't cooperate. Now, there's a couple of companies that sell
wildflower seed in more of a bulk way that have
quality seed and you can pick them. You could buy
just blue bonnets, or you could pick a regional mix
of wildflowers that grow in your area. And one of

(12:47):
them is wild Seed Farms. Wild Seed Farms. They are
in Fredericksburg, Texas. They used to be down here to
the lake many many years ago.

Speaker 9 (12:58):
Uh.

Speaker 1 (12:58):
And the other one is Native American Seed and they're
in Junction, Texas. So both of these are Hill Country,
Texas companies will seat farms in Fredericksburg, Native American Seed
and Junction. Go online look at what they have. You'll
be very impressed with the mixes and things. You can
buy large quantity or small quantity either way, Yes, sir, yes, sir, well,

(13:21):
I appreciate that.

Speaker 6 (13:22):
And what about the birds, they're just going to have
a field.

Speaker 1 (13:25):
Day or what. I just don't think they're gonna be
a big problem with this this kind of seed. I
never have had that, especially when the siege are kind
of scratched in and watered ink. You know, if you've
got a worthwhile family cat, you might bribe them to
go hang out in that field for a while or
that area for a while and keep the birds away.

(13:50):
They might as well be feral.

Speaker 6 (13:52):
They do hunting all the time, so that'll that'll help.

Speaker 1 (13:54):
Yeah, okay, all right, you take care of my sir.
Good luck with that. Send me a picture if it
comes up and you get it up in bloom and
I'd like to see what you end up with eggs.
I'll do that, all right. Thank you. Appreciate that you
are listening to Guardline. We're here to answer your gardening
questions at seven one three two one two fifty eight

(14:16):
seventy four seven one three, two one two five eight
seven four. Now I've talked about mosquito dunks before, and
we are still in mosquito season. In fact, I just
swatted one a minute ago that somehow got indoors that
was flying around. But if you want to enjoy that
outdoor patio like I was talking about, they can spoil

(14:36):
the show. But it's it's it's pretty simple to get
ahead of mosquitoes, and the first step in that is
stopping standing water from being a breeding area. Dump out
standing water, those catch basins under your plant, Fix that
sagging gutter where it, you know, kind of holds water
for a while. Doesn't take mosquitos long to drop an
egg in stagnant water and end up with an adult mosquito.

(14:59):
So this happens. That's why we have mosquito dunks, Mosquita
dunks and mosquito bits, both from the same company's Summit
Responsible Solutions. They're widely available. You get them in the
feed stores I talk about on garden Line. You get
them at Southwest Fertilizer, you get them at ACE hardware stores,
you get them at Garden centers I talk about here
on guard Line. They're easy to find another dunk. One

(15:20):
dunk's like a little mini doughnut. You throw it out there,
it floats in the water, lasts about a month, covers
about one hundred square feet of surface. The granules you
can make granules out of a dunk by just hitting
it with a hammer and breaking it up in little pieces,
or you can just buy them as granule. Those you
can sprinkle around in small areas, like underneath that that
catch basin underneath a plant pot, for example. Mosquita dunks

(15:43):
are easy to find and they work, and they don't
hurt anything other than mosquitos and fungus gnats. So yeah,
I know people that sprinkle them inside their pots where
you're getting fungus gnats breeding and a container plant. They'll
sprinkle them in the surface and they work there too.
But they don't hurt any wildlife, any family, pets, any

(16:04):
birds that want to come there. They just it's a
disease of mosquitoes. Think of it that way. That's how
they work, and they do really really work well. You
can get them in a lot of places, for example,
up on the North and West at RCW Nursery rcwst
Garden Center that try where two forty nine comes into
Beltway eight. Well they've got them there as well. And

(16:26):
of course when you're at RCW, you need to check
out the unbelievable selection of things that they have and
you need to look. I would like you to take
a look at some of their sales that are going on.
You know, they have a better rose selection than about
anybody I know. I mean it's outstanding. And seasonally, you know,
things come and go, but they have a nice selection

(16:49):
of trees. Fall is the time to plant trees. It's
a time when you need to get your trees planted.
So go ahead and stop in there and look at it,
and you know they'll give you they'll give you a
list of the things that you need for a good
successful planting. So that would be, for example, a root stimulator,

(17:09):
some fertilizers for feeding those trees as they get up
and going. They specialize in that. And when you buy
a tree or shureb at RCW, you're going to get
something that I guarantee you will grow here, that belongs here,
because that's all they that they're going to sell. But
right now, fall color is outstanding. They've got a great

(17:30):
selection of citrus, a nice selection of figs too, by
the way, going out there, and some beautiful bedding plants
for fall color. And also the hibiscus. You know, they
have outstanding selection of the I can't say Cajun series
of hibiscus, and I have one of those, just one
of my favorite plants that I have. If you're into succulents,

(17:51):
good selection of succulents. In other words, what do you
need stop buy? RCW. They are at Tomball Park, went
about way eight, and it's really easy to get to.
Go to a website rcwnurseries dot com. You can find
out how to get there and all the information that
you need. Follow them on social media too. By the way,
you're listening to garden Line, I'm your host, Skip Richter,

(18:14):
and we're here to answer gardening questions. So how can
we help you have a more bountiful garden and a
more beautiful landscape today? Give me a call at seven
one three two one two five eight seven four seven
one three two one two fifty eight seventy four. Let's
talk plants on this wonderful Sunday morning that we got

(18:34):
going right here. I have been taking care of some
things out in my yard. You know, I've talked about
nutsedge a lot, because you folks call about nutsedge a lot,
but I have had a patch of it in a
flower bed that I planted. I got out as much
as I could, you know, as I was preparing the

(18:54):
soil in the bed, putting in organic matter and things.
Every time i'd find a little string of tubers or
nuts on the plants, I pull them out. But of
course when I planted it, they came right back, because
there's a lot of them in there that you don't get.
And so I've been dealing with that. But I'm I'm
kind of my gardens and beds are more experiments, if

(19:15):
you know what I'm saying. And so because of that,
I tried different things on it, just to learn so
that when I give you advice, it's stuff I've tried
and done and I know it works and I don't
steer you wrong. I'm going to take a quick break
here for the news. We'll be back again. The number
give Crystal call seven one three two one two kt RH.
He'll get you on the board and you'll be first

(19:35):
up when we come back.

Speaker 9 (19:37):
With us.

Speaker 1 (19:38):
We are here to talk about the things that interest you.
How do you have success in a garden? How do
you make a beautiful garden bed? You know falls coming.
I mean we're on the doorstep right now, and we
have a lot of color options for fall. Let's talk
about some of those. If you got some questions on
turning a flower bed into something beautiful to carry all
the way into the early winter season, we can we

(19:59):
can help you do that here. Just give us call
seven one three two one two KTRH is how you
go about that. I was looking at some of the
products that Microlife has available that I don't talk about
a lot, you know, talk about the sixty four, the
brown bag, and certainly the brown patch, which is a

(20:20):
fall fertilizer coming up on that season, But I don't
talk a lot about some of the liquid products that
they have enough and one of them that I think
you would be very interesting, in fact, two of them.
One of them is micro grow liquid AF. Micro Grow
liquid AF is loaded with beneficial microbes. I mean, if
you look at the sheet on all the beneficial microbes

(20:42):
that are in this it's kind of the who's who
of the good guys in the soil. You know all
those things that work with your plant roots to have success.
It's loaded with that. Basically, when you are putting this down,
you are adding those microbes to the soil. And when
you add good guys to soil, they out compete harm
that's our goal. You know, there's bad microbes and there's

(21:03):
good microbes, and we want the balance to shift toward
the good microbes. That's when plants thrive, that's when disease
problems are lessened. And that's why microlife makes micro grow
liquid af it's liquid. Microlife also has a soil and
plant energy. This is a combination of a humic and
fulvic acid blend with molasses in the soil. These are

(21:26):
all carbon rich substances and when you add carbon, that's
what microbes eat. They need the carbon and molasses and
humic fulbac acid just create that kind of root zone.
Addition to adding a whole dozens of different minerals as well,
and very safe. You're not going to burn plants with it.
And so those two combinations that would be excellent to

(21:49):
use if you were doing some fall planting, which I
hope you will be to water down into the soil.
It's also good just when you're preparing an area for planting,
just however you want to go about it. Microlife soil
and plant energy all or Microlife liquid AF either of
those two. I just want to mention those because again
I don't talk about those enough. There are just so

(22:09):
many products for microlife that help us have success. You know,
with organic gardening, it all is about the soil. You know,
people think of organic gardening as well, I'm not going
to use synthetic sprays. I'm going to use organic sprays. Well,
it's not about killing stuff. Organic gardening starts in the soil.
It's about making the soil as good as it can be. Now,
if you have to use a pesticide, you can choose

(22:32):
organic products for that, but just remember it basically is
about preparing the soil and making the plants as healthy
and happy as you can. And that goes back to
the thing I always say, brown stuff before green stuff.
You make the soil right and the plants naturally are
going to thrive in that kind of soil. And you
can buy these products at a number of places. Microlife's

(22:54):
widely available. Southwest Fertilizer, the place that has everything, is
a good place to get these liquids as well as
a whole lot of other micro life products. They carry
every fertilizer I talk about on guarden Line they carry
every time you hear me say use this for a pastor,
or that for a disease, or this to prevent a
weed or to kill an existing weaed. It's going to
be at Southwest Fertilizer. They're down on the corner of

(23:17):
Bisnett and Runwick. But I'm telling you people, it's not
just Southwest Houston that goes to Southwest Fertilizer. It's all
over the place. I talk to people all the time
that drive a good distance just because they know when
they walk in there, they're going to get everything they
possibly could need. And expertise too. You take them a sample,
you take them a picture of a weed or a plant,
or a bug or a problem, and they'll get you

(23:39):
straightened out and put the product in your hand that
you need that will work. The website is Southwest Fertilizer
dot com. And if you haven't been there, I would
encourage you to go. Just go one time, plant, just
go see what is this the skip is talking about,
and I think you'll find yourself going back. You are
listening to Garden Line, and and I wanted to talk

(24:01):
a little bit about I was talking earlier about some
things that I've been doing out in the garden. I
am still harvesting okra, and I have too much okra
by the way. I feel like I'm in an okra
twelve step program or something. A Hello, my name is Skip.
I grow a lot of okra because I do, and
the reason is I like to actually cross okra, breed okra.
I'm working on some okra that is more ornamental and

(24:25):
some okra that is shorter so you don't need a
helicopter to pick it. I'm working on some okra that
is more productive, more attractive. Basically anyway, I've got several
different strains out in the garden right now that I'm
evaluating and selecting from and doing some crosses. And I
just enjoy that. And you know, with gardening, it doesn't
matter who you are, there's going to be something you

(24:48):
are interested in. A few gardeners get into it enough
to become amateur plant breeders, and there are people that
they literally cross day lilies or across tomatoes or or
there's huge communities out there that share their expertise among
themselves and they just come up with fun stuff. One

(25:11):
of the easiest things to cross is squashes. There's a
lot of combatibility where you can create some strange things
or some combo things. But I hope you get out
and enjoy stuff like that. Maybe you don't want to
get into it that far. I understand that that's that
makes sense, but it is still fun, okay. Our phone

(25:32):
number seven one three two one two five eight seven
four seven one three two one two fifty eight seventy four.
You've heard me talk about azamite before, and basically, asamite
is a micro nutrient or a trace mineral substance. Your
soil needs a bank account of over twenty different nutrients

(25:52):
in order for plants to perform and live. They are
nutrients required for all aspects of plant growth, and it
takes about twenty plus nutrients to do that. Azamite provides
some of those trace minerals that are needed in small amounts.
And the way I refer to it as it builds
the soil bank account so that as you put on
your fertilizers and the nitrogen, phosphorus, potassium, you get your

(26:15):
lawn growing. Let's say or any kind of plant growing,
it's going to need to draw on micro nutrients to
support that growth. You can't make a leaf without iron.
You can't make a leaf without zinc, for example. That's
what I'm talking about. Azumite is so widely available. Everybody
carries asmite around this area, and you can go to

(26:36):
azimite Texas dot com and find out more about it.
Azimite Texas dot com is how if you want to
learn more about it when you're doing your fall fertilization,
you could do it now did about once a year.
It just don't put I was having this discussion. By
the way, I had a great time out at clear
Lake Ace Hardware yesterday visiting with folks. Thanks for all

(26:59):
of you who came out to that. That was a
lot of fun. But we were talking about combining Can
I do this and this at the same time, And
the entwer is always yes, but and the butt is
don't put it in the same hopper. So let's say
you wanted to fertilize your lawn, you wanted to add
the azumite too, and you wanted to put down I

(27:19):
don't know, bugginator or barricade or something you could do
all those on the same day, but don't put them
all in the same hopper because it's different particle size,
and they'll settle out and you'll end up with too
much of one at the beginning and too much of
the other at the end. Just go through over your
lawn two or three times how many products you're putting up.
But yes, you can put them all out on the

(27:40):
same day, including that amite. We're going to take a
little break right here. It is time for that. And
when we come back, Jim you bet welcome back to
Guardenline folks. Good have you with us. I was talking
about azemite a minute ago. Tell you one place you
can get azemite as well as all the other fertilizers
you hear me talk about, and that's League City Feed

(28:01):
for all of you over there in that general area
of League City. And I'm talking about Santa Fe, Dickinson,
el Kamina, Reale at Bay Cliff, Webster, Lamark, all that area.
If you go to League City Feed in League City,
it's just it's on Highway three, just a few blocks
south of ninety six. You're going to find those products
as well as things to control pests and diseases. League

(28:23):
City Feed is open Monday through Saturday nine to six,
so you can swing by after work to grab what
you need. It's one of those old time feed stores.
They carry your stuff out for you and they're going
to have the products that you need that you hear
about on Garden. I'd like that asomite, for example. If
you'd like to give them a call. It's two eight
one three three two sixteen twelve. Two eight one three

(28:44):
three two sixteen twelve. That's League City Feed in League
City on Highway three, just a few blocks south of
Highway ninety six. Really easy to get to. Let's go
now out to Jim. Jim, you're in East Tennessee. Is
that correct?

Speaker 10 (29:00):
That is correct. I was raised in Gleanapark, just in
a city years and years ago, but I now live
in severebl Tennessee, in the Smoky Mountains.

Speaker 1 (29:10):
And you're talking about so beautiful.

Speaker 10 (29:13):
Oh it's pretty nice, really really lovely. You're talking about soil.
My girlfriend is a doctor and she loves these purple
sweet potatoes from Japan and the health benefits and nutrients
and is there a way to source I think it's

(29:35):
a regional thing because of the volcanic soil. Is there
a way to source that soil or a comparable product
to see if we could grow that sweet potato?

Speaker 1 (29:48):
Oh you can. You can absolutely grow it where you are.
You don't have to bring in a special soil. You
want well drained soil. Sweet potatoes typically or commercially produced
in areas with the sandy loam soil as oppos to
heavy clay. So anything you can do to improve the
internal drainage if you need to do that. If you
if you're dealing with the clay, just you know, break

(30:08):
it up, get some organic matter down in there. They'll
they'll do fine in your area. And so when you
say source, are you talking about just getting soil or
are you talking about finding that sweet potato?

Speaker 11 (30:19):
No?

Speaker 10 (30:20):
Sourcing the soil itself. I thought it only grew in Japan.
I didn't know that you could grow it in other regions.

Speaker 1 (30:28):
No, actually, the first one over here, there's there's been
one developed by the Stokes Seed Company. Are offered by
the Stoke Seed Company. It was actually developed. I believe
it's North Carolina. It's it's one of those states right there,
not far from you. That Oh wow, North Carolina, North Carolina,
was a breeder that did it. Now there was there

(30:50):
is one that was taken from Central South America, which
is where they came from to over to China and Japan,
and its kind of became known as the Okinawa sweet
potato because that's one of the regions where it developed.
But it's just it's just a sweet potato. It just
happens to be one this purple and uh so we'll
get those colors and fruit. You typically have things like

(31:13):
you got high high anthision and content. It's type of
flavonoid and vitamin C is good in them and stuff.
I mean, they're you know, sweet potatoes in general, I
have a lot of health benefits. But but yeah, you
can grow those where.

Speaker 10 (31:28):
Great great to hear. Yeah, when I have to work
on weekends. I listened to you on the I Heart.
I'm headed back to Surreal right now. So but thank you,
thank you for that, and we'll we'll give it a shot,
all right.

Speaker 1 (31:44):
You take care. Thanks for the call, Jim. Appreciate that
there's a lot of kind of novel types of things
out there, and it makes you know, that makes gardening fine.
I know some people kind of are constantly going after
whatever the weirdest latest thing is, and that's fine. Hey
you're supposed to have fun. If that makes you happy,
then go do it. But you can anytime we're growing

(32:08):
our own food, we're doing a good thing. We're doing
a healthy thing when we're doing that. And when we
think of food that one of the slogans that I
think USDA had come up with a while back was
called eat a rainbow. I believe they are the ones
that came up. Anyway, It basically means eat different colors
because when you start when you look at things, let's

(32:30):
just take the the orange types of vegetables and fruit.
You know that if we're looking at sweet potatoes, if
we're looking at carrots, you know those are going to
be high in certain nutrients that are going to do
do well. And purple is sweepta the same thing. And
it just it just makes sense and it's a lot
of fun. And you know, when you serve a purple

(32:54):
sweet potato, people are going to go, what what have
you done here? And it just it's a conversation piece.
But they're dead, they're sweet potatoes. So let's get out
there and have some fun. Have you been out to
in Chenned Forest? Enchanted Forest is out there in the
Richmond Rosenberg area, Richmond Rosenberg and in Chenna Forest is

(33:14):
the one. If you were let's say you're at Richmond
Rosenberg and you're heading up towards sugar Land, it's off
to the right, it's off to the right. And in
Channa Forest you're going to find all kinds of things
to get you ready for fall. Are you into herbs.
That's a great way to season your food without slathering
it with I don't know, a thousand island dressing or something.

(33:36):
Herbs are wonderful and fun to grow and ornamental, and
they've got them there and a lot of them. They've
got beautiful, beautiful vegetable transplants and now's the time to
get the fall garden in. Talk about eating good food, Well,
here's your chance to do it. Do you need fall
color things like Croton's for example, they've got those in
Beautiful Beauty and as well as other fall colors from

(33:58):
things like Colius and whatnot. It gives you the Halloween,
the Thanksgiving, all those types of fall color. They can
load your landscape up with those kinds of things. They
got great trees and fall is the best time to
plant a tree. It is. It's the best time go
buy and get some trees. Do you want that nitrophosphall program?
I was talking earlier about the one two three, the

(34:20):
Texas three step. Do you like the organics like microlife
bron patch. They've got those there as well as well
as all the shrubs and perennials and the host plants
you could be looking for. Just head straight to Enchanted
Forest and you're going to be able to find that
and everything else that you need to have success, including
good advice. They're on FM twenty seven fifty nine Outside Richmond,

(34:43):
twenty seven fifty nine Enchanted Forest, Richmond, TX dot com.
Enchanted Forest, Richmond, TX dot com. Go check that website out.
It is really cool, really inspiring. You know. I start
looking at gardenings stuff and I just get all excited
and inspired and I come up with eight hundred new

(35:04):
things that I just have to grow or try or
do or whatever. Like we said, gardening is fun. Hey
we didn't say, you know that it's not addictive. It
is addictive. That's a warning. I probably should have that
on garden Line show every years. Warning gardening can be addictive.
Consult your physician before starting a garden or I don't know,

(35:26):
I'll be your physician. Go ahead, you can do it,
don't worry about it. It's a good addiction, a lot
of fun. And I'm not kidding about that. I mean,
I was talking earlier about people breeding their own plants,
and I know people that get so into it. I
mean that it's they just obsess over making the best
hibiscus that can exist. There's a lady out there I

(35:49):
can't remember her name, somewhere in the country and she
breeds these hibiscus that are just like, what is that real?
Or is that photoshopped? You know, But it's what she
likes to do it. She has fun doing it, and
so yeah, gardening is addicted, but it's fun, absolutely fun. Hey,
these storms we've had this year have really hammered, really

(36:11):
hammered our trees. I'd drove in through a neighborhood in
Houston yesterday just looking at the missing trees that were
there and had fallen and had had come in have
them removed out. When that happens, we lose power. And
when we lose power it can be for a while.
We've had two spells of extended days without power here

(36:33):
in the Houston area for many of the areas. Quality
Home Products of Texas can fix you up with a
Generaic generator and they have a really really good deal
on those. You need to call them and ask about this.
But by the way, their phone number is seven to
one three Quality seven to one three Quality, or go
to the website Quality tx dot com. This is a company.

(36:56):
You can buy generation a lot of places, but with
Quality Home, what you're buying is personal service and continuing
support from the time you walk in and say what
kind of generator do I need? And they go through
questions with you and help put you in contact with
the generator that's going to serve your needs. They set
it up for you. They just can't beat it. Quality

(37:20):
Home Products of Texas. It looks like music means we're
putting an hour in the books. That is fast. I
feel like I just sat out and here we are
already done with an hour. We're going to be back,
We're going to be doing a lot of things. I
want to thank the folks at Waberd's Unlimited yesterday from
clear at Dunning clear Lake. That was a good time

(37:42):
we had and I think everybody that came out to
that I want to remind you that next Saturday, I'm
going to be at A and A Plants and Produce
from twelve to two. That's up in Montgomery. So all
of you folks out there in the Lake Conroe area
that are listening, including Conroe and Willis and Montgomery of
course that whole area up north, come on out and
see me next Saturday, twelve to two and we'll do

(38:04):
the regular things. I'll talk a little bit, I'll answer
your questions, I'll diagnose, i'll identify. I'll help you have
a beautiful garden and a bountiful landscape because I love
doing that.

Speaker 2 (38:18):
Welcome to Katy r H. Garden Line with Skip Ricord's.

Speaker 1 (38:22):
Shoes, crazy.

Speaker 4 (38:29):
Trim.

Speaker 3 (38:30):
Just watch him. As many birthdays to Septasya. Not a
sign says.

Speaker 1 (38:52):
The sun beam and all right, welcome back. I'm glad
to have you with us this morning on a beautiful
Sunday morning. You're listening to guard Line. I'm your host,
Skip Richter, and we're here to help you have a
more bountiful garden, a more beautiful landscape. I just feel
free to give us a call at seven one three
two one two K T R H and let's figure

(39:15):
out what's going on. Let's figure out what's going wrong
if you're having problems, or let's plan to do some
things right to get off to a good start. You know,
we Gardening is a hopeful thing. Gardeners are eternal optimist.
I don't know if you knew this, but if you're
a gardener, you you probably do. And that means that
you know, when I plant tomatoes in the spring, I

(39:36):
can already taste those tomatoes, or when I plan them
for fall gardening, and I know it's going to be
the best tomatoes I've ever grown in the world right
in that heat. Is hopeful and and just just positive
about how how it's going to go. Gardening is a
fun thing. It's like spring. It's a renewal, you know,
every time you come into a spring. I don't know,

(39:58):
it's like entering the new year after the holidays. We
make our resolutions of things, it's gonna be a great year,
those sort of things. And gardening is the same kind
of thing. It is an optimistic, hopeful thing. When you
choose to put a seed or plant in the ground,
you essentially are having the faith that that thing's going
to come up and that it's going to grow and
that it's going to produce, and then it's going to

(40:20):
produce something good. You know, you don't put it. You
don't put a seed in the ground and go, Yeah,
bugs are probably gonna eat this, and I probably never
seen anything. You don't have that ad it. I hope
you don't. If you do, stop it, stop that. Don't
do that, because gardening is a really cool and hopeful thing.
All right, Well, you are listening to garden line again

(40:41):
the number seven one three two one two five eight
seven four. If you want to get inspired for gardening,
you need to go buy arbor Gate Garden Center. Arbor
Gate is the garden center up there west of tumble
On twenty nine to twenty uh and it's about a
mile and a half west of two forty nine. It's
as you're heading out to be on the left hand
side by the way before and after Arburgate, you'll see

(41:03):
a road called Trashle Road because it's a little loop
that goes around behind Arburgate. You got a parking lot
in the back. You just have to turn down Trisha
Road and you will have plenty of places for great
parking no matter the weather. It's one of those parking
lots that absorbs water through the lot, so it's always hard,
it's always easy to walk on drains well, and just

(41:26):
super easy access. I think it's pretty cool. I love
the way they designed that thing out there. But the
main thing is it gets you access to some of
the best selection of planets you're going to find anywhere.
I mean, Arburgate specializes in having some of everything, and
some things I promise you you've never heard of, he
seen or grown before. If you need decorations for your fall,

(41:48):
for Halloween, Thanksgiving, even coming up on Christmas here in
a bit, Arburgate's going to have that. They right now,
they have a selection of fall color plants that will
take your beds all the way up to at least
the first frost. And you can just get out there
and see what I'm talking about. If you've never planted
fall bloomers in your garden, why not go buy and

(42:10):
pick some up today. You know, we have Salvia leucantham
Mexican bush sage. We have copper Canyon daisy that blooms
in the fall. We have the fall aster, there's an
ex Native Texas aster, and other asters and mums and
just lots of things you can put in the garden
and the landscape that are beautiful. Do you need herbs,
do you need vegetable plants, or do you just need

(42:33):
some inspiration? Go out there, walk around, take a look
at things. When you talk to the people that work
at Arburgate, you're talking to people that know what they're
talking about, and that is important. You go a lot
of places that will sell you a plant and they
do not have a clue probably the plant should need
to be put here, and you know the kind of
places I'm talking about. But when you go to Arburgate,

(42:55):
you get plants that grow here and you get people
that can tell you what to do, how to do it,
how to have success. If something goes wrong, of a
bug shows up, they'll tell you what to do about it.
They are experts at it. And I know I've visited
with the many occasions Arburgate Garden Center again. They're out
west of Tombull on to twenty nine to twenty go
to the website Arborgate dot com. Follow them on social

(43:18):
media too. While you're out there. Garden tourism that's what
I call it. And I go to garden centers as
part of garden tourism because I always see something new,
I get inspiration, and it's just fun. And listen, when
folks come visit from other areas of Texas or from
wherever haul them out to some of these great garden

(43:40):
centers like Arburgate, they will be really impressed and they have
a good time. It's just a great way to, I
don't know, get out with family and friends and enjoy
things with us. Today. We're looking forward to talking with
you about the things that you're interested in. You know,
I can talk about things that I'm interested in. I
can talk about things that I know people are interested

(44:01):
in in general for this time of the year. Been
doing this for thirty five years and her a lot
of questions over those years. But what are you interested
in today? This is your chance to give us a
call seven one three two one two five eight seven
four seven one three two one two fifty eight seventy four.
You know, we like feed stores. We love our feed
stores here on Garden Line and Spring Creek Feed Center

(44:22):
is up there just to the a little bit north
and east of Tumbaugh. It's up in the Magnolia area.
On FM twenty nine seventy eight, just minutes away from
both Graham Parkway and Highway to forty nine Magnolia on
FM twenty nine seventy eight. That's what you need to remember.
Spring Creak Feed. When you drive up, you can't miss

(44:42):
it is a big, beautiful barn looking store that when
you walk inside it it's gorgeous, beautiful and when you
get inside, you're going to find fertilizers lines like turf
Star line, the microlift lines, the Nitropos lines for example.
They're going to have things like Medina. They're going to
have long and garden supplies. If you got a pond,
they got supplies for that too. Do you need a weed,

(45:04):
something to kill weeds, deal with diseases, or to deal
with pests, They've got it. Very friendly, very courteous staff
will help you and put you in touch with the
product that you need, and they're going to happen there now.
They also have quality types of pet food and listen,
if you need something special ordered, they can do that too.

(45:24):
You just need to talk to them, tell them, hey,
this one I'm looking for. Can you bring get that
in for me? I bet they can. If you're an
f FA or four h youth. There's a special discount
as well as for military and also for senior citizens,
so mention that to them when you're there at Spring
Creek feed again. They are on excuse Me FM two
twenty nine seventy eight F twenty nine seventy eight in

(45:48):
the Magnolia area. I was in there the other day
checking it out because I do visit our sponsors periodically
just to say, Okay, what's new, what's going on, what's
happening here, and just noticed that the place is really
really looking good, looking excellent. As a result. There are

(46:09):
a number of products from Medina, and I've talked about
a number of them over the time that I've been
doing this. Medina Plus is one that i'd like to
kind of next to you. There's a couple of them
i'd like to talk to you about today. But Medina
Plus is fortified with micronutrients, essential micronutrients, got growth hormones in.
It's from the seaweed extract. It has all the natural

(46:32):
soil building advantages of the Medina Soil Activator. That's why
we call this Medina Plus. The other product, the one
you've used before, is Medina Soil Activator and it's one
that's been popular with gardners for a very very long time.
But Medina Plus then adds over forty trace elements. It's
got cidecinon, which is a natural growth hormone from seaweed extract, magnesium, iron, zinc,

(46:59):
papa acid for you want the full word there. It's
a para amino benzoic acid. Okay, I know you wrote
that down riba flavor diamond by it and ni ni
nicotinic acid. I can't even say that nicotinic acid and
all essential trace In other words, this is a concoction
that has everything you need to promote blooming and leaf growth,

(47:21):
to promote fruit set, to make transplanting go smoother for plants. Yeah,
you would just take this, put it. I put it
in a in a watering can, mix it up according
to the right level, and just dump it over the
whole plant. You can get it on the leaves, you
can get it down soaking into the soil to get
those roots off to a good start. Medina plus will
do that. Another real regular medino soil activator will also

(47:43):
do that. I like to use the Plus as well
because for that extra boost, especially with transplanting, you can
do it for gardens, for flower pots, even if you
don't do it on a hose, en spray or over
your whole yard, that is fine as well. Another great product,
there are many of them from the folks at Medina.

(48:04):
Let me head over now to Conroe and we're going
to talk to Marcus. Hey, Marcus, Okay, how can we help?

Speaker 10 (48:13):
Yeah?

Speaker 12 (48:14):
Uh, well, I made.

Speaker 13 (48:16):
A new built subdivision today and.

Speaker 7 (48:20):
That you treat.

Speaker 13 (48:21):
They planted a text to spread oak and a pin
oak and both of them have to come to Oak well.

Speaker 7 (48:28):
But I want to know first the name of a.

Speaker 13 (48:31):
Contractor that a reliable one where I can get something
that's totally not infected already.

Speaker 7 (48:39):
And I would like to know what you think.

Speaker 12 (48:41):
About the use of Zouster grass on the Conroe Association.

Speaker 13 (48:45):
I'm not I'm having a lot of trouble with my
Saint Augustin on it.

Speaker 7 (48:50):
I wondered what your thought for on that.

Speaker 1 (48:53):
And you're wanting to get a tree planted, right.

Speaker 7 (48:57):
Yeah, I'm gonna have to buy indeed.

Speaker 1 (49:00):
Okay, Yeah, got it. Well, I would call the folks
at RCW uh and they may have you talked to
the Williamson Tree Farm up in Plantersville. That's also part
of that that operation. Uh. And they grow the trees
right out there, and they are quality trees. I know
with RCW they can come out and do planting. You

(49:21):
just have to talk to them about the terms of.

Speaker 7 (49:23):
That, okay.

Speaker 9 (49:27):
And Uh.

Speaker 1 (49:28):
As far as the USA is a great grass, every
plant has its pros and cons Zoysia is fairly shade tolerant.
I have found uh the zoysia some selected types of
Zoysia to be especially shade tolerant, as as would Saint
Augustine be uh. And it also has good wear and tear.

(49:50):
You can run foot traffic over it and it's not
as hard on it as it is Saint Augustine. Those
are just a couple of things to think about. You
are you're looking for that nub. Yeah, but there's some
new Saint Augustine's now that are that are quite drought tolerant.
And so if you water with a good, deep and

(50:10):
frequent soaking, you can make a lot of grasses more
drought tolerant because then they go further between waterings easier.
But zosia can can do pretty good at that as well.
But anyway, there's a broader leaf type of Oisia and
then there's a very narrow fine leaf type of Oisia.

(50:32):
The fine leaf types you might look at it and go,
is that bermuda or it's even denser than bermuda in
my opinion. And then the broad leaf types I want
it would be palis. That's that's a common one, but
there are many other good ones. And it's leaves are
about a third is wide as Saint Augustine, but not
as narrow as the fine leaf sosias.

Speaker 7 (50:54):
Okay, okay, okay, thank you.

Speaker 1 (51:01):
Yeah, hey, let me tell you one more thing, Marcus.
You've got a county horticulturistuff there in Montgomery County, Michael Potter.
And Michael is an expert on turf grass. He and
I were talking the other day and I've got four
different turf grasses in my yard, and I think he
hasked two or three at least, and he knows that stuff.
And I would talk to him specifically if you need

(51:24):
additional advice, because he's really really good at that. He's
at the County Extension Office. It's over there on Airport Road,
across from the Lone Star Convention Center.

Speaker 12 (51:34):
One more thing, real quick, do you know I'm trying
to find some kind of if I have to put in.

Speaker 11 (51:41):
Oh good, well.

Speaker 1 (51:48):
I lost you there, Marcus. You kind of cut out
on me. I tell you what, why don't we do this?
I'm going to put you on hold if we're get
Marcus back and just get the last question he has,
and Chris, if you'll just type that in for me,
I'll address that. Let's go now to Joanne out at

(52:09):
Lake Conroe. Hey, Joanne, welcome to God Right, you.

Speaker 14 (52:13):
Got my pictures?

Speaker 1 (52:16):
I'm oh, yes, yes I did. Okay, Okay, let's see here.
Would this say Francis, Yes, say Francis. Okay, yes, I did. Okay,
so you're the francis Is Colius. The new growth is

(52:37):
kind of cupped and sort of malfarmed. It's not normal
where it's trying to put out blooms. I see evidence
of little tiny insects that suck juices out of those
tender developing shoots, and that causes them to grow malformed.
Now it could be a plant hopper. It's a little

(52:58):
tiny bug that has a piercing mouth part. I mean,
it could be spider mit'ud be a lot of different
things doing it, but it's some little bug. If I
were you, I would get some insecticidal soap and I
would spray that plant, making sure to spray upward from
underneath the leaves. You can do it with a little
hands squirt bottle because soap is so safe, you don't
it doesn't matter if you get it on you. But

(53:23):
it's called insecticidal soap. You buy it at a garden center. Uh.
And it is soap, but it's a it's a type
of soap that doesn't burn plants as bad as some
soaps can. And then if you give if you give
all these bugs a bath and insecticidal soap, it kills them. Uh.
And so just spray that underneath there, especially spider mites

(53:46):
or aviad or things. That works really well on those.
And then I would snip out those shoots. After you've
done what you can to kill these on the whole plant,
or snip them out and then spray. You can do
it that way.

Speaker 15 (54:00):
Cut the stems back.

Speaker 1 (54:02):
Yeah, cut those back, because what's happening is they're bolting.
They're sending up a skinny stalk with flowers on the end.
And that's you know, the you grow coolis for the
big beautiful foliage. Now, if you want the flowers. That's fine,
but it usually means the end of big foliage when
you leave the flowers off.

Speaker 16 (54:18):
What about the stems that look so brownish and woody.

Speaker 17 (54:25):
Or is that their normal color?

Speaker 1 (54:27):
I did not see that in the photos. Let me,
I'll go back and take a look at that.

Speaker 18 (54:33):
Some of the major stems kind of woody.

Speaker 1 (54:38):
Okay, Oh, that's a natural development. Sometimes you get a
canker kind of thing that kills a part of the
stem and it turns literally dead brown. But just that
browning is part of it just getting older, the one
that I see.

Speaker 15 (54:51):
Okay, all right, So they should last through the fall,
and I'll get that insecticidal soak.

Speaker 1 (54:58):
Yeah, and they'll get more and more unhappy as it
gets colder, but it will carry. It should carry up
to the first frost.

Speaker 15 (55:06):
Okay, great, all right, thank you, all right, you take care.

Speaker 1 (55:13):
Appreciate that very much. Let's see here. I'm gonna go
back here to Marcus. Are you there?

Speaker 9 (55:22):
Yeah?

Speaker 1 (55:23):
All right? Well, okay, what was your follow up question?

Speaker 12 (55:32):
Do you know of any particular varieties of white oak
or red oak that are somewhat resistant to well, yeah,
by contract.

Speaker 18 (55:43):
You tell me?

Speaker 1 (55:46):
Yeah? Did you tell me that you had oak wilt
in the Conroe area. Yeah over here, Yeah, okay, well, hey,
I'm getting out. Hell, Hell, I don't know. Hang on,
I'm hitting up a hard break. I gotta go. I'm

(56:06):
going to keep you on hold and I'll come back
to you right after break. Thanks a lot.

Speaker 2 (56:13):
You are no Houston's News while they were traffic plus
Preaking News twenty four to seven.

Speaker 19 (56:19):
This is use Radio seven forty kt RH.

Speaker 2 (56:22):
Five everywhere with the IRP more of what's.

Speaker 1 (56:25):
Hat for listening in and if you'd like to give
us a call seven one three two one two kt
r H seven one three two one two kt RH
Welcome to do that. We'd love to visit with you
about the things that interest you, the questions that you
might have. Yesterday, somebody called in and was looking for

(56:48):
air potatoes, and I mentioned that they they can be
a little invasive. You gotta watch them because they drop
their vine that goes up the tree produces these little
potato like structures then all down to the ground. And
so anyway, we had said I'd see if anybody I
knew had one. I didn't know him at a garden
center nursery, but with a very strong warning to be

(57:09):
careful because that plant can get away from you if
you're not, if you're not diligent about watching it. Anyway,
someone did call in, So if that was you, get
my producer, Chrysal call and he can put the two
of you together if you'd like to pursue that any further.
You hear me talk about ACE Hardware. You hear me

(57:30):
brag about ACE Hardware because ACE Hardware is a one
stop shop. You know, it's where you get the fertilizers
I talk about it's time for fall fertilizing. ACE Hardware
has options for you, not just one fertilizer, but several
types of different fertilizers. You know, you're looking for things
for Nelson's and for nitrofoss and from Microlife for example,

(57:50):
for fall fertilizing the lawn, looking for products from Medina
for example too. They've got all of that. They also
have all the pest control, disease control, and weed control
things that you're going to need, along with tools like
a sprayer. Perhaps you need a hose in sprayer, another type.
They're going to have that. When you go to ACE,
you come home with what you need to take care
of the plants. That you have, whether it's a lawn,

(58:11):
a garden of flower beds, shrubs, and trees. They have
it all at Ace Hardware. And Ace Hardware also has
the things for decorating both inside and outside your home
for the upcoming Halloween season, the upcoming Thanksgiving season. They
are set up for that. Acehardware dot Com find the
store locator. There's forty stores. There's one near you, probably

(58:34):
more than one near you, and you can go in
and see what it is that I'm always bragging about
when it comes to Ace Hardware. We're going to go now,
I'm going to go back to Marcus here in Conrad. Marcus,
you ask for an oak that is a white oak
that's resistant somewhat to take oaquill. The white oak, all
the white oaks to some degree are one that I

(58:57):
think I would suggest for you is called the terray oak.
Another name for it is Mexican white oak. And the
reason I like that when it grows fast for an oak.
But it is a good, strong, long lived tree. And
so that would be the one that I would suggest.
If you want a large shade tree that that I

(59:19):
would I would plant.

Speaker 7 (59:21):
Okay, okay, all.

Speaker 1 (59:25):
Right, good luck with that I'm gonna run, and I
got another folks, several folks here holding on Mary in
West Houston. How can we help the welcome to garden line?

Speaker 20 (59:34):
Thank you.

Speaker 11 (59:35):
Skip.

Speaker 20 (59:37):
Got a situation that I'm trying to help myself and
my neighbor adjacent neighbor with, and that's the out of
control crabgrass and the mounds. The mounds in my yard
are like almost a foot wide and they're sybil. There's
so many, there's too many to dig up. So if

(59:59):
I've heard here's your difference using in the previously, I've
heard your reference using Saudi grass to plant down, put down, uh,
to take root around those crabgrass mounds.

Speaker 1 (01:00:17):
Well, if I did that, you would just basically go ahead.

Speaker 20 (01:00:22):
If I did that and I watered and fertilized maybe
with some uh just general fertilizer, okay before for shrubs
and plants, would I be helping myself any.

Speaker 1 (01:00:38):
And my nation is an annual yeah, crabgrass is an
annual grass. So first of all, a lot of people
call me and say they have crabgrass, and then when
I see a picture it's actually another grass. Uh. So
we need to make sure we are talking about crabgrass.
But if it is crabgrass, it's an annual. It comes
from seed and it dies in the winter, and then
next spring seeds come up. And that's where if you

(01:00:59):
use nitrofoss barricade. According to my schedule, which is in February.
My schedule's online and gardening with skip dot com, nitrofosh
barricade put down in February will prevent the crab grass
for about at least sixty days and maybe more. Actually more,
But then you could do it again, maybe you know,
a couple months later, just to extend that cover.

Speaker 20 (01:01:22):
Yeah, I hear, I just wrote that down. Not a
cross barricade. The problem is the Hoa Association, it's management company,
our own both of us to take care of it
in thirty days.

Speaker 1 (01:01:38):
Well, I mean, if you mow it, it looks like
a lawn. So I don't understand why the hoa is
all up in the air. Or well, maybe it's not cribgrass.

Speaker 20 (01:01:49):
It's well, let's just say it's not saying augustine grass
these it's it's it is a weed, definitely a weed
as opposed to sing.

Speaker 1 (01:02:01):
Mary. We can leave we can leave it at that.
You can't kill crabgrass with a spray without killing Saint
Augustine that gets that the spray gets on. So what
what Let's do this if you would like, if you
go out in good, good light, take some pictures of it,
let me see it from kind of standing away from

(01:02:23):
it a little bit, and then get up close. If
it's got any seed heads on it, pull some up,
set it down on a kitchen table or some nice
dark surface, and take a picture of it and send
me those pictures. Make sure they're in sharp focus and
let me see what it is, because it may be
that the arcade is not how you have to go.
Maybe it's a perennial grass.

Speaker 20 (01:02:42):
I'll do that right away. Thank you, skip all right, man,
thank you?

Speaker 1 (01:02:47):
Bet you take care, you take care all right. Let's
see here where are we? I wanted to I did
want to mention to you. I talk about this garden
center pretty often. But in Water Gardens, Nelson Nursery and
Water Gardens is out in Katie. It's on Katie Fort
Ben Roads. So as you're heading out ten toward Katie

(01:03:08):
Katie Fort Ben Road, turn right across the tracks and
it's not too far down the road there. It is
an outstanding nursery, lots of plant selection, but there's also
a very special place and that they have the beautiful
disappearing fountains, they have waterfalls, they have it's just it's
an inspiring place. When you go in there, you're going
to want water in your backyard and the birds will

(01:03:29):
thank you for doing that, as was beneficial insects too,
having a source of water out in the landscape. While
you're there, you're going to find out an excellent selection
of plants, the things that grow here. The Nelsons have
long known how to grow plants and how to choose plants,
and how to build water guards. In fact, the disappearing
fountain they invented that nationally known really at Nelson Water

(01:03:52):
Garden and Nursery. But don't just think water, think also plants.
And they have a good selection as well as the
things like fertilizers that you need to go with your plants.
So it's West Houston's full service nursery and it is
a destination nursery and I encourage you to take friends
when you go out there so you can all enjoy it.
Nelsonwatergardens dot Com. Nelsonwatergardens dot Com. We are going to

(01:04:17):
have to take a quick break here and then Chuck,
when we come back, you will be our first up.
Listen to talking about a lot of different things in
the garden, because we want you to have success. Someone
was asking me the other day about well, it was
yesterday when I was down in at the clear Lake
Wildbird's Unlimited store. Someone asked about Buchanan's Native plants, and

(01:04:38):
I say, man, you got to go there. It's in
the Heights. It's on Eleventh Street in the Heights, and
they were looking for a particular kind of native and
I was talking to them about Buchanans. You know, Buchanans
has the best selection of native plants in the whole region.
And they really do. I mean, if you even want,
like I want a native that's just from the Houston area,
not a Texas native in general, but just when they

(01:04:59):
have a list of those as well, and they compare
your interests to pick the right plant. For example, I
want to native the truck's butterflies. I want to native
the truck's hummingbirds, which, by the way, are flying through.
They're on there getting fueled up to head across the
Gulf of Mexico. I don't know how they do that,
but Buchanans has all of that and then some one

(01:05:19):
of the best houseplants selections you're going to find anywhere,
and they're huge houseplant greenhouse. Do you like succulents, they
got them. Do you need vegetables and herbs, They're loaded
up with those ready to go fruit trees, whatever you need.
Their gift shop is outstanding and while you're there you
can pick up fertilizers and soils and all of that
so that you do as we say on guarden Line,

(01:05:40):
take care of the brown stuff and then the green stuff.
Make sure the soil is right and put a good
plan in it, and Buchanans will help you do all
of that. Again. They're on eleven Street in the Heights.
Go to the website Buchanansplants dot com. It is loaded
with information and you do want to sign up for
their newsletter while you're there. Out now to Chuck in Liverpool.

(01:06:02):
Hello Chuck, Welcome to garden Line.

Speaker 17 (01:06:05):
Good morning, Skip, how are you.

Speaker 1 (01:06:07):
I'm well? Thank you.

Speaker 10 (01:06:09):
Hey.

Speaker 17 (01:06:10):
I've got some kind of little critter going on here.
It's underneath the leaves of my grapevine and also got
some avocados going on. And it's not only there, it's
on some just regular objects in the yard, like a
metal post or like some fabric cloth shaped and it's

(01:06:30):
it's like a little small trail, uh, maybe anywhere from
a half three quarter to an inch long, and it's
like these microscopic like egg things, like a gray color,
and they're like they're like little eggs and you can
rub it off with your thumb, you know, and they've
come off, and it's like these teeny tiny little bitty balls,
I mean, very microscopic small and they are just reaping.

(01:06:53):
What are they?

Speaker 1 (01:06:55):
Are you sending their pin head size small?

Speaker 17 (01:06:58):
Yes, they're yes, And it's a whole hold and they're
all over the place.

Speaker 1 (01:07:07):
What is the damage that you're seeing from them?

Speaker 17 (01:07:10):
It's just whatever piece of foldg you call, it's like
it's sucking the life out of it.

Speaker 1 (01:07:15):
M well, uh, nothing is coming to mind that fits
that description. So will you do this? Will you take
some pictures, get as close as can to them, and
put something if you can put something in the picture,
you know, like the end of a pencil or something
that shows me kind of scale, just so I get
an idea. But check the pictures, make sure they're in

(01:07:37):
sharp focus because I'm gonna at the zoom way in
on them, and so the closure you get with a
good sharp focus the better. Anyway, if you'll send those
to me, let me take a look at them going
through in my head right now. I'm well, I'm going
to put you on hold and Chris will send give
you the email you need to send that in. Okay,

(01:07:57):
all right, take it from there. Yeah, thanks a lot.
I appreciate that call. Nelson Plant Food is the source
of all kinds of outstanding products. They've got the color
Star line, one of the most famous color fertilizers in
this whole region. Really, everybody's tried it, or everybody that's
tried it knows how well it works. They have the

(01:08:18):
things like the carblow that we'll be talking about that
for fall fertilization a little bit here. But they have
something called Genesis that's a transplant product, and I've used
it myself when I was bumping tomatoes up from a
small to six pack size to a four inch pot.
Unbelievable response. Unbelievable response. This fall, you're gonna plant some shrubs,

(01:08:41):
You're can play some roses, You're gonna plant some perennials.
Whatever you're planting, maybe you're just moving things from one
pot to a bigger pot. Mix Genesis into the soil
of where that plant is going and you will see
a very fast response. It's an excellent product. Comes in
a little plastic plastic jar like some of the Nelson products,
but it's part of the nutri Star line. It's called Genesis,

(01:09:03):
and you definitely want to use that for any planting
that you're doing. I usually say, don't put fertilizer in
the planting hole. With Genesis, you can mix it into
the soil and plant the plant in that hole and
it will not burn and it will work. It works
very well. A great product from the folks out at Nelson.
Let's see, We're going to head now to pair Land

(01:09:25):
and talk to Pat. Hello, Pat, welcome to guard Line.

Speaker 18 (01:09:29):
Thank you. I have a couple of questions. One is
I had a beautiful half a beautiful new lawn that
was put in after I moved into my home, and
it was so gorgeous and green, and now it's starting
to get yellow blades of grass. Do odd? I don't
know if it's too much water, I don't know if
it's not enough water, but I need you.

Speaker 9 (01:09:47):
To tell me.

Speaker 1 (01:09:49):
Yeah, it can be some different things. I saw a
little bit of that in one area of my lawn
as well, and I attributed it to I kind of
went for a time without watering and then started watering again.
And uh, it could be a disease called large patch
or brown patch, but that usually occurs in circles and
the grass turns.

Speaker 18 (01:10:08):
No, it's not, it's just throughout my whole lawn, just
here and there, little. I mean, my grass used to
look so beautifully green and now it has kind of
like this yellow going through it.

Speaker 1 (01:10:19):
Yeah. Yeah, well, uh, let me let me ask you
this is you want to if you want up close
to look at one of these areas, would the yellow
leaves be some of the older leaves, you know, not
at the very end of the runner and the end
of the runner is still green or all of it
turning yellow.

Speaker 18 (01:10:38):
It's just throughout all of the grass. It's like a
it's it's not. It's not in lines, it's not in circles.
It's just like if I'm looking at my lawn, like
it's just every few blades of grass is turning yellow.

Speaker 1 (01:10:53):
Okay, And I'm trying to nail down here through a
couple of possibilities. When the when it turns yellow, it's
not a yellow. If you looked at a blade real close,
it'd be yellow and green striped. But you're talking about
you got a green blade and over and next to it,
there's a yellow blade. Is that how we're seeing it? Okay, Yeah,
that's what That's what we were saying before. Could be

(01:11:14):
a could be a sol moisture problem, and who knows.

Speaker 17 (01:11:18):
Now.

Speaker 1 (01:11:18):
I think if you make sure the soil has adequate water,
don't over water because that causes problems in and of itself.

Speaker 18 (01:11:25):
We know that we had water every day or rained
every day, and now it hasn't rained at all.

Speaker 1 (01:11:29):
Okay, Yeah, so why don't you try yours. It's getting
about the time for fall fertilization. You may want to
do yours a little bit earlier this year and try
to give it a little boost. Another thing you could do.
And I would grab a product and it's from the
folks at Medinah and it is. It is a sixteen

(01:11:51):
zero two. I believe it's a lawn for like hooks
up to a garden hose like that I'm talking about. Yeah,
And I would just do go over your lawn with
that and.

Speaker 18 (01:12:03):
Follow with the product.

Speaker 1 (01:12:04):
According to the hang on one second I'm going to
tell you, but go over the lawn and apply it
with the hose in sprayer. And when you do that,
watch it for the first week. You should see results
within the first few days really or week on it.
I think you're going to find that it's going to fix.

(01:12:26):
You know exactly what we're talking about here. The Medina
has a lot of great products out there, but this
one is it's part of the has to Grow line
and it's called super Grow Plus, super Grow plus Grow
Puss or sixteen sixteen zero two. But it's a little
green topped where you hook it up. It's a little
court bottle with a green top and super Grow plus

(01:12:50):
sixteen zero two. And you're going to find it. You know,
wherever you do your shopping. You're down in Pariland, there's
some a stores down there about that.

Speaker 18 (01:12:56):
Habit yep okay. And you wouldn't think this is something
like my law needs to be air raided or composted.

Speaker 1 (01:13:04):
Or I don't think so, because you know, aeration doesn't change.
It's like it's not like you have good air rated
soil and suddenly it's bad air raated soil, you know,
And this kind of happened suddenly for you. And now
it's always good to have a lawn air raided air rate.
It always helps improve the soil, followed by a compost

(01:13:24):
top dressing though that always say.

Speaker 18 (01:13:26):
You know someone, do you have someone in Periland that
you would recommend to do that?

Speaker 1 (01:13:31):
Uh bn B turf pros they are You're on You're
on the edge of the area they serve. You're on
the eastern edge of the area that they serve, and
I recommend them without any hesitations. Let me give you
would you like.

Speaker 18 (01:13:43):
A phone both like boy and boy?

Speaker 1 (01:13:46):
Yeah? Boy and boys? Got it?

Speaker 18 (01:13:50):
Okay, okay, now my last there's the phone number? Oh
oh good, okay, go ahead.

Speaker 1 (01:13:54):
Well yeah seven one three two three four fifty ninety eight.
Seven one three two three four fifty five ninety eight.
And I'm going to give you the website. It's BB
no End in the website bbturfcos dot com.

Speaker 18 (01:14:11):
Thank you, okay, And if I could ask you one
more quick question. I was just my son yesterday and
Lake Jackson, and so I got to Moe's backyard and
the grass is just horrible. It's just roped in and
a lot of weeds and with it. But as I
was mowing, these little like little baby white moths just
they were everywhere. Every when I pushed the lawnmoard through,

(01:14:32):
they just walked out. Do you have any idea what
that is or what I can do about it?

Speaker 1 (01:14:38):
If they were white, I don't know. There's a lot
of moths out there in nature.

Speaker 9 (01:14:43):
Uh.

Speaker 1 (01:14:43):
The sod webworm is a brownish tan moth. And Okay,
when you walk through the yard, it's like you flesh
them out of the grass as you walk, and they
sat a little bit and they settle back down in
the lawn. Is that what they were doing? Yeah, okay,
that's the side web worm. You need to get what's

(01:15:06):
going to happen. They're laying eggs and then you're going
to get caterpillars that eat the grass blades off the
grass great, and you need there's a number of insecticides
will work on side webworm. You can use the bugout Max.
You can use a spray of Spindo said, that's an
organic option. Uh, you get it on the foliage. They
come out at night and eat the grass blades and

(01:15:26):
it kills, but you may have to reapply. All right,
Bye bye.

Speaker 21 (01:15:36):
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Speaker 22 (01:16:07):
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Speaker 1 (01:17:13):
All right, welcome back, Welcome back to Guardline. Good to
have you with us today. We got plenty of things
to talk about. We're entering our third hour of the
morning here on garden Line. I've told you about the
Texas three step program by Nitrophos and it really makes sense.
And here's why. It's a fertilizer and it is a
weed control and it is a disease control. That's the

(01:17:35):
steps one, two, three. Step one nitrofoss fall special specifically
blended for fall with that high potassium content so that
your grass grows stronger going into winter, so it has
more winter heartiness and it comes out stronger in the spring.
The early growth on your grass next spring is going

(01:17:57):
to be from stored energy, not the root from stored energy,
and by sending it into winter strong with Nitroposs Fall Special,
you help achieve a better one next spring. The weeds
Barricade Nitrofoss barricade. You get it down at the right time,
follow my schedule online at guardingiskip dot com, and you
prevent all those winter weeds that are sprouting in your lawn,

(01:18:20):
so next spring you're not dealing with all these growing
and blooming and taking over the world weeds like chickweed
and hend beet and carpetweed and clovers and all of
that kind of stuff. Third step Eagle turf fungicide nitrofoss
Eagle turf fungicide that prevents things like large patch or
brown patch as it's called, the big circles that are

(01:18:40):
going to happen, and it also works well against take
all root rot. Take all root rot. Again, look at
my schedule. It tells you when to apply these things,
and you will find that this nitrofoss three step program
works really, really well. You're going to find it at
in Channey Gardens and in Richmond Plans for all seasons
up on two. You're going to find it at RCW

(01:19:02):
nurseries as well as the Ace Hardware City on Memorial
in Memorial rather the Memorial area. All right, there, it's
as simple as that. That makes it really easy. We're
going to go out the phones now. We're going to
talk to Steve and deer Park. Hello Steve, welcome to
garden Line.

Speaker 9 (01:19:18):
Thank you. I had a question about blue bonnets. We
have a bed that we've had xenia's in and my
wife has some blue bonnet seeds and she'd like some
tips on putting the blue bonnet seeds out, and also

(01:19:39):
could she put out the xenia seeds the same time
as she puts out the blue bonnet seeds, Like there's
mulch on it. Does she have to pull away the
malt and put it in the dirt or can she
sprinkle it on top of the mulch.

Speaker 1 (01:19:56):
You with bluebonnet seeds and zenas, if you can just
barely cover them up, just get a little soil around
them so when you water it in, the soil is
kind of stuck to the side of the seeds. It
helps them sprout a little better. You could plant them
at the same time. The blue bonnets aren't going to
come up for a little bit. The zenias will come
up right now. The problem with that is those zenias go.

(01:20:18):
The zinias are going to grow and be shading out
the blue bonnets when they're trying to germinate later, so
I don't.

Speaker 9 (01:20:28):
Think so lighter than the blue bonnets.

Speaker 1 (01:20:30):
Then yeah, at some point you're just going to cut
those zenias back and get the blue bonnet seeds out.

Speaker 9 (01:20:37):
And when what's the best time to put out the
blue bonnet seeds?

Speaker 20 (01:20:42):
Uh?

Speaker 1 (01:20:42):
Well, really September and October or ideal times. You could
plant them a little bit later, but it's better if
you can get done sometime in October. So you're kind
of looking at a traffic jam in that flower bed
because you're trying to get the zenias up and growing.
But then at the same time you need get sunlight
for when the blue that you're going to try to
come up, and I think that overlap is going to

(01:21:03):
be a little bit of a challenge in the same bed.

Speaker 9 (01:21:07):
Okay, well, the blue bonds.

Speaker 1 (01:21:10):
One alternative, yeah, excuse me, Steve. One alternative would be
to start those blue bonnets and four inch pots. Get
your a bunch of four inch pots and start put
two blue bonnet seeds in each one. When it's time
to Actually, you could do that now and start them
and get them up and growing, and then when you
pull the zendias out, you'll set out the blue bonnet
transplants and you'll have that head start and the traffic

(01:21:32):
jam won't be such a problem.

Speaker 9 (01:21:35):
And so what time should I set them out?

Speaker 1 (01:21:39):
You would set your Well, the zendias are going to
go down at the at the first frost, and you're
pretty far south, so who knows when that's going to occur,
But a little before that, probably I would go ahead
and just pull the zendias and then maybe, let's say
in November, early November, try to get those blue bonnet
transplants in the ground at that time.

Speaker 9 (01:22:02):
Okay, all right, I was gonna it's a little early,
but I was going to ask you for plants that
I know that are going to freeze when we gets
real cold. Should I cut those back sometime or should
I just let them stay the size they are and

(01:22:23):
let them freeze back?

Speaker 1 (01:22:24):
So so if they're gonna if they're gonna freeze, some
people there's two ways to do it. Some people wait
until they freeze and then they cut them right back
so they're not ugly out there. Other people leave them
for a while because on some types of plant structure,
Let's say you had kind of a low growing spreading plant.
That dead top that just froze is a little bit

(01:22:44):
of an insulation for the base of the plant as
we got that cold weather, and they'll leave it and
then they'll cut it back before spring hits. Either way
is okay. You can also do the insulation by just
putting a little mult over the crown of that plant
after you cut it back to kind of help hold
the soil warmth in a little bit to protect it.

(01:23:08):
Either way, okay, okay, thank you, I'm gonna have to
run you bet hey, thanks for the questions. Thanks for
calling in here. To guard line plants for all Seasons,
I was talking about the night Fast three step system
Plants for all seasons. Has got all three of them.
And they have everything else too. I mean, if you're
looking for a fertilizer I talk about on guardlines, gonna
be in there. They carry all of that. They carry

(01:23:31):
the canisters. They have a refill station too, so like
if you're going to fill up Microlife or you're going
to fill up Nelson plant food canisters, those those plastic jugs,
you can refill them there at Plants for All Seasons.
Saves a little money on fertilizer and definitely avoids throwing
more plastic away out there in the environment. Another good
reason the website's Plants for All Seasons dot com the
phone number got a pen set two eight one three

(01:23:55):
seven six sixteen forty six two eight one three seven
six sixteen forty six. If you want to go to
a place that carries plants that do well here and
has folks that are experts on how to have success
and how to deal with any issues that arise, Plans
for All Seasons can provide all of that. I'm going
to go now out to uh Dickenson, Texas and talk

(01:24:16):
to Jane.

Speaker 14 (01:24:16):
Hello, Jane, good morning, Thank you.

Speaker 1 (01:24:21):
I have I'm going to get up.

Speaker 20 (01:24:24):
Go ahead, Okay, what.

Speaker 1 (01:24:28):
About a minute? Okay, wild squash grown in your yard.
That's strange. I don't know how it got there. Hey, Jane,
could you turn the radio off? I think that's throwing
us off on our cadencer. Certainly, so good good good

(01:24:48):
wild squash is uh, I don't know what you're talking about.
There's there are a lot of different cute curbetss or
that's what squash is. Huh q curbits and uh huh.

Speaker 17 (01:25:08):
I'm sure to go so you can talk.

Speaker 1 (01:25:09):
I see what I'm gonna have to take a break
here for the Just hang on, we'll come back and
we will we will solve this problem. Thanks for the call.
We'll be right back with you after the break, all right,
if you want to call it seven one three two
one two k t r H. Now I want to
tell you about Nature's Way resources. First of all, the
summer sale we've been talking about, that's done, but Fungal

(01:25:30):
Fridays are still on every Friday at Nature's Way twenty
percent off their fungal compost. This is an outstanding product
to mix into your soil like you would compost. It's
an outstanding product to top dress your lawn too. Like
we talk about leap mold compost screen down, fungal compost
is excellent for the lawn as well. Now in Nature's Way,

(01:25:51):
you know they're stocking up on all kinds of things
because fall is the time that's a big planning season.
People are buying the composts, getting their soils, getting the
mulches and everything ready to go. Nature's Ways got stocked
up and they're ready to go for you. You can
go purchase the product there on site bulk or by
the bag. The many places are on town sell their
products by the bag as well. Write this on your calendar.

(01:26:13):
I remember always listening to guard Line with a pen
and a paper in hand. October twelfth, it's a Saturday.
They're having their fall festival. They're gonna have Latin food.
They're gonna have local vendors. They're gonna be plant sales
out there, because they do sell plants at Nature's Way Resources.
And I'll be out there doing a Q and A
from eleven thirty to one thirty. There's gonna be live music,
there're gonna be children's activities. In other words, here in

(01:26:35):
Texas we call that a shin dig. And they're gonna
have one act of a fall festival shin Dig October twelfth,
Market on your calendar so you can come out. I'll
tell you more about it as we get closer to it.
All right, we're gonna head back out here. We were
having a conversation with Jane. Jane, what makes you think
it's a wild squash?

Speaker 11 (01:26:54):
Tell me a little bit about that well, it could
be a wild cucumber type thing.

Speaker 1 (01:26:59):
It's okay.

Speaker 11 (01:27:00):
It does appear to be a squash, very swell of
yellow flowers. It grows to about three and between two
and three inches. The raw, sorry, unripe green looks kind
of like a small watermelon and then yellows up beautifully
and it hangs. It came in as an ornamental because

(01:27:22):
I had seen it growing a couple other places. I
brought it in and it's exploded. It is still flowering,
it is still producing fruit, it's growing up senses, it's
growing out on the grass and runners making it's amazing,
very very happy stuff. Okay, it's a hard, yellow, thin skin.

(01:27:44):
Looks more like a cucumber when I was cut into
it than a squash, So that could be misting for sure.

Speaker 1 (01:27:50):
Well, there's a whole group of plants called cue curbets,
and that includes cucumbers and squash and melons, certain kinds
of melons, canta lopes and things. Uh. And they generally
aren't invasive because the seed has to come out of
the fruit and then be spread around, and that that
it doesn't naturally do that unless you broke the seed
up and spread it. So I'm not sure what exactly

(01:28:12):
you're having there. It could be a wild type of cucurbet.
But if that's the case, it's just a matter of
pulling the plants up as they come up spraying. Oh okay.
Before I can answer that, I need to see a
picture of it. The cucurbets in general are edible. A

(01:28:35):
lot of them are not palatable, and that is a
huge difference. You know, can you eat it?

Speaker 17 (01:28:39):
Yes?

Speaker 1 (01:28:39):
Do you want to eat it?

Speaker 10 (01:28:40):
No?

Speaker 1 (01:28:41):
But let's do this. I'm gonna put you on hold
and have Chris give you an email. Send me pictures
of these plants from a distance, but especially up close.
I want to see the fruit, the leaves, and the
blooms in good sharp focus, and I'll reply to your
email as far as the edible if there's anything else
to add. Okay, thank you, j you Yeah, you too,

(01:29:05):
appreciate that. Thank you very much. Three sixty tree stabilizers.
That's the advice that I give you for this fall.
Fall is for planting. Fall is especially for planting tree
shrubs and woody vines. What are you ornamentals? We call them.
If you're going to plant a tree, it needs to
have a steak to hold it in place, and you
drive a t post in the ground. You can use

(01:29:27):
other kind of steaks, but you drive a tepost in
the ground, attach a three sixty tree stabilizer to it
and it holds that in place but allows the trunk
to move a little bit. The little strap is soft
and allows a little movement, which is important in developing
trunk strength. You're going to find three sixty tree stabilizers
at plants for all seasons. You're going to find it

(01:29:49):
at RCW at Buchanans, at Hoorges, Hidden Gardens done in Alvin,
at Arbor Gate, at Southwest Fertilizer. They're easy to find
and this product really works. And when you're done with it,
when it's spin it to your out there in the
garden store it man may have a tree, or you
may have another one later you can use it. You
can use it for crpe myrtles. If you've got a
bigger tree. You can do two stabilizers at right angles

(01:30:12):
coming in let's say north south and one east west,
and that just gives even more support for the tree.
But it's a product that works, and I wouldn't plant
a tree without putting one on We're going to go
to northwest Houston now and talk to Ralph.

Speaker 14 (01:30:26):
Hello Ralph, good morning, Glad to have you aboard. Thank god,
I've had all this crazy weather, you know, with all
tree up, a coon, tree breaking in evil. But anyway,
my story is my grass is dying out, and I
don't know, I've tried watering it. But it's in the front.

(01:30:49):
In the back it's beautiful, you know, and I have
beautiful grass. But now then they've got a look in
there and my ground is so hard. It looked like
I'm having trouble. I put sound out and it's what
do I do here?

Speaker 1 (01:31:03):
Well, for me, I would if it were me, I
would call the folks at Green Pro and have them
come out and do an aer ration and a compost
top dressing. They can get down through that soil. They
may have you water it a little bit first, just
to soften the soil up a bit. You just talk
to them there. Do you have a pin or pencil

(01:31:24):
handy there?

Speaker 14 (01:31:25):
Ro oh one minute?

Speaker 1 (01:31:29):
Yes, okay, yeah, while you're getting it, I'm gonna keep talking.
Uh yeah. They cover an area about forty about forty
five miles from Magnolia, and you're definitely in that area,
so anything kind of north and west of Houston down
down Houston. Now that their number is two eight one
three five one forty seven thirty three, I'm gonna give

(01:31:53):
that again two eight one three five one forty seven
thirty three. And the website, if you like websites, is
greenpro dot net. Now that they're what they're doing right
now in this fall is they're aerating the lawn for
free when you purchase the compost top dressing service. But

(01:32:15):
you have to get at least two yards minimum on
that offer. But it's not cheap. But it gets holes
down in the soil, pulls the plug out, leaves it
on the surface, and then they put that compost top
dressing on and that begins that process of improving the
root system so your turf can root deeper, holds moisture well,

(01:32:36):
you know, and it just does all the things that
grass needs to thrive down in the root system. I
think that's the first thing that I would do. I
think that's going to go a long way toward helping
you in those areas.

Speaker 14 (01:32:47):
Yes, it's that strange year, I tell you that. Okay, yeah,
I appreciate it.

Speaker 1 (01:32:51):
Sure is, all right, Ralph. Thank you, you bet, thank
you very much. I appreciate your call very much. Yeah,
Green Pro if you live kind of forty five miles
from Magnolia, So we're talking about Spring Cyprus, the Woodlands,
Conrad Willis, then over Montgomery, Magnolia and down to Katie

(01:33:11):
West Houston, Central Houston Northeast. That Northwest quadrant basically is
the area that they serve with that service. Have you
been to in Chana Gardens? You know, in Chane Gardens
is out there in Richmond Rosenberg area. They are on
the Katie Fulsher side of Richmond, though specifically they are
on FM three fifty nine FM three fifty nine out

(01:33:34):
in the Kadi Fullshier part of Richmond Rosenburg. You got
to go out there. This place is outstanding. That right now,
fall color is well just split this way. Fall color
is running rampant out at in enchanted gardens, qurotons and
all the different plants you plant for a beautiful fall.
Lots lots of colorful things like snap dragons. It's a

(01:33:57):
season for that too.

Speaker 10 (01:33:58):
You know.

Speaker 1 (01:33:58):
By the way, they have a selection of everything from
houseplants to vegetables to herbs. It's just you just have
to go to see what I'm talking about. Beautiful containers
they can take. They carry the soil products, the the
fertilizer products that I recommend here on garden Line. The
Pumpkin House is set up out there. I think Saturday,

(01:34:20):
October fifth is when it opens up, the Pumpkin House
and Pumpkin Palooza. You just have to go see it.
Pumpkin House. What is that picture in your mind? Well,
that's probably what you're gonna see when you get out there.
It's pretty cool stuff. Anyway, I'd love to go out
to Enchanted Gardens, great nursery, great people, good advice, good plants.
Enchanted Gardens Richmond dot com. That's how you get there.

(01:34:44):
That's the place, Enchanted Gardens Richmond dot com. You need
to go to the website too, because when you get
out there and you get to the website, you're going
to see everything they carry. You can follow them on
social media. That's a great idea, by the way, because
they're always posting some very good, helpful stuff letting you
know what's in And I don't know just know what

(01:35:07):
else to say other than you need to go. People
drive from long distances to go to that place because
it's worth it. Absolutely, it's worth it. I was talking
about Nilsen Plant Foods early. I'm telling you about the
Genesis Nutristar Genesis for transplanting. They also have a nutri
Star for vegetable gardens. A nutri Star for vegetable gardens

(01:35:29):
has those nutrients that it will add to the soil
to ensure your vegetables grow and develop properly and have
higher yields. That's absolutely the case. You put it out.
You can put it out monthly during the growing season
if you like, for a quick release of nutrients. It's
going to increase again the productivity and the quality of
your vegetables by making sure that vegetable plant is well

(01:35:51):
fed five different sources of nitrogen, so they give an
even release that results in just really good performance. It's
good for enriching a race beed garden. It's good for
using in container gardens. If you got vegetables in a container.
I was earlier challenging or asking, requesting, pleading. If you
never grown vegetables before this fall, why not start? How

(01:36:16):
about this? Just one container? Try one container, gross some broccoli, gross,
some vegetables, and get you some nutri Star vegetable garden
for that, and if you got beds in the landscape,
it's good for those as well. Nutrastar vegetable garden from
Nelson Plant Food. It's an excellent product. I have found
it to work very very well. And I tell you
guys that when I talk about stuff on Garden Line,

(01:36:39):
either I've read research about the product or I've used
it myself, preferably the second one, so I have first
hand experience with it, and that way, when I tell
you it works, it's because it's worked for me when
I used it. All Right, you're listening to Garden Line.
I'm your host, Skip Richter. We're about to take a
little break here, but if you would like to get
on and be first up when we come back seven

(01:37:00):
to one three two one two kt r H, give
Chris call seven one three two one two kt RH.
He will make sure that you were up on the
boards when we come back. Welcome to Garden Line, folks.
Good to have you with us. We we're just gonna
keep going here. Lots to talk about. In fact, I'm
gonna run straight out to the phones. We're gonna go
to Allen in Baytown. Hello, Allan, Welcome, to garden line.

Speaker 9 (01:37:24):
Good morning, thank you, And for the record, I'm League City,
Lamark area.

Speaker 17 (01:37:29):
Okay, I called before and.

Speaker 9 (01:37:32):
I said, Beta, I don't live in Paytown, man, But anyway, Okay,
that's fertilization schedule.

Speaker 1 (01:37:39):
Uh I got alane. That might be a year old,
nothink they're burn done to it.

Speaker 12 (01:37:45):
Pre emergent.

Speaker 1 (01:37:46):
Are the fertilizer first come up coming out of here soon?
Or does it matter? I would it? Well it it
kind of doesn't matter. They're both done at the same time.
In fact, you could do them on the same day
in separate applications if you wanted, do you have a
particular go ahead, sorry, go ahead, do you have a

(01:38:12):
particular fertilizer you're wanting to try?

Speaker 17 (01:38:14):
You not your falls and I'm gonna use the barricade
for the premersory.

Speaker 1 (01:38:19):
Okay, Yeah, I would just say decide when you want
to do it, and unless you want to put them
on separate days, just do them the same day because
you're gonna apply both of them first, one then the other,
and then you're gonna water it in with about a
half inch of water, maybe a third, just to kind
of move that nutrient down into the soil. A little bit,
and to take the pre emergent off the granules you

(01:38:41):
applied the barricade and move it down in the soil surface.
So you know you need a little water to do that.

Speaker 9 (01:38:50):
Okay, so I put them both down, but I don't
put one down then water it and put the other
down then water, or put them both down then.

Speaker 1 (01:38:55):
Water correct only water once?

Speaker 12 (01:38:59):
Yeah, okay, all right, very good.

Speaker 9 (01:39:02):
Yeah that's all I wanted to know.

Speaker 1 (01:39:04):
So I'm tart about grass looking all right? Well good,
thank you very much, well wonderful, you bet, thanks for
the calling. Good luck with that lawn. Look word to
that getting better in the process too. You're listening to Guardline.
Our phone number if you'd like to get on the
board seven one three two one two kt r H.

(01:39:24):
Seven to one three two one two kt r H.
We went through some heck of a storms this past
uh season and uh, you know, we had the hurricane
Barrel and before that, we had a heck of a
storm people. Both of them knocked out power for a
long time. And oh gosh, the damage they did to
Houston trees. It's amazing. There's a tree living and are

(01:39:45):
still standing in Houston with that kind of wind that
we had. But what I recommend people do is whether
you've already had storm damage or whether you want to
prevent future, have Martin spoon Moore from Affordable Tree come
out and look at your tree. Martin has been doing
this a long time. He is over thirty years. Really,

(01:40:06):
he knows how to take care of trees. Do you
have some narrow branch angles? Do you got some broken
limbs in the tree? Do you need any kind of
work done on your trees? If you were about to
build a home, and maybe you've bought you a little
piece of land with some trees on it and you're
going to build a home, have Martin. I plead with
you on this one. Have Martin come out and take

(01:40:27):
a look before you let any builder or anybody for
utilities on the property. He can do the things and
advise the things on how to do that to minimize
damage to the trees. I've hit properties before where I
show up to look and it's a giant, beautiful, expensive
house that wraps around a tree, and the proper things

(01:40:47):
weren't done and it's like too late, and it's just
a matter of time that tree's going down. You're gonna
spend a lot of money taking the prize tree on
the property you built the house around, taking it out, trenches,
wreck havoc on tree roots, and seriously, Martin can help
with all that. No matter what you need and tree care,
Martin can do it. Give him a call. Here's the

(01:41:09):
number seven one three six nine twenty six sixty three.
Either he or Joe his wife will answer the phone.
If they don't, you've called the wrong place. Hang up
and call again seven to one three six nine nine
two six six three, or go to the website aff
Tree Service dot com. Call Martin, get on a schedule,

(01:41:31):
tell him you're from Garden Line. That moves you up
to the front of the line. Garden Line listeners. He
prioritizes our listeners, and uh talk to him and get
on the schedule to come out and see what you got.
He'll give you a good assessment. He charges to come
out and do an assessment. But if you hare work done,
then that price you pay just goes right into the
price you'd pay for the work. In other words, you've

(01:41:53):
already paid part partially for the work that'll come out
and do. Affordable Tree Service. No trees are an incredibly
valuable plant, the most valuable single plant on our properties.
And you know what. They're valuable because they give shade
to our homes, which helps on utility bills, they give
shade to outdoor sitting areas, and they just make a

(01:42:15):
place look beautiful. But they're also valuable because if you
ever sell a property, having big, beautiful, healthy trees is
a huge selling point. It adds value to your property,
but it also makes it sell. It doesn't sit on
the market for as long because people love that and
it makes it a more appealing property to them. But

(01:42:36):
you got to take care of trees, and that starts
when you're planting a tree, picking varieties that want to
grow here and do well, putting the tree in a
location where it can thrive and grow. I see trees
planted three foot from sidewalks and driveways. I see trees
planted ten feet away from a house. There's no future
in those kind of locations and it shouldn't be done.

(01:42:58):
And then finally, your train it right as it's growing.
Proper tree in the proper place with a proper early
care is a way to get off to success. That's
just a little advertisement there for the ABC's of success
with trees. All right, we're going to head now out
to date and Texas and we are going to talk. See,

(01:43:23):
we're going to talk to Karen. I can find the button. Hello, Karen,
Welcome to garden Line.

Speaker 23 (01:43:30):
Hi there skip, Hey, I have a question for you
about pecan.

Speaker 7 (01:43:35):
Tree on my property.

Speaker 23 (01:43:38):
It's an established pecontry. It may be nearing the end
of its life. It's between what fifty seventy feet tall,
and in the last year it put out a shoot
at the base of the truck, you know, a couple
of feet up and it came out. My husband and
I have been discussing, well do we cut it off

(01:44:00):
or do we let the tree try to rejuvenate itself
from this new shoot?

Speaker 1 (01:44:09):
So you got a real tall tree. Did you tell
me what species? I missed that? If you did, what
was it the kan kan? And is everything dead above
that shoot or is some of it alive?

Speaker 7 (01:44:25):
It is still alive.

Speaker 23 (01:44:28):
It's not ingreat. Okay, the tree has been neglected. It's
never had any care up until we bought the property
about five years ago, and slowly we're getting around to
working on all the trees. But it did put out
this shoot that is real healthy compared to the rest.

Speaker 17 (01:44:45):
Of the tree.

Speaker 1 (01:44:47):
Yeah, okay, I can't see it, but here's what I'm
ninety nine percent sure I would cut the chute off.
How big around is the shoot where it attaches to
the tree.

Speaker 23 (01:45:00):
It's maybe an inch at this point.

Speaker 1 (01:45:04):
Yeah, okay, yeah, cut that off, because if you were
to let that grow and then end up cutting off
the trunk of the tree, you are going to have
a huge wound and it'll never heal and it'll be
a weak spot that'll break off. Cut that shoot off now,
and then let's focus on getting your tree healthy. Have
Martin Spoon Moore come out and take a look at
your trees and recommend what to do or do some

(01:45:26):
of the work, but recommend what you continue to do
to take care of it. That would include things like
fertilizing and during summer when it's hot and dry. You
don't have the water up the coand tree in the fall,
in the winter and early spring, but in summer when
it's hot and dry, a good deep soaking, applying an
inch or two of water over a large area underneath

(01:45:48):
the branch bread of the tree, and let's get that
tree rejuvenated and growing again. But yeah, that shoot has
to come off. Okay, okay, thank you, all right. I
appreciate your call, and good luck with that tree out
in Dayton. I've got to take a break, folks, and
we'll be right back the garden line. Welcome back to

(01:46:08):
garden Line. Good to have you with us. If you'd
like to get us a call, we got some room
on the boards here.

Speaker 23 (01:46:14):
Uh.

Speaker 1 (01:46:15):
Seven one three two one two five eight seven four
seven one three two one two fifty eight seventy four
A and A Plants and Produce up in Montgomery is
your local hometown garden center for all of you that
are out there in Montgomery, really Conroe and certainly Lake
Conroe area.

Speaker 10 (01:46:33):
Uh.

Speaker 1 (01:46:33):
They always are in stock with things that are appropriate
for the season. You know, when is the time to
plant sea potatoes, When is the time to plant fruit
trees or specifically citrus trees or put out onion sets,
or right now it's fall color time. They're loaded up
on things that can give you beautiful fall color. Now
when you're there, you're going to find everything you need
to get the soil right too. Uh. They have all

(01:46:57):
the heirloom soil lines, they've got Nature's Way resources eight
mold composts, both the fine and the coarse versions of that,
and then fertilizers like nitrofoss like Nelson's, in fact, all
of the turf Star line from Nelson's, and then microlife.
They all have all the microlife products. So when you
show up at A and A and go home, you've
got everything to get the brown stuff right so the

(01:47:18):
plants can thrive. That's the soil, and then you have
the plants you need to go in it. If you
live out on the Lake Conor area, they have a
landscape crew that can come out and do some work
for you out that area. Usually they have a copy
of my schedules there at the checkout counter, but I'd
encourage you to go ahead and just print them out
and take them with you when you go in and
say this is what I want right here, this one

(01:47:38):
or this product to control this particular problem. A and
A Plants and Produce, Do not forget. I will be
at A and A Plants and Produce next Saturday. That's
the twenty first Saturday, the twenty first, from twelve noon
to two pm. And I do what I do at appearances,
that is, I'm gonna give a little talk we'll talk

(01:47:59):
about out I don't know, some aspects of all gardening
to how to have success, something that's pertinent for the time.
And then answer your gardening questions. Bring as many questions
as you can think of, let's talk about them. You
got a sample of a plant to bring in, or
a sample of a bug, or you know, had some
calls today where I couldn't quite picture what they were describing. Well,
bring a picture, you know, those line of little eggs

(01:48:22):
underneath the leaf. That would be a that would be
a helpful one. Trying to you know, figure out what's
going on there, get to the bottom of it, those
kind of things. Or maybe bring some some pictures on
your phone, like this is an area my landscape, it
just doesn't look good. What what kind of plant there?
What would look good there? Or hey, my neighbors started
sunbathing again, and as SPEEDO, I need I need a hedge.

(01:48:45):
I need it to be thick and dense and year
round because I don't want to look over there. Well,
you get the idea. Whatever kind of photos you bring
in will help you with that. We'll get you we'll
get you fixed up. Hey, you've got to have a
little fun here. On Garden lit A and A Plants
and Produce next Saturday from twelve to two. Come on out.
You got to see the place. Oh and when you're

(01:49:06):
out there, they got the bling. I mean that place.
Do you need like metal archways? Do you need all
kinds of decorative stuff? You know the cool old metal
signs that you put on a fence or against the
wall of a house outdoors. And they've got all of
that stuff and more at a anda. Makes it easy. Well,
we're going to run out now to Troy, Alabama and

(01:49:29):
talk to Paul. Hello, Paul, welcome to garden Line.

Speaker 6 (01:49:32):
Thank you.

Speaker 1 (01:49:33):
Skip.

Speaker 6 (01:49:34):
Got a couple of questions for you. Catalytics. Do you
know anything that's in them this year? Some type of disease?

Speaker 1 (01:49:43):
Kalalilies are a challenge, they really are. And I've tried
to grow them and mediocre success. They look great when
you get them and they come up and they do
pretty good. Trying to get them to stay year to
year is a really challenge in them. They don't like drought.
They need to stay moist. They don't like soggy soil.

(01:50:04):
They need to be well drained, so moist but not soggy.
They need the right amount of light. When they get
in blazing hot sun, they really suffer from that. But
if you don't have enough light, there's not the energy
that the plant needs, you know, with sunshine on the
leaves to be able to thrive either. So it's a
little bit of a diva for me to with klalilies,

(01:50:26):
and I think a lot of people have had that
experience with them. They sure are pretty though.

Speaker 6 (01:50:31):
That's for sure. A couple of questions are not questions.
So the young lady with the grice problem, I used
iron the past couple of years. I don't know. This
year I bought fertilizer with iron in it. Last year
I got liquid iron and spray it with a hose.
But it brought my grice back pretty good. I don't

(01:50:51):
know if that's something you can't use or not.

Speaker 1 (01:50:54):
And yeah, I was trying to drill down in that
call with her to find out is this iron? And
I think it was not iron the way she was
describing the yellow. But uh, yeah, what you just said
on iron, those are all good ideas to help fix
an iron problem. Okay.

Speaker 6 (01:51:12):
One other thing that I do that there was young
lady talking about crab grass. I believe it was. But
I have a two liter bottle and a one leader bottle,
cut out the bottom, take GORI will take them onto
you onee and I just change out the wind. But yeah,
I take that, put it down on the ground and

(01:51:34):
shoot round up and it just hits that area. It
won't get on your other grass. Yes, And that's the
best way I've found to control that stuff.

Speaker 1 (01:51:42):
And yeah, that works pretty good. And having them, yeah,
and having them if you can pick clear ones, it
makes it easier to kind of see what's going on
in there. But yeah, that's a that is a way,
uh you know to just kind of spot spray and
avoid that drift. Yeah, good suggestion. Good, all right, just.

Speaker 6 (01:52:03):
Cost and have a great day.

Speaker 1 (01:52:08):
Okay, I take care, Thank you, Thank you. Try. I
appreciate that phone call. Landscaper's Pride produces quality products. You know,
they're they're local here in our region, and they basically
take what used to be a tree and turn it
into something that makes your soul spresial. Not just tree stuff,
but that you know, that's the basis of a lot
of our of our products. That they have a rose

(01:52:29):
mix for example, that's outstanding. And listen, people think about
roses at Valentine's Day to plant them and prune them
and all that. You can plant roses in the fall,
and I would suggest you do. I think it's even
a better time to plant. Get some of their rosemes.
Grow some roses this fall. Premium potting mix. This is
a quality mix that even has a nutrient boost to
it that the plants just thrive in it. Premium potting

(01:52:52):
mix from Landscaper's Pride top soil for filling in those
areas of your lawn that are too low. Don't put
compost in those areas. It's just going to settle down
and disappear again, like potting soald in your pots does
over a year or two, it sinks down. Use a
quality topsoil mix from Landscaper's Pride for that. And then finally,
it's always a good time to malch with black velvet mulch,

(01:53:14):
not dyed naturally dark beautiful black velvety mulch. Keep the
weeds out. We're about to get winter weeds going. If
you leave the soul bear anywhere and sunlight HiT's the soil,
nature will plan a weed. Black velvet multch can help
you avoid that. All from Landscaper's Pride. You can find
out more Landscaperspride dot com. They're widely available here in
the Greater Houston area. It's not hard to find their

(01:53:36):
products at all. You're listening to Guardline. Our phone number
is seven one three two one two fifty eight seventy four,
or if you like the dial by letter seven one
three two one two ktrh I nextent All right, folks,
give us a call, Give give Chris call, get on

(01:53:57):
the board. We got one more hour in the show
here to do today, and we would love to visit
with you and talk about the kind of questions that
you have in order to have a bountiful garden, a
beautiful landscape, in other words, just to enjoy the place.
Gardening is a fun hobby. I hope this afternoon some
of you plan on getting out and visiting a garden center.

(01:54:18):
Go buy one of our sponsors and pick up the
supplies you need. You know, we've got Ace hardware stores
all over the place, so you can go swing by
and get some product. We got feed stores on North, south,
east West. Really just an outstanding place to go out
and pick out the products you need to have success
with your garden Back.

Speaker 9 (01:54:36):
At the house.

Speaker 2 (01:54:48):
Welcome to KTRH Garden Line with Scape Richard.

Speaker 23 (01:54:52):
It's so.

Speaker 4 (01:55:01):
Just watch him as a world.

Speaker 11 (01:55:08):
So many.

Speaker 1 (01:55:13):
Alrighty, here we go. We are saddled up and ready
to go for our last segment this morning. By the way,
Garden Line. For those of you who are new to
Garden Line, we're here every Saturday and Sunday from six
am to ten am every weekend on Saturday and on Sunday.
And if you would like to listen by radio of pushing,
do that. It's a radio show. But if you want

(01:55:33):
to listen on your computer, you can also do that
at the ktr website and you can download an app
that allows you to play radio and listen live online
as well as to past broadcasts. Both on the app
and online. You can listen that way. So I have
the iHeartMedia app that I use. It's a free app.
You can listen to garden Line live. You can listen

(01:55:54):
to past shows. So I don't care if they live
in Timbucto. Had someone call today from Alabama, someone from Tennessee.
They listen to Garden Line and they don't do it
by radio. Our signal is strong, but it's not that strong,
but you can too. Nitrophoss is three step program. I
talked about it before, I want to mention it again,
and it's really a great combination for fall. But it

(01:56:17):
basically is as a fertilizer, a weed control, and a fungicide.
Three steps, three different products. So the fertilizer is Nitrophoss
Fall Special Winteriser. The nutrient content in it is designed
to strengthen the grass plant going into fall so that
it's more cold hearty and that it comes out better

(01:56:37):
in spring. I think of it as enafreeze for the grass,
but also the spring boost because in spring your grass
takes off growing not based on what it's getting from
its roots, but what it's stored up going into fall.
Nitrofoss Fall Special Winterizer will do just that. Secondly, weeds.
You can spray weeds when they're growing and kill them,

(01:56:59):
but oftentimes were limited in our options for that. Nitrofoss
barricade is a pre emergent. If you put it down
according to my schedule, you will get it down before
the weeds germinate, and when the weed seeds try to sprout,
it shuts the root system down and they die. They
can't make it it works very well now. Third, nitrofuss

(01:57:21):
Egle turf fungicide. That is a systemic product that means
it soaks in to the plant tissues, moves around in
the plant a little bit so that whenever something attacks,
the fungicide is there. And you gotta do it ahead
of time. Again, look at my schedule. Do it ahead
of time, get done in early October, and that way,

(01:57:41):
when brown Patch tries to attack also called large patch,
or when take All root rot is an issue. Takeoll
has a primetime infection period in the fall. And getting
that product down ahead of time. Anything you're going to
do for takeof Patch, you got to get it ahead
of time. Same thing for brown Patch. And these one
two three steps, the Nitrofuss Texas three step Fall Special

(01:58:03):
Win a riser, Nitrofuss barricade to prevent weed seeds, and
nitro Fuss Eagle to fight diseases before they show up.
Those all work really really well. And you're going to
find nitr Fuss products at places like Katie Ace Hardware
out there. Of course, in Katie on Pinoak you're going
to find it. It grows out in Willis, you're going
to find it at Heidnen Feed on Studenter Airline. I'm

(01:58:26):
on forty five North. They carried these products at D
and D Feed and Tomball and they carry these products
at Lake Hartware Clute done in Lake Jackson on Dixie Drive.
Those of you down there know that place. All right.
We're going to go now straight out to the phones
and head out to Kingwood and talk to Pamela. Hello, Pamela.

Speaker 12 (01:58:45):
Hi Skip.

Speaker 16 (01:58:46):
I've mentioned a couple of times when you first started
and you came up to Kingwood.

Speaker 1 (01:58:51):
Good.

Speaker 16 (01:58:52):
My question was really fun. I had neighbors and had
a gas powered small chipper and they chipped all of
the debris that came, you know, the branches and stuff,
and they got about one hundred and fifty dollars worth
of mulch. They use some behind the garage where grass

(01:59:12):
bearingly grows. Now they don't have to water it. It's
gorgeous with them some flagstones. Well, I'm thinking about doing
a fun family day and I might be able to
even get a commercial chipper and have people come and
bring the debris and tip it, bring their own bags
and they can leave with a few bags, and I'll

(01:59:35):
feed them too. I'll give them a barbecue pork sandwich.

Speaker 7 (01:59:40):
Do we have to do we have to because yeah, well.

Speaker 16 (01:59:45):
We need some help here.

Speaker 1 (01:59:47):
Okay that.

Speaker 16 (01:59:51):
I remember what was it, Dewey Compton in this back
in the nineties and Zach Bill Zach, I think it
was talk about some them about newly made mulch either
had too much or not enough nitrogen. Do we need
to you know, if they want to use it in
their flower beds, would they need to spray it with

(02:00:14):
one of the Medina products?

Speaker 1 (02:00:17):
Okay, So to tell me what it is that you
chopped up. What kind of plants was it? Is it trees?
Is it some green trees?

Speaker 15 (02:00:25):
Trees?

Speaker 1 (02:00:26):
Trees?

Speaker 2 (02:00:26):
Oh?

Speaker 16 (02:00:26):
Yeah, we have green vine too, killing.

Speaker 11 (02:00:30):
The trees up here.

Speaker 1 (02:00:32):
In fresh In fresh material, there's more nitrogen than there
is in dried material. That that's true, But I generally
wouldn't worry about it. Now, if what you're primarily chopping
up is twigs and leaves, then you have even more
nitrogen than you would with branches and so on. So
you might let it sit for just a bit before

(02:00:54):
you put it on. And the reason is that material
actually will start to cook, start to compost if it's
got a lot of fresh green leaves, and the twigs
and stuff all chopped up in it. And if you
made a thick pile, it could actually heat up. Now,
if it was just a thin layer of three inches
or so over the soil, it's probably fine and not
a concern at all, okay.

Speaker 16 (02:01:18):
And if they left it in their black bags, because
they gave me some bags and we hit them in
my forest, I have twenty seven trees in a small area,
but some of them I put out by the curve
and they weren't picking it up. Well, the trash people
at my house because I seed those trash guys onmade
muffins out in the oven and stuff. They pick everything up.

(02:01:41):
They picked up the black bags. But if they left
them in the black bags, wouldn't they get it get
hot so it would make it decomposed faster.

Speaker 1 (02:01:51):
Well, it stops air movement, so the heat can build
up in there. But you would know that, you know,
after a few days you would start to see a
heating up occurring in there. I don't know, you know,
it could be, could not be. There's just a lot
of variables, Pamela. I do know that the product can
be used, and I also know something else. You know

(02:02:11):
how to bribe people with food. I've learned from this
phone call. I mean I was getting hungry listening to
your questions. So thanks for the call.

Speaker 16 (02:02:23):
Great, Yeah, degreat home economists and an eight dollars piece,
but I can feed fifty people.

Speaker 1 (02:02:33):
You heard it here on garden Line first bus. All right, Pamela. Well,
if I'm ever over in Kingwood and need something to eat,
I'll show up both there. Thanks a lot. That's a
good question. And yes, that's that's good stuff to use.
Oh boy, hey, while you're in Kingwood, why not go
buy Warren seven Gardens in Kingwood Garden Center. They're there,

(02:02:54):
you know, They're easy to easy to get to, and
they got the stuff you need. In fact, i'm gonna
tell you a little bit about that. I'm gonna take
a break here. When we come back, I wan't tell
you little about what's going on at Warren Southern Gardens.
It is. It is pretty cool stuff. And Jim and
sugar Land you'll be our first collar up when we
come back. Click all squares with traffic lights. Okay, there there,
try again.

Speaker 19 (02:03:14):
I am not a robot.

Speaker 1 (02:03:15):
No, you're not a robot.

Speaker 2 (02:03:17):
Yeah, let ours smart traffic humans help you get there
fast too.

Speaker 20 (02:03:20):
I'm the lookout for an overtime time saver.

Speaker 2 (02:03:23):
Traffic one Youth Radio seven kg RH.

Speaker 1 (02:03:26):
We're back. Last call Pamela made me hungry talking about food.
I need to I can't get any breakfast this morning.
I think I need to go crab from lunch pretty
quick when I am done with this. Listen. If you
want a quality job done, you need to start with
quality plants in Quality Advice that that's how that works.

(02:03:47):
And Warren Southern Gardens in Kingwock Garden Center they're loaded
up with both. You can go at Warnston. Have they
got the citrus has arrived? Rangoon creepers, gorgeous vine dies
to the ground in winter but comes back and then
hottest season of the year. It is looking great, beautiful
clusters of red pink flowers. It's time to make sure
your planners are ready to go for fall. And do

(02:04:08):
you know this. You could actually take plots that you
already have at home, or buy a pot for Warren's
and drop it off there and they have they can
help you advise you like put these plants together and
make a nice combo planner, or they would just do it.
You can hire them to do that for you as well.
They've got a sale five dollars a bag off on
Microlife the six two four and the Microlife brown Patch

(02:04:31):
Control Sweet Green from Nitroposs and Azamite through the end
of this month through September five bucks off those. They
have sales on Bugginator, sales on Slow and Easy, sales
on super turb right now. They have a tree sale
going on at both locations, and you know it's just
it's a good time. Thirty percent off any tree like

(02:04:52):
the Traveler Redbud, a kind of weeping type of red
butts really cool. Subscribe to the Warren's newsletter when you're there,
but mainly just go by and check these places out.
Outstanding garden centers. You're fortunate in Kingwood area to have
both of those in your area. Let's see here. I'm
gonna run out now to sugar Land and we're gonna
talk to Jim. Hello, Jim, Welcome to garden Line.

Speaker 7 (02:05:12):
Yeah, yes, good morning, skiff.

Speaker 24 (02:05:15):
I've got some weeds that infest run in certain areas
of augustine grass.

Speaker 7 (02:05:24):
But they have a long stem.

Speaker 24 (02:05:25):
The weeds do about ten twelve inches long, and they
got a white balloom on the top small blue is
Can you tell me what to do on that? Or
should I send you a photo? Or how does that work?

Speaker 1 (02:05:43):
Well, let me ask you a question, see if it'll
help me know. Does the bloom is it a little
bloom with only four pedals, kind of like making the
sign of a plus sign four pedals? Or is it
a bloom that looks like a little tiny daisy about
the size of a dime?

Speaker 7 (02:06:01):
I think it's about the four the first.

Speaker 1 (02:06:05):
Okay, that's Virginia button weed, and it is difficult to control.
The product that you need to use is called celsius,
like the temperature celsius, and Virginia button weed is hard
to kill, so it's going to take more than one application.
You could hit it now, that'd be a start, and

(02:06:27):
then next spring when it comes back, you'll see it back.
They'll be because it comes from seed too. When it
comes out, you want to spray it when you first
see a good little patch of it, so you have
something to spray with the celsius, and then about six
weeks later spray it again with the celsius. And that's
the kind of regimen it takes. It loves wet soil,

(02:06:48):
so the more you water or if you have poor drainage,
Virginia button weed is going to be worse. So try
to do what's in your power to keep it from
stand wet all the time.

Speaker 24 (02:06:59):
Well that's sad, like this is a damp area the
grass and that's worse.

Speaker 1 (02:07:05):
Good. Yeah, well it likes that, Okay.

Speaker 7 (02:07:10):
Appreciate that. And I don't have any food today.

Speaker 10 (02:07:15):
So.

Speaker 1 (02:07:17):
I know, I was I was kind of hoping you
were going to get to some barbecue. You know, maybe
if you made a barbecue pitfull, people would come spray
it for you. Jim, Thanks, thanks for the call. Appreciate that.
I mean, if you read Tom Sawyer and know about
painting that or whitewashing that fence anyway, learned a lot

(02:07:40):
from that story. By the way, that is for sure
if you want a really quality landscape, I mean one
that is just a showplace, Jason, the whole team there
really at Peer Scapes. They know what they're doing. They
got designers on staff. I mean they can do a
full design for you. You can have a beautiful patio create
and you know all the nine yards. You could have

(02:08:03):
just an area that doesn't drain well fixed. You can
have irrigation systems that aren't working right repaired. You can
have them come in and do landscape lighting. You can
have them do hard scapes like walkways and the whole
nine yards. They know how to do it. If you
go to the website pierscapes dot com, pierce Scapes p
E A RCEE, piercescapes dot com, you can see the

(02:08:26):
work that they do. They also do a quarterly bed
maintenance where you hire them and you say once a quarter,
I want you to come out. I want you to
trim things. I want you to weed, I want you
to fertilize. I want you to put new multch, fresh
mulch on top. I want you to change out the
color seasonally, you know, as we go from one season
or not. I mean need some new plants in there
for that check my irrigation system. They can also do

(02:08:47):
just that for you at peerscapes dot com. We're going
to go now to Southwest Houston and talk to Sandy. Hello, Sandy,
welcome to Gardenline.

Speaker 25 (02:08:56):
I I the you talked about nematodes and the roots
of your plants looking like the Mitchell and Man.

Speaker 1 (02:09:07):
Yes, and.

Speaker 25 (02:09:10):
Is that I have a garden Part one of my
raised beds is not. It just doesn't seem to be
doing well this year. And I've noticed the roots look
like the mitchell in man. Is that that there's mimatoads
in there bad?

Speaker 1 (02:09:26):
It could It could be. When nematods are not bad,
it looks like a string of pearls. You just have
these little bumps down the root, a little circles down
the root. When they get really bad and the roots
get bigger, it's like they grow and swell together. So
it's this big giant swollen area that's really lumpy, and
it typically is kind of an ugly tan color. Instead
are fresh white, healthy looking. Those are nematod signs. If

(02:09:50):
you want to take a picture of what you're seeing
up close and sharp focus and send it to me,
I can confirm that for you if you like. Nematods
are very difficult to control to get rid of. They're
always going to be around, so the things we do
just kind of help hamper them. One of the main
things we do is plant things that nematodes don't attack,

(02:10:10):
and that is not a long list of options, so
that that's kind of one of the negatives that we
have to deal with.

Speaker 25 (02:10:19):
Okay, okay, well, I can't take any pictures right now.
It's been you know a little bit since I did that.
I was going to plant something and I thought, do
I need to do something else to the bed because
because I'm atual man roots.

Speaker 1 (02:10:34):
So yeah, yeah, well you're welcome to if you want
to hang on and get get an email to send
a picture of a close up and sharp focus over root.
I'll be glad to try to identify that for you
if you'd like to do that.

Speaker 25 (02:10:47):
Okay, okay, okay, thank you so much.

Speaker 1 (02:10:49):
Bye, all right, thank you for the call. Appreciate you
calling very much. You're listening to Guardline folks, and our
phone number is seven to one three two one two
kt RH and one three two one two.

Speaker 17 (02:11:02):
K t R.

Speaker 1 (02:11:03):
I spent a slow day on the phones today compared
to normal, but typically what happens is got a lot
of calls right toward the end of the day. But
whenever it's a good time for you, it's a good
time for me. Give us a call seven one three
two one two k t R H be happy to
help with that. I was at a wallbirds yesterday. Thanks

(02:11:23):
uh Jeff. Folks out there in clear Lake at the
Wallbirds in clear Lake. We had a great time. By
the way, if you want to find the wallbirds near you,
it is a website called wbu dot com forward slash Houston.
There's six Wallbird stores here in Houston, and if you
go to that website you can find the ones near you.

(02:11:44):
We are in the big, big middle of hummingbird season.
Those hummingbirds have showed up. They are hungry. They got
a long trip ahead of them. And how on earth
a hummingbird with wings beating sixty times a second is
able to fly across the Gulf of Ago. I have
no idea, but they do it. But you can help
them out, you know, get some good sugar water out

(02:12:05):
there for them. They make a special blend there wild
Birds that has something that keeps the mix from going bad.
It's a kind of a nutrient mineral type thing. So
it's not like something that would hurt the birds. In fact,
it really helps what would last You know, sugar water
in our heats outside today is going to last what
two or three days and it's going to start getting funky.

(02:12:28):
Well you put this in, it'll lasts a week or more.
It really works well that you can also add it
to your own sugar water if you want to do that.
If you are going to be on a trip and
away for a while, get one of their seed cylinders.
If you are having problems with squirrels eating all your
bird seed, they have the hot pepper seed cylinders, and

(02:12:48):
they have hot pepper seeds too, and those squirrels they
will not eat that kind of like you know, put
a bunch of Hobernaro peppers in front of me and
there's not one of those going into my mouth. I
would be set on fire. So Wildbird's unlimited, lots of
good blends, lots of good things from bird feeders. Bird
houses get stocked up. Also, Baltimore orioles are moving through

(02:13:11):
right now, so you want to They have supplies for
them as well, types of feed that are especially attractive
to those as well. All at wildbirds wbu dot com,
Forward slash Houston. We're going to head now to Okay,
We're going to head out to Montgum. I always have
to watch a clock because I ended up just wanting
to talk all day and not realize I have to

(02:13:31):
take breaks. We'll go to Brad and Montgomery next. Hey, Brad,
welcome to garden line. Hey, how are you? I'm well,
thank you?

Speaker 19 (02:13:42):
All right, we got a quest, I'd said on the
thing on the to your screener that we have. It
looks like some eggs and some white flies are flying
up and we shake the leaves. But we have some
points set is that we keep all year long. And
then a shrimp plant and then some church caps that
are kind of eating up with all almost looks like
a black fungus. But I think it's eggs or something. Okay,

(02:14:05):
we're wondering how to treat it.

Speaker 1 (02:14:07):
All right, Well, my best shot at a general description
like that, if you're seeing white, little natty fly looking
things coming up off the plant when you shake it,
that is whiteflies. That's the only one that does that. Now.
Plant insects that suck the juice out of the plant.
They excrete the sugar that's in the juice and it

(02:14:28):
falls on the leaves and creates city mold black stuff,
and so that could be aphed scale, white flies, meatly bugs.
They all create what they creatively called honeydew. It's basically
sweet bug pea, but I think sweet bug pea doesn't
sound as good as honeydew. But anyway, that's what the
city mold's going off of. So you control the white flies.

(02:14:49):
You can you shut down the city mold source. You
can blast plants with a little bit of a soapy water,
you know, and then kind of blast that off of
them and get away a lot of the sticky sugary
stuff and some of the black honey or black city mold.
But basically you're gonna have to get a systemic in
those plants to kill the white flies. White flies are

(02:15:11):
hard to control. And sprays of horticultural oils sprayed upward
from under the plant to coat the eggs and the
pupa and the larvae that are under the leaves, that
will be helpful, but it's hard to get good coverage.
But also just make sure that you are using a systemic.

(02:15:32):
And I want to get you to hold I want
to come back and finish that answer. I'm gonna gets
to a hard news break here, Brad. But if you
can hang on, if you need brown stuff to have
gardens success, you know, that's the first step. You fix
the soil, the brown stuff, you put good plants in it,
and they thrive. That's how that works. And so many
people get excited about plants. You know they got beautiful

(02:15:52):
blooms on them. It's a tomato and you're going to
grow tomatoes. It's a tree that's gonna have blooms, and
you get all excited about that, but you don't think
about preparing this spot. First round stuff before green stuff.
Always prepare the soil. And if you live south of Houston,
Ciena Mulch is your go to place. A Cenamulch is
north of Roast Sharon. They're on FM five twenty one.
Here's the website. You want to write this down. It's

(02:16:13):
got everything you need to know, from phone numbers to
how to get there. Sienna Mulch dot com cienamulch dot com.
Now they're open Monday through Friday from seven thirty in
the morning till five Saturday from seven thirty to two.
They're closed today, close on Sunday. They'll be back open
again tomorrow. It's a one stop shop. And here here's
why I say that. You show up there, you buy composts,

(02:16:35):
you buy mulches, you buy fertilizers. They carry every fertilizer
I talk about on Guarden Line. They're there, they're ready
to go for you. Do you need a rose sooil?
Do you need landscapers, pride back velvet mulch? Do you
need airloom soils? What veggie and herb mix? You see
what I'm saying. They've got it all. They also have
sand and gravel, they have stone by the pallette. They'll

(02:16:56):
deliver within about twenty miles for a small fee, and
then all kinds of all kinds of multis. I'm just
naming a few of the things that they have. Roase
soil be another example. You show up at Sienna, you
go home with the good stuff, or if you're in
twenty miles away then and you har them to come
out and deliver it. And when you get that ready,
whatever you put in the ground this fall, you're going
to see success. Seen a mulch one stop shop. I'm

(02:17:22):
going to head out now to let's see where were we? Di?
Who was I talking to? Talking? Who was I talking to? Brad? Okay, Brad?
Was it you that I was talking to about the
white flies? Okay, my brain just kind of went blank.
So white flies? Yeah. A systemic would be something like

(02:17:43):
a meadow cloak prid I M I DO O C
L O P R I D a systemic like that,
and what that does is the root. You just drenched
the soil and the roots pick it up and it
goes through the plumbing of the plant. So any good
beneficial crawling around the surface of the plant, they're not

(02:18:04):
crawling on a sprayed surface, they're okay. But anything sucking
juices out of the plant, they get that poison and
it kills them. Now, the only negative about amidocloprid and
any systemic is that if honey bees are visiting the
flowers of that plant, well, there could be some of

(02:18:24):
that substance in the blooms, and so that's the big
hesitation on it. But when you're dealing with something that's
very difficult and persistent like soft scale and white flies,
it's one of the few options that really works. You
can work your way after them by regularly hitting them
with a horticultural little spray spray upward from under the leaf.

(02:18:45):
Like I mentioned earlier, it's a little more tedious and
you've got to be very diligent about that, but that
would be the other option.

Speaker 19 (02:18:52):
Does that systemic get out of the planet eventually?

Speaker 1 (02:18:55):
Yeah, it breaks down eventually, I mean it's not going
to be there a year from now. Yeah, those church caps.

Speaker 19 (02:19:01):
We have butterflies that like them, and I don't know
if it affects the butterflies if they but right now, yeah.

Speaker 1 (02:19:08):
I don't. Yeah, I don't know when the butterflies, but
I would I would just be cautious because it is systemic,
it's moving through the plant. Yeah, yeah, trust caps. You're
up in Montgomery, go to Ana Plants. I bet they.
I bet they have a version of it up there
at A and A on the east side of town. Okay,

(02:19:30):
if you have trouble finding out there, you can try
ACE Hardware in your area would have it too.

Speaker 7 (02:19:35):
Yeah, there's an ACE Hardware right there on one.

Speaker 1 (02:19:37):
So yeah, there you go. I appreciate your man. You bet.
Good luck with those. I hope you have a great,
great success with that. Let's go now to northwest Houston
and we're gonna talk to Matthew. Hello, Matthew morning, Skip.
How are you doing this morning? I'm good? Thank you.

Speaker 7 (02:19:59):
Had question.

Speaker 26 (02:20:01):
So last fall I'd put in a red maple and
it's been in the ground for about ten eleven months,
and I noticed a couple of weeks back that the
edges of the leaves on the bottom half of the
foliage are kind of turning gray, almost like they're burnt.
And I was curious what might be causing that, whether
it was underwatering, overwatering heat, or some sort of disease.

Speaker 1 (02:20:28):
Well, there is a naturally lighter color underneath the leaf,
and I'm trying to think of some of the red
maybe some of it you had almost described as gray.
You sure you wasn't a silver maple that you got
it was red?

Speaker 10 (02:20:41):
Uh?

Speaker 26 (02:20:43):
No, I actually got it from RCW. Was a I
believe a san Felipe red maple.

Speaker 1 (02:20:48):
Oh, yes, yes, that's an outstanding one that they sell
there at RCW. That's a good one. Grayish under the
But the top of the leaf looks healthy and green, right.

Speaker 26 (02:20:58):
So the top half of the foliage looks perfectly fine.
It's the bottom half of the tree where I'm seeing
the edges of the leaves they're kind of turning gray
or brown, like they're dead.

Speaker 1 (02:21:12):
Okay, so let me clarify this now. I was thinking
you were talking about the undersides of the leaves turning gray.
Now you're saying the edges are doing.

Speaker 26 (02:21:19):
This right, Yes, it's just the edges.

Speaker 1 (02:21:21):
Okay, okay, okay, good, Well, I wouldn't worry about that.
Probably there was something going on in the soil, such
as a droughty period, or you know, any kind of
a thing that affects the roots negatively. If you were
to put a bunch of salt based fertilizer around the plant,

(02:21:43):
you can burn the edges of the foliage when the
roots take up that concentrated fertilizer, like if you put
it out at too high of a rate. But that's
a good maple, it will do well here when we
go through droughts. A good deep soaking. This year hasn't
been a tough one. But the first year, the tree
does not have the root system it needs to take

(02:22:04):
up water sufficiently without you helping it. So an established tree,
had that grown from a seed, it would have roots
way out from the plant in all directions and it
would be able to withstand some droughty conditions. Coming out
of a cylinder in a pot, right, those roots are
confined and it takes a while for them to work

(02:22:24):
their way out. So the first year, especially small amounts
of water around the base of the plant, kind of
like you're watering where the pot was before, is pretty important.
And I think that's probably what happened a little bit
this year on it. I think it's going to be fine, though,
just make sure it gets adequate water during the cool season.
The leaves are going to fall off and we don't
have to worry about it. Okay.

Speaker 26 (02:22:46):
See you think it was just a droughty period that
kind of hurt the roots.

Speaker 1 (02:22:50):
I think, yeah, even if your soil, Yeah, go ahead.

Speaker 26 (02:22:55):
I've got the tree ring and everything. I usually try
to hit it pretty good and make sure that the
so it stay. It's moist about a couple inches down.

Speaker 1 (02:23:03):
But okay, well, those rings are outstanding. The thing you
have to remember is that root cylinder. The ring often
will spray outside the roots cylinder if you turn it
up right, and you have to barely turn it on
for the water to soak right down at the base
where that cylinder is. Because if you imagine this, when
you planted that tree, had you not taken the pot

(02:23:25):
off and you put the whole pot in the tree
in the ground, if you think about it that way,
you'll know right word of water, you wouldn't water outside
that because the roots aren't outside that well. For the
as we go month by month by month, and then
year by year end of the tree's life, the root
system more and more and more is filling the soil
outside of that area. But for a good while the

(02:23:46):
majority of roots are still inside that area, and so
when we water, that is the target. Now, next summer
it won't be so important to water just right there.
But this first summer was the more challenging time. So
you shouldn't see this problem if you have adequately mo
so and those tree waterers that go around the base
are excellent for that.

Speaker 26 (02:24:06):
Okay, all right, I appreciate your hope, thank you skip all.

Speaker 1 (02:24:10):
Right, you've met. Thanks Matthew, appreciate appreciate your call. We
got to take a little breakre when we come back
Gary and West Houston, you will be our first up,
your on guard line of the day. Here we go.
I've Todd told you for a long time now about
different microlife products. Microlife has a product called brown patch,
and it is a fertilizer where the nitrogen has dropped

(02:24:32):
down a little bit and the potassium has gone up.
And that's what we want to do with a fall fertilizer.
H and Microlife brown Patch is widely available a lot
of different places. No problem, at all finding Microlife bound
brown patch gosh, I can't even talk on the market
out there. Microlife's widely widely sold across the Greater Houston
area and even beyond that too. By the way, if

(02:24:53):
you got friends and other areas around here, Uh, just
follow the label, apply it according to the label. Get
that done. I primarily I focus my fall fertilization recommendations
on October, but we are getting toward now we're in
the middle of September. As we get toward the end
of September, you can go ahead and start your organic

(02:25:13):
fertilization because these products have to be microbially broken down
to release fully release all the nutrients to the growing plants.
And I just like to get a little bit of
a headstart on that. And Microlife brown pats can be
used in late September and all through October if you
like to give that turf the boost it needs. Because remember,
you go into fall strong, you come out of winter strong.

(02:25:36):
That's how grass grows. The spring growth is based on
the stored nutrients and energy carbohydrates in the grass plant,
not on the roots at that time. As roots begin
to grow in spring, then our spring fertilizations help with that.
But I would say maybe one of the most important
fertilizations of the year on year lawn is the fall
fertilization because of what I just said, because of what

(02:25:58):
it can do. Life bron patch can do that. Loaded
with microbes they get on the plant, they help compete
against the bad guys. In this case, bron patch is
an example of a fungus that attacks CHR lawn. So
anything we do to improve in the good guy competition
against bad guys is a good idea, and that is
why they designed microlife bron Patch. We're gonna go now

(02:26:21):
to West Houston and talk to Gary. Hello, Gary, Welcome
to Gardline. Good, good morning, sir. Did you happen to
get my picture? Hang on?

Speaker 7 (02:26:33):
Yeah?

Speaker 12 (02:26:35):
Uh?

Speaker 1 (02:26:36):
From Gary? Or who would it? Say it?

Speaker 7 (02:26:38):
Yeah? That's me?

Speaker 1 (02:26:39):
Yeah, oh yeah, I replied to you, Yes, I did. No,
wait a minute, I'm sorry, hang on just a second.
That's somebody else. And I did not get from a Gary.
I got from see Jonathan and Chuck. Going from Chuck.
I didn't do anything from Gary. Okay, well, I'll say what,

(02:27:01):
let me put you on hold. I'm going to put
you on hold and let me, let me, let my
producer talk to you and see if we can work
out what went wrong, and we'll probably have a little
time here maybe we can get it. Get it fixed.
All right, folks, you're listening to guard Line. I'm your host,
skip Rictor. We're here every Saturday and Sunday to answer
your gardening questions. And I don't care where you live.
Call us. We'll answer your gardening questions. Happy to do that.

(02:27:23):
By the way, I just want to remind you again
that Nature's Way Resources still has their Fungal Friday sale
going on, twenty percent off fungal composts on Friday. What
is fungo compost, Well, fungal compost is anytime you have
a tree, a wood, a leaf, a type of substance.
Fungi are the primary decomposers for that. You know, when

(02:27:45):
it's things like I don't know, lettuce leave, you know,
something real green and stuff like that on the ground. Well,
bacteria are going to be dominant in that kind of decomposition.
But their fungal composts twenty percent off on Fridays, So
this is time to go by and get it. You're
making beds, you're improving your soil for fall. Fungal compost

(02:28:06):
is a good thing to mix into the soil you
want to do a top dressing on your lawn. Just
like leaf mold compost, Fungal compost is also a very
good product for success with that, don't forget On Saturday,
October twelfth, I want to give you a head start
on this one. Normally, I don't talk about things until
we're almost on them. Saturday, October twelve, I'll be at

(02:28:26):
their fall festival and it is going to be officially
designated a shindig early, So I'm designating at a shindig
live music, children's activities, Latin food, local vendors, plant sales.
I'll be there from let's see eleven thirty to one
thirty answering your gardening questions. And also you can bring
me your sick and tired and diseased and insect infested

(02:28:48):
whatever in a baggie. We'll take a look at them
and we'll diagnose them and point you in the right direction,
or just photos on your phone. Anyway, that is October twelfth.
I want to make sure you get that on your
calendar so you can show up and help us with that.
Let's see Chris, are we ready to go back with Carriy?
Do we get that solved or not? See if I

(02:29:09):
can take care of this boy. We're running short on
time here. I want to I just want to mention
one thing before for a runout of time to be
able to do it, and that is that next Saturday,
I'll be at A and A Plants and Produce in Montgomery, Texas.
A and A Plants and Produce and Montgomery. I'd ei

(02:29:31):
there from twelve to two, from noon to two, answering questions,
give a little talk and diagnose in whatever kinds of
pictures and plants you bring me to look at you
and talk to Dwane. Hello Dwayne, Welcome to garden Land.

Speaker 7 (02:29:47):
Thanks lot Skiff.

Speaker 10 (02:29:48):
I got a quick question.

Speaker 17 (02:29:49):
I'm having a subdivision where we have one acre plots.

Speaker 10 (02:29:53):
And the neighbors behind me have two story houses, and
I was wondering what tree I can plan on the
back for privacy.

Speaker 9 (02:30:00):
Then we grow quick.

Speaker 1 (02:30:02):
It's evergreen, Okay. So screening is a based on where
you're sitting and where what you don't want to see is.
So let's say you're sitting ten feet from the fence line.
I know you're not but if you were even something
six to eight feet high would be enough to block
a view. But as you get further away, then you

(02:30:23):
need a higher screen, so you kind of have to
do the eyeball across there. And how big does it
have to be. It's probably going to need to be
almost a tree based on the size of the lot
you're describing. And finding something that is evergreen so it
blocks the view all the time is a little bit
of a challenge. The pretty fast growing would be something

(02:30:44):
like an eastern red ceedar. They get up pretty quick
and hit a decent size, and they are evergreen. Live
oaks certainly are another example of that. They are slower
growing though, although there are some more upright types of
live oaks that grow in more of an upright fashion
than the other. Uh. Those those would be two things

(02:31:05):
that I would consider, But it's going to take a
while to get that that height of the screen that
you're talking about.

Speaker 7 (02:31:11):
Okay, and the parking with what I'm sorry, I missed it.

Speaker 1 (02:31:15):
I'm sorry, yes again, Yeah, the second one was live oak.
The first one, I'm trying to remember what I just
what did I just say?

Speaker 14 (02:31:27):
Uh?

Speaker 1 (02:31:28):
By the way, Eastern red, Eastern red cedar. Yeah, eastern
red would be something. Yeah, they grow wild or on
the country side up here. Now. One other one would
be cherry laurel. Cherry laurel. Uh. And there are varieties

(02:31:48):
that are more compact, and you want one necessarily not
so compact, to get a little bit bigger and it
gets a decent size to it, but again you'll have
to determine how big it has to be to really
block the view you're looking at. Okay, Okay, I appreciate it,
all right, you bet, Dwyane, thanks a lot, appreciate appreciate
that call. All right, let's see Gary, did we resolve

(02:32:10):
that with the producer or not?

Speaker 7 (02:32:13):
I think he did.

Speaker 1 (02:32:16):
Okay, he says he found all right. Yeah, so hey Gary, yes,
let me let's do this. If he gave you, he
gave you, made sure you got the right one, go
ahead and send it to me. I'll look at the
email during this week and we will try to take
it from there. Okay, Yeah, you know what, that's fine.
I'll call next week.

Speaker 7 (02:32:34):
I think it's something you enjoyed to hearing about it.

Speaker 1 (02:32:37):
Okay, good sounds good. Thanks a lot for the call. Wow,
time flies when you're having fun. And we have been
having fun today. We've got a little extra time before
we had break this time that's good, nice, Maybe an
extra minute we can talk about things. I want to
remind you that fall is the best planting season of
the year. And I don't just say that. I wish

(02:33:00):
we could take spring fever and release it into the
water supplies and fall so everybody gets a good case
of gardening fever in the fall time. Because for woody ornamentals,
absolutely the best. For perennials, the best, and that includes
perennial flowers, perennial herbs, perennial grasses. It's a great vegetable

(02:33:21):
gardening season. You know, things that are ripening in the
fall are ripening. Is the temperatures cool off, so the
flavor is crisp and better. It's just good. It's just
a good time. Plus it's fun to be outside in
the fall. We can go outside again soon. Trust me,
this is coming. We're looking forward to it. Prepare yourself first,
always prepare yourself first, and then pick something that wants
to grow here and get it done. What are you

(02:33:42):
going to add to your landscape this fall? Imagine this
walk out to the street, look at your house and
look at where the evergreens are. They all on one side,
and would you like to balance it out a little bit?
There's an idea. What is bloomed this summer and where
and what could you add that would be a good bloomer.
Or maybe it bloomed in spring, it bloomed in summer

(02:34:04):
right and now in the fall. Other than annual plants,
you don't have any flowers. There are some great perennials
that bloom in the fall. Why not add some of
those to it? Are there any plants that are in
a shady area that need more sun or vice versa.
Fall is the best time to move a plant in
the landscape. The demands are the least. And when I
say fall for moving, I'm talking about late October, maybe

(02:34:27):
starting then up further north than the listening area, and
for all of the listening area, definitely November early November
is a good time. Dig them up, put slide them
onto a tarp so you don't have to pay for
your car, practice kids to go through college, and slide
them right over the new area and put them in there.
I have moved plants several times in the fall, and
it is an excellent time because the demands are so

(02:34:49):
low and there's no time like moving a plant like fall.
Try to do it in the summer, you're going to
lose the plant. Fall is a great time to do that.
So I guess what I'm saying is fall is the
time I'm for planting and for transplanting. That's for sure. Well,
we ought to be hearing music by now, because I
am hitting right up against the end of this program

(02:35:11):
for today. Don't forget if you wanted to go to
the second Annual Strawberry Jamboree on September twenty first, let's
next supery down in Lake Jackson way down like Justicon
Rep Center, Lake Drive, Missouri County, stenching of a sudden,
the heck of an event. It's free. You're going to
learn about strawberry growing. They'll have exhibitors, I'll have a

(02:35:34):
strawberry shortcake contest, and I hope to miss out. I
went last year was a great, great event. I won't
make it this year, but it is going to be good.
Tay you that I know what kind of programs that
they put on down their phone number for more information.
Ninety seven nine eight, six, four, one, five, five eight nine,
seventy nine, eight six, four fifteen