Interview with The Texas Garden Guy Destin

Skip takes your calls

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
In line with Skip Richter.

Speaker 2 (00:10):
Just watch him as.

Speaker 3 (00:26):
All right, gardeners, good morning, good morning on a good
Sunday morning. We're glad to have you with us. Welcome
to garden Line. I'm your host, Skip Richter. And what
do we do here, Well, we answer your gardening questions.
We try within our power to help you have a
bountiful garden and a beautiful landscape because it is very doable.
You know, here in the greater Houston area, in fact

(00:48):
all of southeast Texas, it is. Our plant palette is huge.

Speaker 4 (00:54):
Now.

Speaker 3 (00:54):
There are a lot of things we can't grow. They
grow up north, or they grow somewhere else. There are
so many things you can grow here that you can't
grow other places. And we really enjoy a big plant pellette.
I think that is that is one of the things
probably maybe we don't appreciate as much now people that
move from other areas, you know, they go, you can
grow et ceterus. You know you can actually grow in avocado. Well,

(01:18):
yeah you can. It's going to freeze back some, but
yes you can. I was talking to somebody the other
day at wild Birds down in clear Lake and he
was showing me pictures of his avocado tree and it
frozen back. I think a couple of times, I believe,
but I mean it came right back like Gangbusters, and
he's getting a lot of avocados out of it. We
just have options down here, and I realized in the
listening area we got folks you know, up in Huntsville

(01:40):
on Interseate forty five and over down toward Karpas and Louisiana,
and so there's a big range here, so any one
plant may not go all areas, but my goodness, we
have a lot of great, great options in this region
for growing plants. And fall is a season for planting,
so I want to encourage you to get out there
and try planting something. Yesterday I was out at A

(02:03):
and A Plants and Produce and Montgomery, and thanks for
everybody that came out. I had a great time visiting
with you guys, and as usual, you had a lot
of questions. We kind of got hung up on weeds
there for a while, and I was getting depressed because
I want to talk about flowers and fruit and vegetables,
loans and other things, and we were delving into how
to kill nuts, edge and whatnot. But hey, it's your questions.

(02:24):
That's what we're here for. And if I've answered them
a hundred times, I'll answer them one hundred first time.
I don't mind. I know how it is. That gardener
has been doing this thirty five years and we typically
have the same questions. And some people are new to gardening,
and you know, they may have questions that a veteran
gardener would go, oh my gosh, don't you know the
answer to that? Well, I don't do that. I mean, seriously,

(02:47):
if it's your question, it's going to get respected, it's
going to get answered. That's how I look at it,
because my goal is to take people that have never
gardened before and make them enthusiastic green thumb, which means
your thumb. It's educated gardeners. That's how that works. So
give us a call. Our phone number is seven one
three two one two fifty eight seventy four. Hey, thanks

(03:09):
to A and A for having me out yesterday. It
was great. While we were there, I was looking around
at all the beautiful plants that they have in stock,
and they are loaded up and it looks great out there.
And of course, you know when you go to Ana,
you've got every kind of fertilizer and soil product that
I talk about here that are available. Just looking through
all the different bag products and the fertilizers from Nitrofossen

(03:31):
Nelson and from Microlife, you know, things from heirloom soils
in Nature's way. They stay stocked up. And those of
you who live out there in Montgomery, in Conroe, out
by the Lake Lake Conroe neighborhoods, it's your backyard garden
center and you need to run over there and check
it out because it's close and it is well stocked,

(03:51):
and the folks that are there to help you are
very very good. I was talking with one of the staff.
There's a master partner actually, someone that had been in
some of my training classes when I speak in Montgomery County,
and you know, that's that's kind of person that's going
to be able to point you in the right direction.
And that's what we like about independent garden centers is

(04:14):
educated folks. I've talked about this before, but I had
been in big box stores and I'm not going to
name the stores. You know, it doesn't matter what I
put the name on. It applies to about all of them.
But I've been in big box stores and sometimes I'll
go in and ask questions just to see, you know,
the knowledge level of the staff. And you know, I'm

(04:34):
stand in front of a pesticide aisle asking a question
and the answer was like, are you kidding me? It
would have been the worst thing for somebody to do.
And I just say, oh, really, how long you been
working here? I've been here a week? Oh really, we'll
be doing for that. Well. In one case the answer
was I was managing the jewelry counter. In another case
it was I was cutting hair in a beauty shop.

(04:55):
And do you see what I'm saying? That is not
a person unless they just happened to be very knowledgeable
as a gardener to be selling you pesticides or to
be pointing you to the plant that's going to survive. Here.
Another pet peeve of mine is going to those places.
And I know people go in because they think, well,
this is gonna be cheap. Well, remember, cheap and economical

(05:16):
are not the same thing. And here's why. If you
buy a plant that dies, if you buy a product
that doesn't work or damages you're lawn, that's not cheap.
You're going to go back after to buy another one.
And other things and I see that happen. But I've
been in those stores and they're selling raspberries, black cab raspberries.
They don't grow down here, and maybe you kept one

(05:37):
alive for five minutes, but listen, they don't grow down here.
They're selling conquered grapes that down here. If you're in
New York, that's great. That's a good grape. You know.
Niagara is another one like that, conquered ripens, one berry
at a time. Just go buy some Welch's grape juice
that's conquered grapes and enjoy that, and don't try to
plant one in your yard. But they're for sale here.

(05:58):
And I could go on and on on and on.
Northern high bush blueberries we can grow rabbitized in southern
high Bush. We cannot grow Northern high bush down here,
not successfully long term. And they shouldn't be settling them.
But hey, big chain, that's what happens. All right, I'm
through griping about that for now. Let's go out to
the phones. See we're going to go to Kingwood now

(06:20):
and talk to Angelo. Good morning Angelo. All right, we're
gonna put Angelo on hold. Do we have you Angelo?

Speaker 5 (06:31):
Yeah?

Speaker 3 (06:31):
You there yes, yes, how can we help today?

Speaker 6 (06:35):
Oh, yes, I have about it. Oh it's about a
five foot Plemiri tree. They got kind of beat up
with the hurricane. It's like at a ninety degree angle.
It's blooming and everything. The leaves are getting kind of
beat up though, with the sun and everything. But my
question is, can I just cut it at the trunk
about maybe three feet up and with something grow from there.

(06:57):
It's healthy, but it's a little.

Speaker 3 (06:58):
Bread Yeah, you'll see branches come out on them. I
saw one the other day that stem was dying and
there were little shout shoots coming out of the base.
So you could do that. I'm not a plumeria expert.
I'll just tell you that up front. I know a
lot of but but yeah, you can. You can do that,
and just remember and winter. If you haven't had it
to a winner already, you definitely need protection. Or pull

(07:20):
it up and bring it in and hang it and
hang it in the garage or something.

Speaker 6 (07:23):
Yeah. I've done that in the past, and I just
want to cut it about instead of it's it was
five foot before the hurricane beat it up. Okay, I'll
just kind of down to about three foot. But no,
branches on and everything. Just have the date of the trunk.
That's that one.

Speaker 3 (07:36):
Yeah, and you might try it. You might try rooting
some some branches and sections of it too that you
cut cut off. Don't just throw them all away.

Speaker 6 (07:44):
But if I just cut that trunk, you know, cut
that with that little there at the top of.

Speaker 3 (07:50):
It, it'll sprout out. But it yes, you can do that. Well,
good luck with that. Thank you for the call. Shape
that very much. We got to run to a quick break.
Ann and Roger. You'll be our first two up when
we come right back.

Speaker 7 (08:06):
If you had listened to.

Speaker 3 (08:07):
Forward to your calls and visiting with you about the
things that interest you. You know, one of the one
of the important things that we do in the garden
landscape is build good soil but also support and in
doing so, support microbial activity. There are a lot of
microbes out there. Sometimes we think of funguses or bad
bacteria or bad and some are, but there are a

(08:29):
lot of good ones, a lot of ones that benefit
our plants, that help turn organic matter like tree trunks
back in the soil that would be the fungib or
really shine at that microlife has put the kinds of
beneficial microbes that I'm talking about in its products, and
you'll find that there's a product called Microgo bio Andoculant.

(08:53):
It's kind of a maroonish color, dark maroonish color bag
and it also comes in the little clear jars with
the screwtop lids. It has sixty three different beneficial strains
of micro organisms, all kinds of different basillas and pseudomonas
and streptomycees and others that are good guys. They do
a lot of things. They fight disease, they outcompete bad

(09:17):
organisms on the surfaces of plants. They connect to roots
and help the roots to thrive. They just do a
lot of things. And Microlife biinoculant is something that you
can put out at any time of the year. Now
it'd be a fine time to do it. I think
anything we do prior to the season where we start
to see brown patch and large patch is a good
thing because the more that you enhance that plan, the

(09:39):
more you protect that plant, the better your chances are
to have success. And so try that micro grow biinoculant,
either by the sack or by the large jar. Either
way you go, I think you will be very pleased
with it. Now you can use it on things other
than your lawn. You can use it around all the
plants that you have. Micro grow non occulant for microlife.

(10:01):
Something to consider, and I think you should. I'm going
to go now out to Wharton and we're going to
talk to Ann. Hello, Anne, Welcome to garden line.

Speaker 4 (10:09):
Yes, sir, good morning. My big problem is a twenty
foot bid of holly that is uh infested with scale, No,
not scale, really whitefly. And I've sprayed that with knee
oil and some dawn dish, so already twice this week.
Do I just need to continue doing that?

Speaker 3 (10:33):
And you're you are? I just want to make sure
you're sure it's scale. It's white flies, not scale, is
what you're saying.

Speaker 4 (10:40):
No, this is whitefly. Now, do have what I call
scale on my spineless prickly pair that I took a
brush to and scraped what I could off. But this
is this is basically the white fly on the holly
as well as my miho satsuma ya.

Speaker 3 (11:00):
Okay, well white flies. What you see is the little
white fly like a big gnat that's white flying around,
bigger than a nat. But what is also happening is
they're laying eggs typically under the leaf, and then the
leaf the eggs hatch into a larvae that then turns
into a pupa. And the pupa look like little tiny scales,

(11:20):
like a fish scale, and they're about the size of
a lowercase typed oh letter O. So you just kind
of imagine maybe a ten point font typed oh. That's
what you're looking for. If you will spray upward from
underneath the plant with that kneem oil or any kind
of an oil, summer oil, a horticultural oil, don't do

(11:41):
it during the middle of a ninety degree day. You'll
do it at a cooler time of day that that
will cover and smother those And so you're if you
stay at that for a period of time, not every day,
but you know, once a week or so, you can
break that life cycle that way. There's also systemics that
you can put in the soil that go up in
the plant and anything sucking juices out of the plant,

(12:03):
like those white flies, then it will get them. But
I prefer to go the other route if you could,
but you're just gonna have to kind of stay on
it to break up that life cycle.

Speaker 4 (12:14):
All right, So once once a week, what do I
do to remedy the my miho satsuma leaves or literally
black I've blasted them with a high frush of water
and you just can't get that stuff off.

Speaker 8 (12:29):
You got to scrape it off.

Speaker 3 (12:31):
It kind of wears off in time. But I'm told
some people will get like a soapy solution out there
and spray it and let it sit and then blast
it off. Or I've never tried that, and I wouldn't
do it again. During the heat of the day. You
might try that and they get a you know, get
a something along those lines. Otherwise, it's just kind of

(12:52):
something we live with. They put out new growth, the
old eventually flakes off. But that's about all that's in
your power. I mean to go out there with a
bunge and wash every leaf with the soapy sponges. It
is not practical, No, unless you have a very smart plan.

Speaker 4 (13:08):
No, the tree is way too big. In fact, it
came back after the big freeze we had covered it
in all okay and is producing. So I just need
to continue with what I'm doing.

Speaker 3 (13:19):
Then, I think, I think so yeah, but just make
sure you're directing that spray upward. Yeah, you have to
completely coat the bottom of every possible leaf. That's what
you're aiming at.

Speaker 8 (13:28):
That's the problem.

Speaker 2 (13:29):
And I'm going to be.

Speaker 3 (13:31):
Yeah, I'm going to be in Wharton on next Saturday,
the twenty eighth. I'll be at Wharton Feed and Ace Hardware.
Come on out and see me. And if you want
to bring a leaf or two from that first plant,
we'll look and i'll see if I can see those
whitely pupa or larva, and i'll show you what they
look like. All right, Okay, very good. That's from there

(13:52):
from one to three. It's going to take you all
to get there, so we're starting at one, go to three.
We'll have some giveaways and it's gonna be a fun time.
So tell you friends and come on out and see me.
I don't get that far out of town very often.

Speaker 4 (14:05):
So no, I've never heard you come south this far,
so look forward.

Speaker 3 (14:10):
I never had.

Speaker 9 (14:13):
Coming.

Speaker 3 (14:13):
People have said that so much that the show has
gone south, but travel south. Thanks Anne, I appreciate, appreciate
you very much. Bye bye. All Right, I got to
be serious, but not today. You're listening to the garden Line.
We're glad you are thanks for being a listener. Speaking

(14:33):
of south down south of Houston, Ciena Maltz is the
go to place. They're just north of Road Sharon. They're
on FM five twenty one. And you know what I say,
brown stuff for green stuff, meaning you get that soil
perfect and whatever plant you put in is going to
be very happy and you're going to pick good plans.
But if you don't start with the soil, you're making

(14:54):
a mistake. Ciena Maltch is the place for the brown stuff,
meaning you can buy composts, you by bed mixes like
Veggie and HERBX from Heirloom Soils. They carry that one there.
Cianamulch has only quality products and they have every fertilizer
you hear me talk about every brand, you know everything
Microlife and Nelson's and nitrofoss, the products from Landscaper's Pride

(15:16):
and Medina and Heirloom Soils, Asimite, all of that, all
the soil stuff is there at Cienamlch. Of course, they
also have rock beautiful rock gravel for creek drain ways
and things. Everything you need is there. You just need
to go Cienamultch dot com. That's the website. Cenamultch dot com.
They are close today, close on Sundays, but they're open

(15:39):
Monday through Friday seven thirty to five and Saturday from
seven thirty to two. Let's go now out to kindod Taxis.

Speaker 10 (15:48):
Hello, Roger, Hey, how you done?

Speaker 3 (15:52):
I'm good, sir. How can we help today?

Speaker 6 (15:54):
Hey?

Speaker 11 (15:55):
So, I can't get my grass to grow, and I've
been told it's because I have all these pine trees
in my yard. And I've been told the pine trees
they soak up all the water, they add too much
acid to the soil. And I'm just wondering, is that
Is there something that I can do?

Speaker 7 (16:12):
Or is that even? Is that is that true?

Speaker 11 (16:15):
Is it is the pine tree promitting my grass from
going or what.

Speaker 3 (16:20):
They're not making? Yeah, they're not making the soil too
acid for grass. What they do shade and their needles
are falling and casting a little shade if you don't
get those up pretty quick. But they shade themselves. And
they also have a lot of roots up at the
surface that are pulling moisture out of the grass. And also,
you know when you have a whole lot of woody roots,

(16:41):
there's not as much soil volume for the for the
grassroots to be in and the closer you get to
the pine, the worse that is because the bigger or
roots you got, And so it's a factor of all
of those things. I think the main thing you can
do is just make sure it gets adequate water during
periods when it hasn't rained, make sure you give it

(17:03):
a good deep soaking, and continue to do the fertilizations
that help provide the nitrogen needed for vigor. Of course,
we're entering fall now, so it's time not for high nitrogen,
but it's time to go to fall type fertilizers. But
that's what's within your power.

Speaker 8 (17:22):
Okay, So it's it hard to go crass with pine tree.

Speaker 3 (17:28):
It can be a fair enough of them. Yeah, you know,
I see a lot of yeah, two and they look good. Yeah,
but it is just a matter of shading. That's why
people switch over and they start you know, planting azalias
the under the pines and other things that can grow
and bloom with less than good full sunlight.

Speaker 9 (17:47):
Yeah.

Speaker 11 (17:47):
I've got nine trees and it's only about twelve hundred
square foot yards, So you know there's a wow.

Speaker 3 (17:55):
Okay, Yeah, that's a bunch. I think it I know
we all loved have a nice turf area to walk
on and whatnot, but you may want to start rethinking
a landscape that may be more suited to an area
with that many pine trees and that small that amount
of space.

Speaker 7 (18:14):
All right, thank you, all right.

Speaker 3 (18:16):
Yes, sir, thanks for the call. I hate to be
the bearer of bad news, but sometimes you know, it's
just a situation that we we get into. It's it's
what do they say, it's what happens. I was talking
about cian a mult and carrying as m you know,
asamite is the micronutrient supplement that we talk about putting down.

(18:38):
I recommend about once a year is good. It's all
my schedule. If you look at my schedule on gardening
with Skip dot com, that's where all my schedules are.
That's where all the info sheets I'm putting together are.
We're continuing to grow it. We got plans for some
new developments. So just bookmark gardening with Skip dot com
and it helps. It helps me answer your questions because

(19:00):
rather than taking a lot of airtime to try to
explain something, I can put a publication together, may even
have diagrams or something on it and it just directs
you exactly and it's just easy and fast for you
to get to and get your answers. So I encourage
you to do that. But as a mite, micronutrients important
trace minerals that plants have to have to survive. Putting

(19:21):
them in the soil bank account so as the grass
grows and needs them, it's there and you can use
it in flower beds, you can use it in your gardens.
I use it in vegetable gardens myself. But it's it's
a great product and it goes a long way because
you don't need a lot of micro nutrients, but you
do need them, and so that's how as might works.
Let's see how are we doing here on time. We're

(19:41):
about running out of time here for the next break,
so we're going to hold here if you would like
to give us a call to be up after the break.
Seven to one three two one two five eight seven
four seven one three two one two. Hey, welcome back.
We are back on a nice Sunday morning, and I'm
glad you're listening in today to Garden Line. I'm your host,

(20:04):
Skip Richter, and we're here to help you have a
beautiful garden, a bountiful garden, a beautiful landscape, and all
it takes is a little good information and some quality
plants from a place that knows what they're doing. And
that would be our mom and pop garden centers, all
independent garden centers, if you will, the ones that are
from here, that live here, the garden here, and that

(20:27):
know how to garden here. That is very important. And
a good example of that is Warren Southern Gardens out
there in Kingwood and Kingwood Garden Center. They're both out
in Kingwood. They've got new arrival, a nice group of
citrus has arrived out there. This would be a good
time to grab some get those in the ground fig
trees as well. They have several different varieties, some you've
probably never even heard of, that you can try out

(20:50):
out at the Warren Southern Gardens. For example, they have
fall veggies. It's time man to get in your cabbage
and Brussels sprouts, coloreds, broccoli, cauliflower, lettuces, all kinds of
things can be planted as we move into this cool season.
And a nice shipment of cactus, including some really rare
gems like the variegated chin cactus and the ghost cactus.

(21:12):
I know you're thinking, what, what's a ghost cactor? Well
go find out, go go check them out. It's time
to get your planters ready for fall. They've got all
the plants to have a beautiful fall planter. Now, if
you don't know how to do it, you know, it's
like I don't know how to do that. I don't
know which one's a pick. They'll help you or drop
your planters off and say you do it, and they'll
do it and you come back and pick them up.

(21:33):
Of course it gots to do that, but they are
professionals and they can create some gorgeous, gorgeous planters for
you for fall, and I know you would love to
have a beautiful place going into this fall. Five bucks
off micro Life sixty four, Microlife brown Patch, a nitrophost
sweet Green, and Azamite through the end of this month.

(21:54):
It ends September thirtieth, five dollars off each bag. Good deal.
There's also sale on Bugginator for the pest control from
Nitrofoss and they're super Turf from Nitrofoss. They have a
tree sale going on right now now while supplies last,
but thirty percent off any tree. I cannot emphasize enough

(22:14):
how important it is if you're going to plant a
tree or a shrub or a woody vine, get it
in in the fall. The best planning season is coming
up the next two months or just prime time for planning.
You plan now, but it is prime time in the fall,
and thirty percent off is a good deal. I mean
that there's your chance right there. Don't forget. When you

(22:37):
get a tree, you need to get the things to
help the roots get established, the roots stimulator. You've got
your compost materials. You're working in not the planning hole,
but a very large area around the tree. Those tree
roots are going to be primarily in the top foot
of soil over time, and you don't put it in
the planning hole, but you do it in a large area. So,

(22:58):
for example, you've got a shale compost mix from airloom
soils of Texas. They have that at War and Seven
Guards and Kingwack Garden Center. So don't forget described the
newsletter too. While you're out there. I wanted to let's see,
I was going to I want to make a couple
of comments about a couple things that i'd like to

(23:19):
When I can occasionally talk to you about landscape tips.
You know, just some ideas things that you might want
to be aware of, and one of them, let's see here.
First thing I want to talk about is landscape planning
from a standpoint of texture. You know, when we look

(23:40):
at a landscape and we want to plant things, we
think about what kind of flowers can I plant there,
or shrubs or things, but also consider texture. Texture means
the big bold leaves of elephant ears or kalladiums versus
the very fine textured leaves of something like, for example,

(24:00):
firecracker fern. It's also called firecracker plant. It's a type
of Ruscellia. This thing comes out of the ground. It's
almost like a fountain. It comes out of the ground
the straight stems with lots of small stems, and it
loads up typically with a coral red flower. There's also
a white form and kind of a yellowish form that
are less common. But these coral red flowers are heavy
and it makes each of the little small thin stems

(24:23):
hang over, so it's just like it's weeping. But it's
this giant mound of tubular flowers that hummingbirds and butterflies love.
But it's a fine textured plant. That is a cool plant,
and you can get them at our garden centers too.
By the way, they freeze to the ground in a good,
good hard cold snap, and then you just cut them
off and they come right back out again. They look good.

(24:44):
But that's an example of a fine textured plant. There's
all kinds of textures to leave. Some are kind of
soft and almost a velvety feel. Some are very glossy
and shiny. When you do a landscape, don't just think
about you know, it's a shrub or it's a hour
or whatever. Think about those textures and mix it up
a little bit. It really adds interest to have a

(25:05):
variation in textures in your landscape. All right, here's a tip.
You are listening to Guardenline our phone number seven one
three two one two fifty eight seventy four seven one
three two one two five eight seven four. By the way,
that firecracker fern gets about three to four feet tall,
and because the weight of the blooms kind of causes

(25:27):
the branches to lean out. You know, it may be
four or five feet or your real ears is really happy,
even a little wider in time. But you can prune it.
You can trim it. You can control some of that,
but well it's a good plant. Love that plant. I
have been yesterday, of course, I was at at A
and A Plants and Produce, And as I mentioned while ago,
I'm going to be at the Wharton Feed Ace Hardware

(25:49):
store next weekend, Saturday, the twenty eighth of September, and
it's going to be an after lunch thing from one
to three. So grab grab some lunch and then come
on out to Wharton Ace Hardware, Wharton Feed and Ace
Hardware store. They've gotten all set up out there. Y'all
are fortunate to have that come in to the community

(26:10):
out there, because it's gonna be a great store. It
is a great store for being out there, and I'm
going to be giving away some things as well as
answering your gardening questions. And I don't get out to
Wharton very far, so people listening down in Corpus Christy,
I don't know, you know, be a fun day trip.
Come on out. Where have you lived down in that direction?
Come on out and see me out there at the

(26:30):
Wharton Ace Hardware next Saturday, September twenty eighth. And again
the time is not like my normal times, A little
bit later from one to three one pm to three pm,
I'll be out there, so hope you can come out
and see me at the Ace Hardware. You know Ace Hardware's.
We've got ACE Hardware's all over our Greater Houston area.

(26:52):
They're forty stores in our Greater Houston Ace Hardware Group here,
and it makes it really easy. All you have to
do is go to Acehardware dot com and you can
find a store near you, like Warden Ace Hardware for example,
if you go to the store locator, and it makes
it easy. Now when you get to ACE, you're going
to find the fertilizers I talk about. You're going to
find everything you need to have a bountiful garden and

(27:14):
a beautiful landscape, whether you're managing pest, suedes and diseases,
whether you are wanting to fertilize and stimulate the plants
to grow organic products, synthetic products, whether you need tools, whatever,
If you're just setting up a beautiful outdoor space in
the garden with some landscape lights, and you know those
little strings of I call them beer garden lights, but

(27:35):
you know there's little strings of lights that don't shine
really bright, but they create that overall this really nice
glow of bombience in the back. They have things like that,
things to really take it up a notch out there
in the outdoor living spaces that we have. And it's
solid A's Hardware and you need to go into an
ACE Hardware because it is amazing what they have. Now,

(27:57):
these are independently on stores and you never I mean
there may be fudge bar, a really cool fudge bar
in one or a place that you know, etches, cutting
boards and things as for gifts, and it's just like, oh,
I didn't know they had that. I promise you there's
going to be some Oh I didn't know they had that.
When you go into your local ACE Hardware store, it's
a great place forget purchasing too. Well, I got to

(28:19):
take a break. I'll be right back.

Speaker 2 (28:24):
Me the s of you Emmassy Dream Dream.

Speaker 3 (28:30):
Welcome back, Welcome back on a nice Sunday. I really
appreciate you guys listening and let's have some fun talking
about the things that interest you in gardening. Gardening is
a great hobby. It is fun, it really is. And
it doesn't matter what you're into. I mean, you may
not want to go outside, but you may love houseplants.
I'm telling you there are more house plants than you've

(28:52):
got time left to grow them. I mean, every time
I turn around, there's house plants I haven't even heard
of that are now coming on the market. I don't know.
Somebody crawling through some jungle somewhere found it and drug
it back and started propagating it. It's really cool. And
if you are into herbs, if you're into edibles, fruit,
vegetables and herbs, for example, there's that. If you just

(29:13):
want to look at hummingbirds and butterflies and whatnot, there's
that kind of gardening. If you are a lawn ranger,
you know, the weekend warrior on the lawn, and you
want a big, beautiful green carpet and go for it.
We can help you with that too. By the way,
do you see what I'm saying. How about this? How
about landscaping for fragrance, You're talking about different kinds of landscaping.

(29:38):
There are so many plants that have lovely fragrance at
different times of the year. One of these days, I'll
let me put something together. I'll talk to you about
some of the specific examples and things like that. But
I love the fragrance and the landscape. And maybe you
don't care about any of the things I talked about.
Maybe just you would like to try to grow some
healthy food and vegetables. You don't want to plow up

(29:59):
the b you want to use containers. All right, let's
do it. Let's have fun. Get the kids involved. You know,
it is so important that kids get connected with nature.
There is a stack of research them all high showing
that when kids get in touch with nature, from a
walk in the forest to time in the dirt in
the garden, they are healthier in every possible way. We're

(30:20):
talking about mental health, we're talking about physical health, we're
talking about eating differently, because when you grow something, you're
more likely to eat it. I just can't make enough
sales pitches to you on the benefits of gardening. And
if you feel like if you're afraid you're going to fail,
don't be afraid. You got to kill a lot of
plants to be a good gardener. So let's get going

(30:41):
killing some plants, all right, and then we'll eventually not
kill as many plants. I want you to loosen up
and have fun. That is what we're here for, and
I can help you do that. Like I like to
tell you to say on the air, there are no
brown thumbs. There are only uninformed thumbs. And as you
get as you inform your thumb, it's greener and greener.
The reason Grandma could grow seem like anything she put

(31:04):
in the ground grew is Chris, Grandma knew how to
do it. It's just a matter of knowledge. It's not magic.
There is no special aura that comes out from some
people that makes plants grow but not others. It's a
matter of finding the right plant, putting it in the soil,
and taking care of it right. And you can do that,
you can, And so what is your interest? Are you

(31:25):
interested in all of that? Do you want to get specific?
You know, do you like orchids? Well you can that
can be your gardening. You can just do orchids if
you want to do that. I think you're going to
want to do a lot more because once you get going,
so many plants, so little time. It is it's an
addictive hobby and it is fun. And we are fortunate

(31:48):
in Houston to have excellent independent nurseries north, south, East, West,
and Central. I mean they're all over the place here
and they're all worth going to you know, I just
I think it's a it's horticulture. Tourism is a good idea,
and so I don't care where you live out in
timbuck II. Well go to this nursery one weekend, then

(32:08):
go to another nursery another week Just see what's there.
And everywhere you're going to find a little different. Feel.
You're going to find a little different a group of plants,
for example, in some specialize in one thing or another.
But it's going to be fun. You're going to enjoy
doing it. And here comes fall, the best planning season
of the year. Get out there now. I know it's

(32:30):
still hot outside, but it's not the calendar. I mean,
it's not the temperature. It's the calendar you need to
walk worry about because the average frostate comes when the
average frostate comes, and I don't care if it's hot
going all the way up to that. You need to
be doing what you need to do at the right times.
Our vegetable planning schedules and things that you see around

(32:52):
the Houston area, they're designated that way. The best time
to get the soil ready is right now, because the
best time to plant is in the fall. So let's
get out, let's get going, and let's have some success
and I'll help you do it. We're here, hold your
hand if you want. We'll advise as you wish. And
we got the great garden centers that we'll do that too.

(33:15):
So don't let the thermometer stop you from getting started
on the best planting season of the year. Let's go
out to League City and we're going to talk to Rick. Hello, Rick,
welcome to Garden Line.

Speaker 12 (33:26):
Nice skip, thank you for being on the on the
show's morning. I was in the process of trying to
send you a picture, but I didn't have time. There's
a few spots in my yard that have a very
low growing type of a I guess it's a weed.

(33:47):
When i'd use my phone plant Identify, it says it's
carpet grass, and it very low growing, doesn't look like
Saint Augustine. It's close to the ground, and it seems
to be kind of spreading.

Speaker 7 (34:00):
I just wanted to do I just treat.

Speaker 3 (34:01):
That like a weed and use it. It's either if
it says it looks like carpet grass, then it's probably
a dove weed. That's the closest looking weed to your
Saint Augustine.

Speaker 7 (34:16):
Uh.

Speaker 3 (34:16):
And I here's what I want you to do. I
want you to send me a picture. I'm going to
put you on hold if you don't have the Do
you have the email address or not?

Speaker 7 (34:25):
Yes?

Speaker 13 (34:26):
I do.

Speaker 3 (34:27):
Okay, get a get a good picture and send it
to me, because I don't want to send you out
buying and spraying something if we're not really sure of
which weed we're dealing with. Okay, okay, okay, do that
and I'll I'll check the email. I'll get you an answer. Okay, okay,
thank you very Your answer is probably it's probably going
to be celsius that comes out of my mouth when

(34:47):
I when I see the weed. But let's not jump
on that one. Let's be sure. Thanks a lot, fake Paul,
appreciate that. Y. You take care? Yeah, you bet, bye
bye uh night. FUSS has their three step program Three
steps Fertilizer weed control, Fungicide for diseases, Fertilizer Night Frost

(35:08):
Fall Special Winter Riser. It is designed for helping your
grass go into winter strong, to be more cold hardy,
and to come out of spring strong. Second barricade weed
control Look at my schedule October October October, but earlier
in October is better. You can do it now, but
it's a little on the early side. We don't expect

(35:31):
any cool season weeds to be germinating in the next
couple of weeks. But I would get this out in
early October because it if you wait until after they're
up and grow and you've missed the window. Night frous
barricade will work for that. And then finally night Fuss
eagle turf fungicide. It's a systemic. It moves into the
tissues of the grass. So when brown patch large patch

(35:52):
and take all patch all try to infect, which they
will this fall, then the Eagle fungicide helps shut that
down before it even gets started. Don't wait till the
circles appear. You can't make circles green with fungicide. You
need to do it ahead of time. Look at my
schedule and follow that and it'll guide you in that way.
Night Fruss is widely available. You're going to find it

(36:13):
at Fisher's Hardware and Baytown, the one in mop Bellevue,
the one in Pasadena, and the one in the Port
just as examples. You are listening to Guardline and we're
here to direct you. You know, I keep bragging on
our mom and pop garden centers, and Plants for All
Seasons is an example of that. You know, this garden
center's been around since nineteen seventy three, right there on
Tombaill Parkway FM two forty nine. I just you know,

(36:36):
I said that a thousand times in my life, and
I just almost went blank. Plants for All Seasons dot
Com is the website. When you go into Plants for
All Seasons, you're going to find every season the best
plants to be planting, and they're loaded and ready to
go right now. For your fall planting. You're going to
also find, and this is very important, the advice, and
they are experts, they've been doing this a long time

(37:00):
and they know what they're talking about. You bring them
a weed, you bring them a plant that's sick, you
bring them a bug, whatever, and they're going to identify
it and they're going to tell you what to do
about it, and they're not going to steer you wrong.
That is why it is so important to go to
an independent garden center like Plants for All Seasons and
all the folks up in that whole area between Cyprus

(37:21):
and Tombull. They know plants for all seasons because they've
been there a long time and they've had good results
from there. I can guarantee you that they are true
lawn and garden experts and you will be happy with
your results. We're going to head now out to Brazoria
County and talk to Louis Lewis. You know what, Lewis,
I did it again. I did this yesterday. I take

(37:44):
a call right before it's time for a break. Sorry
about that, man, I have to put you on hold.
I will come right back to you. Sorry to have
to false alarm. Golly, on these days, I'm gonnaigure out
how not to do that. I just get so excited
talking about plants and products and garden centers and whatnot. Hey,
don't forget next Saturday, Wharton Feed and Ace Hardware from

(38:07):
one to three. That's Saturday, September twenty eighth. Be there
or be be squared. I'll be there. I'll be looking
for you, and if you don't show up, I'm going
to tell all your neighbors that show up to go
to your house and plant grasp burds in the yard.
I'm sorry, it's it's gardening terrorism. But you need to
show up and be there. That was that was uncalled for.

(38:28):
That anyway, my attempted here. Looking forward to seeing out
there though. Seriously, also don't forget I will be or
there will be an excellent program coming up on growing
food and I'll tell you about it when we come back.

Speaker 1 (38:42):
Hi.

Speaker 3 (38:42):
This is any of the products or services advertised on
this program.

Speaker 1 (38:46):
Welcome to KTRH Garden Line with sci Rictor.

Speaker 2 (38:50):
It's so pay.

Speaker 13 (38:59):
Just what.

Speaker 3 (39:01):
Hey, folks, welcome back to Garden Line. We are glad
to have you with us, and we're jumping right into
it here. I mentioned right before we went into break
there's an upcoming educational program you need to know about
the folks. At Oba Organic Horticulture Benefits Alliance are putting
on a program called So You Want to Grow Good Food?
That's a good title. They have a number of speakers

(39:22):
on it, including Bob Randall. Bob's of course you all
know him. He's the author of Year Round Gardening, which
if you vegetable garden here in the Greater Houston area,
you need to not do it without that book. That
is an excellent, outstanding book, by the way, and he's
a great speaker too. If you want more information on
this program, it is October fifth at the Houston Arboretom

(39:42):
and Nature Center and it's all day on Saturday. It's
eight am to three point thirty pm. And to get
more information go to this website OBA online dot ORGHBA
online one word dot org. All right, I was visiting
with Luis from Airlom Soils the other day, and just

(40:04):
give me some information on some of the products and
the deals that are going on right now. There is
a you know, Heirloom Soils is the one that has
the veggie nerd mix, the rose mix, the excellent potting
soils for indoor and for outdoor called the Works for example.
I could just go on and on a while ago
I was talking about the fact that at Warren's, you know,

(40:25):
they they had their mix of compost and expanded shale,
which is the best thing you can put into clay.
Composts and expanded shale both help loosen up a clay
really well well. Right now, right now at the Porter location,
which is where Airloom Soils are made out at Porter

(40:46):
for this is a limited time offer. By the way,
you can either pick up or get a delivery bulk
of the Heirloom Soils roast soil or their Veggie and
Herb mix. Roast soil are veggie and herb mix very
limited time, and when you do, you get a free
bag of Microlife sixty four, the green bag of Microlife.

(41:06):
This is at the porter location. If you want more
information on the porter location, that's rock inmultch dot com,
r O c K the letter N multch dot com.
If you want more information in general on heirloom soils,
heirloomsoils dot com, you need to go there and look
at all of the products. And I've tried. I'm working
my way through them. They got so many, I'm working

(41:28):
my way through them, and I have not had one
yet that didn't perform outstanding for me in growing plants,
whether it's the container mixes. There's one four that I
used for our succulents that's a cactus and succulent mix
that's outstanding, and on and on down the line. We're
going to go back out to the phones. Now we
got Lewis and Lewis and Jorge. I think Lewis has

(41:50):
been there a little longer. We're going to go straight
to Lewis and Brassouri County Lewis, This isn't a false alarm.
I'm actually here this time. How can we hit more?

Speaker 14 (41:58):
Good morning? My question this morning is about products like
super Thrive or Garrett Juice or Medina for pre soaking
say bedding plants, or barried strawberries or berry, say peach trees.
When you're getting ready to plant stuff and you put
on a pre soak, it even seeds, large seeds. What
are your thoughts on those kind of products.

Speaker 3 (42:22):
Well, I can't speak to all of them, used all
of them. Yeah, but I know with the Medina, for example,
that whenever you are soaking plant roots, number one, soaking
them in water is in and of itself beneficial because
you're getting to making sure the roots are moist and
held moist before you plan them. Drying out is a problem.
Then when you have the microbial activity that is in

(42:45):
these a lot of these Medina products specifically, that is
beneficial because they're putting the kind of microbes in that
either are helping fight, is helping colonize the roots and
doing whatever things you know the microbes are going to do.
Oftentimes will have other substances in them, you know from
natural plant hormones that stimulate roots to I can't say

(43:10):
the word vitamins, different kinds of other substances and all
of that. It's just kind of amounts to a roots stimulator.
So I think you're going to see a benefit from that,
and I would encourage doing so. You're not going to
ever burn the roots with those products. They're not salt based,
you know, fertilizer where you can burn roots, especially if
it was too high of a concentration. But yeah, I

(43:32):
would do that. I have used a number of different
products that they have, and it's always worked for me,
always had good results with them. I've never set up
a trial where you know, I replicate it and do
all that kind of stuff, but from the standpoint of
just trying them and seeing the results, I've had good
results with that.

Speaker 14 (43:54):
I'm just curious if you knew of any there's the
ever actually been any type of let's call it study
or anything that was empirically measured where you know, they
said yeah, okay, they have to look or lasses extract
or whatever. Yeah, you don't like the super thrives, like
the like the Garrett Juice is those kind of products.

Speaker 3 (44:15):
Right, I don't read. Yeah, I don't know I'm telling
you that would be a hard trial to do, because
you know, in a trial, you try to eliminate all
the variables except the one thing you're looking at, you know,
and when you're talking about microbes and microbe content, and
you know, what is the mix of microbes and what's
already in your soil. You know, you may have a

(44:37):
very poor soil, you may have a very microbe enriched soil.
You haven't been putting composts and all kinds of things
in it, And so it's just really it's really hard
to just set up a trial where you really could
get a good answer on those kinds of things. So
I think we depend on, you know, the the decades
of gardeners and the results they've had and things like that.
And for me, it comes down to just I'm going

(44:57):
to try it. If I if I'm gonna to promote something,
I'm gonna try it planet and see how it does.
And I haven't done the strawberry root soaking, like you mentioned,
with the products, but I have used them as transplant
solutions and things. So I hope that helps.

Speaker 14 (45:12):
No, No, I just always look for another opinion. Thank you, Skip,
I appreciate it.

Speaker 3 (45:17):
All right, Leis thanks, appreciate the call. Yeah, that is
very very important. You know, we're talking about all the
products he was mentioning products and things. Southwest Fertilizer is
the go to company if you were looking for something
that's hard to find it is. It's in Southwest Houston.
It's on Bissonet and Renwick, and I know people that
drive a long way to go there because Southwest is

(45:39):
going to have they have all the standard stuff every
fertilizer I talk about at Southwest. If you hear me
mention a product to kill weeds, to fight disease, to
deal with insects, it's there. But they have a lot
of other things. And so someone I sent someone the
other day there to get one product and they had
like three different ops form. The person was asking me, well,

(46:01):
they said they had that, but they also had this
and this. Well all of them are good. They were
all good for the thing. And Southwest is like that.
They're not going to steer you wrong. They're not going
to say you product just because they got it for
sale that they want to get rid of the product.
They're going to point you to one that'll be success.
And that's why they hang around. You know, they've been
around since n eighteen fifty five, So you don't do that

(46:22):
if you don't a have products at work and be
take care of your customers. Southwest Fertilizer dot Com is
a website corner of Bisonette and Renwick. Get out there
and check it out and you'll see why I am
so big on that place. I have to take a
little break here. When we come back, George, David and Joe,
you will be our first ones up line listener. We

(46:42):
appreciate that. Hey, have you been out to Enchannon Forest
and Richmond Rosenberg. They are set up for fall. I
mean you're going to find all your fall vegetables. They
got a great stock of them, and now's the time
to get them in. Now's the time. Remember what I
said earlier, don't look at the thermometer, look at the
calind Now's the time to get them in. They'll be fine.
Put them in, water them in, get your herbs there.

(47:05):
They are loaded up with herbs as well. They have
a really good selection of tree planting options. I'm one
of my favorite, and I think it's Danny's too, probably
Chinese fringe tree, Chinese fringe blooms, in the spring and
it is gorgeous. It is a billow of shaggy white
blooms with a nice honey like scent, at least that's
what it smells like to me. Somewhere in honey baby

(47:26):
powder somewhere in there. It's a nice plant. And it
doesn't get too big either for a tree. So if
you want something that it's the typical lot sizes that
we have today. Chinese fringe is excellent and they've got
them an Enchanted Forest Garden Center out there in the
Richmond Rosenberg area. You just head up, let's see, you're
going to go on FM twenty seven fifty nine. So

(47:47):
if you're in Richmond Rosenberg going towards sugar Land, it's
off to the right FM twenty seven fifty nine. While
you're out there, you're gonna find the Night to FoST
Fall special. I talk about the carbo load us, I
talk about the micro like brown patch, I talk about
the barricade and Eagle Fund. All those things I was
talking about, they're going to happen there at Enchanted Forest

(48:08):
Garden Center. Go see, and by the way, take your
camera because the lantana are so loaded with butterfly. I
could not believe every time I go out there and
they have Lananna blooming. It's like every butterfly in the
country has gotten the message. Go to and channel for
us and check out there because they are just everywhere
on it and it's it's some fun butterfly pictures. Take

(48:29):
the kids with you when you do that. Also, let's
see here we are going to go to David in
West Columbia. David, Welcome to garden Line.

Speaker 15 (48:40):
Yes, sir, my neighbor has an abundance of cats, and
as you know, privacy fans don't de tear cats, and
they are using my plants. They are using my plants
as a as a litter box in my yard.

Speaker 3 (48:58):
Yes, and everywhere else.

Speaker 15 (49:00):
Is there something I can put on my plants and
yard that will deter the cats but don't hurt the green.

Speaker 3 (49:06):
There are some smell things that I've heard people putting
out there. I've never bought or used those things, so
I don't know how well they work. I have put
in potted plants, especially in the house. You can just
cut a little section of like hardware cloth or something,
and it sort of like becomes a little screen that
sits on the surface, so they can't dig in the

(49:27):
in the plant. I've known people that put pebbles almost
like not river rock size, but pretty good chunk sized
little rock pebbles in the surface of plants to also
keep them out. That's about it as far as what
I would suggest. But you might want to try one
of those smelly scare them away sprays and see if

(49:48):
that works. I haven't tried those a right jeep, Thank you,
all right, David, good luck. Hey. I had a friend
when I was a kid. I knew a guy that
actually worked for my dad and he had He was
so upset about it. He had actually done the map.
He knew how many cats are wearing the neighborhood and
how many times they went to the bathroom every day.
It was hileritou but it's not funny, but it does

(50:12):
help the laugh sometimes when you, oh, he was alerted,
you should have heard him talk about it. He had
done the math. Thanks David, I appreciate your call. George
and Jersey Village, Welcome to guarden Line. How can we help?

Speaker 10 (50:27):
Good morning, Skiff, Good morning. I try to find that
whibs that you just mentioned. The obo online dot org that.

Speaker 3 (50:34):
Doesn't seem to go h oh hb A oh hb
A organic horticulture benefits all right, glad that all.

Speaker 10 (50:45):
Hold on, hold on, don't go away. My sweet potatoes
when I picked them yesterday. They're beautiful, but they taste
like junk. So why yelled at me? So how can
I make them taste better? Can I want to plan them?
Can I put some sugar in the bottom of the
hole or something like that, or anything I can do
to fix the beast.

Speaker 3 (51:02):
No sugar comes from the leaves getting sunlight. So I've
not had a bad I've not had a junk tasting
sweet potato like that. Grow. That's a new one to me.
Are they good size? Are they good sized? Potatoes?

Speaker 10 (51:18):
Big as my hand or something like that? They're very
beautiful statues. But yeah, okay, well.

Speaker 3 (51:24):
Right now, there is a there is a curing process.
You know, when you dig a sweet potato, they typically
put them in a warm not hot, but kind of
a warm moist storage for a period of time, and
it's it's part of the curing process and sets the skin.
I've never tried eating one straight out of the ground,
so I'm wondering if that may be part of it. Yeah, George,

(51:44):
I'm gonna have to look into that again. I haven't
had that problem before. And if they're a good sized
sweet potato, that means the leaves made a lot of sugar,
and so it may just be that there is a
starch sugar thing that goes on there. I don't know
that's the new one. I'll look into it.

Speaker 10 (52:02):
They're about six inches long and three inches in diameter
or something like that. A pretty good size.

Speaker 3 (52:09):
Okay, okay, let's see what I can find. I'll mention
it on the air if I come up with anything.
Appreciate the call. Thanks a lot, Thank you. You take care,
you bet. Warbirds Unlimited is loaded up for the one
of the best seasons of the year. I think hummingbirds
are coming through and they are loading up. I don't
know how hummingbird flies across the golf from Mexico, but

(52:31):
it takes a lot of sugar to do it. And
at my house they are going to the plants I
planted for them, and they are going to my hummingbird feeders.
I got two feeders, two from wabirds. As a matter
of fact, the high perched feeder that it didn't matter
what you put out there, you put a good quality
feeder out there with good sugar water and it you
can make your own, or you can buy one of
their mixes. They have a thing that I use in
my sugar water that makes it lasts longer. In a

(52:54):
ninety five degree day, sugar water starts to get pretty
nasty out there, and you can't leave it in the
feeder for a week. It's not good for the hummingbirds.
And so this stuff you put in it's a natural
mineral substance and it makes it last over a week
and it works really good. Also, other birds migrating through you,

(53:14):
like Baltimore orioles, and then here comes wintertime just around
the corner. They have the best selections of bird seed
mixes that I know of. And that cheap bird seed
you buy at other places where you get the little
red bebes and the birds kick half of the all
of that out because they don't want to eat it.
You end up paying more for your bird seed because

(53:36):
you don't they waste half of it, they're not going
to use it. That's not the way it is with Walldbirds.
And there's six Wallbirds stores near you go check one
out wbu dot com, Forward Slash Houston that is where
you need to go WBU dot com forward Slash Houston
find the one closest to you. We're going to go

(53:56):
now out to Kingwood and talk to Joe Hey, Joe.

Speaker 16 (53:59):
Good More Skip. I had a quick question for you.
I've got my nitrofoss Fall special at barricade ready to go,
and do you recommend go ahead and putting them down
now or do you recommend wait a few weeks on
putting those down?

Speaker 3 (54:17):
I would I would king what I would probably put
those out about You could do it at the very
end of September or at the very beginning of October.
I think if it was mine, I'd probably do it at
the beginning of October.

Speaker 9 (54:30):
Uh.

Speaker 3 (54:31):
And now, if we're going to get some coal front
coming in and we're gonna get rain and the temperature
is gonna drop down, you want to do it then? Okay?
Because the weed seed germination is based on soil temperature,
and as it cools off, the weeds you're going to
prevent at this time of the year are going to
start germinating, and you need that barricade down ahead of time.

(54:53):
As far as the fertilization, late September is okay. I'd
probably do it in first of October two and it
will gradually provide those nutrients out there as the grass
moves into the cool season. And so you got you
got time for that one. But you don't want to
delay for sure on the on the barricade.

Speaker 16 (55:12):
On this you say, do delay on the barricade.

Speaker 3 (55:15):
No, you don't. What you can delay. But as soon
as the temperature's right, that coldfront, some cool rain and stuff,
you're gonna start to see the cool season weeds beginning
to germinate. And that's why I'd rather get it out
and early. It's gonna last a while. So if you
get it out the beginning of October, it's gonna still
be working for you through November doing what it does.

Speaker 16 (55:37):
Great. And do you recommend waiting a few days between
putting out the barricade and then the fertilizer later.

Speaker 3 (55:46):
No, I would do them both. And here's why. You
put one out and you come back and don't put
them in the same hopper. Come back, hold up the
other one, put it out, and then turn on your
sprinklers for about thirty and inch half inch of water,
just enough to move it down into the soil surface
and then both of them can go to work, especially
that barricade. It doesn't the granules sitting on the ground

(56:08):
dry or not controlling anything. When you get some water,
it washes the product into the soil surface and then
you get the weed control from that.

Speaker 16 (56:16):
Thank you, I appreciate it.

Speaker 3 (56:17):
Skip okay, you take care. Appreciate the colt trying to
watch my clock a little bit better this time than
I often do. Mucanna's Native Plants is an outstanding place
to go to in the Heights. They're on Eleventh Street there.
If you haven't been, you need to go just to
see the place. Now. They specialize in natives, and if

(56:38):
you're looking for any kind of I mean not just
I want a native plant, but I want a nadi
plant that attracts hummingbirds so that next year they're hanging
out at my house just to go to the flowers
on this plant. They can do that. I want butterfly
native plant. I want you fill in the blank. They
also have an outstanding selection of everything fall right now.
All those fall colors, you know, the nges and reds

(57:01):
and things that we think of is like Thanksgiving colors
or Halloween colors. They've got all those kind of plants,
and you can get set up and have a beautiful fall. Remember,
forget the temperature, don't look at the thermometer, look at
the calendar. It's time to do those things. Get those
things in the ground so you can enjoy them. Yeah,
I tell you, marigolds are a great fall plant. They're
yellow and orange and kind of a color in between

(57:23):
the two of those, and they just glow up until
the first frost, which is a long time away done
in our area here, and so take advantage of it.
Go out to Buchanan's Plants while you're there, grab some
of the fertilizer products they carry. They carry the things
I talk about here on Guardline. They also have some
great soil based products some of their own as well,
and just get set up. Let's have a beautiful fall,

(57:46):
and let's let Buchanan's Plants provide the supplies you need
to make that happen. I'm going to go now out
to friends would and we're going to talk to Jake. Jake,
looks like I've got a couple of minutes here. See
if we can get your question, or we'll carry you
over if we need to.

Speaker 17 (58:03):
All right, should be quick, uh, We've got an area
between the sidewalk and the street that was covered up
with a debris from kirka burrow that is now contic
but wheats and touch and.

Speaker 8 (58:14):
I want to put I'm thinking I want to put
blue bonnets.

Speaker 18 (58:16):
Or other wild bird wild seeds out there. Is that
how can I keep it attractive throughout the year, not
just the eight to ten weeks that the flowers are blooming.

Speaker 3 (58:28):
So so you're wanting to not have grass there, but
you're wanting to have other kinds of plants.

Speaker 17 (58:35):
I'm thinking blue bonnets, wildflowers, Texas wildflowers specifically the whole array.

Speaker 3 (58:42):
Yeah. Wildflowers are. Yeah, they're wonderful that you know, they
have their seasons. And so since it's right out front,
you have to be a little bit. You have to
change your aesthetic opinion a little bit because you know,
when you're blue bonnets are done blooming, they're not very pretty,
you know, and then something else is coming on, So
you can't mow the whole thing because you got another

(59:04):
flower coming on.

Speaker 14 (59:05):
Uh.

Speaker 3 (59:05):
And so that that's just something you may want to
think about. You could you could do other things out there.
I don't know what your preferences would be. But you
could certainly do just blue bonnets, for example, in that
area initially, maybe do some different colors of blue bonnets, uh,
and then when they start to go down, you could

(59:27):
plant something like a zenia, a dwarf, a compact type
of zenia, or one called narrow leaf sinia out there
and do that. Those are just a few of the
of the options options. Let's do this. I'm going to
run to a break let if you if you want
to keep talking about this, that's fine. Just hang on.
I'm gonna put you on hold and we'll be back

(59:48):
with you as soon as I get back. Welcome back
to garden line. Hey, if you would like to visit
about something regarding your plants, just give me a call
seven one three two one two five eight seven for
I'll listen to you brag about the tomato agree this summer,
but only for a very short time. We can't put
up with that now, seriously. I'll also listen to you

(01:00:09):
and commiserate with you on the allergies going on. By
the way, right now, let's see, we got grass allergies,
we got ragweed allergies, and what is the other one
that probably seed or I don't know. I know Central
Texas they are suffering from cedar fever when it gets
into the fall season and moves in the cooler weather.

(01:00:29):
You know, we end up fighting them when we live
anywhere in the country really just about. There are some
areas that are fairly allergy free, but others it's just
part of a seasonal deal. I know, by the third
week of September it's going to hit every year about
the time dove hunting season for those of you dove
hunters hit. Somehow, allergies hit about that same time too. Ragweed,

(01:00:51):
those are really really problematic. One well, I wanted to
talk a little bit about the Nelson Water Garden folks.
You know, I was out at Nelson Water Gardens visiting
a while back, looking at the different products that they carry.
Now it's actually Nelson Nursery and water Gardens. I still
call it Nelson Water Garden because you know, they are

(01:01:13):
nationally famous for water gardens. They've been doing that a very,
very long time. But they also have an outstanding nursery.
And every time I'm there, it's like, oh, you also
carry that. I did not realize you also, Okay, and
they do. They have so many things, you know, the
fertilizers that you need for your plants to help them
be successful. I love going to see the plants that

(01:01:34):
they have, but I also love going to see the
water features and to hear the water features they have.
There is nothing as calming as the sound of running
water out in your backyard, patio area or wherever you
want to put it. You put in the front entrance
if you want. It's just it's just nice. They have
the disappearing fountains, they have the little waterfalls. They can

(01:01:55):
build them. They can. They can sell you the product
for them, and then you go build it yourself if
you're that kind of do it yourself, or they don't
mind doing that. But they do excellent work and they
again are well known. They're nationally known. When it comes
to those little discipearing fountains, there's like a large urn
that the water comes over, rolls down the side and

(01:02:16):
circulates back through again. They invented that and they know
how to do those things. And whether you're wanting the
plants that go in the water garden, the fish you know,
like the koi and shabunk and whatnot, they go into
a water garden They've got you covered. That's the bottom
line on it. And you will find when you go

(01:02:37):
there their pottery selection and it's the beautiful features they
have are wonderful.

Speaker 8 (01:02:42):
It is.

Speaker 3 (01:02:43):
It's kind of a showplace, it really is, and a
destination and I would encourage you think of it as
your West Houston garden center. You know how said we
got north south east west, Well directly out west on Katie.
You just hit Katie turned north on Katie Fort Ben
Road and you're there. Here's the website. Write this down
and you can all that you want. Nelson Water Gardens

(01:03:04):
Plural dot com, Nelson Watergardens dot com. I'm going to
go out now to Jean in Chapel Hill. Hello, Jean,
welcome to garden Line.

Speaker 19 (01:03:15):
Good morning, Thank you for the call, taking my call.
This you back late spring, early late spring, early summer,
we had a lot hundreds, if not thousands of small
eggcorns or oak trees growing up from all the acorns
that came out of the shoe mart and the live
oak trees. And we decided to dig up a few

(01:03:35):
and put them into gallon pots. And they're growing fairly well,
but they're pretty small. My question is when can we
put those in the ground.

Speaker 3 (01:03:46):
You know, I would. I'd probably put them in the
ground at the beginning of November. You could do it
in late October, beginning of November something like that. We
want the weather to cool enough to where the demands
are minimals, so any transplant shock is minimum, but still
get it done early enough to give them every possible
week possible before next summer heat arrives. And so when

(01:04:08):
you take them out of the pot, if they have
circling roots, you either need to unwind the roots and
dig a hole to fit or cut the roots one
or the other. Don't leave them in the ground with
circling roots because that tree will grow and the root
will grow and one day it will start to strangle
the tree and you have a mess on your hands.

Speaker 19 (01:04:26):
Okay, very good, Well, thank you. That answers my question.

Speaker 3 (01:04:29):
All right, all right, thank you very much, Thank you. Bye,
appreciate that call you, Bye bye bye. I was talking
earlier about this nitroposs three step program, and I think
it's an ingenious thing that they've done, because this is
a time of year where we need to be talking
about getting our fall ready for the fertilizer. That's designed
for fall to make our plants go into fall stronger,

(01:04:53):
to be more cold hearty, and to come out of
fall stronger as well in the spring. Just hear me
again on this spring initial spring lawn and growth is
based on stored energy in the grass plant and where
did that stored energy come from? Nutrients and sunshine in
the fall, So it's very important for your spring green up. Secondly,

(01:05:16):
it's the time to deal with weeds once the temperature drops.
Each weed species has a certain temperature where it'll start
to germinate and grow. In the spring, it's the warming
up of the soil for our warm season weeds. In
the fall, it's the cooling down of the soil for
our cool season weeds. So if you look at my schedule,
October is the time I say get your pre emergence

(01:05:37):
down now. Weeds are going to germinate November. There may
be some germinating warm days in December if they haven't
germinated yet, But you don't want to wait until they're
already sprouting. You want to get ahead of them. And
barricade is the product, by the way, for fall fertilizing.
It's nitrophosphall special winter riser that's the name of the
product for the weeds. It's barricade, and you put it down.

(01:05:59):
It's a granule. You water it in, just a little
bit of water moving into the surface, and then when
the weed sprouts, it's going to shut it down and
you don't have to reapply it and reapply it. Barricade's
going to last you all all to the end of
the year, really, and so you're good to go there.
The third step is the fall diseases, which primarily is
the large patch also called brown patch or formerly called

(01:06:21):
brown patch. Most people still call it brown patch and
take all root right. Those are the biggies and the
fungicide called Eagle from nitrofoss. Eagle like the bird that
is systemic. It moves into the plant and when those
diseases show up, that plant is ready to fend them off.
So if you wait until the big circles appear, you

(01:06:43):
missed your window. Don't do that. Get that down follow
my schedule. October. If you see a nice cool snap
coming through with some rain and stuff, boy, I would
immediately when that has passed so it doesn't wash it
all the way, I would get out there and get
that that Eagle down and water it in real good
to shut it down. It'd be good to be ahead

(01:07:04):
of that though, and being a systemic, it's gonna be
in the ground or in the grass plant for a while,
so it's not like you know, it just lasts a
little bit. It's gonna give you good control. Now you're
gonna find this at ACEH Hardware and Sinkle Ranch the
Arborgate and Tomball Shades of Texas, either the one in
South Houston, Southeast Houston, or actually the one in Southeast
Houston on Genoa Red Bluff Road. I'm gonna take it. Hey,

(01:07:26):
welcome to garden Line. Thanks for joining us. I appreciate that,
I actually do. I don't take it for granted that
you listen to garden Line. There's a lot of things
you could be doing and listening to and whatnot, and
we're glad to have you here. I personally think it
is going to help you have better success in your garden.
I've been doing this for thirty five years professionally. Actually

(01:07:46):
have been doing it my whole life. I grew up
with the garden. But I do know the things that
it takes to have success, and that's what we try
to do. And anytime you have something pop up, you know,
what's this bug? What's this disease? I saw a plant
the other day. Here's a picture of it. What is it?
I'd like one? Does it grow here? All of those
kinds of questions, we can help you with those in

(01:08:06):
our number seven one, three, two, two, fifty eight seventy four.
I tell you who else can help you with things
like that, and that's our garden centers r CW Nursery,
for example. That is a garden center that is there
where Highway or FM two forty nine Tomball Parkway comes
into Beltweg eight and r CW is always a good

(01:08:29):
place to go and get whatever kind of plants, you know, vegetables, herbs, flowers, shrubs, trees, finds,
you name it. Right now, I want to I just
want to feature talking about the fact that they grow
their own trees and they have outstanding trees, and their
trees are fifteen percent off this month. This month is September,

(01:08:50):
and you need to get a tree now because fall
is the time to plant them. If you know, they
say the best time to plant a tree is forty
years ago. The second best time is today, and that's
really true. Especially when today is in the fall and
we're entering that season. They have them from seven gallons
all the way up to two hundred gallons. Now, obviously
you're not going to throw a two hundred gallon in
the back of your ugo and take it home, but

(01:09:13):
they'll bring it to you and plant it for you.
They also offer that available service if you would like
to do that. They have new Mexican white oaks, which
is called Monterey oak. It is one of the fastest
growing oaks and it is a long lived quality species
Mexican white oak or monteraeak. They have them in a
hunter gallon. They've got two hundred gallons southern magnolias that

(01:09:36):
you want instant pizazz and wow, a two hundred gavan
gallon southern magnolia is it. They'll provide all the information
you need to find the right location. They'll give you
planning tips. They even have the products, you know, the
root stimulators and things like that that you can take
with you when you buy a tree. RCW nurseries dot
Com is the name is the website and if you

(01:09:59):
want to actually go buy there and visit with them,
they are it's actually fifteen eight oh nine Tombol Parkway.
I like to just say Tombo Parkway at belt wag eight.
Just look it up on your maps. It's easy to
get to. And there could not be a better time
for you to go buy and get one of their
trees than this fifteen percent off sale that they're having
right now. That's pretty amazing. Someone i think Lewis called

(01:10:24):
earlier and was talking about some of the different companies
that have different kinds of microbial products that are used
in stimulating growth of plants or in transplanting or soaking roots.
I think was part of the question that he had,
and Medina has a number of those kinds of things.
One of the ones that I would, you know, if

(01:10:45):
I were going to the Medina line of plant foods,
I mean, you know, I might use something like the
hum atumic acid or the Medina Plus or or something
like their seaweed products. But I think the best one
for that might be there has to grow six twelve six. Now,
the has to grow six twelve six. It's got the NPK,
the six percent nitrogen, twelve percent phosphorus, phosphorus being very

(01:11:07):
important for roots, and six percent of potassium. He's got
the medina soil activator in it, which includes a lot
of biological activity, and then the humate humic acid that's
a final decomposition stage of compost is humus and the
humte humic acids full of acids. Those kinds of things
are part of that. They help improve the soil structure.

(01:11:30):
It also has seweed extracts in it as well. You
can do it as a folio. You're not going to
burn your plants with it. It's but it's really good for
transplanting and that's the has to grow six twelve six.
It only takes one ounce in a gallon of water
and you just I drench it over the whole plant
with a watering can get them on the foliage, but
you also get it down in the soil, which is
the primary place where it's going to do what it

(01:11:52):
does best. Medina has to grow six twelve six. Plant
food would be the one I would point you to
if you're going to do any planting and oh my gosh,
it's fall. I hope you're planning on doing planting. I
just am going to beat that drum as long and
hard as I can because it's the best time. You know,
I'm talking about fall for woody ornamentals, tree shrubs, woody vines, roses. Yes,

(01:12:16):
I know February Valentine's Day is supposed to be when
you plant roses. That's fine, you can do that. You
can plant them in July if you want, if you
take good care of them. But fall is an excellent
time to plant roses. Don't wait till Valentine's Day. Do
it now, get it done, and that rose will have
a head start on the one you planted on Valentine's Day.

(01:12:37):
You see what I'm saying. If you plant now, you're
giving them a head start. That is really really important.
You are listening to Gardenline. Our phone number is seven
to one three two one two fifty eight seventy four.
I got time for one more call, I believe, before
we go into our next top of the hour break.
If you would like to give a call. I want

(01:12:58):
to talk to you a little bit about Quality home products.
I had mentioned them before, and the thing you need
to know about quality home is this. They have high
quality products of various types, including generators, and they carry
the Generac generator, and they have some special deals for
trade ins and stuff. You just need to call them
and ask about that makes it very valuable a resource

(01:13:21):
for you to have that trade in value. They have
done a bazillion homes and a boy right now. People
since the storms we've had earlier in the year, have
been buying generators because you go without power for two
weeks and suddenly generator sounds like a good idea. And
that's happened twice for a lot of folks. The reason

(01:13:41):
I like quality Home, the thing I want it, I
want you to understand is you can go buy a
generator at a lot of different places. But to get
a good quality deal and to get everything they offer,
you can't get just everywhere. Quality Home starts with talking
with you and making sure you get the generator package

(01:14:02):
that fits your needs. You know, what do you need
to run the whole house air conditioning and all do
you need to just be able, you know, to keep
your internet online and refrigerators and freezers from going bad?
I mean, do you see what I'm saying. There's different
packages out there, but then they deal with all the
things that you have to do to get permission to

(01:14:23):
put the thing in. There's regulations and you don't have
to jump those hoops. They know how to do it.
They're running with you. Then they bring in contractors that
are quality home contractors, not people they go out and
hire like some generator companies do, to come in and
do the work. So you know, you're now you've got
a third party or a fourth party out there trying
to coordinate all that and make it happen. It's all
in house with them, and then once they put it

(01:14:46):
in their service after the sale, they twenty four seven,
three hundred and sixty five days a year. They're there
to help you with your problems that you might have.
If you need it serviced, you need anything, they just
talk to them about this. It's family owned operation, a
Houston local company since nineteen eighty nine. QUALITYTX dot com

(01:15:10):
is the phone number and excuse me is the website
and the phone number is seven to one three Quality.
Those are real easy QUALITYTX dot com seven one three Quality.
You need to give them a call. We're going into
a cooler season now where people aren't thinking about that,
and that's a great time to go ahead and start
the process of getting one for your home. Let's see here,

(01:15:33):
we are going to go out to Ralph and Katie. Ralph,
I have got about one minute, So let's see if
we can get this done.

Speaker 9 (01:15:41):
Okay, yesterday, walking the perimeter of our yard, I noticed
the gray circle and you said about the eagle product
to put it out next month is but if you
already have a circle, what do you need to do

(01:16:01):
on that?

Speaker 3 (01:16:03):
Well, you can still put it out. You can put
it out at the end of September. You can put
it out in early October. I generally point to early
October because that's when we finally start to get the
real col fronts through here that are that are cooling
things off. Either way, if you want, that's my answer
to your question. If you want, you can send me
a picture of what you're calling a gray circle. I'll

(01:16:25):
be happy to take a look at it. And it
may be that I see something else in the picture,
but if it's truly a large patch, brown patch, what
we just talked about is what you need to do.

Speaker 7 (01:16:37):
Great, Do I call back or just send the picture?

Speaker 3 (01:16:40):
No? No, no, just no, Just hang on and I'll
I'm gonna put you on hold. The producer will pick
it up. He's juggling a couple of things right now.
To be patient. He'll be back with you and we'll
get you. We'll get that picture and I'll answer you
by email. All right, sir, thank you. There you go, folks,
another hour in the books. I just want to remind

(01:17:02):
you next Saturday, the twenty eighth, I'll be at Wharton Feed.
So all of you way down south and west come
out and see me, or just out west drop down
to work. I'm driving a long way to get there.
You can't do if you live in Wharton. My gosh,
you have to come out. I think it's mandatory. They're
going to be going house to house and warton and
can true to show up. We're going to be doing

(01:17:23):
all the fun stuff we do at appearances, Wharton Feed
and Ace Hardware a new store down there, cool store.
We're gonna have a lot of giveaways too. I hope
you'll come out and see us.

Speaker 20 (01:17:34):
If you have a lawyer, an accountant, a businessman in
your family and they're very proud of their office and
they only have the classiest things on the wall, and
you want something they can add to that collection, go
see US coins. They have rare coins, they have rare notes,
they have rare memorabilia, rare flags, historical flags, US coins

(01:17:59):
on iten just outside the loop seven one four six
four sixty eight sixty eight.

Speaker 3 (01:18:06):
It's turf grass.

Speaker 2 (01:18:08):
Just watch him as all.

Speaker 3 (01:18:20):
Right, folks, welcome back to Guarden Line. Glad to have
you with us, Good to be back. We've got I've
got a special guest coming up here. I want to
I want to take about from eight eight thirty. I
think we're going to visit about a few things. You'll
see it in just a moment. I'm gonna let the
suspense build, I guess for just a moment. I wanted
to mention I haven't talked about Star Hope in a while,

(01:18:41):
and I just wanted to mention about Star of Hope.
You know, summer is waning now and we're really looking
forward to the holidays, but a lot of the people
that are homeless here, they're basically looking forward to the
next meal. And with Star of Hope, I cannot think
of a better use of your hard earned money than
to support someone who is in need. Through Star of Hope.

(01:19:04):
The way that they manage and utilize funds is outstanding,
and the difference they make is incredible. I've talked to
folks who have gone through their programs. I know the
kind of work that they've done. I've heard the stories
as well. For two dollars and fifty cents, you can
provide a meal to a homeless person. And homelessness has

(01:19:25):
a lot of different faces across the Houston area. When
you hear the stories, it's like, well, yeah, I never
thought about that before, or oh, I see how that
would be a problem. Like, for example, you lose your job,
you lose everything, you're homeless, you don't how do you
suddenly have a way to get a job, how do
you get to work? What if you're dealing with the
substance abuse problem? What if you got kids and you

(01:19:47):
need daycare and you find some job that's not enough
to pay for all the above and end up with
anything to pay the bills. Star of Hope solves those problems.
So how many meals will you provide? My wife and
I support Star of Hope. I hope that you will
join us and together we are making a difference. You
can give hope and you can give it now by
going to Star of Hope And here's the website s

(01:20:10):
O Hmission dot org. I want to tell you this too.
This month, three locations of suit Mart are hosting their
annual September sale, and a portion of their selected suit
sales will be donated to Star of Hope. That's Suitmart.
Suit Mart during the month of suit Member, their annual
suit Member. That's a good name for it, all right,

(01:20:33):
I just wanted to share that with you. Well, let's
end the suspense. Our special guest today is the Texas
Garden Guy, Dustin Oak, a friend of mine. Dustin and
I have not been friends a long time. We met
not too long ago, but I really liked the guy,
and I know you do too. He is super popular
on the social media. Hey, Destin, welcome to Garden Line.

(01:20:56):
Are you there. It's going well? I can, yes, now
I can. Good to talk to you. I was watching
some of your stuff online, Uh, some of your online
stuff the other day. Is it's just really great and
you got I know you have a big following on
that and I encourage anybody listening if you if you
haven't found the Texas Garden Guy, you need to go.

(01:21:17):
You need to go check him out. Pretty much every
social media platform. It seems like you're you're ubiquitous out there. Well,
I asked you, that's it, that's it. You're like Roy Kent,
He's here, he's there, He's everywhere. Anyway. That's what's the
name of that show. I can't even say it, Lasso

(01:21:40):
ted Lasso comment. So I Askedston. I asked Destin to
come on and talk about First of all, I want
to talk about figgs, Deston, and I know you are
a fig aficionado, uh, and a lot about it, and
tell us a little bit about uh, you know figgs,
Why why you like him? And some of your favorite
types of figs to grow?

Speaker 8 (01:22:02):
Yeah. Absolutely.

Speaker 21 (01:22:03):
You know, now that we're getting more colder temperatures down
here in the Houston area, a lot of people have
been losing their citrus and losing their tropicals. A lot
of the fruit trees, and one of the trees that
I've been recommending people to grow that really can handle
the cold. You know, it takes a whipping, it keeps
on kicking, is the fig tree. You know, they do

(01:22:23):
with containers. They do well on the ground, whether your
soil is well draining or it's that black gumbo in
a subdivision. They really don't care. They will grow it
everywhere and within the first year you'll get you'll get fruits.
So my favorite varieties or any of the LSU varieties.
I love the work. I love the purple, I love
the LSU black, I love I love them all. He
can't go wrong with figs.

Speaker 3 (01:22:46):
Yeah, I think the purple may be the most common
one of those that I see around.

Speaker 21 (01:22:51):
Uh.

Speaker 3 (01:22:51):
And it does really work really well. What was bread,
you know, for for this kind of climate down here?
So so it does super And you're right, you know,
figs being such a fast to fruit, uh is really amazing.

Speaker 4 (01:23:08):
Uh.

Speaker 3 (01:23:08):
Do you ever have to deal with problems on your figs?
I know from time to time I get calls on
people that have deals, you know, they maybe have polish
diseases or some some souring of fruit or birds or
any kind of critters like that. What are some of
the challenges you might have to deal with or that
you've dealt with on your figs.

Speaker 21 (01:23:26):
I'd say probably the most common message I get is
about copper figure or fig rusts. You know, people are
concerned that they're you know, their figs are getting rusty
looking and they're falling off, and that's fine. Defoliation is
common usually usually I'll get it right after the first
crop in the spring. I'll get some defoliation, but then
it comes right back. It's not really an issue do

(01:23:47):
you need to worry about.

Speaker 8 (01:23:48):
Some people use.

Speaker 21 (01:23:49):
Fungus sides and all kinds of remedies, but I kind
of just let the fig be the fig and let
it drop its leaves and they come right back.

Speaker 8 (01:23:57):
And they are pretty resilient. Yes, they are.

Speaker 21 (01:24:01):
And another issue people will get with their figs is
they keep losing their figs to either squirrels, possums, or
the infamous mocking bird. And I've kind of kind of
found a couple of methods that I use to keep
them safe from the critters. I use those little Organza bags.
People use them for you know, rice at weddings. They
put the rice in their little bags at weddings and

(01:24:22):
in them ount those little drawstring bags. You can put
them over your figs as they start to ripen up,
and typically the critters I can leave them alone, especially
if you have insects.

Speaker 3 (01:24:32):
Issues as well.

Speaker 8 (01:24:33):
So lots of ways to keep cool. See.

Speaker 3 (01:24:37):
Yeah, and those are Ganza bags. Those are those are
pretty darn handy. I use them for plant breeding, like
breeding okra and stuff, because you put them over a
bloom and the bugs can't get in there to mess
up your breeding plans, you know, in other words, the
bees and stuff. It allows you to protect the blooms
and so you get to pollinate them. Ravan a pollinator. Uh,

(01:24:58):
those are those are really cool? You know. I grew
up with a fig tree. It was south of San
Antonio in Jordantoon, Texas, Atascosa County, and we didn't freeze
enough down there really at that time, at least it didn't,
and we had a single trunk tree that came up
and had branches. And I find that now it seems
like we get freezes often enough to where we end up.

(01:25:20):
They may freeze pretty far back and we end up
more with multi stemmed fig bushes, but tree size. But
fig bushes, is that it for you? Or do you
try to train years into a single trunk?

Speaker 21 (01:25:32):
So I tend to try like a trim everything up
like a tree. And figs are super easy to prune
back because you can't really go wrong.

Speaker 3 (01:25:41):
For the most part.

Speaker 21 (01:25:42):
Most varieties that we have here in Houston are going
to be the kind of you're talking about that will
die back every single winter when they come back like
a bunch of hands and fingers throw on the ground
and looks at a giant bush, but a couple of
rides that will stay a single stem. I've noticed in
my lsu Or rourke white Mersailles have do not die

(01:26:02):
back as hard and so they are actually still a
single stem fig tree. So you're looking for like a
single stem tree. The white mersai, the white mercies and
the lsu Or work have not died.

Speaker 14 (01:26:13):
Back very hard for me, So.

Speaker 8 (01:26:16):
That those are true, it will say more the tree form.

Speaker 3 (01:26:19):
Well, that is really good to know, very good to know. Uh.

Speaker 7 (01:26:24):
You know.

Speaker 3 (01:26:26):
When it comes to figs. Something people don't know is
that historically we uh well, well, gosh it, here I
go again. I get so into these talks that I
forget about the time I got to take a quick break.
Can you hang on just a little bit and come
back and continue this discussion. Thank you very much. All right, folks,
I'll be right back with Destin Noke, the Texas Garden Guy,

(01:26:49):
and I'm gonna jump right back into our conversation we're
having with Destin Noke, the Texts Garden guy. Hey, Dustin,
we were talking figs, uh, and I just want to
continue that for a little bit. And then I got
one other topic. I'd like to pick your brain about
because I know you know a lot about it. First
of all, on the figs, people didn't realize that years ago,
like one hundred years ago, this was a major commercial

(01:27:11):
fig producing region. I mean, we're talking about hundreds of
acres of figs in the Gulf Coast area here. I
don't know if you've run across that, but that's you know,
one fig tree produces a lot of figs. I don't
know what you do with the one hundred acres of figs.
That's a lot. Yeah.

Speaker 21 (01:27:27):
Actually, Paarland actually wasn't known for the pears back in
the day. They're actually they had a large, large fig
orchards out there in Parland. They were a huge producer.

Speaker 13 (01:27:39):
There.

Speaker 3 (01:27:39):
You go, well, so it's a good fruit. It's an
easy fruit and for someone wanting to garden organically, fig
is one of the top fruit that you can choose
that you're not going to have to spray a lot,
and you can get to get fruit you're gonna get
by without spraying. And I mean there's a sales pitch
for figs right there. Let me speaking of sales.

Speaker 21 (01:28:01):
Hold on hold real quick, I'm gonna say, if you're
interested in getting into pigs. We're having our first annual
fig Toberfest on October fifth down at Angels and Texas.
You can you can find the event on Facebook as
a free event. You come, there's a chance you're gonna
end up with a fig tree, So come on, come
all a bye.

Speaker 3 (01:28:18):
Well, you took the words out of my mouth. So
that's exactly right in Angleton, the Brazoria County Extension, I
was Kimberly, mayor the horticulturist. That's your that's your extension
horticulturist in Brazoria County. Kimberley is a wonderful agent.

Speaker 8 (01:28:31):
Uh.

Speaker 3 (01:28:32):
She's gonna have this and she's going to have some speakers.
Doctor Hartman from Texas and M is going to be
talking about fig research. Uh. There'll be a talk by
Steven Yannick uh from the Victoria area actually on fig
trials and the pest disease and varieties of figs that
do best. And then deston who you're hearing now, our
Texas garden guy will be there talking. Uh, you have

(01:28:54):
to tell me what your topic is. Gonna be Phil's Figs,
your old buddy Phil de Angelus is gonna be there too.

Speaker 21 (01:28:58):
Is that right, Yes, sir, I'm gonna be more of
a master of ceremonies and we'll be hosting kind of
the thing.

Speaker 8 (01:29:04):
I'm gonna let the sky talk I'm left talking about.

Speaker 21 (01:29:07):
I'm we're bringing Phil Phil's Figs down from Wilmington, North Carolina,
and actually the fig Hunter from California is coming down
as well.

Speaker 8 (01:29:15):
So it's gonna be.

Speaker 3 (01:29:16):
An awesome time the fig Hunter. Oh my gosh, and
you have to have this thing. Well, I'm trying to
do garden line, so I can't go, dad gum it. Well,
we will make sure.

Speaker 21 (01:29:25):
We will make sure to record and try to live
stream a lot of it because there's a lot of
people that want to come that can't make it.

Speaker 3 (01:29:30):
So oh, yes, hey, if y'all are interested in going
to this, it's a great program. You know, the URLs
and everything are kind of funky. Just call nine seven
nine eight six four fifteen fifty eight. That's the Brazoria
County Extension Office nine seven nine eight six four fifteen

(01:29:50):
fifty eight again October fifth, from eight am to one
pm in Angleton at Lakeside Park. Okay, but but call them.
You got to go to this. This is cool stuff,
all right, before we run out of time. It looks
like I got about eight, eight or nine minutes here. Uh,
tell me about the desert rose. I think people when
they hear the word desert and rose, they probably don't

(01:30:13):
know what the picture. And this is something I think
you've really gotten into. Is that right?

Speaker 13 (01:30:18):
Yeah?

Speaker 8 (01:30:19):
I know for sure.

Speaker 21 (01:30:20):
I bought my first one a couple of years ago
and I was at my buddy Jorges Hidden Gardens and
you had this cool looking plant that I'd never seen before.
It looked like a potato that had a bunch of
branches coming out of the ground and had these beautiful,
like almost almost pulmeria looking flowers.

Speaker 8 (01:30:35):
And I had to have it. I had to have it.

Speaker 21 (01:30:37):
I'm I'm a plant hoarder, and so you know when
I when I see something I've never seen before, I.

Speaker 8 (01:30:41):
Got to get it, you know.

Speaker 21 (01:30:42):
And you know, over the last two or three years,
I've accumulated probably thirty of them, and I've even started
growing up for seed. But what they are there, the
type of plane is called a cottiform, and a cottiform
is like a camel, you know, it holds all its
water in the base and when you buy them nurseries
they're typically real swollen and they're submerged in soil. And

(01:31:05):
the coolest thing about them is when you buy them,
you can unpod them and you can see how much
craziness is.

Speaker 8 (01:31:11):
Down to manique the soil.

Speaker 21 (01:31:12):
I mean, it looks insane videos with oh it's so
cool looking and there. They really handle our climate really
well with the hot, hot spring and summers we're getting.
They just they are not full tolerant whatsoever.

Speaker 8 (01:31:28):
That's the only thing.

Speaker 3 (01:31:31):
But they're in a container you can bring them in
the winter time and stuff. So it'd be a good
one for a new gardener who's afraid they can't grow stuff,
because it's not that hard keeping them going right.

Speaker 7 (01:31:42):
For sure.

Speaker 21 (01:31:42):
As long as they're a well draining soil, they will
handle the It will handle pretty much everything you throw
at them.

Speaker 8 (01:31:48):
A lot of first time.

Speaker 21 (01:31:49):
Gardeners, you know, they want to water, water, water, you know,
and this is one of those things that you don't
really have to water but maybe.

Speaker 8 (01:31:55):
Once a week. So it's it's it's something you don't
have to worry about. You can just leave it.

Speaker 3 (01:31:59):
Alone, all right. Well, there you go. I mean you
can't you can't ask for much more than that and
you said you did? You say you have about thirty
of them?

Speaker 8 (01:32:10):
Oh at least.

Speaker 3 (01:32:12):
Yeah. You know, folks, you get into horticulture and they
don't warn you about this, but it is addictive. I'm
pretty sure there's a wing of the Betty Ford Clinic
for gardeners because you start getting into this and the
next thing you know, you got eight hundred thousand plants
and you know, the family can't even walk through the

(01:32:33):
house or the yard. Oh boy, but that's fun, isn't it.

Speaker 21 (01:32:38):
Oh yes, sir, it's not hurting anybody because you know what,
you can always send people homew with plants and make
room for more.

Speaker 3 (01:32:45):
You know, there you go, you know, and that's something
people need to think about.

Speaker 22 (01:32:50):
You know.

Speaker 3 (01:32:50):
Now's the time when you could be taking cuttings from
something like a rosemary, for example, getting it rooted and
giving it away is a gift plant, you know, sometime
for the holidays, or maybe people come over with Thanksgiving
for a meal, or you go to somebody's house for
Thanksgiving and you take some little Rosemary's that you're rooted yourself.
People appreciate getting gifts like that.

Speaker 16 (01:33:11):
One.

Speaker 21 (01:33:12):
Everybody has ever been to my house knows you leave
with at least one plant.

Speaker 8 (01:33:17):
You never leave empty handed.

Speaker 3 (01:33:19):
All right, Well I'm going to bring my pickup when
I get over there, so uh yeah, no problem at all. Yeah,
there we go. Well that sounds good. Well tell us
let's see here. I've got just a few minutes left.
I'd like to hear more about some of your online activities.
I kind of a chance to tell folks on Instagram, Facebook,

(01:33:42):
you know, where can they see you? How can they
find out more and stuff like that.

Speaker 21 (01:33:47):
Yeah, so I've got to go by Texas guard guy
on pretty much every social media platform. Tak Go just
got back from a road trip to Alabama that they
went to a huge home homesteading YouTube meet up over there.
Just posted the vlog of that I did about eight
nursery tours. I like to go see nurseries on them
in different places and check out se a varieties of

(01:34:09):
stuff they are and so.

Speaker 8 (01:34:10):
That can do a little bit shopping.

Speaker 21 (01:34:11):
But so I've posted a lot of those videos on
YouTube and Facebook, and then we also do our podcast,
The Garden Party every week on Wednesday at seven pm
live on Facebook and YouTube, and then you can find.

Speaker 8 (01:34:23):
It on Spotify or Apple Podcasts. Wherever you listen to podcasts,
you can find it there.

Speaker 3 (01:34:27):
Too, all right, and folks, it's called the Garden Party
and just go online, Facebook and YouTube. Let's just start
with those pretty much. I buy is on one or
the other of those Garden Party on you said Tuesdays
at seven.

Speaker 8 (01:34:43):
Wednesday seven, the Garden Party podcast Wednesday Wednesday, okay, sir,
Wednesdays at seven pm.

Speaker 3 (01:34:50):
Yeah, all right, Wednesdays and seven. So yeah, I stalked
you on your trip. It's like you were posting before
you even got out of Texas. You were You're already
posting stuff and then you're at this or that nursery
and it sounded like a lot of fun.

Speaker 21 (01:35:03):
It was a blasting getting to meet new people and
see different nurseries. I love going to check out nurseries
and meeting the meeting the owners and finding out the
stories behind out how everything got started.

Speaker 8 (01:35:13):
It's so much fun.

Speaker 3 (01:35:14):
Yeah, oh gosh, I think horticultural tourism is something that
we ought to talk about more and promote more, you know.
I on on the guarden Line. I'm always saying to
people living in the listening area, you live where there's
so many great nurseries. I mean North South. I've been
we are we are you know, I've lived in San

(01:35:38):
Antonio area. I've lived in Dallas, I mean Austin. They
have great nurseries there, some outstod you're going to go
to one of those towns. Call me. I'll tell you
which nurseries to go to. But not like Houston. Same
thing with Dallas. Good nurseries, not like Houston. I've been
to Atlanta thinking, oh my gosh. You know, Atlanta botanical
gardens is great. I said, so, I can't wait to
see these nurseries, and it's like, where are they? You know,

(01:35:59):
I figured got more than Houston. They're not even hold
a candle to us here. This is a great place
for garden centers. And so I think maybe maybe you
and I need to just get a bus rented one
weekend and we'll just we'll do you know how they
have pub crawls, We'll do a nursery crawl. Let us
go from one garden center to another.

Speaker 8 (01:36:21):
That's a great idea. That's all we need is me, you,
j White, and Jorge will be good.

Speaker 3 (01:36:28):
Oh my gosh, oh my gosh. I don't know the
authorities might get winto that and shut it down cast
of characters like that. Oh well yeah, well, well, you know,
I really appreciate you coming on. Did you have any
other thoughts you wanted to add before we move on?

Speaker 8 (01:36:47):
No, I just want to say thanks just giving you
a chance. Yeah, now, thanks for having me.

Speaker 3 (01:36:52):
I appreciate it.

Speaker 21 (01:36:52):
I love the I love the garden line, and you
do such a great job. And you know you've you've
been such a great friend since since since you've taken over,
and so I just appreciate you having me on.

Speaker 3 (01:37:03):
Well, I appreciate that. Thank you very much for coming on.
I think that's great and I wanted to pick your
brain on these topics. I mean we could probably talk
about others as well, for sure, but it's been good
and thanks a lot. I do appreciate you coming on today.
You take care and be well anytime. Skip. Thanks all right,
bye bye. Yeah that was destined. No Texas Garden Guy.

(01:37:25):
You can find him on Instagram, Facebook, and a lot
of other social media platforms that I know little to
nothing about. Instagram and Facebook I'm familiar with. But anyway, seriously,
you ought to check him out, especially that Garden Party
podcast on Wednesdays at seven. That's a lot of fun.
He has a cast of characters. You know. Phil Spiggs
has comes in. He's from the North Carolina area. He's

(01:37:47):
got a guy from up in the Amarillo area. Not sorry,
not Amarillo, a Lobbuck area, Texas Tech a former coworker
of mine as a matter of fact. So anyway, it's
a good podcast. Well where are we on time here?
We're pretty close to a break. I want to just

(01:38:08):
remind you again if you missed that information in the
inaugural inaugural that's easy for me to say. FIG Toberfest
October fifth in Angleton for more information ninety seven nine
eight six four one five five eight nine seven nine
eight six four one five five eight. It is going

(01:38:28):
to be a morning through early afternoon full of great
FIG information, folks. I'll be right back Lyon had a
great visit with Destinoe, Texas garden guy. We are back
to answer your calls right now if you'd like 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. I wanted to talk a little

(01:38:50):
bit about the product from turf Star called Carboload, and
the reason is it's time. It's time. Now we know
fall fertilization needs to be done with product that has
a good content of potassium the third number on the bag,
because that helps potassium and nitrogen are taken up together
by the grass plant. And I like to just as

(01:39:12):
an easy to remember things, think of it as ana
freeze for the plant. When you put those nutrients in
the plant, it is able to create the carbohydrates. That's
why it's called carbo load, to which you are sugars,
and it helps cold heartiness. Have you ever made homemade popsicles?
You know, you make the sugar, kool aid, sugar water, whatever.

(01:39:33):
You put it in there and you freeze it. And
have you ever noticed that at the bottom of the
popsicle there's pure water and then as you get up
to the top there's this real sticky sugary stuff that
didn't quite freeze because sugar water it takes a lot
colder temperature to freeze it. Well, that's a real fast
analogy of what's going on in the plant. But I

(01:39:53):
think it makes sense. It helps you understand what's going on.
You need to get carbo load down soon. You can
do it. The end of sep Setember You can do
it in early October, but don't delay much past early October.
Now it can be applied all through. But the fact
that it has a pre emergent herbicide in it, something
to prevent weed seeds from germinating, makes me want to
push that toward the earlier part of October in case

(01:40:15):
we get in early October this cold front with some
rain and it cools off a little bit and suddenly
the weed seeds go, hey, fall winters here, let's get going.
You want the carbo load down ahead of that. That
is how that works. One forty pound bag covers five
thousand square feet. Now that one one thing to be
aware of is if you plan on overseeding with rye grass,

(01:40:38):
which I hope you don't because that's not good for
your lawn. You don't want to use something with the
pre emerging in it because it'll your rye grass won't
come up. And so but other than that, it is
an outstanding product that is from Nelson. It's part of
their turf Star line. Carbo Load widely available around the
Houston area, and you ought to consider it because it

(01:40:59):
does work. You are listening to garden Line phone number
seven one three two one two, five eight seven four
seven one three two one two fifty eight seventy four. Uh,
you've heard me talk about fix my Slab Foundation Repair
Ty Strickland. A good while back I visited with Ty.
I had a question about a foundation issue that a

(01:41:22):
family member had and I was just kind of getting it,
picking his brain for some information on it, and basically,
you know, he said, you know, with that amount of movement,
you don't need to worry about doing anything. And it
just reminded me. Ty is a straight shooter.

Speaker 7 (01:41:35):
You know.

Speaker 3 (01:41:36):
It's not like you call him and so he's going
to say you need work you don't need. He's an
honest guy. He's been doing this twenty three years and
he makes sure that the customer's taken care of. There's
three things that you can guarantee are going to happen
when you call Ty Strickland, which is fix my slab
Foundation repair two eight, one two five, five forty nine

(01:41:56):
forty nine. Those see things are he's going to show
up on time. I'm oh, my gosh, if only all
service people would do that. He is going to give
you a fair price. And third, he's going to fix
it right and he'll also tell you if it doesn't
need it. If it's like you know what that doesn't require,
he'll tell you that. And my gosh, when I hire

(01:42:18):
anybody for any kind of service or help at the house,
I just wanted to be straight shooting with me and
I want those three things. Show up on time, give
me a fair price, and fix it right if it
needs to be fixed. And that's tie two eight one
two f I five forty nine forty nine fixmyslab dot com.
Got cracks in the sheet rock, got cracks in the brick,
you got a door that's sticking. Those are all signs

(01:42:40):
of movement. Don't be an ostrich put your head in
the sand. Just give him a call, have him check
it out and see if it needs work or not.
And if he does, he'll he'll shoot straight with you
at fix my slab foundation repair. I enjoyed visiting with
Destin and actually got a X a minute ago from

(01:43:00):
someone going, Hey, you and Destin need to do that
nursery crawl bus idea. So, Destin, if you're still listening,
I think that may have some traction. We may have
to get together sometime and and figure that out. It
sounds like a fun idea to me. I mean, if
you got like you remember the bus on the Muppets,
it was rocking and rolling going down down the highway.

(01:43:22):
We woul painting big flowers on the side. Because this
is a nursery tour. Right, I'm going to head out
the Pleasantville. We're going to talk to Deborah. Deborah, welcome
to garden Linet skip.

Speaker 5 (01:43:33):
Hey.

Speaker 23 (01:43:34):
I just tried to say that overseeding with wryglass for
the winner was bad for the yard. However, I have
a bare patch that I have killed till the field
and don't have time to resaw it until the Spring's.

Speaker 3 (01:43:55):
There you go. I'm glad to hear those words. Are
sinking in out there with oaks. Yeah, No, overseed it,
that's fine, those bear spots. You don't want the soil
to crust your road. All that kind of thing. You
can do it. Here's the thing on overseating, debor overseting
is planting weeds in your grass to the grass plant.

(01:44:15):
If you talk to your Saint Augustine or z always
your Bermuda turf, it's a you just planted weeds all
over the place. In me, Why are you doing that?
Because they compete for light, they compete for water, they
compete for nutrients. And then in spring, when your grass
is trying to wake up and get going, the rye
grass is just going crazy growing and it is a
stress on your lawn. Now, if you've got one of

(01:44:38):
those properties, it has to be green all year. I
understand that, I know why people do it, but I
tell you, and professional turf managers will tell you that
if year after year after year you're overseeding, you're weakening.
And usually that's done in bermuda grass properties, but it
weakens it. So I try to talk people out of it.
But if you don't do it, I can tell you

(01:44:58):
how to do it. And for areas like yours, absolutely yeah,
there's no grass there. You got to get some. You
got to cover the ground.

Speaker 7 (01:45:05):
There's no grass there.

Speaker 23 (01:45:06):
So annual the seeds versus perennial rye should I just.

Speaker 7 (01:45:11):
Do the annual to do it what.

Speaker 3 (01:45:14):
You could do annual annual rye grass comes up faster,
but it doesn't have the nice color perennial rye grass
has a little bit makes a better grass plant a
better color. Uh, And so usually I'll do an annual
perennial mix. And so you know where wherever you would
purchase that kind of thing, you you would if they
have a mix, I would go with the mix. Work's

(01:45:35):
a pleasant bill. I should know that. But it's not
ringing a bell.

Speaker 23 (01:45:39):
It is East Houston, just past just before the ship
travel bridge.

Speaker 7 (01:45:46):
Okay between between, I can and we just go it can.

Speaker 3 (01:45:51):
Okay? All right? Well good, well yeah, that that's the
bottom line on it.

Speaker 23 (01:45:55):
So hey, and it's not if the guy that lives
in me is listening us, would you tell him that
you cannot buy Saint Augustine's seeds because he was arguing
with me because he was the grass. He's a yard man,
all right.

Speaker 3 (01:46:09):
Whoever it was out there arguing with Deborah, stop it.
Don't get in a tangle with her. She will eat
your lunch and pop the sock, pop the sack in
your face. If you mess with her. You're wrong too.
There you go. No, there, there isn't ryegra. There isn't
Saint Augustine's seed. I think one time there was some,

(01:46:29):
but it never was something that worked or a good idea.
Just get sucked, all right. We solved that he's gonna
leave you alone. Now, I guarantee you may send you
an apology note after all that. BA, all right, we're
gonna go out to pear Land and talk to Timmy. Hey, Timmy,
welcome to guard Line. Hey, how's it going?

Speaker 7 (01:46:50):
Skip?

Speaker 3 (01:46:52):
I can't hear Timmy? Oh can you hear me?

Speaker 13 (01:46:55):
Now?

Speaker 3 (01:46:57):
Yes? I can't? Yes? Is this is this a quick call, Timmy?
Or do I need to hold you on after we
get back from the break.

Speaker 22 (01:47:05):
It's it's a quick call overfill myself the other day
and i'd recently shocked it. I'd drained the water into
my yard.

Speaker 3 (01:47:14):
Did I do wrong?

Speaker 24 (01:47:16):
Or what?

Speaker 3 (01:47:18):
Too much chlorine? Yeah, you can burn. You can burn
plants with the chlorine.

Speaker 5 (01:47:22):
Uh.

Speaker 3 (01:47:23):
And when it's too strong. Uh, there's nothing to do
about it now, so let's just watch and wait and
hope for the best.

Speaker 9 (01:47:29):
Uh.

Speaker 3 (01:47:29):
It may or may not have damaged it. But there's
no anti chlorine sprayed to butt down, uh, to undo
if there was some damage. But in general I would
not recommend that, of course.

Speaker 22 (01:47:42):
All right, one more quick, one more quick one, Skip. Uh,
I've got outside chickens. What's your opinion on chicken manure?
Is it helping or hurt?

Speaker 3 (01:47:54):
Chickens carry certain microbes that make us sick and chicken
manure is one of the ones notorious that if you
fully compost it, it is okay. If you put it
down and mix it into the soil and let it
decompose for a while, that's fine. If you're planting something
that's edible, I would be more concerned. If it's something
that's not edible, like lettuce leaves, you know where that

(01:48:18):
it can splash into the lettuce, then I would be concerned. Okay,
I'm sorry I have to go so quick, but I
do need to run you bet, I will be right back. Folks.
Good to have you with us. We got plenty of
things to talk about today. I was telling you a
little bit about some micro life products while ago, and
I want to tell you about micro grow, the bioinoculant,

(01:48:38):
and also well I mentioned that a little bit and
the importance of putting the microbes into the soil that
you get when you have micro grow, it absolutely loads
things up. And when that happens and diseases try to
come in, you've got a number of beneficial microbes that
are there doing two things. Some of them actually help
fight disease, some of them out compete the disease. On

(01:49:00):
the plant's surface, and so it's like a hostile environment
to try to land and infect the plant. That makes sense.
Micro Grow bioinocculant comes in a bag and in a jar.
Microlife also has this brown Patch fertilizer that is a
fertilizer you would apply in the fall. If you go
to my schedule at gardening with Skip dot com, you'll
see that on there. And it is an organic product

(01:49:22):
for fall application, natural product and it works. It does
very very good job. And if you're going to do
fall fertilization and you're looking for a natural product for that,
and you got that fall fertilization balance of nutrients that
I keep talking about, Microlife brown Patch would be the
one to do it. And you can find it in
a lot of places. For example, they're going to have

(01:49:43):
it out there at in Chane Gardens in Richmond. Have
you ever been there? Have you ever been doing Chana Gardens?
If you're in Richmond going north toward Katie, it's it's
up that direction. It's it's really easy to get to.
It's on three point fifty nine. Just I guess you're
going up seven to twenty three. That's a FM road.
When you get to three fifty nine, you're there. It's

(01:50:05):
right at the corner. It's easy to get to. And
Enchanted Gardens is the kind of place where you're going
to find everything you need right now. It's fall season,
so unbelievable fall color, plants, unbelievable fall decorations indoor and outdoor.
Their gift shops outstanding, by the way, but anything you're
going to plant and fall, which I hope you're planning
on planting a lot in fall because it's the best

(01:50:27):
planning season of the year. Remember, don't look at the thermometer,
look at the calendar. The calendar says, get your plants,
get your soil, get ready, let's go. Let's do this.
And if you delay, then next thing, you know, we're
too cold, or some other thing has happened, there's a
frost or whatever. You're missing that window of opportunity. Don't delay.

(01:50:48):
Enchanted Gardens on three fifty nine on the Katie Fusher
side of Richmond. Here's the website Enchanted Gardens Richmond dot com.
Enchanted Gardens Richmond dot com. We're going to go now
to Cove, Texas and talk to Rufous Hello Rufous.

Speaker 25 (01:51:06):
YEP I got a sago palm out here, and it's
put that ball on like it normally.

Speaker 3 (01:51:12):
Does you there, yes, yes, sir, Hey, it has.

Speaker 7 (01:51:17):
Not opened up yet.

Speaker 25 (01:51:19):
So I went out there and started looking at it,
and it's like a cabbage on top. And I pull
the leaves back and there's these little mushroom things growing
everywhere on the inside. What's going wrong?

Speaker 3 (01:51:32):
Nothing wrong. That is a female sego palm. There's male
that have a little plume of a of a pollen
producing structure that's like a cone sticking straight up, an
elongated pine cone thing. The females have that little bowling
ball on the top, and those are seeds that you see.
They make seeds that are on the size of a
quarter or bigger right there all over in the middle.

(01:51:53):
And there's nothing to worry about. It's just part of
that plant doing its life cycle.

Speaker 25 (01:51:59):
So you know, I got the free zone and and
a lot of the leaves are browned and stuff. I
was hoping for the next green foliage to carry on
for the next couple of years. Is it going to
put those leaves on later on? After this drops off.

Speaker 3 (01:52:14):
You you probably should see some new leaf growth. You know,
we're going into a cooler season here pretty quick. And
so we'll just have to see as long as do
you have some green leaves on the plant?

Speaker 25 (01:52:24):
Oh, yes, sir, I do have some?

Speaker 3 (01:52:26):
Okay, Yeah, well it's okay. You You may see a
side branch come out. You may see some pups come
out from the bottom, little babies coming out around the sides.

Speaker 13 (01:52:37):
Uh.

Speaker 3 (01:52:37):
And if if the worst case scenario is you would,
you know, cut the trunk off and let let some
side shoots come up out of the base. But I
think it's going to be fine. I wouldn't at this point.
I wouldn't be concerned. That's just part of what we
see on those around here.

Speaker 25 (01:52:53):
That's my one right there.

Speaker 3 (01:52:55):
Thanks a lot, All right, well you bet, you bet.
Just be careful boy, those things I had some sharp,
pointy things. Kind of hard to get into the middle
of that, as.

Speaker 7 (01:53:04):
You probably found out.

Speaker 3 (01:53:07):
Yeah, okay, take care. You're listening to guardline folks. Seven
to one three two one two kt r H seven
one three two one two kt r H. Have you
tried to products the products from Landscapers Pride. You know
they got twenty something products out there, mulches and soil
mixes and all kinds of things. Right now, it's fall planting.

(01:53:28):
How about a rose mix. Their rose mix is outstanding quality.
And if you're going to grow roses, shrubs, even a
flower bed, you can do that with their rose mix.
They have a premium potting mix that has incorporated into
it a fertilizer, so it gives you an extended release
of nutrients. You got indoor plants, you need potting soal.
You got outdoor plants, you want to do a container

(01:53:51):
Landscapers Pride premium podding mix. You got some areas in
your lawn that are low, that are holes your your
lawnmower is banging around and bumping and gouging the grass
as you grow because it's not an even soil. Get
some of their top soil from Landscaper's Pride, put that out,
straighten them ounta and how's a good time to get
that done. And finally, of course, black velvet malts. Every

(01:54:12):
month of the year is a good time to malts.
Wherever sunlight hits a soil. As Deborah was reminding us
a moment ago, nature plants a weed. Wherever sunlight hits
a soil, Nature plants a weed. You should never leave
bear soil. Nature abhors a vacuum. It knows how to
protect the soil from crusting and erosion and overheating and freezing.
Put malts on the ground. It does that. Black velvet

(01:54:34):
is an outstanding product, beautifully black, not dyed, from Landscaper's Pride.
You can go to Landscaperspride dot com if you want
to learn more about it. It's widely available. You're going
to find it a lot of the retailers you hear
me talk about here on garden Line, whether it's a
garden center, whether it is a feed store, whether it
is a Ace Hardware store or a Southwest Fertilizer, those

(01:54:56):
are the kind of places where you find quality products
from landsca Aprish Pride. Our phone number is seven one
three two one two fifty eight seventy four. We're running
a little short on time here, so we may have
to bump a call to the next hour, but I
just want to give you that number. I was saying
you could find Landscapers Pride in places like an Ace

(01:55:18):
Hardware store. Well, Ace Hardware is everywhere, forty stores in
the Greater Houston area. By the way, don't forget I'm
going to be at the Wharton Ace Hardware store next
Saturday from one to three. Be there for two hours
doing the thing we do on these appearances, and that
is we diagnose your questions, We answer your questions. You

(01:55:39):
can bring me samples. We can help make suggestions for
planting areas, improving your landscape. I'll be giving away some
giveaways there. You don't want to miss that. And I
don't get out that far. In fact, I never have
gotten out that far to the south and west. So
even if you're listening way down in Corpus Christi or something,
well here's a chance, come on up, let's meet. I
love to meet the folks. They visit with us. I mean,

(01:56:01):
for the rest of you. Ashardware dot com store locator,
that's what you're looking for. Aceharder dot com. Go to
the store locator. There's forty stores in the Greater Houston
area all the way out to Beaumont, and you're going
to find the fire ant control. This is firent control season.
Hit them now before we go into winter. Get out there,
get that done, all right. We're putting an hour in

(01:56:24):
the books. Today is flying by. But they say time fly,
time flies when you're having fun. I'm having fun. I
hope you are. Hermit. The frog, by the way, says
that time's fun when you're having flies. But I'm just saying,
all right, folks, I'll be right back in a little bit.
Just one more reminder. I'll be at Wharton Ace Hardware,

(01:56:44):
Wharton Feed and Acehrder is a new place out there
on Saturday, this coming Saturday the twenty eight, from one
to three pm. Remember that's a little later timeframe than
my normal appearance timeframe. So that's your clocks and calendars
for that. I hope you'll come out and see me
if you want to be part of Figtoberfest October fifth
and Angleton called Kimberly Mayer at the Brazoria County Extension

(01:57:05):
Office at nine seven nine eight six four one five
five eight nine seven nine eight six four one five
five eight for all things figs. And you get to
meet Destin out there too.

Speaker 1 (01:57:17):
Katie r h. Garden line with skimp Rictor.

Speaker 2 (01:57:20):
It's crazy.

Speaker 3 (01:57:27):
Trim.

Speaker 2 (01:57:29):
Just watch him astrays not a sound sum All right,

(01:57:54):
all right, let's do this.

Speaker 3 (01:57:56):
We have another hour a guarden line left to go
here and if you have a gardening question, now'd be
a good time to call in. It's kind of quiet
on the boards right here. Usually that way when we
come right out of a break. Seven one three two
one two k t rh would be a good number
if you want to get on the garden line. Nine
seven nine excuse me, seven one three two one two

(01:58:17):
ktr eight. I've talked about a number of different things today,
and I like to kind of throw out ideas, perhaps
some things that you might want to know in order
to have success as you plan your landscape. Fall is
for planting. It is the best time of the year
to get things done, absolutely, the best time of the year.

(01:58:39):
Nothing nothing like fall for success because you got the
whole whole season ahead of you, the cool season ahead
of you, for roots to get established in the ground. Well,
here's an idea if you're trying to do some landscape planting.
I suggest one of the things you keep in mind
is landscape color from fold. Now. I talked about earlier

(01:59:01):
about landscape texture, but landscape color from foliage is important
in the South where it gets hot. We just went
through a blazing hot summer, right and a lot of
things don't bloom in summer. We have a few good
bloomers but not like spring. But in summer we can
turn to foliage. And there's lots of great ideas for
foliage out there, for example, Chinese witch hazel. It are

(01:59:22):
also called lauro pedulum. That's the term a lot of
people used for it. It's its genus name. It has
purplish maroon, purplish colored leaves that are really striking sunshine.
Lagustrum right up against it has yellow, bright yellow colored foliage.
It's attractive, by the way. Anybody from Lsu might like
that combination.

Speaker 7 (01:59:41):
I don't know.

Speaker 3 (01:59:42):
I'm just saying, although it looks a little more burgundy
to me, but hey, I'm biased. How about a canna
tropicana that is a bulb dies to the ground the
rhizome does and to the rhizomes comes back out in
the spring with gorgeous, gaudy looking colors. Canna tropicicana is
so gaudy that if you put pink flaming in your yard,
no one will notice them. They'll just notice the canna.

(02:00:03):
I'm just saying. Abelia's come now, not just in green.
But there's types that There's one called kaleidoscope that has
multiple colors. There's some that are have some white variegations
in the foliage and whatnot. Dwarf and andinas have always
been a good choice. There's many different kinds of dwarf
and anddinas out there. And then there's the perennials and
the annuals. I mentioned one perennial be in the canna.

(02:00:25):
There's one another cannon called Bengal Tiger that's yellow and
green striped leaves, very striking, very very beautiful. Pretoria is
another good choice, and there's a purple leaf one as well.
Then there's things like copper plant and colias and kalladium bulbs.
Do you see what I'm saying. You go through summer
and you don't have those that don't have to bloom.

(02:00:45):
They look good just as foliage. So as you're doing
your fall planting, don't forget that foliage brings us color
all year or a can and especially during those blazing
hot summertimes. That's just a tip for you to think
about as you're getting ready for your fall planting. The
folks that Nelson Plant Food have a product that is

(02:01:07):
one of the newest ones in their group and I
love it. It is called Genesis and it is for
transplanting it's got micoriza, and those are the fungi that
get into the plant root and reach out into the
soil to bring phosphorus and other important elements back to
the plant that the plant can't reach with its own
root system. There's other fungi that are beneficial to the microbiome.

(02:01:31):
There's bacteria that benefit the plant. Now, it has nutrients
in it, but it's not going to burn your plants.
It's a natural source of nutrients. Okay, So when I'm
moving small plants to a bigger container, always in that
potting salt, mix in some nutristar genesis from Nelson. If
you're going to plant a shrub or a perennial, or
an herb or a winter vegetable in your gardens, mix

(02:01:56):
some nutristar genesis into that soil and it will help
get off to a good start. The stuff works, and
I say that because I've used it, I've done it,
I've seen it. It is an excellent product. Comes in
little clear canisters with screwtop lids, call them jars. By
the way, Also, whenever you get on Nelson's product in
those jars, remember there are refail stations for Nelson products

(02:02:19):
all over the Houston area, and that's just another way
save a little money and also avoid adding more plastic
to the environment. Well, let's head out to Spring, Texas
and we're going to talk to Mike. Hello, Mike, Mike
you there.

Speaker 7 (02:02:37):
That is Joe.

Speaker 3 (02:02:41):
Okay, Well, how can we help?

Speaker 26 (02:02:45):
Yes, sir, I was calling a see one of the
best time for me to plant my mustard grains, And
I got a second question. Is older gentleman told me
if the bulls get on my plate brains to soap
some kayee pepper spray my greens.

Speaker 3 (02:03:03):
I've not had success with hot pepper for bugs now
it'll keep squirrels out of things, But you can try it.
I'm not saying it won't work. I've just never heard,
you know, or seen any kind of trials or stuff
where they tried that and had good success. So why
don't you give it a try and then you tell
me how it worked for you. As far as the
mustard green, you want to plant them in October. That's

(02:03:27):
a good time to plant mustard greens in your area.
You can also plant them in November if you want.
They're pretty cold, hardy, but I would do it in October.
It needs to cool off just a little bit for
mustard to be really happy. And as far as the bugs,
what I do is I get some stuff called row
cover fabric. It's a very fine polyester spun material that

(02:03:48):
you get at garden centers and you put it over
the mustard when you plant the seed. You can put
some little sticks in there to hold it up so
the rain doesn't get it in the dirt before the
mustard comes up. But air goes through it, water goes
through it, and it's like a screen porch around those
mustard greens and all the caterpillars and beetles that like
mustard can't get in. But you have to do it
before the bugs get in, otherwise you're trapping them inside

(02:04:10):
the cafeteria, if you know what I'm saying. Oh, thank you,
roc up. Just yes, sir, you bet, Thank you very much.
Appreciate your call. Let's see here we are going to
go to David in Spring Branch. Hey, David, welcome, regardline.

Speaker 7 (02:04:25):
Thank you, thank you for taking my phone call. I
had a question about my palm tree. It's only like
about shoulder high, but it looks bad and I think
it's a windmill. It's Coharty. It looks like a faded
green leaves on it, and it looks groopy. It looks
groopy as well, and I wanted to make sure there

(02:04:48):
was no answer there or anything like that. I really
didn't see any insects there that were could be affecting it.

Speaker 3 (02:04:54):
What do you propose, David, David, Yeah, it's going to
be a soil problem, and I'm hitting up against a break. Basically,
something's wrong in the soil. Too wet, too dry, I
don't know, more likely to saggy. Is a problem. But
if you want to hang on, we can continue this
right after break. But I have to go for the
news right quick, and i'll be right right to those.
I want to remind you that I will be at

(02:05:16):
Nature's Way Resources on October twelfth. That's a ways out,
but I want you to get ready for this one.
This is our fall festival and it is a I've
officially declared it is a shindig that means fun lots
going on, Latin food, local vendors, plant sales, live music,
children's activities, and I'll be there from eleven thirty to

(02:05:36):
one thirty and I'll be answering gardening questions I may
stick around a little longer if you guys are still
going and we're having fun doing it. Remember that at
Nature's Way Fungal Friday sale is still on twenty percent
off fungal compost, which you can use for top dressing
if you would like to do that. You don't have
to get leaf Moo compost, but you also get their
fungal composts. Both of those quality products from Nature's Way

(02:05:59):
work very well. You can also just mix it into
the soil to build the soil stronger. It's an excellent
compost for that. At Nature's Way Resources, which is go
up I forty five north right where fourteen eighty eight
comes in from Agnolia, Turn right across the tracks Nature's
Way right there nine three six two seven three one
two zero zero. Remember October twelfth. I'll be there for

(02:06:23):
their Fall festival, and you do not want to miss
that shindig. We're going to go right now. Back to
David and Spring Branch. David, you're talking about your palm
tree symptoms. I just wanted to add it's something in
the soil. It could you know, it could be soggy,
wet conditions that are just oversaturated for too long. Chances
are you're not watering it that much, but if it's

(02:06:45):
getting over there, and maybe that could happen. The worst
case scenario is there's something called butt rot. Now that
I didn't make that up and the ten year old
boy and me thinks that's pretty funny, But bunt rot
is a fungal disease called ganoderma butt rot, And when
it's there, there's no treating it. You'll notice the new
growth coming out is going to be yellow and pale

(02:07:06):
and it's just going to decline. And should that progress
to that point, you need to get it out of there.
Get the base and as much of the roots as
you can out of there. Because the fungus survives on
plant tissues, So remove and destroy all of that plant tissue,
the trunk, the base, and some of the roots before
you replant in that area. Okay, any kind of wound

(02:07:29):
on the trunk helps helps that particular disease enter. So
just something to think about other than that, watch the
watering on it. Maybe give it a little fertilizer if
it's struggling a little bit, a palm fertilizer. But I
think it's going to be a wait and watch Okay.

Speaker 7 (02:07:46):
Well, if it gets to that point, if I have
to take it out, do I replant it elsewhere?

Speaker 3 (02:07:51):
Okay, Okay, you can't plant that plant, but you can
buy another one and bring it in. Yes, and it
probably be better. If you could put something else there,
probably be better. But if you can get all those
organic the plant parts out, then I would say you
probably could go right back with another same kind of palm.
All right, Hey, I got to run, but thank you

(02:08:12):
and good luck with that, you bet. I wish you
the very best. If you're looking for a way to
have the most beautiful landscape on the block, that is
called Pierscapes. They are professionals. They have designers on staff
that can design the whole nine yards for you. If
you just want to redo a bed, if you want
to you know, I've got some plants that are wimpy
and they're not surviving in this climate very well, and

(02:08:32):
you want to replace them. Peerscapes can advise you on
that as well. They do quarterly maintenance where they come
in every quarter, they take over the bed. Every quarter
they come in, they're gonna weed, they're gonna trim, fertilize,
check the irrigation. Do any aeration that's necessary, change the
seasonal color out. You know, the flowers that are going
to look good in the next season. Add mulch. That's

(02:08:54):
all available from Peerscapes, and all you got to do
is go to the website Piercescapes dot com. Puerscapes dot com.
Drainage poor drainage in areas, you want landscape lighting, you
want a beautiful rock barbecue patio area in the back.
You see what I'm saying, Go to pierscapes dot com.
Look at the kind of work they do. It is amazing, gorgeous.

(02:09:18):
Let's head back out the pair land. Now we're going
to talk to Sabrina. Hey, Sabrina, good.

Speaker 16 (02:09:23):
Morning, Skip.

Speaker 23 (02:09:24):
Hi.

Speaker 27 (02:09:25):
I have a question, and I'm sure you've probably addressed
it before, but here it goes. I have some landscape
services scheduled and we're having new beds new malt and
I'm concerned because I was thinking about this. It seems
like every time we do anything in our yard, we
have ants. Whenever I plant my pot, my flowers and

(02:09:46):
my pots, seems like the ants just take over everything.
And I'm wondering if there's anything that we could do
beforehand to try to alleviate this problem that we're having.
I know in the past we have used I'm sorry.

Speaker 3 (02:10:01):
Go ahead, are you are you're talking about fire ants?
Are you talking about fire ants?

Speaker 13 (02:10:07):
Yeah?

Speaker 27 (02:10:08):
They're red, yeah, and I guess they bite.

Speaker 3 (02:10:12):
Yeah, So you we need to find out what kind
they are for sure, you have they bite, they're probably finance.
Or you just get a friend you don't like and
have them come over and tell them they have to
walk barefoot across the yard and standing talking and if
they start screaming, that's fire ants. So seriously their best Yeah, Okay,
they're best controlled with a bait. Okay. Fire Ant baits

(02:10:36):
are the best way to deal with them because it's
the minimum amount of pesticide at a very low rate
over a huge area and it even mounds you can't
see underground. They have roving credit roving you know ants. Yeah,
that are finding food to bring back and they'll bring
the bait back. So get you a fresh bait. You

(02:10:57):
said you were in Paarland, right, yes, and there in
the Pearland area, you right there in town you got Pairland,
Ace Lumber and Ace Hardware. On North Maine they will
have for baits. There's several of them. There's Ambro, there's
advance base baits, there's extinguished that's an excellent one. But
they'll put you in touch with one or more of
the baits. Follow the label, put it out. You may

(02:11:20):
need de bait again a little bit later. But fall
is the best time to do it, and it's the
best way to do if any escape that you can
follow up with an individual mound treatment. You know, some
may pup, but don't just don't just use the dump
it on the mound and kill the ants treatment, because
then you're playing whack them mole with fire antce. You know,
you kill this mound and the one pops up and

(02:11:40):
you kill it and another one pops up. Do the baits.
That's the way to go. And at Paarland at the
Ash Hardware they got those.

Speaker 27 (02:11:47):
Okay, okay, And another quick question, do they actually you
know when I put like flowers in my pots and
then they get invaded with these ants? Are they harming
the ant? The ants harming the plant actually that I've
just potted also? Or is it doesn't harm the plant
at all?

Speaker 3 (02:12:05):
Okay, you're not harming they some plants like Okay, I'll
just this in your pots. But like okra, they'll get
up there and they'll eat into the but the buds
or the yeah bud okay, okra pods to get some
moisture and protein out of there and stuff. But in general,
they don't they don't attack plants. They are a protein feeder.

(02:12:27):
They're looking for They're looking for caterpillars and flea larva
and anything that's proteiny. That's what they're eating.

Speaker 27 (02:12:34):
Okay, all right, all right, well, thank you so much.

Speaker 3 (02:12:37):
I will try that, all right, Thanks appreciate that, Sabrina.
Thanks for the call. Uh let's see, we're gonna go
to Cypress and talk to John. Hey, John, welcome to Gardline.

Speaker 28 (02:12:48):
Hey, thanks for having me. So I've got a very
common question regarding dollar weed. We get dollar weed in
our yard, especially the front yard, is what really bothers me,
you know, every spring, and I treat it with which
is strange because it gets plenty of on it's on
a slope, good drainage. But nevertheless, we get a big
patch of it right in the middle of the front

(02:13:08):
yard and I treat it with I believe it's bonn
eyed weed beater ultra, which I know Randy lemon I
mentioned that, you know, a long time ago, and it works.
It works great, although I end up with these little
patches of you know, dead spots waiting for weeks until
the Saint Augustine kind of filled it in.

Speaker 7 (02:13:25):
But my question is why does it keep coming back?

Speaker 1 (02:13:27):
How can I just kill this?

Speaker 26 (02:13:30):
Well?

Speaker 3 (02:13:30):
Dollar weed has some underground structures that you may not
get all of those that it primarily is coming back
from those, So that would be you know that that
is probably what you're seeing. There are a number of products.
The bone eye that Randy had recommended works well. I
try to watch out for the temperature though on those,

(02:13:52):
you know, when you get up above eighty five degrees,
some of those can damage your Saint Augustine lawn. And
that's where I typically will shift over and send people
to get celsius that you can buy on little packets
that make one gallon of spray, which goes a long
way if you're if you're spot treating, uh, that that
is an option. There are other options out there for
dollar weed control and they work. You just have to

(02:14:15):
watch the temperature. Okay, okay, Celsius and that's that's all
on the label. Yeah, that's all on the label too,
So just always read the label. It'll tell you what
grass you can use it on. It'll tell you any
restrictions like temperature for example.

Speaker 28 (02:14:32):
Uh, and frustrate stop it from coming back.

Speaker 7 (02:14:35):
You know that's the thing.

Speaker 28 (02:14:36):
I keep thinking I'm killing it, and then then in
the spring it comes right back, almost comes back worse,
getting worse, and well.

Speaker 3 (02:14:45):
So, okay, a couple of things to do. The denture
your lawn gets the more it fights weeds. But dollar
weed can co exist with Saint Augustine even when it's
dense very well. So look at your watering schedule. Anything
you can do to dry the swell out as much
as possible between waterings, that would be good. So instead
of squirting it every day, you know, once a week

(02:15:07):
a good soaking, but not much more. If there's bad
drainage in the area. Anything you could do to improve
drainage and dry it out a little more, it slows
the dollar weed down. Otherwise, you know, it loves to
live in a swamp, and so the wetter it is,
the harder it is to fight because the dollar weat
is just so vigorous. And they say at that point, okay.

Speaker 28 (02:15:27):
Okay, all right, great, Thanks a lot.

Speaker 3 (02:15:29):
That's the cultural thing you could do, all right, but
you may want to try switching to the celsius. Go
ahead and hit it now with the celsius, be ready
to again in the spring. I think that you know,
it's one of the better products, and it's even though
our temperatures are high. If you do it early in
the morning, you can have that celsius work without doing
a lot of damage to your lawn. You know, it's

(02:15:51):
not liking u celsius in ninety five degree weather, but
if it's early in the morning, you can use it
and it's not going to be as much of a
problem as some of the others that want it. Gets
above eighty five, it's a problem.

Speaker 7 (02:16:02):
Okay, all right, thanks a lot, all right.

Speaker 3 (02:16:05):
Good luck with that dollar weed. One time I was
in a I was in a grocery store, I believe
it's a Vietnamese grocery store, somewhere south east of Houston,
maybe over toward Beaumont, I believe, anyway, and I saw
a drink and it had dollar weed on the picture
on the front of the can, and it is exactly

(02:16:25):
what it was. It was a drink made from dollar weed.
I had to buy one and drink it. You know,
I'll put anything in my mouth once just about and
I had to to try this stuff, and oh my gosh,
it was like k ro syrup sweet. But they say, well,
if you can't beat them, eat them. Well maybe maybe dandelions,
maybe chick weed. I'll do that. Yeah, not dollar weed.

(02:16:48):
I couldn't do that one. But that's an interesting approach
to dealing with problems like that. Oh gosh. You know,
when it comes to having success in your garden and
your landscape, it really just boils down to the simple
practices of sunlight and soil and good plants and good
care following that. And so here's what I mean. Does

(02:17:10):
it want to be in shade or sun? Does it
take what soil or not? If it doesn't, you got
to build up the soil in a raised bed, make
better drainage, and you have success, and then give a
good fertilizer. It's not really that difficult. Well, it's time
for me to take a break and I will be
right back our last thirty minutes of the show today,

(02:17:30):
in fact, last thirty minutes of this weekend on Guardline.
So if you got any questions that we can help
you with. It'd be a good time to talk about
those I wanted to tell you about Affordable Tree Care,
and I do all the time. I talk about Martin
spoon Moore, I talk about his wife Joe being the
ones that answer the phone. This is a business where
the owners are still actively involved. You make a phone

(02:17:52):
call to Affordable Tree Care, and if you don't hear
Martin or Joe on the phone, you call the wrong number,
hang up, dial again because their number. You want to
write this, just write this down and keep it because
you never know you or maybe a neighbor has a
tree issue. Seven to one three six nine nine twenty
six sixty three seven one three six nine nine two

(02:18:13):
six sixty three. And if you want to go to
the website, it's Afftree Service dot com. But I want
to tell you October through February is primetime for getting
your trees pruned. And everybody else wants to get their
trees pruned then too. So Martin's schedule fills up. Don't delay.
Give him a call now, get on the schedule. Maybe
you don't need him to come until January, but get

(02:18:33):
on the schedule. Get that done. He will prune. He
does deep root feeding. He'll check the trees overall health.
If you've if you've noticed that a tree is like
the ground is heaving up a little bit on one side,
you know, the tree root base. Any kind of movement
down in there. Uh, that's probably from the last storms
that did some of their movement and damage to it.

(02:18:55):
Give Martin a call, have him take a look at
that and make sure it's all good and safe to go,
and he'll advise you on things. The October February is
really a short window when our best pruning time is here,
So call now to get on the schedule. Martin stays
busy because Martin does good work. It's as simple as that.
That's also why we love to have Affordable Tree as
a sponsor here on garden Line, because I know I

(02:19:16):
can send you them and they're going to do a
good job. So aff Tree Service dot Com seven to
one three six nine nine two six six three. We
are now going to go out to tom Ball, Texas
and talk to John. Hey, John, welcome to garden Line.

Speaker 5 (02:19:32):
Good morning, Skiff. Have a couple of quick questions.

Speaker 16 (02:19:36):
One is.

Speaker 5 (02:19:38):
Fertilization. I did the sweet Green probably about four or
five weeks ago.

Speaker 7 (02:19:43):
Okay, was it too?

Speaker 5 (02:19:45):
Did I wait a bit? Or what's your thinking on that?

Speaker 22 (02:19:50):
Uh?

Speaker 16 (02:19:51):
No?

Speaker 3 (02:19:51):
If you if you did sweet green, then I would
in early October, I'd go ahead and put down the
nitrofoss Fall special winner.

Speaker 7 (02:19:59):
I okay, okay.

Speaker 3 (02:20:03):
The sweet Green is a lot of super slow release. No,
it's a you know it's going to break down pretty
quick and release the nutrients.

Speaker 9 (02:20:09):
Uh.

Speaker 3 (02:20:10):
And so the Nitropuss three step that's going to be
the higher potassium fertilizer to help your grass build the
carbohydrates to have winter heartiness and come out stronger in
the spring.

Speaker 7 (02:20:21):
Perfect.

Speaker 5 (02:20:22):
And one more quick question, Skip I called last week,
I'll think about bermuda and so trying to choke out
my say in Augustine, Well, I'm doing that, but now
it'srill fin in a bunch of areas. You know it's
got bermuta but a thrill fin. Back in the day
you did sand. But that's not the way to go anymore.

Speaker 3 (02:20:42):
What's your suggestion, Uh, if you want to make the bermuda,
you want to make the bermuda happy, I'd get a
compost top dressing. You were up there in the Tamaul area,
so you're not that terribly far away from Nature's Way Resources,
which is up on I forty five where fourteen eighty
eight comes in, and they've got every Friday is fungal Friday.

(02:21:02):
Get I like the leaf mold composts that they have,
but I also like the fungal compost And just call,
you know, talk to Ian or one of the folks
there and just tell them what you want to do.
You talk to me on guardline. You're wanting to do
a top dressing on your bermuda lawn and so you
need something kind of screen down. Fine, and they've got
that product. They they know what we're talking about. When

(02:21:23):
you call them and they'll get you set up and
that you can do. You can go pick it up
if you've got a way to do it, or you
can have them deliver it if you want to go
about it that way.

Speaker 7 (02:21:33):
Perfect.

Speaker 3 (02:21:33):
Thank you having a going Yeah, thank you appreciate the call. John,
John very good. Yeah, And I should have mentioned this
when John was talking about while you're there, while you're
doing nightro fast Fall special, get the barricade out because
that prevents grassy weeds in thin areas. It where sunlight
hits the soil. Nature plants a weed. So unless your
lawn is just so thick, no sun can get to

(02:21:55):
the soil, you're gonna see weeds pop up from seed
because that's what they do. That's what nature does to
prevent bear soil. Nature hates bear soil for good reason.
So barricade put down in October early October, don't delay.
You can apply it all October, you apply it November
and all of that. But I say, why not get
it done ahead of time because that barricade is gonna

(02:22:15):
last you a couple of two three months easy, and
so go ahead and get it down, especially in the
cool season, and get it down and then let's cover
that whole period where these will be sprouting and you
won't be dealing with them in the spring. Then Nitro
foster eagle turf funge aside is a systemic that helps
prevent the large patch or brown patch. It also helps

(02:22:37):
prevent takeof patch, which is really really important. You know,
John's up there in the Tomball area and you're going
to find you know, these kind of night fosh products
at plant troll seasons of Tomball Parkway, for example, and
Chenny Garden's din and Richmonds and those of you live
up in the woodland shades of Texas has them, so
it's easy easy to find those kinds of products from Nitrofoster.

(02:22:58):
Let's go now to rop in North Houston. Hey Robert,
welcome to garden Line. Hey, good morning, Skip. Hey Skip.

Speaker 24 (02:23:06):
I heard you make the analogy about the h the
kool aid and making water, you know, harder to freeze.
So it got me thinking, ID I was wondering if
you if you watered plants with sugar water before a freeze,
would they take up the sugar water and help you
prevent or slow down the freezing process.

Speaker 3 (02:23:24):
And now it wouldn't. It wouldn't. The plant has a
natural way of doing that, and that is sunshine on
a green leaf. That's how you get carbohydrates. And the
plant is designed to know how to do that. And
and potassium is an important element in that process. But
you need a little nitrogen with the potassium to go together.
That's why we have our fall special fertilizers. But yeah,

(02:23:47):
let the plant do it as the best way. I wish,
I wish the other would work. But uh now, okay,
one more question real quick. I heard you last week
about the air potato is that edible, and if so,
we're some horses for it. I do not think it's edible.
I've seen them, you know, gardeners that love those to
wrap around the pine trees and things. The only thing

(02:24:09):
about air potato is it can be invasive, and it
just depends on the area you're in and you know
how close it is to other things. Always pick up
all those potatoes when they fall if you have one,
because you don't want to, you know, just have a bunch.
It's not like kudzu, but but it is a potential problem.
So be careful with the air potato if you're going

(02:24:30):
to grow it. Okay, well, thanks so much for the information.
Appreciate you you bet, Robert, thank you for calling. Take
care Okay, you do good. Good rest of your weekend.
When was the last time you went out to Arburgate. Well,
if you haven't been recently, you need to go Arborgate.
Is I tell you that place you ought to see it?
I was looking, dad, That is just checking out.

Speaker 5 (02:24:55):
You know.

Speaker 3 (02:24:55):
You just stand there and you look, and I mean
you could stand in one spot for thirty minutes and
not see everything that there is at Arburgate because there's
all kinds of landscape bling, you know, beautiful things to
put in your landscape decorations. There's plants galore, gorgeous pottery.
I want you walk in. You just have to walk
right past the pottery. If you come in the front door.
By the way, there is a backdoor. It is that

(02:25:17):
parking lot that's all weathered on off Trischel Roads. So
if you drive past Arburgate and miss Trischel, it's coming
back in on the other side. It's a loop behind Arburgate.
I like that back patio best because it's easy to
get in there and walk right in and be in business.
Arburgates gift shops are loaded with beautiful stuff, beautiful stuff
for Halloween decorations, for Thanksgiving decoration. I think they're even

(02:25:40):
getting some Christmas stuff in already, So you need to
go by there. Arburgate dot com is the website. Go there,
subscribe to the newsletter and stuff too. While you're there.
You will not be disappointed and take some prinds when
you go. All right, time for a break. I'll be
right back. Gad to have you with us. I was
out in my garden this past week and do some multching,

(02:26:02):
and I ran out a multch and it reminded me.
You know, I thought, I know, always know better than this.
I do this mental math in my head and I
think I got enough, and then I run short, and
it reminded me. There's a this is an author unknown quote,
but this is so true. Here he goes. My rule
of green thumb for malts is to double my initial

(02:26:22):
estimate of the bags needed and then add three. That way,
I'll only be two bags short. Unfortunately, that is too
too true. We're gonna go out to Spring, Texas and
talk to Mike. Hey, Mike, welcome to garden Line.

Speaker 7 (02:26:37):
Good morning.

Speaker 13 (02:26:38):
I'm preparing to put a new grass down and what
what is the preparation process once once the ground is
completely cleaned of all weeds and all everything.

Speaker 3 (02:26:54):
First up, Yeah, first start, you want to get any
pernial weed out of there, whether it's bermuda grass in
a Saint Augustine to be planted lawn or whatever it is.
You know the dollar we's we were talking about earlier,
Virginia button, whatever it is. Kill the stuff, don't let
it come back in your new lawn. Then you want

(02:27:15):
to do a light tilling if you can, if it's practical,
to do that. Get the old organic materials out of
the way, because you want the sod to touch the
soil rather than a bunch of dead weeds. If there's
any areas that need to be filled, now's the time
to do it. Get it all smooth. That way, when
you mow, you get a nice even mowing, not one
where the blade is tilting and gouging the ground as

(02:27:37):
it bumps along. Get that smoothed out, and then get
your grass down and do it as soon as you can.
We are still warm, but it's not gonna be warm
for a long time, and once we get into November,
grassroot growth is slowing a whole lot, and so I
would suggest asap getting all this done. In order to
get that grass well rooted in. You want to water

(02:27:58):
it every day for the first week, every other day
for the second week, and then you can start to
back off that watering schedule, especially as things cool off,
you can back off a lot.

Speaker 13 (02:28:09):
So don't put any weed forgive on it before you
put the new grass.

Speaker 3 (02:28:17):
Do not, absolutely do not put a pre emergent herbicide
down before you put the grass down, because here's what's
gonna happen. Those herbicides. When weed seed sprout, they keep
the roots from being able to form. They make them stubby,
they won't grow. The same thing will happen to your
Saint Augustine roots on the side that you lay down

(02:28:37):
on top of a just put down pre emergent herbicide,
your grass's not gonna be able to root in. So
do not do them ahead of time. Afterwards the top
of the ground fine, but right now I would say
this first. Now, let's get that stuff rooted in. We'll
worry about pre emergence next year.

Speaker 14 (02:28:54):
Okay, what if I kind of put some humus and
manure mixed in.

Speaker 3 (02:29:03):
You can mix maybe say an inch or so of
that into the soil all over the place if you
want to.

Speaker 1 (02:29:09):
Uh.

Speaker 3 (02:29:09):
It's gonna help for a little while, but not a
long term, and don't overdo it.

Speaker 9 (02:29:13):
Uh.

Speaker 3 (02:29:13):
Be kind of light on that.

Speaker 11 (02:29:15):
Uh.

Speaker 3 (02:29:15):
But once you get that grass, our number one goal
now is to get the weeds out of the way,
the ground prepared and level, and the grass down and
those roots from that sod down into your soil a
s A p and down coming in.

Speaker 13 (02:29:31):
The last thing I want to say is before you
put put the put the new grass down. Should you
would all like to water it the ground before you
put to the side down or just leave.

Speaker 3 (02:29:45):
It dry if it's if it's very dry, yes, get
it moist because that way the roots go down into
moist soil. If if the soil is too dry, they're
not going to be to grow into there.

Speaker 1 (02:29:55):
Well.

Speaker 3 (02:29:56):
Uh, but the watering you're doing is also going to
get some water down into it. You're not putting a lot,
you know. When we're saying water twice a day or
and then once a day, we're not talking about putting
two inches of water down twice a day. We're talking about,
you know, just a little bit. You want to keep
it moist because your grass is coming in with about
a half inch to three quarter inch long roots and

(02:30:16):
that doesn't do much, you know, and so asap, getting
those roots in the ground is how that grass gets resilient.
And so we're babying it along for the for the
first little bit so that it can get roots down.
But also just just get that done soon, Mike, because
you'll end up with better stand.

Speaker 13 (02:30:36):
So it's okay to lightly water it before you put
the new down.

Speaker 3 (02:30:42):
Yes, if the soil is dry, that's helpful. So the
roots can go into moist already premic and soil. That's helpful.

Speaker 13 (02:30:51):
Appreciate all you have, but yep, yeah, a great day.

Speaker 3 (02:30:54):
All right, all right, love it all right, I appreciate,
appreciate your call.

Speaker 7 (02:30:59):
Thank you.

Speaker 3 (02:31:00):
Might all right, folks, there we go. Uh there's the
advice on lawns. You still do it, but don't delay.
The more you delay, the less the less helpful it
will be for that grass trying to get going. So anyway,
I want to remind you that I am going to

(02:31:20):
be going to where Wharton Feed Ace Hardware next Saturday
from one a little bit later than normal, one to three,
one to three pm. Grab you some lunch. You may
have to bring me some lunch because I'll be flying
down the highway during lunchtime. No, seriously, Wharton Feed one
to three pm. When I'm there, the Lockley's owners of

(02:31:41):
Wharton Feed and Ace are going to be providing some giveaways.
They're going to have some plants from green Leaf Plants.
They're gonna have a gift certificate from the muck Boot Company,
and then Nitropos be there. There'll be a couple of
bags of fall special that I've been bragging about all day.
We'll be giving the two bags of that away, begin
two bags of barricade away. So come out you might

(02:32:02):
get lucky. If not Wharton Ace feed and hardware, or
excuse me, Wharton Feed and Ace. That way I got
to say it right, is gonna have plenty of those
ninety fives and other products on hand. But come on
out and we'll have a really good time. I'm gonna
have some Texas Gardener magazines available out there too, some

(02:32:23):
even not tried looking at the Texas Gardener. You gotta subscribe.
That's a great magazine, and I have a couple a
few copies of it to pass around. So come on
out and see me. And you know, you can always
bring me samples of plants to identify her to diagnose.
If you got a bug crawling around you don't know
what to do, bring it. I'll get it under a
hot lamp and you know, put it through the make

(02:32:44):
it confess its name, and we can that way get
to the bottom of it. But we're gonna have a
good time, and I'm looking forward to coming out for
those of you way out southwest like that, even past
Wharton down toward Corpus CHRISTI direction come on out, let's
meet and let's get that opportunity. I don't get out
that way often enough, in my opinion, so I hope

(02:33:05):
you will do that. I love quotes. I love quotes
on gardening because so many of them are are true,
so true. A guy named doctor Alan Armitage, who is
probably one of the most famous ornamental horticulturists in the
southeast US. He's from Georgia originally uh and just a
prolific writer and speaker. He said gardening simply does not

(02:33:28):
allow one to become mentally old because too many hopes
and dreams are yet to be realized. And that is
so true. I'm going to tell you the best garden
I've ever had in my life is my next one.
It's true. It's true. You buy a fruit tree, you
got that little tag with pictures of fruit on it,

(02:33:48):
don't you just picture and taste? Right then what's gonna come?
There's always hope for the future with gardening. And this
is this is scientifically true. I'm talking about research that
are dealing with dementia, people that are dealing with depression.
When you get out and you play in the dirt
and you plant stuff and you get involved in that.

(02:34:09):
It is really therapy. Since I like quotes so much,
here's another one. It's actually a little rhyming one. When
I'm overwhelmed and stressed and unable to think, I go
out and garden. It's cheaper than a shrink. That's true.
It's good for you. So I hope this week you

(02:34:30):
will have a wonderful time out in the garden. I
hope that you will get out there. Remember, don't look
at the thermometer, look at the calendar. It's time to
get stuff done. So get out there and have some
fun in the garden. Whatever you like to grow good,
and then call garden I next week we'll talk about it.
You got any questions, be glad to do that. I
want to remind you My website is gardening with Skip

(02:34:53):
dot Com. Gardening with Skip dot Com. There you will
find my lawn care skill when Defertilize, information on mowing, watering,
and applying micronutrient supplements to your yard. There's also the
plant Disease, weed and insect problem schedule that tells you
for the insects through the year, when do they, When

(02:35:15):
does chinchbugs occur? When does sild webmorms? Occur. When do
you treat for grubs? It's on there for diseases. How
about brown patch or large patch? How about take our
root rod? How about gray leaf spot? When do you
have to worry about those? What do you do about them?
The products are there, whether you're organic or synthetic, All
of it is there. Makes it real easy by publications
on nuts edge control, how to build a weed wiper,

(02:35:36):
and on and on and on are all on that
website and they're all free. See you next week.