Wild Bird Unlimited and Ace Hardware Owners Join The Show

Skip Richter answers your questions all morning long!

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Welcome to Katie r h garden Line with Skip Rict.

Speaker 2 (00:04):
It's the basis in the bassi gas they can use
ithrim just watching as worl gostan.

Speaker 3 (00:16):
Bassis and gas.

Speaker 2 (00:18):
They began you d faso many bol takes the seapbackaging
in the ways in the.

Speaker 3 (00:24):
Bassis like gas and began you.

Speaker 2 (00:26):
Dat samos becos backecond I'm not a salad.

Speaker 3 (00:31):
Credit the glasses and gas and.

Speaker 2 (00:35):
The sun beamon of betweens in the bassis.

Speaker 3 (00:40):
And gas can use your hand.

Speaker 4 (00:44):
Starting and treating in the.

Speaker 2 (00:47):
Basses like gas became you date everything he is so
good and see and.

Speaker 3 (00:54):
Everything here is Sunday SuDS rat.

Speaker 4 (01:23):
You ever heard this whole song? You ever listening to
it all the way through? It kind of interesting. Hey,
good morning folks, Good morning gardeners. Welcome to garden Line.
Good to have you with us this morning on a
wonderful Saturday. I you know, looking at the weather, we
got some cold weather coming up. Have you noticed that

(01:43):
we're gonna talk about that today, things to do about it,
and I suspect we may have some questions about that.
That'd be okay too. Here is a phone number if
you would like to give me a call. Seven one
three two one two fifty eight seventy four seven one
three two one two five eight seven four. I don't
know if you follow us on social or not, but

(02:06):
we have Instagram account. It's called let's see garden line
with skip, garden line with skip. Our Facebook account is
called garden line. Excuse me, I had to go just
my website confuses me, which I'm now probably confusing you.

(02:26):
My website is gardening with skip. So there's a kind
of a difference there, only two, but not much so
it's just enough to keep it keep it kind of confusing.
So anyway, on the Facebook page, I posted something a
day or two ago with a picture of my car.
This is back when we lived up in Cyprus and

(02:48):
my daughter took my pickup truck to college, which is
fine anyway, and so I did not have a truck
there at the house. I just had my car. And
I am into collecting leaves every year. I mean, the
way I put it is, I've got a leaf problem.
I just absolutely love to do it. I've done this

(03:12):
for a long time. I will try to beat the
garbage trucks down the street and basically go in the
day before when people put their leaves out there and
take them home, because I can't produce enough compost based
on the organic materials in my yard, nor have enough mulch.
So anyway, I'll gather those and bring them home and

(03:33):
stockpile them. Some of them I grind up so that
they're in a better condition for malting. Leaves that aren't
ground up. Larger leaves, you know, things like maple or
sycamore or whatnot. They blow around. Live oak leaves not
so much, but anyway, so I grind them up with
a lawnmower, put them in bags. That way, what used

(03:55):
to be a big old bag of leaves becomes about
a third of a bag of leaves. Do you chop
it up real good? And that way that you can
store a lot more leaves, and I stockpile them. I
put some bags in a spot out of the sunlight,
because sunlight breaks the bags down. They fall all apart anyway,
and that way all the way through the next year.
I've got some bags of leaves for mulching that are

(04:16):
there and they're available, and I use them for mulching.
I use them for making composts as well. They're very valuable.
Most of the nutrients that a tree takes up during
the year are in its leaves. That's a little bit
of a surprise for some folks, but that's true, and
the value of those is immeasurable in my opinion. Think

(04:39):
about this. We talk here on the Garden Line Show
all the time about the importance of building soil, so
first bronzeduff before green stuff. We talk about the importance
of compost and quality bed mixes and all of that,
and decomposed organic matter is a very huge component of
soil success. That's very important. So when we have lawns

(05:03):
and landscapes and we grow tree leaves, and we grow
grass blades, and if you have a chipper shredder, you
can even take branches and chop them up and make
a nice mulch out of those too. But those are
composed of organic materials that are very valuable to the soil,
to your plants. I've said this before on Garden Linement.

(05:27):
I'm going to repeat it here. If you take a
grass blade and you chopped off with the lawnmart and
you hold that up, you're looking in that when you
see that blade. Other than water, everything in there are
the nutrients that it took to grow a plant. The nitrogen, phosphorus, potassium, magnesium, sulfur, calcium, iron, manganese, zinc,

(05:51):
on and on and on. Seventeen different nutrients are in
that grass blade because they remember how I talk about
the essential nutrients. You know, azemites basically the essential nutrients,
the micro nutrients, the tiny ones. But they if you
don't have them, can't grow a plant. They're essential. They're
part of the building blocks. It's like building a brick
wall without any mortar between between the bricks, Well, it's

(06:15):
just a stack of bricks. Then it's not a brick wall.
So that's how it is with these nutrients. So but
in that grass blade you're holding up, that nutrient is
in there. Otherwise it wouldn't have grown, it wouldn't have
become a grass blade. And the same true with a
tree leave. So now here's the deal. You chop them
off with them more, you rake them up off your lawn.
The tree leaves. What are you going to do with them?

(06:40):
You can put them in a bag and set it
at the curb and have somebody haul away your fertilizer,
or you can recycle it back into your landscape. That
It's as simple as that nature's own slower leaves fertilizer
is right there, sitting on the lawn. What are you
going to do with it? And when we take it

(07:02):
and when we compost it or when we use it
as a mult which will then end up as decomposed
organic matter and time. What we're doing is we're returning
the nutrients that we paid for and dumped out of
a fertilizer bag, or that we're already in our soil
and now are gone from the soil. We're returning them
back to the soil. Doesn't that make sense? Nature recycles naturally.

(07:25):
Have you ever seen a deer in the forest with
a bag and a rake making sure to get all
those leaves off the ground in the forest. That's a
Gary Larson cartoon right there. Have you ever seen a
cow mowing the meadow and putting bags out at the curbside. No,
of course not. It's that's ridiculous. But that's kind of
what we're doing when we don't recycle them. So I'm

(07:47):
going to continue this story. We're going to take a
little break here, but I'm going to continue when we
come back and talk about what happened when my truck
left for college'll be right back back. Oh boy, the
holiday season, a lot of things changed. Music, everybody's busy,

(08:10):
hustle it around. All right, welcome back to the guard Line.
Good to have you with us. I see what we're
gonna do. Let's just jump right up here and head
straight out to Rose Sharon. We're gonna talk to Kim
this morning. Let's see if I can get Kim here.
There we go. Hey, Kim, Welcome to garden Line.

Speaker 5 (08:31):
Good morning, Skip, Thanks for taking my call. I've got
a question. I just bought some NEMA codes and I
am wondering can I spread them along in my garden
as well as on the lawn and stuff? I want
to control? Fees?

Speaker 4 (08:53):
Please? You got fleas in the lawn?

Speaker 5 (08:56):
Yeah, well, and I found a lot of grubs too.
But my big thing isn't please. And I have chickens
and all that free range. So I'm trying to go
you know, organic type to attack the issue.

Speaker 4 (09:13):
Yeah. Let me let me see. Are you do you
have the package of the nematodes handy where you can
read something on the label for me?

Speaker 6 (09:22):
Yes, I do.

Speaker 4 (09:23):
Hold on, Let I want you to m okay, we
will talk we'll get specific here a little bit. Well.
So there's a lot of different kinds of beneficial nematodes.
Actually two primary types that two primary types that we
deal with. So on the label, do you see either

(09:45):
and I know these are long words, but they're different
steiner nema or hetero hebditis. Do you see either of
those words?

Speaker 7 (09:52):
It says.

Speaker 4 (09:55):
Diner type that's it.

Speaker 5 (10:00):
Huh huh, star an eBay that.

Speaker 8 (10:05):
Whatever.

Speaker 5 (10:05):
Yeah, car po.

Speaker 4 (10:09):
Ca Okay, So that's not going to be as good
against grubs. You probably will get some grub control out
of it, but it does work against various types of caterpillars,
and it might work on some other soil dwelling organisms.
I don't know if they work on wireworms or not

(10:30):
in the soil, but that's another thing that eats the
root crops that you have. When you see little tiny
nibbles out of a potato or something like that, that's
often a w worm. You could try that. You just
want to put them down. These are living creatures, so
it's very important to remember that. Get them on the ground,
get them watered in so you can move it into

(10:51):
the soil where they do what they do if they
dry out there dead. Just like if you take earthworm
and you put it on a hot sidewalk on our
summer day and just leave it with no moisture, it's
just going to dry up, turn into a French fry basically.
And and you have to take care of these nematodes,
keep them moist right.

Speaker 5 (11:10):
I read the instructions and yes, that is exactly you know.
They they did specify that they are live.

Speaker 9 (11:18):
And but.

Speaker 5 (11:21):
It won't hurt if I put them in the garden
as well. I mean, I just you know, if I
spray over while I'm spraying, if they they're not going
to hurt, like if they get on the leaves or
anything like that, I'll water them down and then milk
the soil. That's uh.

Speaker 4 (11:38):
Yeah.

Speaker 10 (11:38):
They were really not worried about them. Okay, yeah, okay, Yeah,
they won't hurt anything that you care about. They'll they'll
hurt things you want to get rid of, some things
that you want to get read up.

Speaker 5 (11:50):
That's it great, Okay, yeah, that's that's basically making sure.
So absolutely well, thank you so much. Ski.

Speaker 4 (11:59):
Yeah, and next year, if you're going after certain pests,
if you're going after certain pests next year, uh, give
me or give me a caller, send me an email,
and we'll we'll talk about the specific nematodes you might buy,
because they're, like I said, there are different kinds and
depends on what you're going after as to which one
works best.

Speaker 5 (12:19):
Alrighty, alrighty, well, thank you so much, Ski, Happy holiday,
Happy New Year. Thank you.

Speaker 4 (12:25):
You bet you too. Uh, you know that that's that's
something I don't talk about nematodes much in here. They're
actually on a lawn pest disease and weed management schedule.
You know, I'm always telling you about my schedules. They're
free either online. They're easy, they're colorful, they're easy to follow,
just follow the color.

Speaker 9 (12:42):
Uh.

Speaker 4 (12:43):
But if you get to the lawn pest disease and
weed management schedule and you look at insects, we got chinchbugs,
and we got soid web worms. We've got grubs and
things like that. And you go down by the way,
that's a yellow row going across. So you go down
to the yellow box at the bottom and under the
organic section sod webworms nematodes. Standard Nema nematodes are listed

(13:06):
as an option, and for grubs, hetero hebditis nematodes. You
don't have to remember those words. They're printed out on
paper there for you. So when you go shopping, if
you're going to go after grubs, there's one you go
after if you're going after the other. And then of
course there's fleas too. Nematodes can can help control fleas
in their larval stages. Not the adult fleas hopping around

(13:30):
in the yard, but your dogs go outside and fleas
jump off of them. Or are the fleas they lay eggs,
The eggs are going to larva in a pupa and
then the adult flea which hops around and at those
stages larva, pupa, they they're down in the thatch and
they're developing, but they haven't turned into adults yet, and

(13:51):
that's when nematodes can be effective. But again, gotta keep
it moist. Got to get men thatch. You got to
keep the thatch moist. And that is how they find
their host and go inside and do horrible things to
the pest you don't like. There you go, all right, Well,
I was in the middle of a not a bedtime story,
I guess a wake up time story talking about leaves

(14:15):
and my experience when I lived in Cyprus. My daughter
took my pickup and she took my means of getting leaves.
But not to be deferred. I had a Toyota Corolla
back then, and I decided, I'm going to figure out
how many leaves can I bring back. Now, this isn't
driving down Interstate forty five or ten or Ethan two ninety.

(14:36):
We're talking about little streets in a neighborhood, okay. And
I figured out how many leaves I could get on
a car. And I found that if you take a
couple of bags of lead, you open the trunk of
a Toyota Corolla and you stuck stick a couple of
bags into the trunk. They don't have to go all
the way in, but just enough because the lid won't
close then, and that tilted lid, you can set two

(14:58):
bags on top of it on your back windshield, and
then two bags above it, and two bags in front
of that, and two bags like that all the way
across the top of your car. But then you need
a bag on top of each of the two in
the middle to keep those two from falling off the sides.
But if you do that, guess how many bags you

(15:19):
can put on a Toyota Corolla. Thirteen there are teen bags,
I know, and I have the picture. My wife took
the picture before running back inside because she did not
want to be associated with anyone as crazy as me.
I'll in thirteen bags on top of a Toyota Corolla
through the neighborhood and back to the house. Anyway, I'm

(15:39):
just having some fun. But it really works. So nobody
can tell me, well, I can't get leaves. I don't
just have a car. Well now you can't. There you go,
Although you two probably would not want to be seen
doing that, but it works. So bring the leaves home,
chop them up, use them, use them as mulch, use
them his composts, do what ever you want to do.

(16:00):
Bottom line is get those nutrients back in the soil,
get that organic matter back in the soil. Fire up
the microbes with stuff for them to break down into
the soil. And there there's the business. And if you
didn't see that picture, just go to the garden Line
Facebook page and you can see it there. It became
a let's just say, kind of a provocative picture in

(16:23):
that you know, people are going, what what on earth
is going? On in that and so there you go.
All right, well you are listening to Garden Line. I'm
your host, Skip Richter, and we're here to help you
have success. And if you want to give me a
call at seven one three two, one two five eight
seven four seven one three two one two fifty eight

(16:46):
to seventy four, we'll be happy to discuss what maybe
on the on the ticket for you in terms of
here's some pests I need to do, here's some advice
I need to do, thinking about planning some broccoli. It's
a good variety. Any kinds of questions like that that
you would like to ask about. Oh my gosh, that
post is hit eighteen thousand views. Eh, that's taken off

(17:09):
a little bit there. But I know people are just
going what is going on with that crazy person? So
I want to talk about some other things. This is
a season where and I realize people are busy, and
you know when you when you're geared up for holidays
or other things or traveling, and you're not thinking about
getting out in the garden and getting work done.

Speaker 9 (17:30):
But there is.

Speaker 4 (17:33):
There is an opportunity right now to take care of
some things ahead of time that really help. If your
soil is not too wet. Working the soil when it's moist,
not dry, and not wet can help you have success
in getting that soul built so that when rain does
come later and the soil is too wet and spring

(17:56):
comes and you want a plant, maybe you want a
plant rosebush, maybe you want a plant in the spring,
your tomato plants or whatever. But that soil is sop
and wet. Well, you can't get out there and rototil
or mix it or anything. So preparing the soil now
will help that later when you're ready to plant, the
soil is ready to go. You've either soil blend and
you put it in beds, or you have mixed organic

(18:19):
matter into your soil to improve it. Including these leaves.
By the way, by the time it becomes planting time,
they will be largely on their way to being decomposed,
and so you can just go right in there and plant.
So now's a good time. A ninety year old gardener
named Alden Colston from the Friendship Garden up in Conro,
Texas On used to be on Airport Road. He said

(18:43):
he used to say that you can always add water,
but you can't take it away. And what he meant was,
when it rains and your garden is a swamp, you're stuck.
But you know, you can always water when soil is dry,
but when it's too wet, you're stuck. And so preparing
your soil and fall even the early winter, whenever the
soil is dry enough or moist enough to be able

(19:06):
to work it, that is a good idea. So getting
some things in beds, mixing them in, getting them ready
to go a very very good thing to be doing
this time of the year. So something for you to
think about, take advantage of that. And this is also
a good time to have a soil test done. We're
gonna take a little break here, but when I come back,

(19:28):
I want to talk a little bit about soil testing
and give you some tips and ideas for that and
hopefully convince you to do it, because it is a
very smart thing to do. Okay, hang around, get you
a cup of coffee. I meet you right back here
in just a bit. All right, folks, welcome back, Welcome
back to the garden line. Okay, if you want to

(19:51):
create a show place run your property, you need to
give Pearskaps a call. Peerskapes is the professional we recommend
here on Guardenline. They do stunning work. You can go
to their website Piercescapes dot com and see what I'm
talking about. Maybe you want landscape lighting done that totally

(20:12):
transforms the place, especially when you have outdoor areas where
you want to gather or where you want some security.
You know, people get hide in the dark outside in
the landscape around the home. Maybe you need irrigation work done,
Maybe you need drainage fixed. We get this rain and
water stands. Plants don't like that. They don't like soggy

(20:33):
wet roots for extended periods of time. Pierce Scapes can
fix that and much more. Give them a call to
eight one three seven fifty sixty two eight one three
seven fifty sixty. They are your one stop shop for
all things landscaping. Let's go out to Champions Area now
and we're going to talk to Lowlss. Hello, Lolis.

Speaker 11 (20:55):
High Skip.

Speaker 6 (20:55):
I love your show. I've got a problem.

Speaker 12 (21:00):
I have a problem in my yard. I just have
a town home and I have a bricked in area
in the front that's not real big, but pretty good size,
and I just have bark in there and then tops
of plants all over. Well, I noticed recently that I
have these piles of mushrooms, and I hadn't. It's the
side of the yard that I don't go to very often.

(21:23):
And you know what I'm talking about. They're kind of brown,
and that some of them are real small, but they
get big, and I guess they I just hadn't noticed.
But I did notice a smell and I started looking
over there and I said, oh, my goodness, I have
two kitchen bags full of them, heavy bags.

Speaker 8 (21:41):
I wondered what they are.

Speaker 4 (21:45):
Well, it would cause them. Of the mushrooms you're seeing
out there are not a concern for your plants. They
are decomposing organic matter. Now, some of them are actually
they live in association with the roots, and some of them,
there are few that can be plant diseases. Typically the

(22:06):
ones we worry about when we're seeing the mushroom itself,
or the ones attached to the base of a tree
trunk or somewhere along the tree trunk. They can also
attach to tree roots, and what happens is the fungus
gets in and it's inside and it's growing its little

(22:26):
strands through the woody material, and then when the weather changes,
it sends up. It's essentially fruiting structure, which is the
toadstool or the mushroom or whatever you're looking at there,
and that's just showing that the mushroom's growing down in there. Now,
sometimes I wouldn't worry about it. If you want to
send me a photo of it, I could take a look.

(22:48):
But the bottom line is that there's not going to
be if it were a problem. When there's not a remedy,
there's not like, oh, go spray those mushrooms. We never
spray the mushrooms. That does nothing. So if it's in
the tree and it's causing a problem, that's a concern,
but there's not a spray. But I'll just say this,
I seriously doubt that it's a problem. I think that

(23:08):
it is decomposing organic matter, whether it's wood, mult or
dead roots or bark, underneath the surface of the of
the of the soil.

Speaker 12 (23:18):
Oh I see, okay, sounds pretty good. Then I'll just
clean them up.

Speaker 4 (23:24):
Yeah, just knocking off. And if you've got a golf club,
it's a lot of fun. Can pretend they're golf balls
and knock them into the doors. Don't have it, Oh
did you Okay, well, bless us are so have you
ever seen the circles of white mushrooms out in the yard.
Have you ever seen a yard where there's like a

(23:44):
circle of white mushrooms around in it? That's example of
what we're doing. Yeah, so that one is growing in
the little micelia or growing through the thatch of the grass.
They're not hurting the grass. In fact, the grass is
greener out where they're decomposing organic matter. But it just
is going out in a circle like that little wildfire.
But those mushrooms aren't hurting the grass at all. So

(24:07):
that's just another example of what I'm talking about.

Speaker 13 (24:11):
Yeah, well, real good.

Speaker 9 (24:12):
That helps me a lot.

Speaker 14 (24:13):
Okay, thanks a lot.

Speaker 4 (24:15):
All right, well thanks a lot. You take care, don't
worry about it. But do do tell your husband that
I suggested he hide the golf clubs.

Speaker 6 (24:23):
Okay, I will bub.

Speaker 4 (24:31):
There we go, all right, Yeah, mushrooms, most mushrooms. We
see a lot of mushrooms popping up, especially in the fall.
You get a cold front and little rain, all of
a sudden, stuff pops up all over. And there are
a lot of kinds. Some of them are real cool.
One's called scrambled egg, fungus and it literally looks like
he spilled scrambled eggs on top of the ground. It's
just really unusual, and there's a million more out there.

(24:53):
Just remember nature is in the process of recycling organic
matter back into the soil to make it richer and
richer and richer. So mushrooms are just part of the
process of that. That's the visible part. We don't see
what's going on underground. Southwest Fertilizer my favorite place to

(25:15):
go and get those items, the supplies and things that
are hard to find in other places. For example, maybe
there's a particular product to control weeds or diseases, or
maybe you're looking for a certain organic product that just
having trouble finding it. Go to Southwest Fertilizer. They're going

(25:35):
to have it. They have the best selection of products
anywhere in this region, and that includes tools. And here
we are it is the holiday season, people are buying gifts.
It's a great shopping spot. They got quality brands, quality
brands of tools there at Southwest Fertilizer. Make a wonderful
gift for the gardener on your list. Southwest Fertilizer Corner,

(25:57):
Bissinett and Radwick seven three, six, six, six, one seven
four four. All right, let's head out now to friends
led and we're going to visit with Bill this morning.
Hey Bill, welcome to garden Line.

Speaker 15 (26:10):
Good morning, Skip. How you doing.

Speaker 4 (26:14):
I'm fine, sir.

Speaker 15 (26:16):
Well, anyway, thirty days ago I called you on my
corn plant. You may remember because you asked me if
it was field corn in the house. This is in
the house. I told you that my mother in law
had twenty or so years and when she passed away,
we took over and mastered it to mine. It about

(26:37):
two or three so bravely my wife bought another one
at one of the big box stores. And it's a
not doing too well now. So I called you and
I told you it had five leaves on it, three
brown and two brown on the notch or on the

(26:58):
end of it. He told me to take the brown
leaves off and knots the other two. Well, here's about
four days or four week report. It's has no leaves now,
but it does have a stalk. It's in about a
twelve inch claypot. Got a hold at the bottom of it.

(27:21):
It's in front of bedroom window, about twelve to fifteen
inches wide, about seven eight feet tall. And the way
it now has coming out at the base a stub.
It looks like that's an inch and a half long,
and I'm not sure what to do with it. I

(27:41):
want to keep it if I can. I've killed too
many plants, So what's your advice.

Speaker 4 (27:47):
Yeah, most of the most of the time, Bill, we
kill plants about over watering them indoors. Now, certainly not
watering them will kill a plant, but most of the
time people keep it too soggy, wet, and the roots
start to rise and the top declines, and there's there's
it's hard to stop that because you know, you need
roots for the thing to recover. Uh, check the soil moisture.

(28:07):
I might even consider laying the pot down, getting you know,
put it over a piece of plastic or something, lay
it down and slide that plan out and look and
see if you got nice, cream colored healthy roots on
the outside, or if it's all brown. You may have
to trim a bunch of those old dead roots off
and repot it up with some fresh soil. But just
keep it moist, not too wet. That's what's in your control.

(28:29):
The other thing in your control is giving it plenty
of light. Those things like a lot of light, not
direct sun, but a lot of light. And if some
windows are really bright and some windows are not as bright,
and so the window could be enough or not enough.

Speaker 15 (28:44):
I'd say, this window faces to the east and it
was repotted. Okay, well, just before I called you a
month ago, Yeah, my wife got some fertilized bait part
in the potty of soil with fertilizer in it and roots.
That time I took those cat of more creamy what
I think pretty nice looking and said, since yea once.

Speaker 4 (29:09):
Lightly okay, well I'm not sure, so I would just
wait and see if you get If you can get
some new growth on it, you can cut the stump
off above that growth you know, to I don't know where,
exactly where. I can't see the plant, so I can't

(29:31):
tell you. But if the top part, if the top
part is dead, and that new shoot grows from the bottom,
just leave the dead stump for a little while, the
dead trunk for a little while, and then if it
looks like there's no more life going to come out
higher up, then cut it off real carefully so you
don't damage the new shoot. Just about an inch above

(29:51):
that shoot, and that that would be the way to
prove it. Listen, Bill, I've gone over on my time here.
I'm gonna have to run. But if you want to
stick on the I'm gonna put you on. I'm gonna
put you on hold. You can hang up. But if
you want, my producer can give you an email. You
can send me a picture of it, and then I
can give you a little bit better advice on it.
But I do appreciate you call, folks. We got to

(30:12):
go to a break here. I'm overdue and welcome back, folks.
Good to have you back with us here on guarden Line.
If you have a gardening question. Seven one three, two
one two five eight seven four. Nelson Plant Food has
been around for a very very long time. This is

(30:33):
a family owned operation, by the way out there in Belleville, Texas.
I guess the Nelson family has been probably in that
area since the late eighteen hundreds forty two years in
the horticulture industry here. Their products are made right out
there at the warehouse in Belleville. All three generations are
involved in the family business. This is definitely a family operation.
You know you talk about a mom and pop garden center, Well,

(30:56):
this is definitely a mom and pop source of excellent
nutrient products for your your gardens, for your lawns, for
whatever you want to make grow. They specialize in the
horticultural fertilizers and the ingredients they use or top quality,
top notch, including various ways of slowly releasing that nitrogen
out to find a nice gradual nutrient feed to your

(31:19):
plants over time. New some plant food out in Belleville, Texas.
You find the products all over town by the bag
and by the jar. There's even a dozen or so
places around town where you can refill your jars and
save thrown away that plastic and save a little bit
on buying fertilizer as well, which we could do more
things in life where you take the little jar up

(31:40):
and refill it and come back home instead I was
buying a new plastic container. Anyway, We're going to go
now out to Richmond Rosenberg and talk to Jim this morning. Hey, Jim,
welcome to garden Line.

Speaker 7 (31:53):
Jfay, Good morning, comment and a question we're not comment is.
I gotta tell you your patient level with your UH
callers is extraordinary and I just wanted to tell you
I marvel at it's a gift. It's an absolute gift.
And the older we get, the less patients we tend
to have. And uh, anyway, I just had to compliment

(32:15):
you on your ability. It's truly in my mind, it
just blows me away.

Speaker 4 (32:21):
That's kind of you. I thought you were going to
say you're impatient with me being patient because some people
are like hang up on them.

Speaker 15 (32:30):
Yeah, I know.

Speaker 7 (32:30):
It's Uh, it's really impressive. My question this morning has
to do with points set is typically Christmas time, we
always purchase some and they're all always potted, and honestly,
we just go the best we can see how long
they'll last. We never tend to do anything, and it
frustrates me because there's probably a way to, you know,

(32:54):
prolong the life of them, get the most foliage out
of it, et cetera new growth. And anyway, I don't
have a clue. I don't know if we're not watering enough,
don't water I mean water too much. I don't know
the light configuration. So anyway, if you could give me
an overview, it'd be fantastic.

Speaker 4 (33:14):
Yeah. Absolutely, And it's really not complicated, Jim. They are
growing in a very peady kind of mix, one with
just almost straight organic matter. And so when it's wet,
it's heavy like a wet sponge is heavy. When it's
dry it's light like a wet sponge is feather light.

(33:34):
And I can you know when you do it a while,
you can just pick up the pot, like if you
were to. What I'll do is I'll take them out
of the container or the sleeve, you know, plastic sleeve
or foil or whatever they're in the's holding water, take
the pot out, sit it in the sink, and just
give it a good thorough soaking, I mean thoroughly wet
it and just let it run out. Let it sit
in the sink for a while, just make sure all

(33:57):
the waters run out of it, and then put it back.
And when you pick it up, that's that's the wet weight.
And you'll go by later. Sometimes I'll just go by
and lift them up, just grab them, kind of lift
up a little bit and you'll know, go, oh man,
this thing's about half what it should weigh. Or so
let it get toward the dry side, but not dry.
If they actually get dry, they'll start curling and throwing

(34:19):
off their older leaves pretty fast. And so you don't
avoid that but that's that's the secret to having success
with them is keeping them, giving them good soaking, but
letting them start to dry out pretty good before you
water them again. The more light they can get the better.
You know, when they before they got to your house,
the grower was putting them in a bright greenhouse getting sun.

(34:41):
And if we leave them in our dark homes for
a couple of weeks on end, that's a little stressful.
So if you can give them a little bit of light,
a little bit of fresh air, and maybe move them
outside some on a porch, even which, go ahead and
do that, that's also a little helpful. But the moisture
is the big thing people have trouble with. And then
don't put them in a where a heat draft blows

(35:04):
down over the plants, you know, just make sure they're
not in a drafty spot.

Speaker 7 (35:09):
Excellent. And then lastly, never really had any success at this.
What are your thoughts on the end of the season
trying to keep one alive plant? You know, is that
just sound realistic.

Speaker 4 (35:23):
Let's see if I can finish here, We're gonna get
some music on me pretty quick. But if we may
have to answer this after the top of the hour,
but I'll try. Uh, they just want to take care
of them. Get them outside and plant Yeah, get them
outside and plant them in Richmond Rosenberg. When it phreezes,
you're going to kill your points at it, so you'll
have to cover them in the winter time, but they

(35:44):
will grow. Usually I will put them in a spot
kind of up against the house, maybe on the south
side or east side, where there's a little bit of
a warm protection from them from the cold. And if
you're willing to, I'm during really cold weather, you can
keep a points out all lie. There a few around town.
I see you when I drive around. But it's not easy,

(36:07):
not easy to do. But anyway, that's how you would
go about it. Just just treat them like a regular
plant outside.

Speaker 7 (36:14):
Appreciate it. Merry Christmas, go all right, sir.

Speaker 4 (36:17):
Merry Christmas to you as well. All right, we're gonna
take a break. Karen and Richmond Greg in the channel view.
You're a first two up when we come back from
the top of the element.

Speaker 1 (36:29):
Welcome to kt r H Garden Line with Skip Richard.

Speaker 3 (36:42):
Just watch him as many thanks to see.

Speaker 15 (36:58):
Not a sign.

Speaker 4 (37:09):
Hey, welcome back to garden Line, folks. Good to have
you back. With us. You are listening to guard Line.
I'm your host, skip Ricktor and we're here to help
you have success. That's kind of the bottom line. A
bountiful garden, a beautiful landscape and more fun in the process.
And I tell you who else is, and that's rc
W Nurseries. RCW is a place where you're going to

(37:32):
find the best selection of beautiful shrubs that were grown
right in this area. A lot of their plants come
from their farm up in Plantersville and right now they
got a great stock of some beautiful holly trees that
have been sheared into a Christmas tree type shape. Now
you know in time they're going to unless you maintain
that sharing, they'll become the normal holly tree shapes that

(37:56):
we form. But what a cool thing you could use
that as a decoration. You put it in a big
container out front or in the backyard on a patio,
put some lights in it, be really cool, and then
put it in the ground. Get it in the ground.
They grow some outstanding varieties. I've visited with David a
number of times about the different types of hollies that

(38:17):
they grow, and their selection is outstanding. Now when you're
there You're also going to find some really cool indoor plants.
By the way, Hollies and other burying plants are both
available there at RCW. They've got some really attractive little
bowls that have various succulents on them, really nice looking.
Make a nice gift for people that would look like
a succulent. Another cool thing is a little metal truck

(38:41):
and the bed of the truck is filled with small
house plants. It's very small. You just have to see
it when you go by there at RCW, rcdew Nurseries
dot com, Tumball Parkway and Beltway eight. Let's go out
to Richmond now and we're going to visit with Karen
this morning. Hey, Karen, welcome to garden Line.

Speaker 8 (39:01):
Good morning, Skip. I'm calling this morning about my broccoli crop.

Speaker 5 (39:08):
I have raised beds.

Speaker 8 (39:12):
About four feet wide, probably ten feet long, and I
have twelve nice broccoli plants in there, and they're beginning
to make fruit. Out of the twelve, I have three
that are beginning to turn yellow in the center. The
outer leaves remain that beautiful bluey green color, but right

(39:37):
in the center where the fruit is beginning to form,
is yellowish and it's scattered in with the normal looking plants,
So I'm not sure what's happening there.

Speaker 4 (39:56):
Huh, Well, it could be a nutrient the fishing. See,
that's possibility. I would expect since they're all in the
same general area that that is not the case, because
you would expect the soul to be somewhat uniform, you
know what I'm saying.

Speaker 8 (40:15):
So yes, every every year before a plant replenished with
compost and new soil mixed and stuff like that, so
it starts.

Speaker 6 (40:27):
The year with new soul.

Speaker 4 (40:32):
Yeah. Sometimes sometimes as broccoli gets a little older than
I think yours is, there's a natural process where the
chlorophyll just begins to break down a little bit, uh
and uh. And that typically we see that when the
temperatures really warm up a lot. I would just watch
your soil moisture if it stays soggy wet, that affects

(40:57):
roots and which affects nutrient uptakes. And some nutrients are
are immobile, meaning the plant can't move them around. So
you see the deficiency and the new growth. You know,
the old growth was saying, but now the rootster sagi
and having trouble. A new growth is coming, but it's
not getting the nutrients it needs, So that's a possibility.

(41:17):
Watch try to keep as even as you can. You
might try a complete fertilizer on them, one that has
all the nutrients and micros and things like that. That
would be an option to consider. Other than that, I
don't know a cause for what you're describing. Okay, okay,

(41:39):
all right, yeah, that's would just send me a picture.
Would you like to send me a picture of it?

Speaker 8 (41:47):
I can. I can get out this morning and when
the sun gets a little brighter and get a photo.
I mean, it's it's beginning to produce it broccoli. There's
a little golf balls.

Speaker 1 (41:59):
As but it's yellow.

Speaker 16 (42:01):
Also.

Speaker 4 (42:02):
It's just I've had a weird I've had a little
bit of that. I've had that happen before. But it tends.
Mine has tended to fix itself just as it grew.
But I'm gonna I'm gonna second here, put you on hold,
and my producer will give you an email to send
the picture. To tell me how tall these plants are
from the ground to the top of the plant.

Speaker 8 (42:23):
Oh my goodness. Well they're in a raised bed planter,
so that gets a muslovitch is off the ground. Ground
the plant itself from the soul to the top is
probably almost three feet. I mean, they've been doing right,

(42:44):
and the color is good and they're beginning to produce,
and so yeah, just kind of weird.

Speaker 4 (42:50):
Let me let me see some pictures. Let me see
some pictures, and I may have another idea on that
after I see them. But thank you for your call, Carolina.
I do appreciate that for sure. RCW Nurseries open nineteen
seventy nine by the Williamson Foamily. I was just telling
you about them before, and you really you need to
go by there and see the quality of plants they have.

(43:12):
You know, fall is the best time to plant, by
the way, I didn't mention this while ago, but now
would be a time to get those things in the
ground so that next year you have beautiful shrubs that
have berries on them that you could bring indoors and
use for some decorating. What a cool idea up in
the Tambal area to the west on twenty nine to

(43:33):
twenty is D and D Feed and supply. You've heard
me talk about D and D for years here on
Garden Line. D and D feed carries all of the
products that I talk about when it comes to fertilizing
your lawn. You know lines like a nitrofoss Microlife, Nelson,
turf Star Medina, the Nelson plant food jars and so on.

(43:54):
They're all there. And they also carry some occasional vegetables
and plants out that you can stop in and pick
up for your garden as you're getting them planted and things.
U D and de Feed is three miles west of
two forty nine on twenty nine to twenty here's a
phone number two eight one three five one seventy one
forty four. And if you're trying to deal with any

(44:15):
kinds of pest, weeds or diseases, they have an excellent
selection of things that many things that are just not
generally available out there in the market, but they carry them.
Let's go now too, I gotta take a little break,
Ken and Tumble. You're going to be first right when
we come back from this break. All right, welcome back
to guard Line, polks. It is planting season. Before you

(44:43):
PLoP that or plant into an unprepared plot, make sure
the soil is right and I'll tell you how to
do that. Head out to Nature's Way or give them
a call and have them deliver, go get it. You
can have them deliver. They have bulk, they have bags,
by the way. You can find their bags a number
of places around town too. And work that soil. If
you're going to plant a rose or other blooming plants

(45:05):
and shrubs like that, get their rose soil. It's super
uh leaf more compost for top dressing the lawn. Leaf
more compost for mixing in the soil. Excellent product from
Nature's Way. They also have a fungal based product that's
very good. Works on things if you're going to plant
a uh, let's say, a citrus tree or something. They

(45:25):
have blends for things like that as well. And they
also have one for acid loving plants like blueberries and
camellias and azaleas. And I would use it for Holly's too,
by the way. It's an excellent, excellent product. Nature's Way
Resources dot Com. They are on Interstate forty five north
almost up to Conro right where fourteen eighty eight comes in.

(45:46):
Instead of turning left to go to Magnolia, you turn
right and you head across the railroad tracks to Sherbrook Circle.
Their Nature's Way Resources Excellent products been around a very
very long time. And when they take when they make stuff,
they take the time to do it right. Let's set
out now and visit with ken in Tomball. What's the garden.

Speaker 13 (46:08):
Line a cushion for you?

Speaker 17 (46:13):
On my creep myrtles, I've guess some they're like a ball,
spiky ball that's growing on the limbs. And Okay, I
was wondering if there's an easy way to get rid
of these.

Speaker 4 (46:30):
The easy that's something called ball moss uh and uh.
It's a bromeliad like pineapples, the same group of plant
family as pineapples.

Speaker 9 (46:39):
Uh.

Speaker 4 (46:40):
The you can take a glove on hand and just
rub them off the branches if you can reach them.
If they're too high for that, then it's it's kind
of impractical to try to physically remove them unless you
get a ladder into it. But basically, it is a
plant that's living on another plant, but not drawing anything

(47:00):
from the plant. It's not a parasite like like thistletoes.

Speaker 15 (47:06):
Okay.

Speaker 4 (47:07):
The only way it hurts it is when you get
so much ball moss that sunlight shining down gets blocked
and lower parts of the crape myrtle can't get sun
because crape slump full sun. That would be a way
it could hurt it. But it's just part of the
deal out there.

Speaker 17 (47:22):
Now.

Speaker 4 (47:22):
There there is if you if you're in the spring
before before the new buds come out on the crpe myrtle,
like late winter, if you spread it with a copper
based product, copper base. There's a number of fungicides, bacteria
sides that are basically copper. If you spread with copper
during that spring season, it will it will kill the

(47:46):
ball moss. But I'll tell you dead ball moss looks
like living baal moss and so because they're both gray
and shrively looking. So you just have to wait then
for that ball mass to literally rot and fall out
of the tree. You know where it's attached to the
tree that the organic that matter just decomposes away and
it falls off. So that's a slow fix. But copper

(48:09):
will kill it. But don't spray copper when you're pregnantal
is sending out new buds. It's too much if it's
pushing new growth.

Speaker 17 (48:18):
Okay, is there a way to prevent it? Like after
you take them all off, is there a way to
prevent it from coming back?

Speaker 4 (48:26):
Now, there's not, there's not a way. It just it's
in nature, and it happens that they float on the
air like little dandelion seeds floating through the air, and
they land in a crevice, and that's where they sprout
and do their thing. Okay, so new ones, new ones

(48:47):
will go around just like the old ones came in.

Speaker 17 (48:49):
All right, Okay, thank you, all.

Speaker 4 (48:52):
Right, Ken, thanks a lot ball moss, Ball moss and
Spanish moss or two the common members of that Bromilian
family that we have grown wild here. And you know,
throughout the South you get these giant oak trees with
the long strands of Spanish moss hanging down. It just
creates a really unique effect. You know. I always think

(49:15):
of a some house down in losing in underneath the
giant live oaks or something when I think of Spanish moss.
But we have it here and ballmas too. As as
you go to central Texas, ball moss gets even more common,
and then even we have it over here. But there's
some parts I've been down. I was in Braiswood driving

(49:35):
through Braiswood area a while back, and I was surprised
at just how much ball moss I was seeing on
some of the things. But that's it. That's what we do.
It's floating along and not much else to do about it.
Have you been to Chanted Forest in Jenner Forest Garden
Center is down there in the Richmond Rosenberg area if

(49:57):
you were in that area. Let's say you're and you're
going to head up to sugar Land. It's off to
the right down south south of the Brass River, south
of fifty nine on FM twenty seven fifty nine and
Chenney Forest. I love going there. They right now. You've
got a good selection of bulbs. It's just really awesome.
And their gift shop is really beautiful. You need to

(50:21):
go check out all the things that they have. I
mentioned missiletoe if you if you are looking for some
missiletoe and you don't have any on your trees, you
can reach just swing by in Channey Forest. They've got
some little bundles tied up with a nice red ribbon
and uh, you know, take it, hang it over a
doorway and best of luck. They also have a nice

(50:43):
selection of containers and plant watering containers. It's just a
it's a great place. Of course when you're there. Always
in Channet Forest, you're gonna find vegetable transplants. You're gonna
find herb transplants. You're gonna find blooms and colors and baskets.
Keep telling, trying to talk you into plant and this
is the season to get woody ornamentals, woody shrubs and
trees and vines in the ground. And they've got a

(51:05):
nice selection at Enchanted Forest in Chenny Forest FM twenty
seven fifty nine, Richmond, Texas two eight one ninety three,
seven ninety four forty nine, or go to their website.
Get your pen ready, please listen to the garden Line
with a pen and paper. Enchanted Forest, Richmond, TX dot com.

(51:28):
We're going to heading out to Catspring and talk to Ed. Hello, Ed,
Welcome to garden Line.

Speaker 11 (51:33):
Well, yep, it's been a pleasure listening to you all
these years so far. I have a quick question and
I went to a meeting last night about it that
is hitting out here and hitting the other counties across Texas.
The pastor meeting bug and they say it it's a kill,
it's a zone, it's a killing the turf. Also, Saint

(51:54):
Augustine permuda grass lots. Have you heard about it? And
I but I understand there's nothing labeled for it yet, uh,
to combat it. But I can see it in pastures
out here I wasn't even aware of. And I can
see it in lawns too across this area out here
in Austin County.

Speaker 4 (52:11):
Yeah. Yeah, we've had a problem with it appearing. And
it's a new thing. It's new to me. I don't
know that it's not been here at all, but I
know it's new to me.

Speaker 9 (52:21):
Uh.

Speaker 4 (52:22):
And mealy bugs they get on whatever plant they're on.
They get on the plants and they suck the juices
out of the plant. And as they do that, you know,
they cause the decline on the plant. And the pasture
mealy bug is a meeibug and that is the effect
that has Now. I don't know. I'm going to have
to look into that because I just just recently that

(52:44):
I got some information from Texas A and M research
on the pasture mealy bug, and I glanced over it
and didn't read it thoroughly. But I suspect that a
systemic would work on your lawns to control it, and
that we have systemics that are put on lowns for
grub control. But I need to before I tell you

(53:07):
go do that, before you waste your time and money.
Let me check into it. Maybe I'll even go back
and look at that thing carefully during the break this morning,
and if I find anything, I'll mention it on the air.

Speaker 18 (53:18):
But that we.

Speaker 9 (53:21):
Do.

Speaker 4 (53:24):
I was gonna say. The other thing you need to
do is talk to your county extension office out there?

Speaker 6 (53:29):
Are you in?

Speaker 18 (53:31):
What?

Speaker 4 (53:32):
What county are you in? Right there? And catch protes
out there.

Speaker 11 (53:35):
I'm in Austin County. But but but to be honest
with you, trying to get information out of those people
up there in Baillville is like pulling teeth, the non
responsive and everything. And I feel better talk to you.
I learn more talk to you on Saturday and Thursday
morning than anything.

Speaker 4 (53:54):
Okay, well, I appreciate that. Let me uh, let's do this.
I'm gonna put you on hold and I want you
to give I want you to get my email from
my producer and I will send you whatever I can find.
And if I find anything before the show's over today,
I will talk about it because I don't want to see.

Speaker 11 (54:16):
Okay, I'll be sitting here listening. But I've also heard
about some friends of mine that had some turf forms
that they're experiencing down there in Wharton County the same
thing on their turf forms now too.

Speaker 4 (54:27):
Yeah, yeah, that's right, that's right. Well I'm gonna I've
got a friend, don a Milberger turf art, and I'm
gonna reach out to him too. He would he would
know for sure. But anyway, thanks for the call, Ed,
don't go away. Get this email and send. I'll give
him my uh, he will give you my email and send.

(54:49):
Just send me an email asking about this, reminding me
of we talk. That's how we need to do it.

Speaker 6 (54:53):
Thank you.

Speaker 11 (54:53):
You're you're a gentleman and a scholar.

Speaker 4 (54:59):
By all right, there we are. Let's see here, always
something new, you know, I hate that when new problems appear,
because I don't know, we got enough as it is.
But every time you turn around, you know, there was
Citrus Greening and Citrus Canker showed up not too long ago.

(55:19):
I remember when fiance first came in. Well actually I
don't remember when they first came in, but after they've
been in for a while, they were in a new
pest spreading across the south. There we go, all right, folks. Anyway,
Ace hardware stores are the place to go for everything.
You need right now for this season. You will find
gifts there that are unique and that people on your

(55:42):
list will love. Whether it's a do it yourself or
needing some quality hand battery operated power tools, whether it's
a weekend warrior that gets out with the barbecue pit
and has a good time. There's all kinds of accessories.
I bet they don't have that they need and you
can get them at Ace Hardware. There's Ace Hardware's Kirkandall
in the Woodlands. That's Allspas, ACE All seasons in Willis

(56:04):
on I thirty five North Chambers, ACE on Broadway in Galveston,
Langham Creek ACE on five twenty nine, and Cyprus Hardware
City on Memorial Drive in Houston. These are just a
few of the mini ACE that you find at Ace
Hardware Texas dot com. Acehardware Texas dot Com. Swing by
your local one and you will be surprised at what's there?

(56:27):
Time for a break. When I unmute my mic, I'm
sitting here talking to you. No, that's western. You just
can't hear the welcome welcome back. I am working on
that question that came in from Ed and Kat Springs
on the on the pasture merely bug, and looking a

(56:49):
little bit closer at it, there's a huge section of
the middle Upper Gulf coast here that has been affected
by it. The pasture mealy bug is what they're what
they're referring to on it. It's a little white, fluffy,
waxy insect like meee bugs are the immature stages the

(57:10):
nymphs or what's feeding on the on the turf itself
or on pasture grass rather itself and creating quite a
bit of a problem for it. So bottom line is
it's it's here in our area, and it does occur
on turf.

Speaker 3 (57:28):
Uh.

Speaker 4 (57:29):
They're entomologists of text and m or looking into that. Uh,
they're depending on where you find it, there is some
one that you can reach out to and let them
know you got it in your area. When I was
looking at the map of where it has been found
so far, at least as of this publication, down to
the very tip of Texas bottom three counties at the

(57:49):
tip of Texas, and then once you head up the coast,
the middle section, Like if you were to look at
a map texts and you were to say, well, there's
the the upper third, the middle third, and lower third
kind of of Texas. It's kind of in that middle third,
but it goes all the way up through Brass County
and what's the county just north. I can't even say
the name of it. Anyway, it's in Austin County. It's

(58:12):
been found there already, so that's not news. Austin, Brazoria, Brasis,
Burlas and Calhoun, Cameron, Colorado, DeWitt, Fayette, Fort, Ben, Galveston,
Golie At, Hidalgo, Jackson, Lavaca, Mata, Gorda, Refurio, Robertson, Victoria, Washington, Wharton,
and Willisey. Those that's a lot of counties. It's this
whole section here. If you want more information, you can

(58:34):
go online into a search. If you will, search for
a pasture Meaebug in Texas, A and M. I guess
that those two should put it together. You'll get a
publication that goes into it. On what we're looking at.
They think it's been around for a number of years,
since about twenty two here. It's been around longer than

(58:56):
that in other places, but here it is our new
past that we're having to deal with right now. So
pastor meallybug something to deal with. Also, uh and as
far as controls for it, I'm looking to go into
that a little bit further. I don't I don't see
it in this little news release, but I'll find something.

(59:16):
I'll let you know. And when we know breaking news
here on garden Line, we need that little T d
D news story coming in.

Speaker 9 (59:26):
Uh.

Speaker 4 (59:27):
Our phone number if you'd like to give me a
call seven one three two one two five eight seven
four seven one three two one two fifty eight seventy four.
I was looking at a picture of it on Saint
Augustine grass and basically what it's doing is it's sucking
the juices out of the grass. That's what the nymphs

(59:47):
are doing on there, and so you just kind of
see a slow decline, it's a shriveling. It's it's almost
like it needs a little bit of watering, you know,
kind of yellowing a little bit red reddish color sometimes
on there, and you just see the grass kind of
wither away. Something to have to deal with. All right, Well,

(01:00:08):
let's move on to some other topics. It is a
perfect time of the year, perfect time of the year
to be planning herbs outside and an inside too. By
the way, if you want to put some near a
very bright window. Herbs need a lot of sunlight to
do well, and most of our windows don't quite cut it.
But you may have a nice kitchen window with enough

(01:00:29):
light to keep them going. Herbs are mostly perennial. The
ones we think of is are seasoning herbs mostly perennials.
Basils an exception to that. Basil hates cold anyway, and
for basil, forty something degrees is cold. You know, it
could be forty eight degrees and Basil's very unhappy with that.
But time and rosemary and oregano and lemon balm and

(01:00:55):
what else am I the chives. There's just a lot
of herbs out there that we can grow, and now
is a perfect time to plant them. So take advantage
of this. You could either go out and make the
full fledged formal herb garden, you know, with the geometric
shapes and things. Most people don't do that, but you can.
Or you can put them in your vegetable gardens. You

(01:01:16):
can put them in your flower beds. I use herbs
as ornamentals or reguano is an ice ground carpet. You
keep it sheered down a little bit. You can also
plant them in containers they do very well in containers.
But go ahead and get some. Our garden centers have
got a good selection of herbs still, and get out
there and bring them home. Next time you're doing holiday cooking,

(01:01:36):
you just go out the garden and snip a few.
We were out in our herbs the other day stripping
off some leaves for some things that we were making inside.
Kind of nice to do. I'm always tell when some
of my daughters have been to the house because at
the end I go out and look at my basil
has been inundated, and that's where that pesto came from

(01:01:58):
that they were making inside. Let's he out now to
North Houston and we're going to visit with Robert this morning.
Hey Robert, welcome to garden line.

Speaker 6 (01:02:08):
Good on, skip, Hey skip mine. My grandfather's old German
farmer from Yokom, Texas. And he told me that when
he needed to be out of the field work and
he'd watch those towns and he said that Spanish moss
will never grow over within a cow could reach. He said,
the cows love to eat take the Spanish moss. So,
going with that, I was raising goats. Yeah, so I

(01:02:30):
was on the sands Center river, and there's a bunch
of Spanish moss. And I took a garden wreck and
got a whole pickup truck, brought it and gave it
to an old neighbor, and he said, that Spanish monster.
Those goats man, they went crazy over that goat over
that Spanish moss. So I just wanted to see research
is done there being, research are done growing in Spanish

(01:02:51):
moss for livestock food.

Speaker 4 (01:02:54):
I've never I've never heard that, and I don't know
what the I don't know what the nutrient content is
of it. Uh, maybe a good Google search on on
uh Spanish moss or you said Spanish though not bal mass, right,
your everything you were saying was about Spanish moss.

Speaker 6 (01:03:10):
Yes, their Spanish moss. It was hanging from the trees,
and I got a guard and pulled it down, give
it to my neighbor, and he to those goats man,
they ate that stuff up. But yeah, I don't I
don't know.

Speaker 4 (01:03:22):
You don't know any research. I mean you could. It
grows very slow, and it would it would be it
would be hard to get enough to matter much. Uh,
And I don't know what the nutrient content of it is.
But that's interesting story. I heard that one.

Speaker 6 (01:03:38):
All right, so I heard your old story. My grandfather
was eighties passed away, so long time ago.

Speaker 4 (01:03:49):
Yep, I know that area done by Yoakam So all right, sir, well, hey,
thanks for the call and the information. I appreciate that. Robert,
all right, you take care.

Speaker 6 (01:03:59):
Okay, that is it?

Speaker 4 (01:04:01):
That is interesting. You know there's not a lot of
goat won't eat. It's in fact, do you know that
deer well, gosh, this is a I'll tie it into gardening.
A deer and goats.

Speaker 9 (01:04:13):
Uh.

Speaker 4 (01:04:13):
They prefer to eat leaves. That's called browsing. Uh and uh.
So you you know, you show a deer or a
goat a bunch of grass and a bunch of shrubs
and brush, and they'd rather get in there and eat
the brush than the grass. We used to raise goats,
and I was a little bit younger anyway, But they do.
They do like the brows on there. So I guess

(01:04:34):
I guess it shouldn't be a surprise that they would
chump on a little bit of Spanish moss. Well let's
do this. Let's take a little break and we'll be
back here in just a second. With your calls at
seven one three fifty eight seventy four. I got another
version of that. We may play a little bit later today,
not tomorrow. We're drug it back to the guardline. Glad

(01:04:55):
to have you with us, appreciate you tuning in. I'm
still continue doing this search of information on pasture media
bugs and a bottom lines. This is pretty new and
what we're learning is from other areas like Australia, where
it has been in the past. They've had to deal
with it for a while over there. So far, what
I've learned is don't be out there spraying synthetic peritheroid insecticides.

(01:05:20):
A lot of our insecticides that are used on lawns
or synthetic parrethroids, and it seems that they kill. Of course,
they kill everything you kill a good bugs and bad
bugs because you know there are gener they don't know
the difference, so they can't see that the good bugs
are wearing white hats and the bad bugs are wearing
black hats like an old Western movie. But seriously, though,

(01:05:42):
by doing that, they have things that control them, things
that help manage them. They are not thoroughly doing their
job right now, but you can make it worse by
spraying and killing other things. I'm still searching about trying
to find out if a systemic might work on that,
but we shall see. Bottom line is they have been

(01:06:02):
found on Bermuda grass and on Saint Augustine grass. They
probably attack other grasses. We just haven't been dealing with
them enough to have reports of that on any other
of our turf species. They do attack a lot of
pasture grasses, but our turf species. So there you go.
That's the update. Plants for all seasons. Awesome Garden Center.

(01:06:25):
You know, it's been around since the nineteen seventies. These
folks are experts and when you go there, you're going
to get the kind of advice that you need to
have success. They're going to carry plants and recommend to
you plants that will be adapted to this area. They're
not going to say enough that then't grow here. They

(01:06:47):
also are going to have the products that do best here,
including things like a little sprayer to put them in.
They got you covered on that as well. So if
you want to put a little liquid sea we eat
on your plants. A lot of times that's done in
preparation as we come into some cold weather they do
carry that as well, and the advice that you need

(01:07:10):
if you're looking for a little miniature Christmas trees. By
the way, they have got the cutest little things made
of rosemary, a little shaped into a little tiny, say
tiny compared to a regular tree Christmas tree form. They
also have lavender, that beautiful silvery gray color shaped into
that make a nice plant to put out there on
the table decorating, but also one then later you just

(01:07:33):
take it outside and planet at your yard. For the lavender,
give it as good a drainage as you can, absolutely
good drainage and absolutely full sun for both of those
for them to do their best. Anyway, Plants for all
seasons dot com. That's the website two eight one, three,
seven six, sixteen forty six. I was out in the

(01:07:56):
yard kind of looking at some areas where they were
a little low and little wet, and I could see
the large patch, which is officially it's now large patch.
It used to be called brown patch, and most people
still using them named brown patch. But I saw it
in the yellowing. I could just see it, what nice
distinct circles, but I could tell it was a Rzoctnia

(01:08:17):
fungus infection there and just looking at it and seeing
how it's doing. I'm playing around, trying some different things
on it and seeing how it's going. Right now, with
the weather cooling awful lot, it's not as active as
it is in the spring and especially in the fall,
But you may have some of this in your yard.
Just remember next year as we go into fall, go

(01:08:39):
easy on that nitrogen fertilizer in the fall. Go easy
on the watering too. You can't control the rain, but
if you're making it worse by water in two times
a week in the fall, when we don't need that
much water anyway, you're going to see a lot more
of it. Mowing your lown a little higher going into
the fall, are actually keeping your lawn at a good

(01:09:00):
height like it was all year For the turf species
you're growing, that really helps. Also, when we take Saint
Augustine and we mow it too short, it just seems
to make things worse. High nitrogen, lots of water, free
low mowing. Those are all things that exacerbate that problem
of brown patch and the lawn. The good news about

(01:09:23):
it is that the lawn typically is not killed by it.
You may get a little more weeds in that area
because the disease rots the leaves off of the runners,
allowing sunlight to reach the soil. But the leaves will
come back, the runners stay alive and it'll regrain for you.
So it's not like take a root rot where it

(01:09:43):
literally takes all That is a more serious situation. The
nitrop Fertilizer, I've talked about them before. They've got a
number of really good, excellent products that are out there,
and I just want to remind you that they also
I usually talk about their turf products and stuff, and
just remember they do have products by the jar that

(01:10:05):
are available in a lot of different garden centers and
feed stores and other places for you to be watching for.
But you'll see them around the area pretty pretty commonly
here in the Greater Houston area, and the product's work.
And I say that because I've used them to know
that they do. You are listening to Garden Line. I'm

(01:10:25):
your host, Skip Richter, and we're here to help you
have success in your garden. That's the bottom line is
how do we help you have success in your garden?
So what I what I would like to suggest to
you is stay tuned. We're going to take a break
here in a little bit for the top of the
hour news. But I got a number of things that
I want to talk about today, garden tips for this

(01:10:47):
time of the year, things to be watching out for,
and certainly we welcome your calls at seven one three two,
one two five eight seven four seven one three two
one two fifty eight seventy four. Just another reminder if
you've bought holiday plants. Maybe it is a topiary type
of rosemary, maybe it is a point setu, maybe it

(01:11:10):
is a holiday cactus. There's a number of plants. Some
people even bring the cyclomen in for decorating. Keep them
moist but not soggy wet, allow them to dry out
a bit, and then give them a good watering, and
then don't water them again. Allow them to dry out
a little bit so that they will do their best.
Holiday cactus is one where if it's got a bunch

(01:11:30):
of buds on it and you let it go dry
or make a dramatic change in the light levels and stuff,
I've just seen, they're very prone to dropping those buds.
So keeping them adequately moist, not soggy, adequately moist, giving
them as much light as you can especially during the day.
That's real hopeful for them. They don't want to be
in full sun, but they do want some light in

(01:11:51):
order to continue on. So we'll avoid those heat drafts
with your plants. Anything that just kind of throws things
off for them can create problems. You provide them with
what they want and they will continue to be beautiful
and you will enjoy them for a very, very long time.
We were doing some deck rating earlier and I was

(01:12:13):
out in the yard, and believe it or not, I
have not kept my mulch up like I should. And
I saw some areas where it's a whole bunch of
weeds coming right up in a flower bed. It's like,
what's going on there? And I walked over and looked,
and it was bare dirt, and I don't know. We
had a gully washer rain that came through and it
washed some of the mulch off the surface, and boy,
the weeds are sitting there sprouting ready for a little

(01:12:36):
bit of sunlight. And you get sunlight and you get
a little water, and your dirt turns into a chia pet.
So you got to you gotta keep that mulch over
the surface. Put about a three or four inch layer
of mulch over your beds and save yourself the problem.
I was out there hand pulling a few This wasn't
a big area, so I was just hand pulling a
few weeds in the area. But save yourself the trouble

(01:12:58):
by keeping a good thick moul on the surface. That's
what nature does. Nature drops leaves on the forest floor,
Nature drops grass leaves in the meadows and things or
has a grass grows so dense sunlight can't hit the soil. Uh,
save yourslf the trouble of waiting. All right, Time for
me to take a little break. I'll give me some

(01:13:19):
coffee here and I'll be right back with you in
just a bit.

Speaker 1 (01:13:43):
Welcome to kat r h Garden Line with scamp rickards.

Speaker 3 (01:13:56):
Just watch him as they do things to see not
a sign the sun beamon.

Speaker 4 (01:14:26):
Starting out of the tree. Hey, welcome back to the
garden line. Folks. Good to have you with us this morning.
Thanks for listening to the guard line. We appreciate that
we've got plenty of things to talk about this morning. Hey,
have you been out to in Chinned Gardens recently? This place,

(01:14:49):
it's one of my favorite garden centers to go to.
There's always something going on there. There's always just new
plants coming in, beautiful new decorations. If you're looking to
learn how how to make a quality container planter, whether
it's a hanging basket or whether you know it is
just a standard container sitting on your patio, you can
get some real inspiration out there. They have an outstanding

(01:15:13):
selection of things. And now, of course they've got all
the plants for the holidays, you know, points, set is
and you name it. They've got all of that, the
Christmas trees and garlands and reefs and everything. But they
also have plants for the vegetable garden right now and herbs.
I've been trying to talk you into plant in some
herbs this fall season, and now's a good time to
plant herbs. They thrive with that fall planting, that headstart.

(01:15:36):
And you're going to find that at Enchanted Gardens out
in Richmond. Here's the website Enchanted Gardens Richmond dot com
and runs it's nineteen ninety five. When you go, you're
going to be greeted with an by an enthusiastic team
of folks who know what they're talking about, and they
will guide you into what you need, and if you
need any of the fertilizers I talk about on garden Line,

(01:15:57):
like microlife, nitrofoss now, some plant food bedna. If you
need soils from either Nature's Way or heirloom soils, they've
got that by the bag, setting you up for success,
preparing the soil, selling you good plants that belong here,
healthy plants, and giving you the advice to have success.

(01:16:17):
That's the whole deal right there in Chenny Gardens in
Chenne Gardens, Richmond dot com. Well, this morning, I have
asked Rich from Nature's Way, Rich from wild Birds Unlimited
to give us a call because I wanted to kind
of pick his brain about some wild Birds Unlimited type items. Hey, Rich,

(01:16:38):
are you there?

Speaker 16 (01:16:41):
Good morning, Skip, How are you.

Speaker 9 (01:16:44):
Good?

Speaker 4 (01:16:45):
Good? Thank you for taking some time out to come on.
I have been I've had a bunch of bird questions
myself about things going on right now. But I know
you're an expert when it comes to that, and I
think our listeners would benefit from hearing a little about that.
What would you say or the more important things that
they should be doing out there in their yard right

(01:17:06):
now in terms of bringing the birds in and taking
care of the birds.

Speaker 16 (01:17:12):
Well, we're definitely in the in the some of the
shortest excuse me, some of the shortest.

Speaker 4 (01:17:18):
Days of the year.

Speaker 16 (01:17:20):
So we and I've heard you talk about it quite
a bit, the winter super blend. That's a high fat,
high protein food. It's important because birds have to roost
up at night. Gets dark by five o'clock now and
it doesn't get light until seven, so they roost up
for about fourteen hours, so they need that extra fat

(01:17:40):
and protein to get them through the night.

Speaker 4 (01:17:42):
So yeah, yeah, when we get a phrase through here,
they're not gonna be as many bugs flying around everywhere
for them to eat either.

Speaker 16 (01:17:53):
Yeah, no, that's exactly right. So yeah, some of the
colder snaps that we've had, that's certainly salt excuse me.
The feeder activity picked up quite a bit, and of
course we're all anxiously awaiting the arrival of the American goldfinches,
which we're getting some reports of now as well, which
is always a very fun time of year for us.

Speaker 4 (01:18:16):
Now, is that a is there a special feeder that
you guys would recommend for bringing the finches in and
putting the thistle or the kinds of seeds that you
recommend for them.

Speaker 16 (01:18:29):
Yeah, that's correct. So there's there's a special type of feeder.

Speaker 4 (01:18:32):
So the most.

Speaker 16 (01:18:33):
Popular finch food that we sell is called the finch Blend.
It's a fifty percent mix of fine sunflower chips and
niger which people will call thistle that little looks like
a little black rice kind of seed. And the feeder
is unique because it's got a very small opening because
if you pour this particular seed into a typical feeder,

(01:18:55):
it'll just spill out everywhere. And even more importantly, is
yellow in color, which helps attract the helps the birds
locate the feeder and bring them in. So yeah, so
we're we're starting to see them, and you know, we're
stocked up on the feeders and the food right now.

Speaker 4 (01:19:13):
So nice, nice, that's that's great. And now you guys
have a lot of other things. You know, when you
get into the cool weather, I always think about the
little cages with the suet and them, and you even
have suet with some hot pepper oil to kind of
keep the squirrels out of out of it a little bit,
and so many just really seasonal types of things to

(01:19:36):
be putting out there, but also things as good gifts,
I know would you talk a little bit about what
some of you would think the top gift type items
are that you guys have in the wild Birds Unlimited Scores.

Speaker 16 (01:19:49):
Well, we think we're we think we're a great destination
for anybody who's got a nature lover on their gift list, right,
and it can be anything from a small item at
a gift exchange all the way up to getting something
for mom, dad, whatever. But probably one of the most
popular things that people like to buy and give us
a gift is our is our hanging pole system. That's

(01:20:13):
the that's our patented system that comes with two hangars
on it to hang two feeders. It lasts in the
yard a really long time. It's got a ground stabilizer
to keep the system good and straight, so you know,
it's a great way to get somebody started or to
help somebody expand what they're already doing in their backyard.

(01:20:33):
And then to go with that, certainly a squirrel proof
feeder like our eliminator or fundamentals make make a fantastic
gift as well.

Speaker 15 (01:20:42):
Uh.

Speaker 16 (01:20:42):
And then we also have really some cool gifts as well,
cylinder feeders that are preloaded with our Snowman character Penguin
character see characters. So they make a super cute gift
wrapped up, ready to go. So yeah, they're they're very
popular gift as well.

Speaker 4 (01:21:03):
I like your poll system because of how versatile it is.
You know, you can maybe you start off my original one.
I've got like two hooks that come off the top
and a little attractive redbird finial sitting up I think
it's called finial sitting up on top. But I could
come in there and add another one at different heights
and you could end up with one with several different

(01:21:26):
kinds of feeders or whatnot all on it. They're very expandable.
I think that's cool.

Speaker 16 (01:21:33):
Yeah, very much. So, yeah, that's for sure that if
you come in and look at the hardware wall, we
can we can walk you through that. We've got things
called an easy attach item, so either they click together
or you can put a simple easy attach took on
there if you want to hang something temporarily for a season,
like a hummingbird feeder or something like that. And yeah,

(01:21:54):
you talked about the finiel. Those finials they are, they're
really pretty. They go on top of the feeder system.
And we actually have holiday and so we have customers
who have a fenil for every season, right, so they've
got their cardinal and their gold pinch and their Christmas
tree and a pumpkin for Halloween. So yeah, so it
you know, not only functional, but it's something very fun

(01:22:16):
in your backyard.

Speaker 4 (01:22:17):
So that's cool. Well, that eliminator is my absolute favorite feeder.
And if if you've never heard squirrels use foul language,
you need to get an eliminator. Hang it up and
just sit there and watch them try to get into it.
It's all they sound like sailors up there. They don't

(01:22:39):
like that thing, which I mean, some people want to
feed the squirrels. I get that, you know, but I
want to feed the birds, and so they will just
clean out my feeders if I don't have something like that.
You guys have bathrooms, yeah, for sure above the feeder
that give those squirrels trouble. Squirrels are pretty smart and
so it takes a lot to keep them out. But anyway,

(01:23:00):
I love that eliminator. I like the fact that it
can be taken apart. I've taken mine apart several times already.
Just you know, sometimes you get some moisture in there
and the seed gets a little packed in or it
could even get moldy. And this would be a good
time to be cleaning out any of our feeders, wouldn't
it to put some fresh new feet in.

Speaker 16 (01:23:18):
Oh yeah, yeah, definitely fall time. And as I'm sure
people have noticed, and you probably know this as well,
our feet are slowed down in the fall, mostly because
there's been quite a bit of natural food out there
for the birds to forage. Plus all of the young
that we're raised in our yards in the spring have
moved on to other territories. Right so just a pure

(01:23:41):
number of birds around in your backyard are smaller right now.
They're starting to pick back up again, but because we
have our winter visitors coming in. But yeah, it's a
great time to take your feeders down, get them cleaned up,
load the mob. And it's important to do that on
a pretty regular base. To Sinuay. So taking the peter apart,

(01:24:02):
using a simple soapy solution and then uh and then
use a ten to one bleach water to bleach ratio,
just to sanitize them a little bit, put them back,
let them drive, put them back together, refill them and
you're good to gap.

Speaker 4 (01:24:16):
Okay, yeah, and rent all that bleach bleachy water off
real good to just avoid you know, any metal type issues.

Speaker 16 (01:24:27):
Yeah, yeah, for sure.

Speaker 15 (01:24:28):
Yeah.

Speaker 16 (01:24:28):
And it's a pretty light solution if you yeah, if
it's ten to one, it's pretty light.

Speaker 4 (01:24:35):
Okay, Hey, Rich, would you be able to hang around?
I got to go to a break, but could we
come back for just a few minutes after this? You
got time.

Speaker 16 (01:24:45):
Be glad to.

Speaker 4 (01:24:47):
Okay, thank you. We're going to run to a break here.
I'll be right back. Welcome back, Welcome back at garden line, folks.
Good ahead, you with us, get them going into this
school season, especially especially with some cool, cool weather coming
up here. There are two microlife products I'd like you

(01:25:08):
to get and have on hand. One of them is
the green bottle. It's called super Seaweed, and it helps
plants with all kinds of stresses, including dealing with cold tolerance,
any kind of stress like that. Make sure I'd give
it as a folier feed. I would make sure you
get a good coverage all over your plants. You can
even put some on the ground too if you want,

(01:25:29):
because it does help with root systems as well. The
second products the orange label, and that's Biomatrix, and that
is for your plants during the twelve months out of
the year, but as we move indoors with the cold
weather and start taking care of our huset plants, a
little bit more aboost of the biomatrix is helpful. It's
a little more nitrogen in that these are natural products

(01:25:50):
loaded with microbes and effective for plants. The green bottle,
the super seaweed, the orange bottle biomatrix from the folks
at Microlife. We're going to bring Rich back here. Rich
I wanted to talk a little bit about You've got
a couple of feeders that are a couple of items

(01:26:12):
the housing items for birds that I think are cool.
When I was growing up, we made bluebird boxes. I
remember it was almost like a Scout project, you know,
doing those. But you guys have some really cool ones.
And then a lot of people are interested in purple Martins.
And I know we're not going to be really getting
the purple Martins in and in fact, you can tell
us when early spring probably, But you've got a really

(01:26:36):
cool system that is so easy to bring down and
take care of and clean out. Will you just real
briefly hit on those two, Yeah, for sure.

Speaker 16 (01:26:45):
So these are great gift items. As well, So bluebird
boxes any kind of a nest box really, So we've
got a wide variety bart out boxes, screech out boxes,
and bluebird boxes. And people might think, gosh, it's a
little early to be thinking about nesting, but actually eastern
bluebirds because we've got a lot of them in our area.

(01:27:06):
They're all over, but they're starting to scout out houses
right now. So the mail goes around and looks suitable
sites and they're starting to do it now. The bluebirds
are going in and out of my boxes in the
backyard right now. They're not nesting, but they're just checking
out locations because they will start settling in on a

(01:27:27):
site in late January, So having a box up and
ready to go in January is really important. And in
Purple Martin systems, yeah, for sure, they're one of my
favorite birds. Great gift as well. My first birds will
show up at the end of January, so having those
systems up and ready to go by the middle of
January is critical. Yeah, it's very critical to have them

(01:27:49):
ready to go. And the Martins will start showing up
late January and they're nesting by March.

Speaker 4 (01:27:57):
Well, and you have you have several options. I know
there's the ords like the old time Gorge, but they're
plastic gorge, well white gorge with the holes in them
for for nesting. But you also have that really cool
purple Martin house. And someone I can't remember as you
or someone else at the wild Birds was showing me
how they it comes apart inside for proper cleaning and everything.

(01:28:17):
It makes it and it comes down off the tall
pole that it's on really handied.

Speaker 16 (01:28:24):
Yeah, we've got We've got a couple of different styles
that hit a couple of different price points, but by
far one of the most popular that we that we install,
and we're actually installing one in a couple of weeks
is the Trendsetter. It's on a on a square aluminum pole,
goes up and down with the crank. It's a it's
a beautiful house, will last for years and years and years.

Speaker 6 (01:28:45):
Uh.

Speaker 16 (01:28:46):
And they're designed specifically for the Martins. They're they're a
great house. So yeah, it makes it makes a great
Christmas gift if somebody's wanting to get into that and.

Speaker 4 (01:28:54):
Say, what a great idea. Yeah, we got a delace.
I'm always talking over people, Sorry about that, but yeah,
it's super super gift there. Well, just as we close down,
can you talk a little bit about the birds that
we would be looking for coming in the coming weeks
and months here? What what what kind of birds should Yeah?

Speaker 16 (01:29:16):
So yeah, yeah, So, as I said earlier, everybody's always
excited for the American goldfinches to show up, which they're
starting to do that. But we also have orange crowned
warblers here in the wintertime, yellow rump warblers, ruby crown kinglets.
Those are three of some of the more common birds

(01:29:37):
that we will have here. And then along with the
pine warblers and all of those birds that I spoke about,
they're all big suet eaters. You touched on the sew
it earlier, so bark butter bits, regular sewet sewet cylinders,
and they'll also see it as well, So keep an
eye out for those. The orange crowned warblers. Everybody calls
them the little green bird, so they're but they're around.

(01:30:00):
I've got some in my backyard right now, so very
very common, and they're fun to watch this winter.

Speaker 4 (01:30:05):
So I'm pretty sure I could go anywhere in the
country and talk to a bird and say, hey, have
you ever been to richest place and they say, yeah,
we hang out there all the time. That's where we vacation.
Thanks so much. Thank yeah that they are too fat
to fly off the field. Well, seriously, I appreciate you

(01:30:29):
coming onbye listening. You hear me say this all the time.
But you can find your local Wildbird store at Wildbird's
Unlimited store at WBU dot com, forward slash Houston, Wildbird's
Unlimited w b U dot com forward slash Houston. They're
six stores all over the area. Find the one near you. Rich,

(01:30:49):
Thanks so much for taking time out. I appreciate that.

Speaker 6 (01:30:54):
Thanks Gi.

Speaker 4 (01:30:56):
All right, you take care all right, folks. Well listen,
birds are such a good hobby and you got people
on your list. I know you've got people on your
list that would love an introduction into that hobby. And
they had lots of beautiful things, including books. If you've
got a birder in your list, it would like a book.
The guy who started wild Birds Onlimit had wrote a

(01:31:17):
really nice book on birding, and I think that would
be a nice option as well. For those of you
done in the League City area. League City Feed is
that old time feed store. I just love you. Know
I've said this before, but I grew up, Dad and
I went to feed stores all the time to get
feed for the cattle and things. And I love that

(01:31:39):
smell of a feed store. It's just a I don't
know if musty is the right word for it, but
it's just a I love the smell of feed anyway.
League City Feed is that kind of place. Third generation
Thunderberg's running the store now. It's on Highway three, just
a few blocks south the Highway ninety six in League City.
Just if you walk south, you're going to find their
products that I talk about, like nitrofoss and azamite in

(01:32:01):
microlife and heirloom soils. They have several of room soil
products by the bag and Nelson plant food too, as
well as things to control pest, weeds and diseases. League
City Feed Monday through Saturday nine to six, closed on Sunday.
If you want to get them a call to eight
one three three two sixteen twelve two eight one three
three two sixteen twelve. The arbor Gate, Oh my goodness,

(01:32:26):
the arbor Gate is loaded for bear and ready to go.
From your fraser furs to the beautiful wreaths and all
kinds of decorative things for your holiday season, bring your
family out there, enjoy yourself. You haven't picked out a
Christmas tree yet, go get one now, absolutely one now
from the folks out at the arbor Gate. You know

(01:32:46):
they have fruit trees year round, year round fruit trees
out at the arbor Gate. You can if you want citrus,
if you want peaches and plums and pears, they have
a really, really nice selection. And I would suggest you
get out there soon. The last time I was out
there visiting Beverly and Kennon and the team out there, beautiful,

(01:33:09):
beautiful selection of house plants as well indoors. So there's
yet another reason to get out there and enjoy it.
Things like African violence. Have you ever grown African violence?
They're not hard to grow at all. You should do that.
But main thing is make sure you go in those
gift shops. Absolutely gorgeous gift items inside the gift shops
there at the arbor Gate. If you haven't been there bore, well,

(01:33:33):
you must have been hiding under a rock, because everybody
in their dog knows where the arbor Gate is been
around for a good while. One and a half miles
west of two forty nine on twenty nine to twenty
in Tomball. Remember Trischel Road is a loop that goes
around behind arbor Gate, so you can access that safe
back all weather parking lot in the back. We'll be

(01:33:53):
right back.

Speaker 15 (01:33:55):
The window.

Speaker 4 (01:33:58):
There you go, burning stop here. Welcome back to Guardenline. Boy,
it's great talking to Rich from wild Birds Unlimited. That's
a lot of good information.

Speaker 15 (01:34:10):
I know.

Speaker 4 (01:34:11):
If you enjoyed it half as much as I did,
you had a really good time. Hey. The ideas for
gardening gifts that are there are just outstanding, so you
need to get buying. Check out your local Wildbird Unlimited
store for sure. Folks at Medina have got a product
that I really like to use for transplant purposes. Now

(01:34:34):
you can use it, you know, as a foldier feed.
You can use it during the year. There's a lot
of uses for it, but especially for transplanting. It has
to grow six twelve six plant food. And the reason
I say this about transplanting is at twelve the middle number,
the high phosphorus very important in root development. So here's
what I would suggest. If you've got a star plant,

(01:34:57):
just mix you up some has to grow six twelve six.
You can even have put it in a little bowl
and set the plant in it and let it soak
up in the root system and then plant it or
put it in the hole, pour the pour the mix
over it. The six twelve six. I use a watering can,
fill it up, fill up the whole with soil, plant
it well, and then drench it again. I would repeat

(01:35:18):
that process twice more about a week apart. And by
doing so, you're giving those roots the best chance of
establishing successfully and quickly.

Speaker 3 (01:35:29):
Uh.

Speaker 4 (01:35:29):
And that is very important for that plant to be
ready for next summer because when the heat comes, it's
going to need a good root system at that point
in time, all right, has to grow six to twelve
six from the folks at Medina, like all the Medina products,
they work and Medina's been a beloved product around our
area for many many decades.

Speaker 6 (01:35:48):
Now.

Speaker 4 (01:35:50):
If you have a question you would like to call,
give me a call. Uh. Seven one three two one
two five eight seven four seven one three to fifty
eight seventy four. Simple as that. I was in my
local Ace hardware store the other day walking around looking

(01:36:10):
at some things. We have one of those fizzy water dispensers,
one of the soda stream kind of things, and of course,
you know, Ace Hardwar's got everything. My store carries the
little canisters to replenish the air and the flavors. We
like to use it a lot. Get some good cold water,
put that in there and fizsit up and it works
real well. Well, I was in my East Harder store

(01:36:31):
doing that. But you know, you never go in for
one thing, right, So I had to wander through the
barbecue section, and I needed a little mesh to put on.
You know, if you're gonna if you're gonna grill some
vegetables and they're not on kebabs, you can just throw
them on. They have They have various kinds of grates
and meshes and things that you can just put small
things on and they don't fall through into the pit

(01:36:51):
and whatnot. And I got some of those, and we
did some really good mushrooms and onions and several different
kinds of vegetables on them. It's really good. But where
did I get it? My local Ace Hardware store. Every
time I walk in there, and I've been a lot
of times into Ace Hardware, I see something that I
hadn't seen before, or maybe it's a new thing that

(01:37:13):
they got in your local Ace Hardware store. They're all
over our listening area. You got to go check them out.
Acehardware Texas dot Com. Ace Hardware Texas dot com. From
gardening supplies to gifts that you name it, it's at
your local ACE Hardware store. ACE Hardware Texas. Don't forget
the word Texas. That's my local group of ACE Hardware stores.

(01:37:36):
Now when I say local, I'm talking about local as
far away. Oh down in Wharton, feed and ACE on
North Richmond Road, Bay City ACE on Seventh Street. Let's
go all the way to Victoria on Navarro, Port Lavaca
on Calhoun Plaza. All southwest, how about northeast Crosby ACE
on Fmund how about southeast Patco A so West Willison Alvin.

(01:38:01):
How about the west side. Well we've got Hamilton ACE
on Highway six North in Bear Creek area. They're all
over the place. Go to ACE Hardware Texas dot com.
Check them out. Before you finish Ashurreansman shopping, get by
there because they are going to have something that that
certain person that's so hard to buy for, doesn't have

(01:38:21):
in needs and will enjoy. Have it at your local
ACE Hardware store. So today, when I get done with
garden line. My garden, my neglected garden is actually gonna
get a little bit of a TLC for me. I
need to replenish some mults. I mentioned that I had

(01:38:43):
a really really nice quality mults that I got not
too long ago from the folks at Nature's Way, and
it's one of their They have more than one mix
by the way up there, but it's one of their
multch blends that I've been trying out. I've tried. Every
time I go, I try a different one, and I've

(01:39:03):
tried a number of different ones. They all work, they're
all great, they they're all nice. It depends on it
just depends on what you want to grow, what you
want to do with it. But I need to get
those mulches replenished, and I suggest you do that too. Look,
I know we got some cold weather coming. Mulches help
insulate the root system of plants. So let's say you

(01:39:24):
have something that's i'm gonna say, marginally hearty. Okay, So
that may be like a duranta, a golden dew drop.
They can freeze pretty to the ground. One of my
favorite summer blooming plants is redbird of Paradise, Pride of
Barbados another name for it. That one will freeze the

(01:39:44):
ground and in a bad winter for those of you,
especially listening up further north, you can actually lose a
plant to those bults the ground. Really good. Mult over
the crown of the plant. That's a base where the
you know, the branches come up and the roots go
down right there at the crown. Bulch over it really
well and protect those and the soil warmth itself. We'll
keep that plan alive. But you need a good quality mulch.

(01:40:06):
You need to put it thick, three to four inches thicker.
The finer texture of the mulches, the better it insulates.
The chunkier the mulches, the longer it lasts. So there's
just a tip for you. Don't put it off and
make more work for yourself. Let's go now to Nederland
and we're going to talk to Randy. Hey, Randy, welcome

(01:40:28):
to garden Line.

Speaker 9 (01:40:31):
How are you this morning?

Speaker 4 (01:40:34):
Doing good, skiff.

Speaker 9 (01:40:37):
I've got a couple questions. One about what I'm assuming
is a blight or a fungus. I have a problem
with it every year, it seems like this time of
the year, and particularly on my broccoli plants. I spray
with liquid copper fungicide, and it seems to slow it down,

(01:41:01):
doesn't ever seem to get rid of it. I'm just
wondering if there's anything that I can do. May I'm
assuming it comes from the soil. I'm just wondering if
there's anything that I can do to actually prevent this stuff,
you know, before it gets so bad. It just kind
of sneaks up on me every year. Is there anything

(01:41:23):
I can do to treat the soil?

Speaker 4 (01:41:27):
Is it yellowing areas of the leaves that then typically
around the edges, but then they turn turn brown or
what does it.

Speaker 9 (01:41:34):
Look like and not around the edges it looks like
is it moves looks like it really moves up the
stalk and even the you know, the stalk of each
one of the leaves, leaving black spots that are that
are soft and slimy.

Speaker 4 (01:41:54):
Okay, Well, there is a disease called black rot. It's
caused by a back. There's not a chemical chemical control
for that. You got to get seeds that don't have it.
You got to get all the debris from past years
when you when you finish a crop of broccoli or
cabbage or cauliflower or any of those blue leaf vegetables.
When you finish, you get all of it out of there,

(01:42:14):
pull it all out of the beds, forget composting it
and everything, throw it away.

Speaker 3 (01:42:18):
Uh.

Speaker 4 (01:42:18):
And because those old tissues that are still around will
infect the next crop when it comes around. There are
some fungal leaf spots that can be controlled with fungal sprays.
And then there's another one that's called the well. The
black ride itself is probably the worst one of all.
If you would like Randy to send me a picture
of what you're seeing, I can nail it down to

(01:42:40):
which one it is.

Speaker 18 (01:42:41):
Uh.

Speaker 4 (01:42:42):
But but your first step is what we what we
call sanitation, getting all the sight things out of that
bed and don't don't leave them around.

Speaker 19 (01:42:53):
Uh.

Speaker 4 (01:42:53):
And then uh, you know, always use good fresh seed
uh when you're.

Speaker 16 (01:42:57):
When you're sporting lands.

Speaker 4 (01:42:58):
But but send me a send me a picture of it,
and let me look. I'm I've run over my break
a little bit here. Uh, but let me look at
the picture, because then I'm gonna be able to give
you the best answer I think is that get in
on the questions or did you have a follow up?

Speaker 9 (01:43:12):
Well, I was asking if you could recommend a good
test kit for the soil that would test for the
nutrients and not just pH.

Speaker 4 (01:43:22):
Let me, let me get to If you want to
hang on, I'm put you on hold here. If you
want to hang on, I can talk to you after
the top of the hour. If not, I'll just talk
about it. If you want to go ahead and hang out,
I'll leave that up to you. We'll be right back. Folks,
Welcome back to guard Line. Folks. Love to have you
with us news, thanks for tuning in and lazy.

Speaker 3 (01:43:46):
Remind you.

Speaker 4 (01:43:47):
Good to have you with us. Hey, why don't let's
talk about the things that you're interested in here for
a little bit if you want to give me a
call seven one three two one two five eight seven
four seven one three two one two eight seventy four.
Glad to visit with you. We have we've got a
little bit of time left today, a little bit in

(01:44:07):
this hour, and then we've got a whole nother hour
before we're done today. So what kind of questions do
you have right now? We've got open open boards. If
someone would like to call me. If you're the fastest
at all, you may be the first one in get
you before the end of the hour. Nelson Nursery and
Water Gardens is out there in Katy, Texas. You go
out to Katie turned north on Katie Fort Ben Road

(01:44:31):
and just up the street a little bit and on
the right hand side is Nelson Nursery and Water Gardens. Now,
Nelson is an outstanding nursery in and of itself, in
addition to being like a nationally known water garden place.
The things that they've done there, the things they created there,
like the disappearing fountain, just absolutely world change. When it

(01:44:57):
comes to a backyard, you know, you can put in
a nice beautiful waterfall, rock waterfall or something like that.
Those are gorgeous showstoppers. But maybe you just don't have
the budget or the room for something like that, and
you would like a beautiful ceramic upright piece of pod
that spills out of the top of and goes down

(01:45:17):
into the ground and recirculates back. That's a disappearing fountain.
They have those there, and they can come do it
for you, or they can give you the or give
you sell you the parts and tell you how to
do it yourself. Right now, they've got some deals going
on out there on their plants too. By the way.
They're Christmas trees, the point settas, Christmas cactus and interior plants.
Boy do they have beautiful ones, decorated Norfolk pines and

(01:45:40):
all their aquatic plants too are twenty five percent off.
Now that is a good deal. Goes all the way
to December thirtieth to three pm. But let me tell
you this, if you wait, somebody else is going to
go through there and pick up the things that you want,
and they won't happen. They'll be gone, So don't delay.
Nelson Nurse in Water Gardens, Katie, Texas. It's Nelsonwatergardens dot com.

(01:46:04):
That's the website. Go check them out. Wonderful place, wonderful people,
wonderful supplies of plants. To make sure and go inside though.
Look at those houseplants and the beautiful Christmas plants that
are inside. You will love them. I it was talking
about soil before, and I want to talk a little
bit about soil testing and the soil test kits that

(01:46:28):
buy off the shelf. They're okay, they help, They're better
at some aspects of soil testing than others, but they're okay.
But for the most accurate and comprehensive tests, you need
to send your soil into the lab and have one done.
They have equipment worth hundreds of thousands of dollars that

(01:46:49):
they take your soil through to determine exactly what the
levels of each nutrient are. You can do a regular
test and that is the standard soil tests. Nitrogen, phosphorus
test seem the main things.

Speaker 9 (01:47:01):
You can do.

Speaker 4 (01:47:01):
A micronutrient test. Now, the micro nutrient test looks for
all those trace minerals that we're talking about micro nutrients.
Whichever way you want to go, you just fill out
the form and it tells you what to do. If
you go to soil testing dot com, there's two ways
to do this. One I'll tell you the website soil

(01:47:22):
testing dot t A, m U, dot E d U.
I said, dot com. Forget that soil testing dot t A,
m U as in Texas A and M University. That's
where the lab is. Soil Testing dot t A, m U,
dot edu and find the urban soil test form. Now,

(01:47:44):
if you're listening to me from a farm outside of
Cat Springs, Texas, you still want the urban soil test form.
I wish they hadn't called it that. All that means
is not the pasture slash agriculture soil test form, but
the lawns and roses and vegetables and fruit, et cetera.

(01:48:04):
Soil test form Urban salt test form just means horticulture.
That's really what it means. But get that form, fill
it out, follow the instructions on taking the sample. It
is very important to take the sample accurately because they
will tell you what's in the soil that you send them.
You want to make sure the soil you send them

(01:48:25):
is representative of your yard. Let me do this as
an example. If you got in your yard and you
just reach down and scoop up some soil and put
it in a bag and send it to them, and
if that was a spot where your favorite pet to
the bathroom six months ago, it's going to have a
little different content the rest of your yard, right. So

(01:48:46):
what you do is you take a composite by taking
a sample from here and there, and you just zigzag
your way through the yard very random and get a
bunch of samples, mix them together in a bucket, a
clean bucket, not one that just had fertilizer in it,
and out of that, take about a pine of soil
and send it in. So the composite is important. And
if your yard has an area that's doing well in

(01:49:08):
an area that's doing poorly, you could take two samples,
one a composite from the poor area and one a
composite from the healthy area and you can see the
difference and see what's going on. So whatever you do,
just get that sample done. When the results are in,
you can go to their county extension office and or
visit with either the agent, the ag agent or the

(01:49:30):
horticulture agent or master gardeners if it's a master gardening
program in that county. You can talk to those folks too.
They'll look at sal tests. They'll help you determine what
exactly it is that you need to do. Now, the
standard test just has the basic nutrients. There is a
regular test plus micro nutrients costs a little bit more,

(01:49:51):
but there you get a base on your iron and
zinc and molbdenum and all the other kinds of micro
nutrients that are out there. And just need to do it.
That's the main thing. Now'd be a good time to
do it. The lab is not as busy this time
of year. Get faster results. If you have some problems
interpreting them and things called guardline. Talk to my producer,

(01:50:15):
send of your results, and then follow up with a call.
I can't go through those typing out answers, but I
don't mind helping you with that. Other people will learn
something from your samples as well. But bottom line, you
got a county extension office in every county in this
whole region, and so take your sample to them. Let
them help you with it.

Speaker 5 (01:50:35):
All.

Speaker 4 (01:50:35):
Right, there you go. Sol testing is so important, you know.
I talk about you need to put this fertilizer on
or put that fertilizer on, and those are ninety percent
of the time good answers. But your yard could have
an imbalance that most charts don't have. Santis saying about.

Speaker 1 (01:50:59):
Welcome to a g r H garden line with scamp Richter's.

Speaker 3 (01:51:03):
Smell the crazy.

Speaker 2 (01:51:07):
In the gas gas they can use water shrim just
watching as world god gasses and gas can you das Maybe.

Speaker 3 (01:51:18):
People takes the soup back basic in bay brings in
the grassies like gas and again you day.

Speaker 2 (01:51:25):
Samost the gloves back kicking, but they're not a sudra.

Speaker 3 (01:51:30):
The glasses and gas and.

Speaker 2 (01:51:33):
The sun beamon of between ding in the grassies like gas.

Speaker 3 (01:51:38):
Maybe can use your hand bat starting and treating bringing
in the gasses like gasbecame you jade.

Speaker 9 (01:51:48):
Everything is so clean.

Speaker 3 (01:51:50):
And see and never thing here is Sunday had its radius.

Speaker 4 (01:52:07):
Who all right, let's do this. We're an hour guard
line left that you got a question, feel free to
give us a call, so we will be happy to
do that. I have a special guest that I have
asked to come on the show from our ACE group.
You hear me all the time talking about ACE being
the place to get all kinds of cool gifts and
other things. Even if it's not a gift giving season

(01:52:29):
that you want to pick up, You're going to find
yourself very surprised when you walk into an a store
as to what they have. So let's go here out
to the phones, and I'm going to bring in Dorothy
from Ospas ACE Hardware. Hey, Dorothy, are you there?

Speaker 15 (01:52:46):
Hi?

Speaker 20 (01:52:47):
Skip, how are you this morning?

Speaker 4 (01:52:50):
I'm good, I'm good. Thank you so much for taking
time out to call in. I appreciate that I wanted
to get an ACE Hardware owner manager, you know, here
on the on the show to just talk a little
bit about some of the things that people can find
Todays that are just really great ideas for holiday gifts.
So I appreciate you agreeing to come on.

Speaker 11 (01:53:13):
Well, thank you.

Speaker 20 (01:53:14):
We have been so excited and so busy stalking our
shelves getting ready for this holiday shopping season. So we
have something for just about everyone on your shopping list.
So if you have someone that has that, yeah, go ahead.
So if there's someone that can you hear me, yes, we.

Speaker 4 (01:53:37):
Got this horrible delay. I'm trying to get it fixed,
but I'm here. Just I don't know if you have.
If you hear a radio in the background, turn that off.
But bottom line is just we'll just keep talking even
if we talk over each other. Okay, So uh, talk

(01:54:02):
to us a little bit about some of the gift
ideas that we can find there at Ace Harder.

Speaker 20 (01:54:07):
Okay, So we have in the grilling department, we've got
some of the best grills. We have Rectech, Green, Egg Tragger,
and Weber and if you already own those grills, we
have some great accessories and seasonings that we can bundle
up and make great gifts. And if you want to
add to their grilling experience, we have the pizza oven,

(01:54:31):
we have the Oonie and the Gosney Pizza, which adds
to your grilling experience. We have all kinds of great
things in that department.

Speaker 6 (01:54:40):
Yeah.

Speaker 4 (01:54:42):
Oh, I have a rectech by the way, Dorothy, I
have a rectech that I got from Ace and I
love that thing. And so every time I go in
now I'm seeing more things I can't live without to
go along with my grill. So I have to warn
the listeners this is an addictive thing. You've been warned.

Speaker 20 (01:55:01):
Right, right right, So, yeah, we do love our grilling department.
We also have a great bird department, so if you've
got a bird lover on your list, we have forty
eight feet of bird feeders and food. Some of my
favorite is a bur Genius and then of course the
droll Yankee flippers. So those cute little squirrels can't eat

(01:55:22):
all eat up all your bird food, so that's always
a great gift.

Speaker 6 (01:55:26):
Oh there you go.

Speaker 4 (01:55:28):
Hey, Dorothy, you mentioned the pizza oven.

Speaker 9 (01:55:31):
I have not.

Speaker 4 (01:55:32):
I've not I've seen those, but tell me a little
bit about how does that work. And people that are
listening that may not know what you're talking about.

Speaker 20 (01:55:41):
So it's just it's an outdoor oven that that you
just build your pizzas, and it's it's a great experience.
We've had some of our reps come out and our
customers have enjoyed watching them. Just it's the experience of
building the pizza as family and your friends and then

(01:56:01):
just having that outdoor experience, Evan, is just a great,
great time.

Speaker 4 (01:56:08):
So now I know some of these it's almost like
you slide the pizza in like on a on a
flat wooden thing, right or did they open up to
or how does that?

Speaker 1 (01:56:18):
How does that work?

Speaker 20 (01:56:19):
It's just it has open Evan, and and it you're right,
you just fie the wood, your pizzas on the wood
and you just cook it like that.

Speaker 4 (01:56:32):
Well, that's cool now I I Uh, last time I
went to an ice and took my wife, I was
giving a talk or doing an appearance at one and uh,
at toward the end, she kind of walked over to
me and said, Okay, now that you're done there, we've
got some shopping to do. And uh. She had a

(01:56:53):
good time at some really cool things for homewares and
decorating and foods and all kinds of stuff. So tell
us a little bit about that aspect of ACE hardware gifting.

Speaker 20 (01:57:04):
Yes, we have in Acus of the Villains. We have
a four thousand square foot uh gift shop that has
all kinds of great gifts in it from fun Joy
lines e Newton, Kendra Scott, Julie Voss, Interdy, san Quenta.

Speaker 5 (01:57:20):
We've got candles.

Speaker 20 (01:57:22):
Tyler is probably one of our number one Tyler candle lines.
And if you haven't tried the Diva Wash, that is
probably the number one gift item or item and the
gift shop that's not the hardware store, so definitely Diva
Wash needs to be on on your shopping list. We've
got some great uh wonderful gifts and uh cozy uh

(01:57:46):
bamboo pajamas and barefoot dreams, all kinds of lovely gifts.
We also carry a great line of yetti. We've got
the new colors in the the Cameo blue and the
neon is a sun a fun color.

Speaker 5 (01:58:03):
Also in the gifting.

Speaker 20 (01:58:04):
Area we have the turtle Box, which is so.

Speaker 5 (01:58:09):
So exciting.

Speaker 20 (01:58:10):
It's it's we have all the sizes and colors and
you compare them and it's it's just been a great
I have a couple of them wrapped underneath my Christmas
tree this year. So and we have all kinds of
gifts on the gift side.

Speaker 4 (01:58:26):
Nice. Now the turtle box. I'm kind of always slow
to the party when it comes to new things coming out,
but these are a big deal. And it's a speaker.
Is that basically what we're talking about.

Speaker 5 (01:58:38):
It is a speaker.

Speaker 20 (01:58:40):
It's waterproof, it's great because you compare them as mon
as you want to, and it actually has a really
good sound to it.

Speaker 9 (01:58:52):
Yeah.

Speaker 20 (01:58:52):
So they have been popular and we have we have
a nice selection of them. The Ranger is my new
favorite one. It's just a small little one actually at
at how you can it's a magnet you can put
like if you're outboating or something like that. So it's
a it's a great speaker.

Speaker 4 (01:59:14):
Wow, that's that's that is cool. Well, I got just
about another minute here before I have to go to
a break. But can you think of any other items?

Speaker 9 (01:59:22):
Uh?

Speaker 4 (01:59:23):
Now we're talking about in Ace Hardware. We've got Ace
Hardwaretexas dot Com and there you people can there be
people listening to us from Orange and Corpus and everywhere
else in Houston area h and they can find their
local Ace Hardware store. So any other thoughts or advice
as far as doing some of your shopping at ACE.

Speaker 20 (01:59:42):
Hardware, you know, the nice thing that I love about
in our area too. And I'm sure in these other
locations that you can just drive up into the single
parking lot. It's easy access. We have great customer service,
complimentary gift raw up, and we just try to help

(02:00:02):
the customer have a good shopping experience.

Speaker 4 (02:00:07):
All right. Well, that is that is awesome. And I
know I keep trying to tell people this is not
your Grandpa's hardware store, although you can you can buy
you know, wiring and plumbing and lighting fixtures and everything
else at at ACE Hardware like Grandpa's store. Uh, this
is They've already heard from you so many examples of
things that go way, way way beyond that. But Dorothy,

(02:00:29):
you're thank you. Dorothy's up on aspase Ace up in
the Woodlands, and remember go to ACE Hardware Texas dot
com to find your local Ace Hardware store. Dorothy, thanks
so much. I apologize for this delay talkover thing we
got going on, but you weathered the storm like a champ.
So thanks. Thanks for coming on. I appreciate that.

Speaker 20 (02:00:52):
And thanks for having me talking about my favorite things gifting.

Speaker 4 (02:00:58):
All right, you take care, all right, folks. Well, there
you have it. I mean, gosh, I was hearing things.
It's like, yeah, I'm I wrote down what is a devil?

Speaker 18 (02:01:08):
Wash?

Speaker 4 (02:01:08):
I'm gonna go find out that it must be something
pretty darn cool. There we go. Hey, let's take a
little break. We'll be right back. All right, let's do
this pay if you'd like to give me a call
seven one three two eight seven four that again, seven
three fifty eight seventy four. You're down in the Seabrook area,

(02:01:36):
are really any part of southeast Houston area whatsoever? You
need to go to mos Nursery and if you haven't
been there, you definitely need to go. Take a stroll
through the gardens. It is so pleasant and there's so
many things. You need to allow some time too, because
this is eight acres that you're wandering around, and there's
all kinds of art and pottery and plants and you

(02:01:59):
name it. Make sure and go into the houseplat Greenhouse
and look at the selection in there. It is stunning.
It is absolutely stunning. Whether you're looking for a beautiful
fall blooming shrub like camellias, they've got those there, Several
different kinds of camellias. If you're looking for vegetable plants
or bedding plants, for color in your yard. Whatever you're

(02:02:22):
looking for, you're gonna find it at Moss Nursery. The
way I like to put it is, if you combine
a botanical garden with a museum and fill it with
gorgeous plants and an incredibly broad selection of pottery, you've
got Moss Nursery in c Brook, Texas, Toddville Road, Seabrook, Texas.
Maas Nursery dot com, Maas Nursery dot com. Here's the

(02:02:44):
phone number. Two eight one four seven four twenty four
eighty eight. Two eight one four seven four twenty four
eighty eight. The cold weather is coming. It is on
its way. I just posted to Facebook, I believe last night.
I believe it was last night, a link to the
publication on my website which is about protecting plants, whether

(02:03:09):
it's landscape plants or vegetable garden plant whatever, from cold weather.
And you need to go check it out. This publication
goes into by the way, it's free. You just download
it or you look at it on your computer. It's
nine pages, it's got color photos, it's got a really
helpful color diagram showing how you properly cover a plant.
And believe me, there's a difference, and I see people

(02:03:31):
doing it the wrong way all the time. You get
a little benefit from the wrong way, not much, if
any at all, And so do it the right way.
It's in the publication. If you want to really drill
down and learn about frosts and freezes. There's different kinds
of freezes and there's different kinds of frost. Did you
know that there's different ways the weather develops it causes

(02:03:54):
these things. Some of them are very easy to protect
your plants. Some of them are very difficult to do
much in the way of protecting your plants. But get
this publication, have it on hand. And by the way,
people are already cleaning out the stores. When it comes
to row cover or the frost blankets, rather when it
comes to you know, plastic sheeting, and when the heat

(02:04:17):
lamps and all of the other things like that, I've
got mine. Purchase. I've been giving you the warning. Purchase
them now. Don't delay. Don't delay you. For your successful
plant protection, you need to take the warmth of the soil,
and fifty degrees soil is warm on a freezing night.
It's almost twenty degrees above freezing, right fifty degrees, soil

(02:04:40):
is twenty degrees about freezing. So that warmth helps protect plants.
If it rises underneath the cover, that completely encloses the
air and doesn't let one blow underneath it. If you
add heat under there, then you take it up a notch.
And whether it's a small plant or whether it's a
big tree, a different amount of heat that you need

(02:05:00):
to do it. Now people always say don't cover with plastic.
I want to make a comment about that. If plastic
touches the leaves of the plant, when that plant, when
the plastic and the plant leaf loses its heat at night,
you can have frost or freezing tissues that happen on
that plant. But if you've got a big citrus tree

(02:05:23):
and you're just gonna have some brown leaves around the
outside here and there where it touches, that is very
acceptable damage to protect that plant and keep it covered. So,
while yes that is true, plastic does have that issue,
and if you leave it on for too long, it's
trapping a lot of moisture and stuff under there as well.
Be very drippy and humid and wet and underneath there

(02:05:46):
you can look it up and allow it during the
day things to warm up a little bit, and then
close it back down at night. The bottom line is
just protect your plants with whatever way you got to
go about doing it. Let's go out to Jersey Village
now we're gonna visit with Joe. Hey, Joe, Welcome to Guardenline.

Speaker 19 (02:06:03):
Patty Skip, I've got a question that you would think
I live out in the country, but my flower beds
with the kale and pansies are being eaten by the rabbits.
How besides, the twenty ten round is the best way
to get rid of rabbits?

Speaker 4 (02:06:24):
Okay? Uh, there are some things that have been put
out to try to It's a scent related stuff you
can put out to kind of hopefully scare them away.

Speaker 20 (02:06:35):
Uh.

Speaker 4 (02:06:35):
There's also a little motion sensor sprinkler that when something
hops around in front of it, or whether it's a
deer or whatever, it comes on for about eight seconds
of strafing back and forth like a machine gun with water.
That will help with that. And then there's the netting.
It's literally keeping them fenced out of their wedding. That

(02:06:57):
that is an option Rabbits can jump up on stuff
and jump over stuff, so it's kind of hard to
build a little fence around them. But in an extreme situation,
you know, a little short fence around them down low
will keep them out. And you could do it in
a way that's more temporary, where you don't have to
leave it on all the time. But there's not other

(02:07:19):
good ideas I know on the rabbit control other than that.

Speaker 19 (02:07:23):
Oh, okay, on that there was a sprinkler thing you
said that you can put on there.

Speaker 4 (02:07:28):
What I guess a hard work. You know, they might.
I haven't seen those for sale in this area lately.
I'm sure they're here. But there's advice called a scarecrow,
and it's a it's one painted black with a little
yellow beak or something, but basically it's just it's just

(02:07:49):
a motion sensor light, like on the corner of your garage,
but it's attached to a sprinkler's valve that comes on
and sprays and closes. It just leaves it open for
a little while, so it's not running all night.

Speaker 18 (02:08:00):
Uh.

Speaker 4 (02:08:00):
But that that startles things and chases them away. Of course,
I guess eventually things get used to stuff, and I
don't know if beds are set up in such a
way that that would that that could protect them. That
may not be the case. But uh yeah, not a
lot of options. The bottom line on it, Joe.

Speaker 19 (02:08:17):
Yeah, that's what I was afraid of.

Speaker 4 (02:08:19):
Well, I'll tell you what. Thank you. I'm going to
go there and find my answer. Thank you so much.
All Right, there you go. Thanks a lot. Appreciate that
very much.

Speaker 18 (02:08:31):
Uh.

Speaker 4 (02:08:32):
You were hearing me talk about Wildbirds Unlimited earlier with Rich.
Wild Birds Unlimited has all of these things for Christmas
gifts and just for your own backyard. You know. I
was just thinking about the thistle feeder. I don't have one.
I need to get one because Rich was talking about
the birds that are coming in that like like the thistle.

Speaker 18 (02:08:52):
Uh.

Speaker 4 (02:08:53):
Niger is the seed actually it's called that niger uh.
And so I need to get one of those two.
It's at Walderbirds on Limited. Wildbirds Unlimited is the website
is WBU dot com forbard slash Houston. That's all six
wild Birds Unlimited stores here in our Greater Houston area. Now,

(02:09:14):
so if you're in the area, that would include the
clear Lake store, that would include the store in Cyprus, Texas.
That would include the store in Houston on bel Air
as well as the Houston store on Memorial, in Kingwood
on Kingwood Drive, and in Pairland on East Broadway Street.
All six of our Great Wildbirds Unlimited stores here. They're

(02:09:36):
stocked up and they're ready. It's a great idea too.
By the way, let's see here, I am running a
little short on time. I'll tell you what I'm gonna
hold Susan in Patterson and Chris and the Woodlands. I
just don't have time to give your call. Justice, hang on.
When we come back from our break here in just

(02:09:58):
a second, I'll be glad to is it with you?
You know, I'm talking about fall being a good time
to plant, and I'm talking about the fact all the time.
I'm a broken record when it comes to brown stuff
before green stuff, fix the soil. Fix the soil. Now
would be a great time to get out there and
get those beds ready, because whether you're about to plant
a vegetable garden, or you want some cool seasoned flowers

(02:10:19):
or just getting ready for spring. Folks at Ciena Maltch
have everything that you need. They carry fertilizers that I
talk about on Garden line like Nitrofoss Medina, Microlife Nelson,
both in the bags and also by the jars as well.
They carry rose soil, they carry the veggiean herb mix

(02:10:39):
from heirloom soils. They carry composts, even stone walkway stone
river rock for the drainageways. If you need it, it's
there at Ciena Mulch. Go to Sienna Moltch dot com.
They're on five twenty one on south south of Houston,
a little bit to the west and south of Houston
on FM five twenty one. Now, this is a place

(02:11:02):
to go. You got the information. If you want success
with your garden this winter and next spring, start with
the soil and start with Cienemulch. That's the way you
go about it. Plus they've got a great gift shop too.
We're talking about gifts a lot today, but they have
a lot of really cool gardening gifts in there, so
you need to swing by. In addition, don't just call
them or go buy cinemals dot com. There you go.

(02:11:25):
All right, I'm gonna take a break. We'll be right
back with calls from Susan and Chris. Have you been
to the Cannons and seeing the gift shops and look
all they have that is outstanding. By the way, they
still have Christmas trees available if you're still looking for

(02:11:47):
They have the Noble firs, the Nordman firs, and the
Frasier firs. They still have some of those arounds, so
you need to not delay if you're gonna go get
that as well as their points set is beauty goush
have beautiful points that is their nice selection of those.
But the gift shops so many good ideas. You know,
if your kids want to get something for one of
their school teachers, for example, I'd like to give them

(02:12:08):
a little gift, there's a wonderful selection of ideas for that.
If you're looking for things to decorate, if you're looking
for things to give as gifts. They also have some
nice Hanika gifts as well. They have several things from
tea towels to just beautiful decorations and so on, candles
and ornaments and cards for that as well. So this

(02:12:32):
is just a place to go really really nice nice
things at buchan as Native plants and of course the
native plants featuring coral berry as their plant that they've
been featuring recently, and that is such a nice little plant,
you know, a very versatile plant. It has a little
berries on it, kind of a pinkish reddish color that

(02:12:55):
I think are really nice. It stays down, small and low.
It is a native uh and it's very adaptable. It's
of what I would describe it as something that if
you wanted to look neat and tidy, you're going to
do a little trimming on it to look that way.
If you just want to mask it together and create
a beautiful little section, it does really well for that

(02:13:18):
as well. Crawberry. That's just one of the many, many,
many types of native plants. By the way, corberry likes
kind of a shaded spot where it's light but not
direct sunlight. Bacon down on it. At Buchanans, Oh I
didn't say this. They're on Eleventh Street and the Heights
and here is their website Buchanansplants dot com. Go check

(02:13:38):
it out. Let's go now out to Patterson and we're
going to visit with Susan this morning. Hello Susan, and
welcome to garden Line.

Speaker 6 (02:13:47):
Hey Skip, good morning.

Speaker 5 (02:13:48):
I have a really quick question.

Speaker 8 (02:13:49):
Do you know what variety of kreimer what is it's
got those beautiful orange leaves right now.

Speaker 5 (02:13:55):
And I know orange is not a good word to
ask Naggie.

Speaker 9 (02:13:58):
But.

Speaker 4 (02:14:00):
Yeah, no, crpe myrtle is it's the it's the plant
I suggest for what we call a mixed marriage. That's
where a longhorn and an aggie get married, because you
can have on a crape myrtle maroon leaves and orange leaves.
That happened. But yeah, seriously, there's more than one that

(02:14:22):
does that. And so I don't know exactly which one
you're you're said I put it.

Speaker 6 (02:14:27):
There's one that I put something covered it just mm.

Speaker 4 (02:14:30):
Hm, no, go ahead and finish with what you're saying.

Speaker 11 (02:14:35):
No, I was just gonna say, there's one that's just
especially orange this time the year.

Speaker 6 (02:14:38):
And I didn't know what. I didn't know, But it's
probably kind of hard to narrow down all the varieties
are so many of them.

Speaker 4 (02:14:46):
Uh, it is. It is a little a little bit.
Uh And and I used to have a chart online
and I see that it is it is not there.
I'm not finding it when I search. I'm gonna have
to find that and I'll put it on my website.
But it was a crepe myrtle varieties according to hype,
according to bark exfoliating, according to disease resistance, and according

(02:15:07):
to fall color. And so there are a number of
different ones that can provide that kind of color for you.
I'm gonna have to look it up and see which
ones might be in that category though off the top
of my head, I just can't remember. But it's not
just one variety. Most crape myrtles will give you some
color in the fall.

Speaker 6 (02:15:27):
Yeah, yeah, okay, I appreciate it.

Speaker 5 (02:15:29):
Thank you all.

Speaker 4 (02:15:30):
Hey, thanks, thank you. Susan appreciate that call very much.
Affordable Tree Care is the company I talk about all
the time, Affordable Tree Care. They know how to take
care of trees. That's the bottom line. And it's time
to get your trees prune this season. Your pruning season
is upon us and Martin Spoon. Mart Affordable Tree he

(02:15:52):
knows how to do it right. And for every tree
that he prunes, you get a free deep root feeding
on that tree. So when he's out there doing the
printing work, just make sure tell him about that. He
knows about that, but just have him do the free
deeper feeding on the trees that he comes out and
he prunes. Now, his phone number is seven one six

(02:16:13):
nine nine two, six six three. Wherever you are in
the entire ktra is listening area, Martin can come and
prune your trees. There's been been doing this fifty four years.
His family been in the business for a long time. Uh.
He and his wife Joe run the place. Now when
you call, you're going to talk to either Martin or

(02:16:34):
his wife Joe, or maybe his mom named Judy.

Speaker 6 (02:16:38):
Uh.

Speaker 4 (02:16:38):
There are other companies with Affordable in the name, but
there's only one Affordable Tree service. So if you don't
talk to Martin, Joe or Judy, you're not calling the
right place. Seven to one three six nine nine six
six three. I'm going to go out the woodlands now
and visit with Chris this morning. Hey, Chris, welcome to
garden Line.

Speaker 13 (02:16:57):
Well, good morning, thank you. I bought two boxes, you know,
for the amarillas and brought them home and they bloomed
just beautiful in my kitchen. But now they're done. So
when can I put the bulb into the ground outside.

Speaker 5 (02:17:17):
You have a few green leaves on them, Yeah.

Speaker 4 (02:17:21):
Get it outside soon so that it can get a
little bit of sunlight it. You know, if you leave
the leaves inside, it's just going to weaken the bulb
rather than replenish the bulb. But if you get it
in the road, it may be that those leaves end
up getting frozen off, but maybe not. But get it
in the ground and a container wherever and our planet,

(02:17:43):
in the beds where you want them to grow. They
like if you got a real bright spot with them,
maybe a little morning sun but not direct sun all day. Uh,
then I would I would suggest you choose a spot
like that, and they'll they'll do well for you underneath
the deciduous True, they get good in the cool season,
which is kind of nice.

Speaker 13 (02:18:05):
All right, we certainly won't be any light today. I'll
go ahead and get them in the ground, all right, thank.

Speaker 4 (02:18:14):
You, good luck with that. Bye bye. Yeah, that is
that is the case.

Speaker 9 (02:18:22):
Uh.

Speaker 4 (02:18:23):
The so many bulbs out there that we can plant,
and a lot of the kinds of bulbs don't naturalize here.
Tulips and hyacinth and crocus, for example. You can plant
them uh in at the end of December now if
you want, uh, and they will come up and they'll
give you a little bloom. But they they don't naturalize

(02:18:43):
in our climate very well at all. And so we
want to go with things that can naturalize. And there's
a lot of great bulbs like that, and our garden
centers do carry those. If you say I want one
that's gonna be here a year after year, they'll point
you to the right ones for that. A lot of
the amarillas will there's several types. There's the big type
that almost like a florist kind of thing, where you
get this big bold amarillis flower.

Speaker 9 (02:19:06):
Uh.

Speaker 4 (02:19:06):
And then there's one called Johnson's Amarillis. It has redder,
strappier petals. It's not as big of a pedal as
the kind that everybody's thinking about, the forcing bulb amarillish,
but Johnson and Moillis is totally naturalizing here in the area.
It does very very well, comes aback year after year

(02:19:28):
with that bloom time of some beautiful red strappy pedals.
You can go online to a search for Johnson's Amarillis
or Emorillis john sony I if you want to get
fancy uh and see what I'm talking about. But those
would be another good one to choose for this area.
Time to take a quick break. We'll be right back

(02:19:48):
with our last segment of the day. Hey love about
regard line. Blood have you with us. If you walking
around the house, I notice that you got some cracks
and you shoot it rock, or maybe walking around the
outside the house and you notice cracks in the brick,
or maybe inside there's a door that suddenly starts sticking,

(02:20:10):
and then later it's not sticking talking. That's movement in
the foundation, and you need to call somebody to check
it out. It doesn't mean it's in the world. You
know you're gonna have all this work you have to do.
It may but it may not. And you need to
call someone that's straightforward, that's honest, that shows up on time,
that does a good job and charges a fair price.

(02:20:30):
And that is Ty Strickland at Fix My Slab Foundation Repair.
Tell him your gardenline listener. Free estimates for garden line listeners.
I's been doing this twenty five years now here in
the greater Houston area. He knows his stuff. Fixmislab dot
com two eight one, two five, five, forty nine, forty nine.
He'll assess it. He'll tell you what he thinks is

(02:20:51):
the best course of action. And it may be that
you're going to do a wait and see. It may
be that you need some work done, but talk to
him and let him give you an assessment so that
you can take care of things before things get even worse.
Fix my slab foundation repair. Let's go to West Houston.
Now we're going to talk to Danny. Hello, Danny, welcome
to garden Line.

Speaker 18 (02:21:12):
Yes, sir, thank you.

Speaker 6 (02:21:13):
Skip.

Speaker 18 (02:21:15):
I've got some oak trees and they've branched out three
large limbs, and they've created a pocket in the middle,
and in the past I've seen it fills up with
the leaves and stuff and insects, and I'm worried about
it creating a rot right down through the center and
killing the tree. You know, it takes a while, but

(02:21:38):
they do that. And I was wondering if there was
any way to get rid of that other than slicing
one of the limbs off and sacrificing a third of
the tree to keep that from rotting even to the center.

Speaker 4 (02:21:53):
Yeah, even if you slice the limb off. Now you
got this big, giant wound and it definitely is going
to ride on you. So that's not going to help
it all.

Speaker 15 (02:22:00):
Uh So.

Speaker 4 (02:22:02):
The only thing to say, yeah, the only thing is,
you know, if you could go back in time to
win those first sprouted out and go, look, this is
gonna be a problem because they're all together like like Ian,
if you turn a chicken foot upside down, you know
the toe, the toa's going out in different directions. That
kind of a chicken of branches coming out of a
tree is bad news. And so uh at this point,

(02:22:26):
you know, as long as there's living bark, you're going
to get some decay in the bark itself. But the
living tissues are pretty good at holding up. Now, if
there were a crack in there or some way that
moisture can get to the interior wood of the tree,
you're definitely gonna get some fast trot in there and
that thing's gonna split up. But I don't know another
way to fix that. You might talk to a professional

(02:22:49):
arborist like Martin Spoon Moore them, have them suggests what
they may or may not do. My gut feelings, I
don't have entrance into the interior wood, You're probably okay
for now.

Speaker 18 (02:23:02):
Well I don't have that yet, but I just I
can see it coming, but maybe that'll be after my
time and I won't worry about it.

Speaker 4 (02:23:11):
Well, I appreciated with wounds and decay is Yeah, the
wound breaks the protective covering of the bark open, so
that now the inner wood is exposed, and so the
bark itself, the living tissues inside the dead outer bark
are are good at protecting that plant. So I think
that's what's helping you right now.

Speaker 18 (02:23:32):
Thank you, all right, sir, thank you.

Speaker 4 (02:23:36):
All right. Let's go to Lloyd now and Pennington. Hey,
Lloyd Gline, welcome. I'm doing good. Good to hear from you.

Speaker 14 (02:23:47):
Hey, I've been looking for some black crowded uh PC.
I ain't seem to find them. But there's a place
in Houston. It's called Mommy and Me. Have you ever
heard of them?

Speaker 4 (02:23:59):
Mommy and Me? Seve, No, I've never heard of it.
I'll have to look into that, Uh I would. I
would call Bob. It's at Southwest Fertilizer. And because he
has bins of p se uh you know, bulk like
black eyed pea kind of things. He may have crime,

(02:24:20):
but call him and see see what he has. If
you want to know, give that to you. I would think. Yeah,
he's open today. Yeah, he's opened to all right here
call first man, it's it's seven one three, Yeah, get.

Speaker 14 (02:24:37):
Your pen uh yes, hated here.

Speaker 4 (02:24:44):
All right, alrighty well number one three six six three
sixes sixty six six one seven four four seven one
three six six six one seven four for see if
he has some because he does keep bulk seeds on
and that may be. That may be a way to

(02:25:05):
get a hold some. Otherwise you can mail order, but
that takes a while.

Speaker 14 (02:25:10):
Well, I haven't been able to find him anywhere. They're
the only ones I could find. He's got him and
he's called mommy and me there, shows it there and
crowd me take it. I've googled him and everything else,
but there's not a contact number.

Speaker 4 (02:25:23):
Well, I'm gonna put you on hold. I'm gonna put
you on hold and my producer will pick up the
call and give you an email. If you'll email me,
I'll send you some sources, but start with Southwest. That'd
be the fastest uses. All right, hang on, all right,
my producer will pick him up and give him an email. Wow,

(02:25:43):
we're getting toward the end here. We had a little
bit of time where I have to turn off the microphone. Remember,
Guarden Line is on every Saturday and every Sunday, and
I forget this. Uh, people, we have new listeners today
and every day we have people will never listen before,
and I always have to remember some of you been
going I've been listening since before. Randy, you know I

(02:26:04):
listened to Dewey Compton on Gardener. Well I get that,
but we do have new listeners. And this show is
on the air on Saturday and Sunday mornings every time
from six am to ten am both days, and we're
answering your gardening questions. My website is Gardening with skip
dot com. Right now, the most pertinent thing on my

(02:26:26):
website is the protecting plants against frosts and freezes. There
if you look under publications, there's one that it says
and this is something I thought was funny and cute
at the time, but it's just the season to be freezing.
And you click on that and you get to that publication.
It's nine pages full. Coller tells you everything to do,

(02:26:48):
so anyway, need to get that done. Listen. The temperature
is going to drop down. I haven't checked in the
last twelve hours of temperatures, but the fastest way I
could summarize it is, if you're north, as you go
up and up further and further by the time you
get to College Station in Huntsville and up and there,
you got freezes coming. If you're down south to I ten,

(02:27:10):
you're gonna get down cold enough to where some of
the sensitive tropical plants will be significantly damaged. It won't
quite be a freeze, but you'll get some significant damage
on those. So you want to be ready to protect
those things, have the supplies on hand, and have the
knowledge of how to go about doing it, because you
can create more problems than benefits by doing it wrong.

(02:27:32):
You put a hot heat lamp shining up against the
trunk of your citrus tree, and you are going to
cause some significant damage. You get a connection, electrical connection
and dry grass, and you will set that thing on fire.
That plant won't freeze that night, but you will have
a plant load. See you tomorrow.