BLT (Bugs, Lawns, and Trees)

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Welcome to kat r H Garden Line with skip rictor's.

Speaker 2 (00:04):
Shoes, basy here.

Speaker 3 (00:10):
Gas a trim Just watch him as who that many
go things.

Speaker 4 (00:21):
The soup basic eases.

Speaker 3 (00:25):
Gas you dass back not a sound glass gas.

Speaker 4 (00:35):
Sud bean and.

Speaker 3 (00:43):
Starting well, good morning you, Good morning gardeners. Glad to
have you with us this morning on garden Line. You
got a gardening question, Here is a phone number seven
one three two one two five eight seven four seven
one three two one two fifty eight seventy four, or

(01:06):
if you like the dawbon letters seven one three two
one two k t RH. I never give that one
out anymore. I used to all have a time and
somebody said they were preferred numbers. So I don't know
however you want to go about it. And yes, I
do still say the word dial because when I was
growing up, you had to stick your finger in a
little hole on a round thing on the phone and

(01:27):
turn it in a circle to make a phone call. Yeah,
that's called dialing. Anyway, however you want to make a
phone call, make that phone call. We'll be happy to
help you with with the questions you might have. Uh So,
some of the areas got some storms things that have
been popping up, and we kind of going through that
right now. You know, anytime we get a chance to
get rain, it is a good thing, that is for sure.

(01:50):
With a few exceptions. I was in Houston when you know,
the hurricane hit and we had rain, what fifty two
inches in two days? Yeah, that was I'm going to
call that rain is not a good thing, despite the
country song to the contrary, But anyway, it's good to
have some rain. I was on a trip and got

(02:11):
back in a way. By the way, those of you
who listened last weekend, you heard the shows that I
had pre recorded, and I hope you enjoyed that we went.
It gave me an opportunity to go through a lot
of information and things that I just don't have time
for normally on the radio, you know, with with callers
and everything else. So uh, it was. I enjoyed doing it,

(02:34):
and I hope it was helpful for you. If you
didn't hear those shows, you might want to go to
the kt CH website to the garden Line section and
look at what we call podcasts. It's basically recorded past
shows that have been reformat out a little bit and
listen to those I think you'll find some of the
topics very very helpful for you. So anyway, that's there.

(02:56):
Another thing you can do is get you an app
that you listen to podcasts on, like the iHeartMedia app
being an example, and you can follow garden Line on there.
And not only can you listen to the show live
that way, so you know, you're out in your yard
working on the garden and you got your phone in
your pocket in either some kind of pod in your ear,

(03:17):
or I just turned the speaker sometimes on flip the
phone upside down so I can hear it a little
better and you can listen to guard Line while you're
working on the phone. You can also listen to pass
shows that same way through the podcast. And then one
final way, go to my website Gardening with Skip dot
com and right up at the top right is a
listen to garden Line button where you can use it

(03:37):
live or you can listen to pass shows there. So
you're working on your computer doing some things, you want
to get the show play in to hear some stuff
you miss, you can do it that way as well
from Gardening with Skip dot com. So there you go. Anyway,
I got back from a trip, and my yard was thirsty.
I had not water my yard once all year, all

(03:59):
this season rather and it needs water. And I was
waiting on yesterday's or today's rainfall to see what it
was going to do before I spent my hard earned
drinking water money on squirting it on the lawn. And
it looks like I'm gonna have to water it anyway.
I just haven't gotten in much of anything here at
the house. So lawn's need in the heat of summer

(04:22):
about an inch of water a week, about an inch
a week in the heat of summer in the absence
of rain. And by the way, my schedules. Some of
you are new to garden line, and you may have
heard me refer to schedules. You go, what's the schedule?
If you go to my website again gardening with skip
dot com, the schedules are up there, and one of
them is a lawn care schedule, and it talks about fertilizing,

(04:43):
It talks about air raiding, it talks about mowing, it
talks about watering. In other words, how do you grow
a pretty lawn? And on the schedule there's a list
of products for various times of the year for various
situations for fertilizer. But there's also a watering bar across
a blue bar, and it tells you what the historic

(05:04):
average inches of rainfall that a lawn needs per week
in full sun in the absence of rain. So there's
three caveats. It's number one, it's a weekly amount, it's
an average amount, and it's a lawn in full sun.
And of course it's in the absence of rain. If
it rains all week, you don't water your lawn. But

(05:25):
what you'll see is there's three months of the year
we're basically on average we don't have to water our lawn.
And then there's a couple of three months a year
where we about and a half inch should be adequate
for the lawn. That's because the temperatures are cooler. And
then three quarters of an inch for two months, and
then here comes summer, which I would contend that summer.
The first summer month is May. The last summer month

(05:47):
is the first week of October here in the Houston area.
But anyway, there's four months May, June, July, and August
where we're putting on about an inch of water based
on the historic averages. So there you go. The other
schedule is the pestweedon disease management schedule, and as the

(06:10):
name would imply, it's everything that goes wrong with the lawn.
So let's look at the insect row just for a moment.
In from June through September, I have on there to
treat for chinchbugs and side webworms. Now that does not
mean that every year for four months you treat. It
means that that is when you would treat if you

(06:32):
need to treat. Side webworms are kind of interesting. I
can remember living in Cyprus, we had a year that
was like most lawns on the block were completely chewed
all the green off. They were just brown because all
the leaves have been chewed off. Look horrible. Most years,
it's not the case. They're always around. But whatever causes

(06:55):
the population outbreaks and stuff. Sometimes it's conditions and temperature.
Sometimes it's a lack of the things that are keeping
them under control for us, the beneficials and things. But anyway,
it's an erratic kind of thing. And even going down
the lawn, the lawns in the neighborhood that year I
had them, but it was very moderate to light in

(07:17):
my yard and other yards is like evergrass blade was gone.
And why that is, I have no idea. It's I
had not treated with an insect aside pre that season.
But side web worms come and go. But when they're there,
when you see them, it's time to deal with them.
Chinchbugs also occur during that time. Now, that's a pretty
generous time period four months. Usually in June we don't

(07:43):
see major side web worms and chinchbug outbreaks. Usually in
September we're not getting major ones at that time, but
they can occur then. So it's on the schedule for them.
Keep your eyes out, and what do you do when
you have it? Schedules color coded insects are yellow, so
you drop down to the bottom of the chart, look
at the yellow box and it tells you what to

(08:04):
use for chinch bugs and side web worms for grubs,
and then it gives you the organic options. By the way,
both schedules have synthetic and organic options, so however you
want to go about your yard, there's information for you there. Also,
June is the treatment for grubs, one standard treatment for grubs,
and then July and August we can do an optional

(08:27):
treatment for grubs because they're older at that time, we
use a different product options. So when the grubs are
first remember how we call them jumbugs grown up? Did
you call the beetles junebugs flying around? Okay, Well, the jumbugs,
which are may bugs here in our area, they fly around.

(08:49):
You see them at the lights at night and porch light,
and then they lay eggs and those eggs hatch out
in a little tiny tiny grubs, tiny like grain or
rice size, tiny g and they feed near the surface.
So there's a treatment that gets them there near to
the surface. And then as it heats up, they get

(09:09):
bigger because they're feeding, and they go deeper. And as
you get deeper, some of the product that you might
use in june up near the surface is not going
to make it down as far, and so we switch
to a different kind of product for down deeper. A
couple of options for that. So I just want to

(09:30):
make a point about all insects, and that is that
I'm going long here on this, but i'll wrap it
up here that all products, when you're looking at insect
treatments and stuff, you don't have to just use them indiscriminately.
You basically when you have a problem, you use them.
You use them according to the label. You use them carefully,

(09:51):
and that's the best way to go about it. All Right,
let's take a little break here and we'll be right back.
Who knows what gemsen weed is? Yeah, we'll let that
be a mystery. See I about google lose Geen Audrey,
you know, the the uh singing cowboys back in the day.

(10:11):
I know this is a gardening show, but I got
to do a little music stuff every now and then.
Singing cowboys back in the day, it was a big deal.
You know. We had the you had the Roy Rogers
and the Geen Audrey were very famous now and I
say this, some of this is a like before my
time too, But anyway, uh and uh. There was a
lot of others, Tom Mix and lax LaRue. There were

(10:33):
a number of different singing cowboys back in the time.
But that was back in the day when you know
how you tell the good guys from the bad guys.
The good guys wore white hats, the black guys wore
bad hats. And usually if you were tied up in
a box canyon and there was a guy in a
black hat shooting at you from behind a boulder as
private bag all right. Anyway, I guess you could say

(10:54):
his life was simpler back then. I don't know, but anyway,
that was a big deal, all right. I went to
see Sons of the I went to see the Writers
in the Sky, which is a group more mine. They're
old folks now, but still there. They were kind of
like the Sons of the Pioneers, but they were also comedy.
So if you ever get chessea Writers in the Sky,

(11:15):
they're pretty hilarious anyway, and they're good. So there you
have it. So we were talking about the schedules and
lawn care and things like that, and I wanted to
visit with a number of topics this morning as we're
kind of getting wound up and you were getting your
eyes open with a cup of coffee. First of all,
thanks for being here on guarden Line. I'd like to

(11:36):
visit with you and enjoy doing this. One of my
happy places is visiting with gardeners. Gardeners or just by
and large. I found gardeners to be good people, nice folks.
Enjoy visiting with them. You know, they're just they're just good.
Very very few complaints about gardeners. One of them, though,
I do have a complaint about gardeners as they cannot

(11:57):
tell the truth about the tomatoes that they grew lash
or this year. You know, it's always like, well, how
did you even how did you even pick that tomato
through a four inch by six inch square cage opening?
It sounds like it it was a size of a VW.
But some fishermen are the same way. But anyway, I
had a number of questions lately about tomatoes, and I

(12:20):
thought i'd like to talk about that just a little bit.
When we get into the summertime, the temperatures warm up
and tomatoes do not set as well. By and large.
Now the worst effected tomatoes are the large slicer types.
The small fruited types like cherries and grapes sized tomatoes,
they tend to set better in the heat. They still

(12:41):
don't do as well, and the skin is very tough,
and the heat's kind of like a little plastic coating
or cellophane or something on the outside, but they do
a little bit better. Another thing that happens to tomatoes
in the summertime is that we can get sunburned when
the fowl cover isn't really good, and varieties differ in

(13:02):
their ability to cover with foliage your tomatoes will you'll
start to see kind of almost a tan spot on
the skin, and it's where the sun has burned the
skin on the tomato. So once it's done, there's not
much you can do about it but growing, you know,
good foliage and keeping the diseases off the foliage, because

(13:22):
when diseases kill the foliage, now the sun shines through
and you get more of the sunburn on your tomatoes.
I like to grow mine on a slanted trellis, and
I don't I'm not sure I know anybody that does this,
but for me, the tomato cages. I used to make
those tomato cages out of concrete reinforcing wire from my garden,

(13:43):
and then in the winter time, it's like, where are
you going to put all these giant cages? And so
what I started doing is taking livestock panels, those galvanized
panels you buy at farm and ranch stores, and taking
a bolt cutter and cutting them into sections. I actually
use the full sixteen foot panel because I can move them,
but for a lot of folks, cutting them in half

(14:04):
so you got two eight foot panels makes it easier
to move. Stick a couple of tea posts in the
ground and then put the panel leaning against the tea post,
just you know, not a forty five degree angle, but
very almost upright, but leaning against the teapost. And then
plant your tomato. By the way, put the panel on
the west side of your tomato row. If there is

(14:25):
a west side. The tomatoes will grow through the panel.
You can kind of weave them back and forth through there,
and you don't have to weave them in and out
of every hole. You just basically when I get one
that's kind of two foot long flopping out to one side,
I'll just pick it up and point it back through
the panel and it'll the panels will hold them and
that foliage on the west side. Then when the sun

(14:47):
shines in the hot part of the day, the tomatoes
are kind of in the shade of it, and it's upright,
the wind blows through. Disease problems are lessened by the
quick drying of that upright panel. And I just like it.
It works really well for me, and so you might
want to consider that there's something to do. That's one

(15:09):
way that you can deal with. So it's called the
other issue that we do a lot, and this doesn't
is not just a summer issue, but it's late spring too.
But the stink bugs and the leaf footed bugs, they
have a mouth part like a mosquito, you know, sticks
its mountains beak into your arm and sucks blood out. Well,

(15:29):
these stick their beak into your tomato spit caustic spit,
dissolve the tomato cells and slurp up the contents. I
hope you haven't had breakfast yet anyway, And so they're
a problem, and learning to identify them when they're in
egg stage and the nymph stage is the best way
to go, especially if you're an organic gardener. Stink bug

(15:52):
eggs look like little barrels that are clumped together. So
you know how a wine barrel or whiskey barrels kind
of bulging in the center a little bit, a little
bit narrow at the top. They're kind of like that,
not that exaggerated, but they're all clumped together. Some of
them have unique coloration, the harlequin bug eggs or zebra

(16:12):
striped black and white. But you can go online and
find that out. And when you know what that is,
you know it's it is a true hamiptra true bug
egg and you can just snap it or pinch it
or whatever right off, and you get the whole cluster
without ever having to spray. Then they hatch out into
little nymphs that looks somewhat like the adults. But again,

(16:35):
when you learn what to look for, and gardening is
a learning process, you simply take a little palosapie water,
put it underneath the branch and swat it with your hand.
They're in herds, they don't have wings, they're in the
nymph stage, and they fall into it and you're done,
and you didn't spray anything, and you got a dozen
of them with one swat. That's the best ways to
control them. Once they have wings, they're adults, they fly around.

(16:58):
Now they're not together anymore, and so you're kind of
running around the garden trying to spray these things. And
it takes a pretty potent spray to knock down and
take out a stink bug or a leaf footed bug.
So there's that issue of summer. Another issue of summer
that we have with our tomatoes is cracking. And there's
three types of cracking that I have seen on tomatoes.

(17:22):
One type are little cracks that go around the stem.
They're like not a whole circle around the stem, but
like a little you know, cressent moonsht a little curve
shape around the stem, and that is a crack that happens.
These kinds of cracks are very specific. Different types of

(17:42):
tomatoes are bad about it or not bad about it.
There's a similar crack number two that starts at the
stem and goes downward toward the blossom end, and it's
like you took a knife and just cut straight down
from up at the stem downward. That's also genetic in
the tomato variety, and it's something we just live with.
Usually it's not a problem. The third kind of crack

(18:04):
is the one that can be a problem, and that
one is when they crack from growth. Rapid growth. So
you've got a tomato it's growing in size and it
just sort of stops because it's dry conditions and the
plant is kind of on hold. But despite the fact
that it's not getting bigger, that tomato is still having

(18:26):
cell division inside. So think of cells as like little
tiny balloons inside of a cullphane plastic bag, a very
brittle plastic bag that's the skin of the tomato, and
it just keeps making more little tiny miniature balloons. Then
you get rain and water moves up in the plant

(18:48):
and all those balloons start to blow up. Well, the
skin can't hold the pressure of that expansion, and you
get cracks, and those are cracks that are done in
the flesh. It's in the juice. And once you get one,
unless you just pick it that day, it's going to
go bad and you lose those tomatoes. So that's another
thing that happens in summer, and the way we avoid

(19:08):
it is by keeping consistent soil moisture so they're growing
slowly over time rather than all of a sudden. All right,
well there's a few tomato ideas, some things that happen
to our tomatoes in summer. There's plenty more, including diseases
that we can talk about and whatnot, but those are
some of the issues that we deal with on our
tomatoes in the summertime. We're going to take a little

(19:29):
break here and turn it over to Erica for the news.
If you do have a gardening question. I've had a
few people call in and we lost the call, So
call back in Cleveland and some others and we'll get
you call in here and be happy to visit with you. Well,
let's see here. Let's go out to the phones this morning.
We've got a whoop, lost them there for a second. Oh,
they're back there, we go. All right, We're going to

(19:52):
head out here and talk to Rick and bass Drop
this morning. Hey, Rick, how are things over in bass Drop? Okay?
Let me try that again. Could you check on Rick
there and I'll come back to it. Excuse me. Well,

(20:13):
so I've been kind of doing a little monologues this
morning on some various things this summer. We just got
to talking about some of the tomato problems. There's plenty
more that we could. In fact, we could do a
whole show on tomato problems. In fact, I've been working
on an article that I'd like to get printed up
here on some of the things that go wrong with tomatoes,

(20:35):
because it's a list. All right, let's try this again. Hey, Rick,
are you there?

Speaker 2 (20:40):
Good morning?

Speaker 5 (20:41):
Yes?

Speaker 3 (20:43):
Good? How are things in bass Drop, Texas? All right? Okay?
All right, he answers with one very accurate word. How
can I help you today?

Speaker 6 (21:00):
I send you pictures of my Pindo palms in the backyard.

Speaker 2 (21:04):
I have three of them.

Speaker 4 (21:06):
I notice some.

Speaker 6 (21:09):
Looks like damage at the base where the old fronds
have been cut they're so loose I can actually.

Speaker 2 (21:16):
Pull them off.

Speaker 6 (21:19):
I was wondering if that is an issue with these poems.
The palm itself, the heart is has new growth.

Speaker 4 (21:26):
It looks beautiful.

Speaker 2 (21:28):
The palms have never looked better.

Speaker 7 (21:30):
But I'm worried about the base.

Speaker 3 (21:31):
Yeah, Pindo is not a palm that retains. It's the
bases of the petioles of the leaves, which is what
you're looking at there, you know, as they've been cut
off and trumped. But they will strip off and you
should be okay, you can pull those off and they
should come loose from in there as you wish. You know,

(21:53):
it's kind of an aesthetic aesthetic thing, but I wouldn't.
I don't see anything on the palm in the photos
that concerns me. So I think your palm palm is fine.

Speaker 6 (22:07):
All right, that's good news, wonderful.

Speaker 2 (22:10):
Yeah, right, just just kind.

Speaker 3 (22:12):
Of watch it there. There are there are some okay,
there are some trunk rots rick that can affect palm
trees in general. And so as you're pulling them off,
if you see decay that goes into the the wood
of the tree, you know, behind all those little petty
old bases sticking out well then that that's another issue.
But I don't see that on the pictures. So thank

(22:34):
you though for Colin. Appreciate you calling. Enjoy those pindows.
Pindos are a palm we don't see around as much
as I think we should.

Speaker 2 (22:41):
They're a good one, very good we will.

Speaker 6 (22:44):
Thanks, Thanks Kip, have a good.

Speaker 3 (22:46):
Day you too, Bye bye. Yeah. I grew I grew
up south of San Antonio, not too far about thirty
miles in a little tongue called Jordantown, Texas, and we
had pindo palms there at the hospital and out front.
I remember growing up seeing those things and they're they're
pretty hardy. You know, they're not the hardiest of palms,

(23:06):
but they're pretty hardy for a feather type palm. You know,
palms can have some palm fronds look like if you
take your hand and open it up, you know, like
your fingers and thumbs and everything all wide open. That
that is actually it's the palm of your hand. And
that type of botanical leaf shape is called palmate palmate

(23:29):
because it looks like the palm of your hand. Other
types of palms have more of a leaf that looks
like a feather where you have this long center piece
and then the little side shoots come out to the
sides from it. A feather like palm, and pindos a
feather like palm. In general, In general, feather like palms
tend to be more coal tender than palmed palmate type palms.

(23:51):
But that's a big generality, so don't you know, don't
go too far with that. But pendos a feather type palm,
and it's also called a jelly palm because it makes
a fruit and you can eat the fruit on a
pendo pump or bink jelly with it. All Right, Well,
there you go if you've got a gardening question. Seven
one three, two, one two, five eight seven four. We

(24:12):
are going to now head back out to the phones
and talk with Cleveland this morning. Hey Cleveland, how are
things in San Antonio?

Speaker 2 (24:22):
I'm not sure.

Speaker 4 (24:22):
I'm not there right now, but when I am there,
I have a lot of okay, and their aunt's actually
going in, so how do I do go to that?

Speaker 3 (24:31):
Okay? Are these fire ants they bite you or not?

Speaker 2 (24:36):
Yes?

Speaker 3 (24:37):
They bite okay. Uh. The best way to deal with
it is to get a fire at bait and put
it around the whole area. The ants in those containers
are leaving the container to crawl around and find food
and come back into that container. And uh so if
you have a fire at bait, they could be a

(24:57):
little bit in the container but mainly spread all all around.
That will shut them down pretty well there. The alternative
to that, Cleveland is to get a contact insecticide that
you would drench in water through the container to kill
the fiant bounds that are in there. Now, if you're
growing something that you want to eat, well that's not

(25:20):
real great. The bait is the better, less toxic option
for that. But those are your two options. To use
a bait around the container periodically and then to use
a contact insecticide something you can drench down in there.
And there's a number of those on the market for
fire ants.

Speaker 4 (25:38):
All right, sounds good, Thanks for you help.

Speaker 3 (25:41):
All right? You bet all right? Thank you. Take care.
So for for fire and information, there is a website
and I think it's I think I'm going to find
out right here. I think it's fire ance dot t
a m U dot e edu and uh maybe firent

(26:02):
dot tamoo dot du. But it has more information on
fire innts and you can imagine. Yeah, it's fire innt
single dot tamoo dot du and on there there's fact sheets,
there's slides, there's videos. There's even recordings of fire ants sounds.
Can you believe that? Is that cool?

Speaker 5 (26:21):
Or what?

Speaker 3 (26:21):
Photo galleries? Uh, there's a section called Kids Ants and
it's all for kids about ants, learning about ants and
if you're looking for organic information, if you're looking if
you want to watch videos of the little fly that
lays an egg in the ant's head and the egg
hatches out and the head falls off. Is that cool
or what? Yeah, it's all there, fire ant dot tamoo d.

(26:44):
You ought to go check it out. Pretty cool stuff. Listen,
if you hadn't verlize your lawn, this summer sweet green
from nitrofoss would be a great idea. You put it down,
you watered in, it dissolves away and the nutrient in
sweet green is primary nitrogen, which is the nutrient that
lunes primarily need this in the growing season, and uh,

(27:06):
it goes in, it makes a long green. The microbes
take it from there. I guess that's the way to
look at it. Night fresh products are available at many
places like encented Gardens down on FM three point fifty
nine in the Richmond Rosenberg area, as well as Langham
Creek Ace Hardware on FM five twenty nine in Cyprus
and down to Stafford at Court Hardware on South Maine.

(27:29):
Let's take a little break. We'll come back with our
last segment of this hour. All right, welcome back to
Guardline folks. Good have you with us. Here is a
phone number if you'd like to give me a call.
Seven one three two one two five eight seven four.
Let's talk a little bit about vegetable garden this morning
and things you can plant right now. It is possible
to still plant sweet potatoes. They take about one hundred

(27:51):
and twenty days. And so what's that four months? So
we've got it'd be in August, September, October, November. Oh
that's getting a little late. I don't know. It's gonna
be a may be a slim, a slim slim harvest.
But I would I would do it still. Southern Peace
could still go in now. Okra, Oh my gosh, don't
get me started. Okra can go in right now. I

(28:14):
h I need to write something about Okra. I just
I just do I keep coming up with all these
fun facts about Okra. I have a T shirt that
family gave me as a gift, and it's an Okra
with boxing gloves. It kind of looks like Gumby. You
remember a Gumby looked like Gumby and Pokey, the claymation

(28:34):
kind of creatures. Anyway, it looks sort of like that,
and he's got boxing gloves on. It says the Fighting Okra.
There is a university in Mississippi, Delta State University, and
the unofficial mascot of Delta State University is the Fighting Okra. Now,
I've always been amused at the kinds of mascots that
some universities choose. And you know there's a range there.

(28:58):
But you know there's some things that you think of
a mascot as like it's gonna it's gonna be some
fierce you know, like Lion or you know something like that. Yeah,
that's formidable. But Okra. I guess you know what do
the cheerleaders say it don't to state, go go fighting

(29:21):
Okra and make them really itchy. I don't know, but anyway,
that's it. But I love it, love Okra anyway. Okra. Now, yes, absolutely,
Pumpkins as we get toward the end of this month,
and even in the middle of the month, you can
put winter squashes in winter squashes. Let's just do it
real quick. Summer squash squashed you eat when it's immature,

(29:44):
before it gets fully mature. Zucchini and yellow crook neck
or straight neck squashes, those are two examples of many
summer squashes. Winter squashes are not eaten in winter or
grown in winter. They're not grown in winter. They store
for two three months, depends on the squash. They store

(30:06):
for a while. Pumpkins are an example of that, and
so you plant them now and again we're looking at
probably ninety days on a pumpkin to get ready. There's
some that are a little faster, for sure, and then
there's things like other winter squashes would be a spaghetti squash,
butternut squash, those kinds of things they store. They're hard squashes.

(30:28):
We don't pick them midmature and eat them. We pick
them when they're mature. The seeds are developed inside because
we're going to scrape them out of there to eat,
and the skin is really tough, leathery. You stick your
thumb nail in it and it doesn't easily pierce through,
unlike a summer squash. They can be planted. Now, lots
of herbs, you know, Basil loves the heat. It never
gets too hot for basil, and rosemary and or regino

(30:52):
and some others. Those can all be planted. And then
the summer greens. Malabar spinach is not a spinach. It
is a green that is musilaginous, which means slimy. But
it's a good one that grows in the summer. Molechhia
it's another green that does very well in the heat.
You ought to be grown it. If you're not, it's
a it's an excellent one. And then there's some others.

(31:15):
You know, there's there's in my garden. I have a
number of different hot weather greens, things that do real
well in the heat. But you can plant all those.
Just got to water them. That's the bottom line. Just
got a water. Okay, let's see here. Oh, I know,
I know what I was wanting to visit about. Uh So,

(31:35):
in the in the summer garden, one of the most
important things you do is put on mulch. The sun
gets the soil incredibly hot, blazing hot. I mean, it's
it's like way higher than roots can stand up near
the surface, and as you go down it of course
gets cooler, but you lose this zone at the top

(31:56):
of the soil because it's too blasted hot and it
dries out fast because it's sitting in the sun. So
if you put maulta over the surface, you lower the
soil temperature, you increase the zone of where roots can
actually grow and take up water and nutrients, which is good.
My crobes do very well there because the temperatures are
moderate and they're able to do what they need to do.

(32:18):
But there's warm but moderate, so I always keep it molt.
And then finally, wherever sunlight hits the soil, nature plants
of weed. So unless you just enjoy growing weeds so
you can pull them up, keep mulch on the soil surface,
flower beds, vegetable gardens, anywhere there's soil, you need to
have mulch or something plant material covering that soil to

(32:38):
block the sunlight. That's a little summer tip there. Watch
out for spider mites. They like dry, hot, dusty conditions,
and so summertime I've been seeing spider mites all over
the place. Everywhere. It seems like I worre I'm going
I'm seeing spider mites now, and they will suck the

(33:00):
juices out of leaves and you get a white stippling
to them. Sometimes a bronzing color happens on the leaf.
And when they're really bad, you even see a very
fine webbing, not like a spider web hanging through the
air to catch bugs, but a very fine fine webbing
over the surface of the leaf and kind of connecting
the leaf to the stem. And you know, it depends

(33:21):
on how bad they are as to how big the
webbing is. But they're easy to manage. You can spray them.
There's a number of options. Probably the safest, well not
probably the safest way to manage fire ants, when it's
practical with a particular plant you're growing, is to blast
them with water. Remember they're primarily underneath the leaf, so

(33:42):
you've got to get underneath there and blast them really
well with water in order to shut things down. And
if you do that about once a week, just blast
them with water. It doesn't eradicate them, but it keeps
their numbers down so low that they don't matter. The
next option would be insecticidal sober horticultural life again, sprayed
upward from underneath the plant to give them a bath

(34:02):
in it, and that works fine. Just going to be
careful with soaps and oils in the heat of summer.
Let's see here, oh, Plants Fall Seasons, which is just
north of Luetta on Tumbull Parkway Highway two forty nine.
They have really stocked up on a number of great

(34:23):
types of plants, certainly herbs. They've got a really good
selection of herbs right now. Just looks great. If you
want some beautiful basils, you need to check them out.
I'mon verbena, marjoram. A lot of different kinds of herbs
that they carry. They also have a good selection of
vines and annual color and stuff. You need to stop

(34:45):
buy there. Plants Fall Seasons dot com wonderful place. Knowledgeable
folks too. We can't be at the end of an
hour that went too fast. They say times fought. Time
flies when you're having fun, right, you know what, Kermit
the frog says, time's fun when you're having flies. Sorry,

(35:09):
bad joke. Let's get us some coffee. I'll meet you
right back here after the top of the hour and
we will talk gardening. If you want to be first
up when we come back. We got open lines, wide
open lines right now. You can call sometime during this
news break and we'll get you on the board so
we can talk to you as one of the first
callers from the current seven three two one two five

(35:34):
eight seven. Welcome back to guard Line. I'm your host,
Skip Richter, and we're here to help you have a
bountiful garden and a beautiful landscape and more fun in
the process. Don't forget that last one that is very important.
Gardening should be fun and it should be rewarding, and
it is when you find that you're having success and

(35:57):
the thing you dreamt about, you know, those to you
dreamt about when you bought that little tomato plant to
take home, the roses, the cut flowers in a vase
that you dreamt about, when you bought that little rose
bush to come home and plant, that you get to
realize those wonderful results. And that's what we're here to
help you with. Seven one three, two one two five

(36:18):
eight seven four seven one three two one two fifty
eight seventy four Microlife fertilizers, number of great products on
the market. You know with Microlife, you know that you're
getting a quality product, one that is proven, that works,
that gives you the results you're looking for. If you're
wanting to give a little boost to your summer lawn,
I can't think of a better option than Microlife's Green Bag,

(36:39):
which is multipurpose six two four organic fertilizer.

Speaker 7 (36:43):
UH.

Speaker 3 (36:44):
You put it down, follow the label instructions on how
much to apply, put it on your lawn, water it in,
and as you do that over and over again through
the years, through the seasons, you continue not just to
feed the lawn the nutrients it needs, but to also
help build that soil surface over time. Because Microlife products

(37:04):
are in themselves organic matter. If you're dealing with to
take all root rot, I would suggest something a little
outside the box, and that is that you use the
Microlife acidifier the red bag. Still the same quality nutrients
that are in there, but with an acidifying function that
makes that disease take all root rot a little less

(37:26):
at home up there at the surface. As the soil surface,
the runner surface and things are more acidic, the disease
conditions are not as favorable to the disease. I want
to be clear, I'm not saying that Microlife Acidifier red
bag will cure take all root rot. I'm saying that,
like all organic gardening from a cultural standpoint, we create
conditions where plants thrive and problems don't. And that's exactly

(37:50):
what you can do, all right from the folks at Microlife.
Let's see. Let's go out here now to Kingwood, Texas
and talk to Joe this morning. Hey, Joe, welcome to
garden Line.

Speaker 2 (38:00):
Good morning, Skip.

Speaker 7 (38:01):
I sent you some photos. Hopefully you've had a chance
to look at them. I've wanted to know when to
add potting soil to my plants and containers. I've had
these for several years and the potting soil level has
come down quite a bit in the containers, and one
to know is it okay to add potting soil to

(38:24):
them now or should I wait until winter? Like the
Porto Laca and the sweet potato viny'll come back each
spring after they die off in the winter because I
protect them.

Speaker 2 (38:35):
In the winter.

Speaker 3 (38:37):
Oh good, okay. Well, so the first answers you can
do at anytime you want. You're going to be adding
the potting soil under the plants rather than on top
of them, so you would turn the pot over, you
would slide the plant out, and then you would put
fresh potting soil in the bottom. Maybe if you've got

(38:57):
roots going around in circles and stuff, and you know,
kind of cut some of those away and and then
reset the plant so that the top of the soil
where the plant is growing is you know, within an
inch of the top of the pot, so you have
room to water and get a good deep soaking down
in there. So you could do that. Now, it's a
stressful time in summer to be doing that. I would

(39:20):
probably hold off if it were me, and do it
for annual plants. I would just do it when the
plant's gone. But most of yours you're saying you're keeping
as perennials, so I would probably do that before I
put them out in the spring, you know, as you
as you're getting ready to put them back outside, and

(39:41):
we're not worried about freezes anymore.

Speaker 7 (39:44):
All right, that sounds like a winter. And then after
I do that, put some maybe medina has to grow
for plants or something like that, or is that necessary
at that time?

Speaker 3 (39:56):
No, that would be excellent. Any kind of a product.
As they begin to grow, put down in there to
kind of help give them a boost would be very helpful. Yeah,
Medina Hastrogra is an excellent product, the astrograph for plants
in this case.

Speaker 7 (40:11):
Yeah, and then the like on the box would which
is really big. I don't think I'm going to be
able to slide it out, so just add to the
top of it a little bit at a time, or
how would you do that one?

Speaker 3 (40:25):
Well, when you say not be able to, is it
just because of the weight of the root ball or
what's Yeah, just.

Speaker 7 (40:33):
The weight of the plant. And yeah, it's a really
large container.

Speaker 3 (40:36):
Yeah, well that's why. You know, generally, if you pull
on a plant, you can end up breaking roots or
the base or cracking the trunk or something. On a
heavier root ball like that. That's why I like to
turn it, just roll it to the side, kind of
tap on it, roll it a little bit, tap on it,
you know, kind of knock it loose from the container.

(40:57):
And sometimes I'll even stick something like a doll through
the hole in the bottom to kind of push on
it as I pull, and it just slides out and
you don't have to lift anything. You would just put
the soil in and then you could slide it, you know,
back in there. If you want, But anyway, I generally
don't like adding too much sol to the top because
then it's like you're burying part of the trunk when.

Speaker 2 (41:20):
You do that, and that's not good for shuta trees.

Speaker 3 (41:25):
Okay, all right, thank you, Joe.

Speaker 7 (41:27):
Thanks for you by skip.

Speaker 3 (41:28):
Goodbye, yep, yep, bye bye you bet ace. Hardware stores
have got you covered when it comes to finding great
fertilizers for your lawn, like the kind I talk about
on guard Line, for finding products to manage problems on
your plants, for finding the tools you need to have
success in the garden. Whatever you want to do. You

(41:51):
want to create your little paradise out there in the
landscape and in the garden, stop in today's hardware and
let them help you have success. And when it comes
to tending for the things like your turf and your
shrubs and things, power tools, battery power tool equipment, which
I think is a very good way to go. You
know it used to be the battery powered equipment is

(42:13):
it's just not adequate in terms of its power and stuff.
My gosh, Now I have a mower I got recently,
an Ego more one of the newer ones. I had
an old one when they first came out, and now
these newer ones is like, that's that's more powerful than
a gas engine. I mean, they really do the job.
And ACE Hardware carries stuff like that. They carry the
Ego minim carry the Ego brand and other many many

(42:36):
other good brands. You know, when you go in to ACE,
you're going to get a quality equipment. Go to ACE
Hardware Texas dot com that website. Don't forget Texas Ace
Hardware Texts dot com. Find my ACE Hardware source and
go check one out. Today. Let's go to Tyler County
now and talk to Dan. Well, Hello, Dan, welcome to
garden Line.

Speaker 5 (43:00):
Uh, Hello, here he is.

Speaker 2 (43:06):
I'm sorry, I was just listen.

Speaker 5 (43:08):
Uh.

Speaker 8 (43:10):
Okay, you know.

Speaker 5 (43:12):
I've got a question about Uh. I had a satsuma
gifted me earlier this spring. I'm worried.

Speaker 1 (43:21):
I need I want to get it in the ground. Okay,
So is this would it be better to report it
and replant it or planet in the ground next spring
or what is the best time?

Speaker 3 (43:41):
Well, Uh, you can you can plan a satsuma pretty
much any time. We generally like to time at the
end of winter and in an early.

Speaker 2 (43:52):
Spring might be though.

Speaker 3 (43:58):
Yes, not not so at the end of your I
understand at the end of your winter. Uh, in early spring,
I you know, wait until the forecast is like, okay,
we're typically not going to have any more freezes. Then
put the thing out. But you can plan it now.
There's nothing wrong with planning it right now. You just
have to remember one thing when you put it in

(44:20):
the ground. You have to pretend that it's still in
a pot and water that spot where the pot was,
because that's where all the roots are. And it'll go
dry in a day if you don't continue to water
it like you had to water when it was in
a pot.

Speaker 2 (44:35):
Okay, yes, so I understand of water.

Speaker 5 (44:42):
One question I have this, Yeah, I heard that if
you might be whole square instead around the corners, the
roots can start, you know, the new roots that grow,
they hit a corner and start growing in instead of
growing in a circle.

Speaker 3 (45:04):
There is some truth to that. A shovel can create
a slick sided hole that roots hit the sides of,
especially in a clay soil, uh, and they kind of
go in the shower. You can do the square, or
you can just take your shovel and hit it into
the sides of the hole after you dig it to

(45:27):
make in irregular holes, you know, so it's kind of
going in and out and in and out a little
bit from doing that, and that'll accomplish the same thing.
But remember citrus. Citrus doesn't like wet feet. So I
would seriously consider taking the area as big of an
area around where you want to plant your satsuma and
mixing as deep in as you can a bunch of

(45:47):
organic matter and maybe a little expended shale and create
a little bit of a roasted mound so excess soil
drains away, because a clay hole can become an underground
bathtub and drown those roots. So I would go to
those extra Dan, Yeah, yeah, but anyway, that's my suggestion.

(46:08):
I'm here, I'm gonna have to run. I'm I've got
gone past a commercial broad here.

Speaker 5 (46:13):
You have one comment. I did have ballod bar spinach
for gear. I'm right. I tried it up a lottice
work and it was so beautiful with their flowers and
I could go eat I could just pick it and
eat it.

Speaker 4 (46:29):
All right.

Speaker 3 (46:29):
Hey, Dan, thank you for thank you for your call.
I appreciate that you. Take care and good luck with
that new Setsumo. Folks will be right back. We're talking gardening.
You got a gardening question, well, give me a call.
Seven one three two two five A seven four. Let's
see if we can help you have success, you know,
either some suggestions for ideas to do, ways to fight problems,

(46:52):
to resolve problems in your landscape and lawn or whatever
you want to talk about. As long as it's gardening related,
we'll be happy to do that. Let's head out now
to the phone phones. We're going to go to Magnolia
this morning and talk to Tim. Now, Hey, Tim, welcome
to garden Line.

Speaker 9 (47:07):
Hey Skip, Hey, Uh, I've got in my very front
of my yard. I've got a lot of trees, I mean,
and I've never been able to grow into the weeds don't.

Speaker 2 (47:16):
Even grow there.

Speaker 9 (47:17):
It's uh, it's got a little filtered sun, but not much.
I was wanting to know your take on the those
newest grasses that are shade tolerant, I mean, how shade
tolerant you think I.

Speaker 10 (47:30):
Can go with that?

Speaker 11 (47:31):
You know?

Speaker 10 (47:31):
Worth the extra or there different?

Speaker 9 (47:34):
Is there different brands of the shade tolerant.

Speaker 3 (47:37):
Or yeah, yeah there's uh there are, but uh, let
me ask you. This is your is is your shade
deciduous trees that the sunshine's in the winter through them,
or is it like a live oak that pretty much
all year there's no sunlight.

Speaker 9 (47:54):
It's uh, basically a lot of pines and.

Speaker 3 (47:58):
A few oaks. Okay, Okay, So here's the thing. Some
grasses are more shade tolerant than others, and there's a
moderate amount of difference between the two. But as you
get to where there's not enough light, even the more
shade tolerant options are they're gonna be weak, and they're

(48:21):
not gonna be vigorous, and they're not going to be
dense like they would be in the sunlight. So at
some point making a decision about well, other than grass,
what can I do? And there's radical options like taking
out trees so that you can have a lawn, or
you know, pruning limbs out is just a temporary fix

(48:42):
and it just typically isn't a good one. But if
you're wanting a shade tolerant species, Saint Augustine is about
as shade tolerant as you can get. There is there
are some Saint Augustine's they're a little better than others,
but it's not that significant the difference between them. Then
there is Zoysias that are the fine textured Zuysias. The

(49:06):
leaves are skinnier than a bermuda grass leaf, and they
those kind, the fine textured kind will also be quite
shade tolerant and be approaching the Saint Augustine as well.
So those are two options, Saint Augustine. I'll give you
a variety I have in my yard underneath a giant

(49:28):
cypress tree, some Xeon Zoysia Zeo N and xeon has
proven to be quite shade tolerant for me. But you
can have shade that no grass is going to grow in.
So it just depends on how many flip candles of
light for how many hours are hitting those grass blades.

Speaker 9 (49:52):
Yeah, don brass, Like when I've heard people discuss like
just covering, but also because they prop leaves usually moult
them up and so some sort of just covering sometime
won't work if I can't mow over it, you know,
you know, because of the leaves dropping.

Speaker 3 (50:11):
Yeah, so yeah, yeah, well, you know, the leaves laying
on the surface of the grass is very bad. You know,
you need to not let that stay for very long
at all, because that that is directly shading them. But
you know your options are either to do your best

(50:32):
as you can with turf, try to keep the foot
traffic off of it so that it has its best chance.
Mow it as high as you can so that it
looks as thick as it can be. You know, if
you mow it down low like a golf course green,
well you just taking all the solar panels away, and
it really isn't gonna do good in the shade. So
a taller, taller mowing helps, uh and then finally just

(50:53):
deciding to switch to some other option if the grass
isn't gonna do it.

Speaker 2 (51:00):
So what was that one you said?

Speaker 3 (51:03):
Zoysia brand that was there? There's as variety that I
have is Xeon ze O n it's one. I have
more than one variety in the yard, but Xeon has
been pretty shade tolerant for me. And Zeze comes to
oversimplify Zosia. It comes in two types, a broader leaf

(51:25):
type which is still about a third as wide as
the Saint Augustine leaf, and then a narrow leaf type,
which is skinnier than a bermuda leaf.

Speaker 4 (51:33):
Uh.

Speaker 3 (51:33):
And and it's a skinnier leaf type that in general
does better in the shade, but Xeon has been excellent
for me.

Speaker 9 (51:41):
Do you think all to go like I've heard some
good things like that King Ranch grass is.

Speaker 3 (51:45):
Do they carry that or.

Speaker 5 (51:47):
Is it just the.

Speaker 3 (51:51):
Well All Seasons All Seasons Turf is out west of Houston,
and I realized, you know, you're you're kind of north
and east, but they deliver to your area. They're All
Seasons Turf and they carry the Xeon, and so I
would if you're gonna look at doing Zoysia, I would
look at that. I do a little online research too

(52:13):
to see what whether you like that or not. It's
a different kind of turf. It needs to be mode
with a real sharp mower, but I think it's a
nice soft textured turf that I like. So if you
want to go to All Seasons turf dot com, All
Seasons Turf dot Com, that that's where you go. You
can see pictures of it. You can find out how

(52:36):
to contact them, you know, telling me you heard about
him here on Guardline and they're north of Brookshire, just
west of too of Highway ninety nine about the Patow Road.
You want a phone number, right, I can probably look
it up, Okay, good. All right, So Saint Augustine or

(52:57):
fine textured Zoysier, your best best efforts at that, right,
all right, thank you, grank bye you bet bye bye.
All right, there you go.

Speaker 2 (53:09):
Uh.

Speaker 3 (53:10):
Superturf nineteen four to ten from Nitrofoss, the silver bag.
Easy to remember.

Speaker 10 (53:16):
Uh.

Speaker 3 (53:16):
It's available widely across the region. You can find it
at D and D feed and Tomball. You know, if
you're down in Alvin, Stanton Shopping Center or North Taylor
carries night Foss products. Plants and things. Out in Brennam
carry night Foss products. They're on highly thirty six South
out there in Brenham.

Speaker 7 (53:32):
Uh.

Speaker 3 (53:32):
But Superturf is an excellent product. And when you put
it down now you're going to be fertilized up all
the way up into fall when you put your fall
fertilization down. Folks at Nitravos Superturf, a lot of people
have used it and swear by it because it works,
does a very very good job. Let's head to Alvin
now and we're going to visit with Debbie this morning. Hey, Debbie,
welcome to garden Line.

Speaker 4 (53:54):
He cood Corn.

Speaker 12 (53:54):
How are you.

Speaker 13 (53:57):
Just fine?

Speaker 3 (53:58):
Thank you?

Speaker 5 (54:00):
Question?

Speaker 12 (54:02):
Yes, what do you know about bananas and growing bananas.
I have a banana grove now and actually got it
from a coworker and the brand is from like it's
an Asian variety. It's supposed to taste like custard. But
every year I've had a banana, a little banana crop
that either the hurricane or a freeze took it out.
I mean, we have bananas in December. So I'm just

(54:25):
wondering what can you do to actually get a crop
of bananas.

Speaker 3 (54:30):
Okay, So banana sends up this shoot that we would
call a trunk from the base, and uh, it needs
many months to be able to mature to produce bananas,
and then for the bananas to ripen. And so if
you can get through a winter and protect some of
those trunks, then you're even though they lose the outer leaves,

(54:52):
they they just leaf back out again and it's easier
to get a good crop if they freeze back to
the ground. Every year, it's hard to get a good
crop out of a banana, and so doing some things
to protect those trunks. I've got a publication on my
website that is on protecting plants from frosts and freezes.
It's nine pages of full color pictures that you can

(55:14):
look at on your computer or print out. But go
to gardening with Skip dot com and you'll find advice
there that you could apply to your banana plants in
order to get them through. Then they just need the
time and to form those fruiting, flowering and fruiting stalks
that the bananas grow on and with a lot of Yeah,

(55:40):
a lot of the varieties that are that are recommended
and sold stuff are somewhat dwarf. There's one called dwarf
Cavendish that's a smaller plant and it just makes it
a little easier to cover them up, you know. But
if you can get the majority, yeah, well, the majority
of the trunk to survive through the winter would be stuff.

(56:00):
And that's just a matter of having enough warmth around
it to keep it from freezing back. So how cold
the year is? Publication?

Speaker 4 (56:16):
Yes, all right, thank you for your help, sir.

Speaker 12 (56:20):
Okay, thank you, thank.

Speaker 3 (56:22):
You very much. Bye bye bananas. Yes, we have no bananas.
You know that song?

Speaker 5 (56:30):
Do you have that? Do you have that song?

Speaker 3 (56:31):
Justin Yes, we have no bananas.

Speaker 5 (56:35):
Ah.

Speaker 3 (56:35):
Affordable tree service from Martin Spoonmore's company. You get good
service you get expert advice and have him come out,
have him do an assessment of your trees. Look at them. Well,
you know, where are some limbs that look problematic that
need to be trimmed or moved or something like that.
When that storm comes and does the damage it does,

(56:56):
the economical loss that you experience on a tree is ramatic,
and it makes sense to have them come out that
knows what they're doing, like Martin Spoon Moore Affordable Tree
to come out there and check over your trees to
make sure they are trimmed and pruned and taken care
of basically. Seven one three six nine nine two six

(57:18):
sixty three seven one three, six nine nine twenty six
sixty three. Give Martin a call. Don't wait, storms are coming.
Get it done now. Let's take a little break and
we'll be right back. Hey, it's good to have you
back with us.

Speaker 13 (57:32):
UH.

Speaker 3 (57:32):
If you got a gardening question, here is a phone
number seven one three two one two five eight seven
four seven one three two one two fifty eight seventy four.
I would like for you to write down a website
if you will, and it is the website for wild
Birds Unlimited Houston area stores We've got six of them

(57:53):
here that are part of my Houston area group of
wild Birds Unlimited. If you are on the west side
of Houston, there's a store on Memorial Drive. If you're
up in Kingwood, there's one in Kingwood Drive. If you're
in pair Land on East Broadway, there's a wild Bird's
Unlimited store. Down in south west Houston on bel Air Boulevard.

(58:15):
There is a wild Bird's Unlimited store up in Cypress
on Barker Cypress, and then in Clearland on Eldorado Boulevard.
Six stores. They go all over the Houston area. If
you go to the website WBU dot com forward slash Houston,
you can find your local store, you get directions to it,

(58:36):
you can find the website of it. There are so many.
First of all, if you are all interested. This website
also is good because there's all kinds of information on
their products and backyard birds too. For example, you click
on the backyard birds section of it, and you know
the bluebirds and chickadees and hummingbirds and woodpeckers and finches

(58:58):
and warblers and sparrows, and you know just all kinds
of birds. It's there. There are bird behavior information like
bird bathing, the migration of birds, the molting of birds,
and so on. If you got birds that run into
your windows, you ever heard that happen to bird fly
into a window, they talked to you about how to

(59:18):
work with that. But your store owners and your store
staff are so helpful and educational. They can help you
find success. And this website, you really need to look
at it. There's a section get close to Nature, and
the information on the activities things for kids too. By

(59:39):
the way, gardening for birds, there's a section on that
how to clean a bird feeder properly, and that's important.
You know that I clean mind periodically and if rain
gets in them that food, the bird seed starts to
mold a little bit. You got to get that clean.
Now that's nasty, not good for the birds. But it
tells you how to do all these things right there
on the web site. And when you go in and

(01:00:01):
meet your folks at your wild Bird's Unlimited store, you're
going to find them be very helpful, incredibly knowledgeable, and
they have the products that you're looking for, the products
that you need, and products by season. You know, bird
seed does not equal bird seed. There's two ways bird
seed does not equal bird seed. One is the quality.
I was in I can't remember what store, some other

(01:00:24):
kind of store that had bird seed for sale, and
I looked and there was a bag and it was
full of the red bebies and that is stuff that
birds aren't that fond of the milo that's in there.
And it was like a huge percentage, huge percent It
was the number one thing listed on the ingredient list
for that bird seed. Well, the bird seed was not
that expensive, but how expensive is it when bird's kicking

(01:00:48):
it all off on the ground trying to find something
they want to eat that Wabbird's Unlimited makes blends that
birds want to eat. That is very important that you
know that now. Right now they're talking about their feather
Pro Specialty superblend. Feather Pro super Blend's got extra protein
in fat. Right now, birds are doing a molting and

(01:01:09):
when you molt, you loose feathers and you got to
grow new feathers, and feathers take certain things, certain nutrients.
The birds need to replace those feathers and maintain a
good healthy body condition. And wild Birds Unlimited has a
blend just for that. You can buy it in a bag.
The feather pro in a bag. You can buy it
in a cylinder. The compressed cylinder the birds have to
peck the seeds out, and you can buy it in

(01:01:31):
a cylinder that's got the hot pepper oils in it.
They don't buy the birds at all, but boy do
they keep those little squirrels out.

Speaker 9 (01:01:38):
You know.

Speaker 3 (01:01:38):
Squirrels are mammals like us, and it burns our low
mouth when we get hot pepper oil in it, and
it keeps them out of there essential proteins and fats.
You need to support that feather growth and development at
your local wild Birds Unlimited store, which you can find
at WBU dot com forward slash Houston WBU dot com

(01:01:59):
forward slash Houston. Alrighty, I need to get feed and
fill my bird feeders. I was out in the yard
yesterday and looking around and I just saw that, oh
my gosh, that feeder is empty, and I need to
get back out there and fill it because they're depending
on that. By the way, one last thing about birds, water, water,
water water. It is hot and some areas have gotten

(01:02:23):
some rain, but typically this time of year hot and
dry or common, and birds hacked have water. If they're
like you, how long could you live out there without water.
Put some water out for them. If you got some
water that makes us sound like a little fountain or
something like that, they'll love that. They are attracted that
they can hear of that. And if you want to
bring birds to your yard in the summertime, water is

(01:02:46):
in a central component. Yeah, they'll come for food and
shelter and other things, but water so important for them.
Plus you get to watch them up close to So
there you go. You were listening to garden line. If
you would like to give me a call seven three
two one two five eight seven four seven one three
two one two fifty eight seventy four. If you're looking

(01:03:08):
for a natural fertilizer out there in the lawn that
is built around a molasses base, and in the organic
gardener knows that molasses in the soil is rocket fuel
for microbes, especially bacteria, and the addition of that kind
of substance into the soil molasses based substance fires up

(01:03:28):
those microbes. They basically take the granules of sweet green
a night FoST product, take them apart, get that eleven
percent nitrogen out of there. It's available for your grass.
Grass turns green, You get happy, lawn is dense, less weeds,
all about taking care of your lawn, and Sweet Green

(01:03:49):
from night Frost can be purchased many places like Headen
and Feed on Stubner Airline, Ace Hardware City over All
Memorial on the West Side, Aspose Ace up in the
Woodlands on Kirkandall and D and D Feed Up in
Tumble carries the nitrofoss products, including sweet Green. I got there,

(01:04:10):
by the way. You can also get it at Plants
Fall Seasons on Highway two forty nine, which is Tomball
Parkway just north of Lueta. So you're listening to your guardline,
and I want to visit with you about a couple
of things right here before we go to a break
in a bit. If you have not, if you're not
if you haven't grown herbs, or if you're not currently

(01:04:33):
grown herbs, you're really missing out. There's so many great
herb plants right now. Basil, Oh, my gosh, how many
kinds of basil are there? I need to hunt that down,
But it's a basilion. A bazillion kinds of basil, lemon
basil and lime basil and regular basil and Genovie's basil
and Holy basil and African blue basil, and on and

(01:04:55):
on down the line. So many good basils, and they
love the heat and they bloom and they bring in
beneficial insects. So here's a plant that's culinary, that's attractive,
and that feeds beneficial insects. That's a good deal to
add to the landscape. Maybe you need a groundcover type
of herb, something like time can grow underneath other plants

(01:05:16):
and round plants and form sort of a groundcover or
spill over the sides of a container. That's a good one.
I've got some oregano and I can't remember which one.
I have Greek maybe, but anyway, there's several kinds of regane.
Oh my gosh, that stuff is on steroids and it
is just growing like a weed. It's a beautiful plant.
And then it also has blooms too seasonally. And then

(01:05:39):
you also get the benefit of the culinary. So I
would recommend growing herbs. Growm in containers, grow them in
flower beds. Grow them. You know, you take a bunch
of chives and put them in a row, and it's
like loriapy going down the around the edge of a bed.
As long as it's good sunlight lots of good options,
lots of good reasons to grow herbs, and they do
so well here. Just missing out if you're not trying

(01:06:01):
out some of these. Let's take a little break and
I'll be right back with your calls. Seven one three
two one two five eight seven four. Good to have
you with us. We're going to head out to the phones.
First thing here, and let's see start always start with
who's been waiting long? Riley in Houston. Hey, Riley, welcome
to guarden Line.

Speaker 11 (01:06:21):
I him, good morning. I have two I have two
to three year old mealy grass and have been citing
mealee bugs for the last month or so. That seems
to have invested my grass. I've been spring okay, been
at sat on them about every other week, but they

(01:06:42):
still seem to come back.

Speaker 5 (01:06:44):
What should I do?

Speaker 3 (01:06:46):
Okay, that's a good question. We've got a new mealee
bug that is infesting pastures here in southeast Texas and
they're very concerned about because it is it takes toll
and really takes that grass down. I I would need

(01:07:06):
a little more time to look into what they're finding
out about this particular really aboug Riley, but I would
think that a systemic insecticide with a meadow cloprid, and
it would be the place I would start.

Speaker 2 (01:07:20):
Uh.

Speaker 3 (01:07:20):
And again that this is my this is my best
best shot. You know, off off off the help for
you're the first person that's called about this, by the way,
but it is an issue. Uh amidow cloak bred is used.
You'll you'll find it in products for your lawn to
control grubs and for example and stuff in the lawn.

(01:07:42):
You put it down and you drench it around those
clumps of mealy grass. The roots take it up, and
anything sucking juices out of the plant UH is going
to be controlled by it. Since mealy grass doesn't have
flowers that attract the honeybees in, we don't have that
worry about of that. So that would be where I

(01:08:02):
would start. Get you a get you a turf product
with I I'm gonna do you have a pen handy there?

Speaker 2 (01:08:09):
Yes?

Speaker 3 (01:08:12):
Okay?

Speaker 5 (01:08:13):
I do?

Speaker 10 (01:08:13):
Uh?

Speaker 3 (01:08:14):
I am I am I d O C wait mid
o C l O p R I D.

Speaker 11 (01:08:28):
Okay. And how often should I do this?

Speaker 3 (01:08:32):
You shouldn't have to do it very often at all.
One application ought to take care of it.

Speaker 10 (01:08:37):
Uh.

Speaker 3 (01:08:37):
So UH, the the the product will take. It will
take a week or so to get up in the plant,
and then it'll last for us several weeks. They're in
the plant. By the way, you're in you're in Houston.
H Yes, I don't Houston has Harris County has not

(01:08:59):
been a site of known pasture mealybug infection. There's a
map online and there's a lot of maps. A lot
of counties throughout our region have but not not hairshet
So that's interesting that you might have that. I want

(01:09:20):
to go ahead.

Speaker 11 (01:09:24):
Sorry, I've been spraying just before the sun goes down.
What time should I treat it?

Speaker 3 (01:09:30):
It doesn't matter with the systemic insecticide, because it's going
to go down in the roots and be taken up
in the plumbing of the plant. By that, I would
avoid doing the spring of the foliage. Things like perihoids,
which a lot of insecticides are, can cause problems and

(01:09:51):
make the problem worse than that. So it looks like
there's still I'm not seeing a recommendation here on that.
I would try the emit of club Bridge product and
see how that works. I'll keep I need to look
into this and see. I just read a publication here
from a and m on it and they tell you

(01:10:11):
what not to use, but not what to use. They're
still researching it. So but anyway, they're not going to
recommend the Medle Corporate for pastures anyway, that's cost prohibitive.
But we use it in our lawns for a number
of in our gardens for a number of things.

Speaker 11 (01:10:27):
Okay, thank you very much.

Speaker 3 (01:10:30):
Okay, good luck with that. Thank you. Hey, I tell
you what could you mind holding on? And my producer
is going to give you an email and if you're willing,
would you send me a picture of the plants and
then of the meta bugs up close on the plants.
If you could send me that, I would appreciate it.
I would like to have a copy of that just

(01:10:51):
to see because no one has called me on this
one yet. All right, thank you, Riley. I'll put you
on hoe right now. All right, there we go, justin
if you can get that. Let's see here we're going
to go now to let's go to Charlie and Pearland.

(01:11:12):
I can get Charlie up here. There we go. Hey, Charlie,
welcome to garden Line.

Speaker 4 (01:11:17):
Thank you for taking my call.

Speaker 3 (01:11:22):
How can I help?

Speaker 4 (01:11:23):
I have a two Plomia plants. One's about six foot tall,
one's about eighteen inches tall. And the six foot tall
one never blooms. And the small one that's about eighteen
inches tall this year it bloomed before it ever put

(01:11:44):
leaves on. I was just wondering what I might be doing.

Speaker 3 (01:11:48):
Or not doing. They're both getting the same watering, growing
in the same soaw mix, getting the same sounding Yes, sir, huh,
well that's interesting. It sounds like that you say in
the tall one. I'm sorry I missed which one is

(01:12:09):
blooming and which one is not? Is the tall one blooming?

Speaker 4 (01:12:13):
No, the tall one never hasn't bloomed in a couple
of years.

Speaker 3 (01:12:18):
And okay, and there are they? Are they growing in containers, Charlie?

Speaker 4 (01:12:22):
Are they growing in the ground in containers?

Speaker 3 (01:12:27):
Okay? Huh? That's interesting. I don't know, you know, I
could in my mind think, well, the tall one is
a bigger plant's gonna need more roots. Are the roots
too confined? Is there not enough you know, soil and
room for that? Whereas a smaller statued plant, uh, plant
size compared to root volume is a little bit better situation.

(01:12:48):
I don't that's me guessing. I don't know. I tell
what I'm gonna do. I'm gonna ask any of the
Plumerius Society folks out there, they might be listening, give
me a call. Let's talk about this situation with Charlie's
plume areas other than nutrients and adequate soul, moisture and sunlight.
I don't know what else to tell you on getting
that plume aria to bloom. But we're going to put

(01:13:10):
an apb out with our plumeria experts out there, part
of the Plumeria Society, and see if someone has an idea.
Just stay tuned and we'll see. We'll see what we
come up with here.

Speaker 4 (01:13:21):
Okay, okay, I've been fertilizing them with Scott's super Bloom.

Speaker 11 (01:13:26):
Is it is that?

Speaker 3 (01:13:28):
That's a good. Yeah, that's good. It's got what you
need in it and stuff you can do that there
at night. And Nelson makes a plumer of food that
I would recommend you try. Uh and it's uh the
uh Nelson jars. It comes in small jars. You will

(01:13:49):
find it all kinds of places. You may find it
some of your local ace hardware stores down there. But
it's a plume aria from Nelson Plant Food. And they're
out West. I prefer to go with them as far
as products, but I would switch over to that and
then see see what we can do. And let's let's
just listen. Who knows, maybe someone will call in that
has some insight into this. That's something I'm not thinking of.

(01:14:13):
Thanks sir, appreciate your call. We are going to visit
with Danny Linderman from and Chanted for us down there
in the Richmond Rosenberg area and talk about all kinds
of things related to plants. You don't want to miss this,
so stay tuned for that. If you have not done

(01:14:33):
a summer fertilization for your lawn, now would be a
good time to put sweet green down. Sweet green is
eleven percent nitrogen from the folks at night foss. Sweet
green will dissolve away into the soil, make the microbes
show happy with all that molasses in it, and your
long will tern green. And I told my neighbor about

(01:14:53):
it a few years ago, and remember keep walking across
the yard talking about, man, that stuff works. My lawn's
real green looks. You really liked it, and then you
will too. Sweet green smells nice and nice sweet smell,
and again being made from that molasses It's a very
stimulating for microbial populations because every organic gardener knows that

(01:15:14):
molasses down in the soil helps with a lot of
those beneficial microbes from night Foss. You can find it
at a number of places around town, you know, if
you're down there in Angleton in Clute, both the Lake
Hardware and Angleton on Blasco and the Lake Hardware on
Dixie Driving Clute, Carrie Sweet Green and other night Foss products.

(01:15:35):
We're going to go now to the phones and head
out here to visit with Danny Linderman. Danny are you.

Speaker 2 (01:15:42):
There, Yes, sir, Good morning, well.

Speaker 3 (01:15:47):
Good morning. How are you doing today?

Speaker 5 (01:15:49):
Good? Good?

Speaker 2 (01:15:50):
How about you?

Speaker 3 (01:15:53):
I'm doing well, Thank you. I appreciate you taking some
time out to come on. I want to visit with you.
You've a different thing things. Uh, tell me about some
of the stuff you got going on right now down
there at Enchanted Forest, some of the plants and things
that are hot items for this time of the year
for you guys, and that your customers enjoy.

Speaker 2 (01:16:14):
Well. Let me let me start off with this skip.
Today is my dad's birthday, so he's eighty seven year
old old and just wanted to put that out there
for him and everybody else. So happy birthday, dead.

Speaker 3 (01:16:29):
Well, please express my happy birthday too, and when you
talk to him, that's.

Speaker 2 (01:16:34):
Sure will, I sure will. So yeah, everything's doing doing
good out here, if you if you've been watching the
social media, we had a little bit of a reshake
out here, so we've moved a lot of things around
and people seem to enjoy it. So it's a hopefully
that's working good. The lantana and Salvius as usual or

(01:16:58):
on fire, butterflies everywhere, unbelievable. So yeah, everything is looking good.
Weather it's been great, getting some rain, not too much,
just just enough so it's not not real bad.

Speaker 3 (01:17:15):
Mm hmm. You got all those nice trees out there too,
and and it makes it, you know, even on a
hot day, you get out there underneath the shade of
those trees, a little breeze and it's just that's so
pleasant to get out and shop and and enjoy it
out there. I can I uh uh, you know, talking
about the lantannahs and the salves, you guys carry a
lot of those. I don't know how many. I wrote

(01:17:38):
the number down one time. It is it's literally dozens
and dozens and dozens of salvias that you have out
there that happens to be my favorite genus of plants,
so I'm a fan.

Speaker 2 (01:17:48):
Yeah, it's it's a great plant for sure, for sure.

Speaker 3 (01:17:53):
Yeah, yeah, that's that's good. Uh and a lot of
them attract beneficial insects. Some of them attrack hummingbirds in
uh this spring, my Salvia garnitica the sometimes called a
niche sage, but uh boy, the hummingbirds just they were
lined up. They love that plant. Really really neat.

Speaker 2 (01:18:16):
It's a lot of fun to watch watch all the
bugs and the birds, you know, get the nectar from
those flowers. It's it's pretty pretty calming when you're sitting
out there after after closing or before opening and just
watching watching nature happen. It's pretty pretty dang neat it is.

Speaker 3 (01:18:35):
Yeah, And you guys, I think I think words got
not in the butterfly world, and they all fly to
your place because between the larval food sources and the
flowers that you have, h every time I go out there,
I mean, it's where I get a lot of my
best caterpillar pictures and everything else because they're always there.
Will you talk a little bit about some of your
plants that you have that people might want to add

(01:18:58):
to build that kind of a butterfly paradise in the garden,
you know, as a as A as a Baseball movie says,
if you build it, they will come.

Speaker 2 (01:19:07):
I think on one plant that gets left off a
lot of list is pentus. Pentas are a really really
good host plant. That's and they come in a bunch
of different colors. I know some people are picky about
their color palette, so it comes in a bunch of
different colors and a great great choice. Greg's mist is

(01:19:27):
one thing that's that gets kind of left off too,
in my opinion. Greg's mist is a really really good
plant for the for the butterflies. Uh, of course, Lantana.
Lantana is always a no brainer. All the salve is.
There's so many Texas natives like the turks cap for
the hummingbirds that I think kind of gets, you know,

(01:19:51):
pushed on the back burner. Great plant can get a
little spready, as I like to say, because it don't
kind of multiply, But sometimes that's great And that's, like
I said, one of the best humming bird trackers for
the shade and it's Texas native. So its tough as nails.

Speaker 3 (01:20:10):
Yeah, yeah, that's a good plant. I had one in
my yard that I moved this spring, and I actually
moved it later than I should have. You know, I
know to move these things at the end of winter
and fall or thing. But uh, it it had already
begun growing and everything. But I needed that spot for
something else. So, uh, turxicap can take a little bit
of shade, and so I moved it a little off

(01:20:30):
to the side, uh and stuck it in the ground
and watered it. And it looked like it was going
to die, I mean because I moved it when I
shouldn't have and dug it up. But after a little
while it perked back up. And now it's like you
never knew I moved it. I mean it is it
is going to town. That's a good Texas native. I
like that one.

Speaker 2 (01:20:48):
Yeah, for sure.

Speaker 10 (01:20:51):
You were.

Speaker 3 (01:20:52):
You were talking about some of these these other plants,
uh that are attractive, and you know each all the
different kinds of butterflies we have. There's so many plants,
so many good native plants, and I know you guys
carry a lot of those out there. I've got some
pentas and the butterflies They love that plant. Some people
may be wondering what a pent is. You may have
heard it called Egyptian starflower. That's another name for it.

(01:21:15):
But those are those are really really good choices. I
just want to comment though, on Danny on one you
mentioned the Gregg's missflower. I think that is a plant
that doesn't get planted a lot. And you know, we
have some of these plants that maybe in a container,
they don't look as good as other plants might in
a container. But you take Gregg's Missflower and you put

(01:21:37):
it in the ground as just kind of a just
kind of a cover, a groundcover over an area, maybe
in even a little bit of shade, it'll do okay.
And I don't know if it's the Queen or the
monarchs or both, but when fall comes, it is like
it's like a flock of blackbirds that descend on that plant.

(01:21:59):
They love it, absolutely love it.

Speaker 2 (01:22:03):
Yeah, for sure. And that's a that's that's a Texas
native too. But you know, very very resilient plant. So
it does well. People come in and they're worried about,
you know, taking care of a plant. Well, Greg's missed,
you know, it is. It is a darn good plant
right there with the turks cap.

Speaker 3 (01:22:22):
Yeah, and uh, then you've got the tables there that
have all your your larval food sources, and a lot
of folks don't think about when it comes to butterfly gardens.
It's not just the flowers that attract the adults, but
the babies have got to have something to eat, and
oftentimes the flowering plant does not necessarily produce something that

(01:22:45):
the caterpillars from that butterfly are going to be able
to eat. So it's good to have a mix of
all that. Will you talk a little bit about some
of the food sources for larva that you have on
your tables out there.

Speaker 2 (01:22:58):
Yeah, So one one of one of my favorite and
again probably overlooked. I don't know why. I like all
the overlook plants, but uh, the cassie which is the
host plant for the sulfur butterfly, where now it's called sinna.
I keep on forgetting they changed it. But the sinna
is a great plant, several different varieties of it. But

(01:23:21):
the sulfur butterflies are a little smaller yellow butterflies, and uh,
they usually bloom in the fall, and boy, them sulfur
butterflies will move in. I'll have a thousand of them,
and it just it's crazy to watch the bright yellow
butterflies just go crazy. It's really really a neat one.

(01:23:44):
Citrus is another one, uh people don't really think about it,
and that's the swallowtail, giant swallowtail, and that's a very
neat uh caterpillar and a very neat chrystalist. It's very
unusual compared to a monarch, very very unusual.

Speaker 3 (01:24:05):
Well, you know, the seven year old boy and me
really likes going up and sticking your finger at something
that looks like bird poop that that orange horns come
out of, you know.

Speaker 2 (01:24:20):
Exactly. Yeah, it is. I don't I don't. I don't
encourage everybody to do that, but it is neat to
do it. I agree with you. But yeah, you got
to know that mother nature doesn't want you to do that,
but it is hard to resist. I guarantee you.

Speaker 10 (01:24:37):
There you go.

Speaker 3 (01:24:38):
Well, Danny, we're gonna take a little break here for
for some spots and we'll be right back with you.
Thank you, appreciate you folks. We've got Danny Linderman from
Enchended Forest down the Richmond Rosenberg area. We're gonna be
talking all kinds of wonderful pledge. Can't live without this
whole hour. We're here to help you have success. That's
the bottom line. The way I like to put it is,
I want you to have a bountiful garden, a beautiful landscape,

(01:25:00):
been more fun in the process. And don't forget that
last one that is so important. Gardening is a fun,
relaxing hobby.

Speaker 6 (01:25:06):
It is.

Speaker 3 (01:25:08):
It is just a pleasure, you know. I would contend
that gardening is something we were made to do. You know,
if you think about it, I don't believe that the
Biblical story is called the cubicle of Eden or the
Office of Eden. I think it's called the garden of Eden.
And that's where we belong. We belong out there in
nature enjoying plants. Danny and I've been visiting about, you know,

(01:25:32):
the benefits of bringing in different kinds of plants for
attracting butterflies and hummingbirds and different things like that. And
that's just a that's a happy place to be. And
you know, for successive plants, you got to start with
the soil. It's my mantra that brown stuff before green stuff.
Don't PLoP a poor plant into an unprepared plot, give
it a good soil, and it'll make you look good.

(01:25:54):
Everybody's going to say you have green thumb, And what
you really have is the sense to start with good soil,
build it up. And seeing Amlts down there south and
a little to the west of Houston, they are experts
at quality blends.

Speaker 10 (01:26:08):
You know.

Speaker 3 (01:26:08):
They carry soils from airloom soils, they carry soils from
the ground up. They carry every fertilizer that comes out
of my mouth here on guardline. They are experts at
doing the things. They create the foundation for success. Cinamaltsanimalts
dot COM's website go see them. You can go pick
your materials up there. I'd recommend that because they got

(01:26:30):
a real cool little yard where they have all comes
of new pottery and yard art, you know, the bling
that you put out. And they also will provide you
with the delivery service within about twenty minutes of where
they're located there if you would like to have it
delivered to you. But the bottom line is, don't put
the plant in until you get the soil right. And

(01:26:50):
seeing them, it's a great place to get that done
down there. Let's head back out here we're visiting with
Danny this morning. Hey Danny, welcome back and thanks for
hanging around for this segment. We're looking to continue our
visit about some of the wonderful things that we can
attract to our gardens and landscapes, like butterflies and whatnot.

(01:27:12):
But I wanted to go backwards a little bit since
it was your dad's birthday, will you tell us a
little bit the story of this, uh the enchanted story
with your dad and mom. And I know I think
you guys are working on what the third generation. Now,

(01:27:36):
let's see here, I don't have Danny here. We Okay,
did you hear my question? Okay, make sure I did not? No, nope, Okay,
So I would like to hear more since with it
being your dad's birthday, I would like you to tell
folks a little bit about the enchanted story. You know,
you guys are on I believe in third generation now

(01:27:57):
that has been in this business. And uh, you know
where where did this get started?

Speaker 2 (01:28:04):
This got started a long time ago in Missouri City, Texas.
My parents had a had a part time nursery on
on Highway six there and uh so growing up as kids,
you know this is this is what we did. We
this is what we knew. We went to went to

(01:28:25):
Wholetel nurseries and and grew different plants and had plants,
you know, African violets all over the house. And it
was you know, we thought it was normal. Apparently it wasn't.
But yeah, my parents did the nursery on the weekends.
Uh And that's they both had full time jobs, but
they enjoyed you know, dealing with plants and people. And

(01:28:49):
so that's where it all started. We moved out of
there in eighty four or so and then moved out
to Richmond, uh as me and Joey got a little older.
Then we started the Enchanted Gardens over there, and that
was in ninety five or so, and then in two

(01:29:09):
thousand and one we started the Enchanted Forest. So this
will be our twenty fifth anniversary this year. So we're
gonna we're gonna have a to do this fall. I
think in October we'll have a you know, do a
couple of different things for the twenty fifth anniversary of
the Enchanted Forest.

Speaker 3 (01:29:30):
Wow, I know before that, I didn't realize we were
coming up on that milestone that has been a while structure. Yeah, yeah,
it has well, and obviously you guys have done an
awesome job of creating just a wonderful experience for shoppers
and having the plant selections and just the this overall setting.

(01:29:54):
I love it. I was like driving up to Jennet
Forest and seeing the To me, it looks like almost
an old Western storefront, you know, the town where they
got all the storefronts and things like that. They just
walking in it's got that feel to it. And and
then of course there's all the plants and things. Hey,
before I forget I do, I do want to mention

(01:30:14):
that you guys have a program coming up part of
your Hot Nights series that you guys do occasionally in
the summertime. But on July twenty fifth, folks from five pm,
yes I said pm to eight pm. Uh, they're gonna
have a program called Hot Nights and Cool Herbs And
do you will you tell us a little bit about

(01:30:34):
that and what's involved in your in this series of programs,
but especially this.

Speaker 2 (01:30:38):
One, I think the I don't Luckily, I don't have
to keep up with everything because that's Aaron Mills that
kind of heads that up. But she's really into the
herbs and she's going to do a couple of fun
events over there with the herbs. So that ought to
be good if you're in the herbs. Is like I said,

(01:31:00):
she really really likes, you know, organics in the herbs.
She is a she's an entomologist, and she is a
pro bug. You see a bad bug, and she will
tell you a good bug.

Speaker 3 (01:31:16):
Okay, get in touch, get in touch with the good bugs. Well,
the thing that caught my eye too, in addition to
Aaron's talk, and she's going to talk about a number
of different kinds of herbs and how to use them
and things, uh, is that you can kind of stroll
around and shop in the evening hours when things start
to cool down a little bit. I think it's a
great idea.

Speaker 13 (01:31:36):
Uh.

Speaker 3 (01:31:36):
And then you got carry you got Carrie snowballs there,
which my gosh, that that right there is worth price
of admission, which by the way, price of admission is
free for this.

Speaker 2 (01:31:47):
I tell you, I think the snowballs hit the spot.
I can tell you that snowbuls are definitely definitely a bonus.

Speaker 3 (01:31:59):
As a temperature as the temperatures get hotter and whatnot. Well,
that's good. Well, one of the things I like about
the place that you have there is the vegetable and
herb section. It is very extensive, and you know, I've
been there more than once this year, shopping myself and looking.
And you know, when you think about all of the options,

(01:32:22):
you know, it's not like do you carry basil? It's
how many kinds of basil do you carry? Because you
guys have so many different options. And I was encouraging
people a little bit earlier on the show to why
not grow some more herbs? I mean, herbs are ornamental.

Speaker 11 (01:32:36):
You know.

Speaker 3 (01:32:36):
Herbs can fit over a bill, from lining a bed,
to a groundcover, to a container, to you name it.
Many of them attract beneficials. As you were talking about
your little beneficial wasps that go to the flowers of
time and things. The first time I ever saw any
a potter wasp. It's a kind of a mud for
those people listening, it's like a mud daub er type

(01:32:59):
of wasp. But it doesn't build a little cigar shaped
mud nests under your eaves. This is the one that
makes those little marble sized round balls. People off them
will encounter them on a window screen or something like that.
And I was in a garden in Montgomery County at
the Extension office, we had a garden and there was
a wasp visiting the herb blooms, and when it flew away,

(01:33:20):
I went and looked, and it flew into a passion
vine on a chainling fence, and I went in there
and looked, and it was building a mud nest like that,
and I thought, oh, that's interesting, and I saw one
that it had just built. And in the name of science,
I'm sure the wasp didn't appreciate this. I broke that
nest off the chaining fence wire and I broke it
open and there were a dozen little looper caterpillars inside

(01:33:44):
that nest. Then it had laid its babies inside the
cafeteria there and filled it with caterpillars. And it just
fascinated me. And I realized, here's a wasp visiting my
herb garden and it is basically out there doing caterpillar
control for me in the garden. And so I just
found that very interesting. But I really think that herbs

(01:34:05):
are way more versatile than we get them credit for,
and they can be beautiful and there's nothing fresher. You know,
We've probably got some herbs in our pantry that have
been there for two years, and I don't know if
they're worth eating anymore, but you get some fresh ones
from your garden and you can't beat that.

Speaker 2 (01:34:21):
No, they are, I think again, they are under used
as a landscape plant. There's so many good ones out there. Rosemary.
Rosemary is one of my favorites. And pretty much everybody
uses or eats rosemary and they're cooking and it's a
plant that people go out and buy. But it's very
easy to grow. It's flowers, very very fragrant when we

(01:34:46):
brush against it. I mean, there's no reason not to
have a rosemary in your yard.

Speaker 3 (01:34:52):
It is good. And the trailing kind flowers so well.
We used to have a rosemary bush at the house
and one of my daughters would hug it. She would
hug it. You know, rosemary. You got to have that
for Italian food. She'd come running through the house and
I thought Mussolini had invaded or something. I mean, that
last smell like rosemary. But we got to go to
another hard break here, Danny. Thanks so much for being on.

(01:35:13):
We're going to come right back to you when this
break is over. Appreciate that it is summer. We're here
all right, welcome back to Guardline folks. Just a reminder,
we were talking with Danny Linderman from Enchanted Forest down
in Richmond Rosenburg area, and we're talking all kinds of things,
the plants and whatnot. Here a little bit about the
history of the place. If you have a question regarding

(01:35:34):
Enchanted Forest that you would like to discuss with Danny,
feel free to give us a call. Is if it's
just general gardening questions and things like that, we're gonna
hold those over until nine o'clock and then we'll spend
our last hour with our regular Q and A time. Okay,
that's how we'd like to do this. Danny, good to
have you back again. I wanted to just have you

(01:35:56):
tell us a little bit about the renovation that you
guys did out there, and I mean it was it
was a major renovation. I mean you really cleaned out
everything and just got it rearranged and looking real nice.
We tell us a little bit about what all what
all y'all did.

Speaker 2 (01:36:13):
Well, you know, every every year we do something right.
It's like you hate to sit still, so you just
change things up.

Speaker 5 (01:36:21):
Uh.

Speaker 2 (01:36:21):
This year what we did is we we moved all
of our seasonal color and perennials together. So now they're
all the tables are together right behind the building for those.
And now all the edibles are all together, all the
fruit trees, all the vegetables, all the herbs, those are
all in the same place. So if you're into the

(01:36:44):
gardening and you like growing vegetables and fruits and herbs,
you got the one side of the nursery is dedicated
just to that. So I think it's I think it's
gonna work out for turn good. Yeah, it makes sense,
So we see, we'll see how it works.

Speaker 5 (01:37:01):
But I like it.

Speaker 3 (01:37:03):
Now. I'm seeing, uh the video and people go to
your your Facebook or Instagram, You're gonna see Clay out there,
your son, uh, talking about all their arrangements and changes.
When this work was going on, was Clay working in
the sun and were you in the shade with a
glass of iced tea and a lounge chair or how
did that go down? I just have to poke you

(01:37:24):
a little bit with.

Speaker 2 (01:37:24):
That one, you know, to be it to be honest,
how it went down? This was all Clay's idea. Well,
so we started, we started doing it, and of course
Clay Clay got busy in the office, and oh, well
I would, but I gotta I gotta do this, and
I have to do that. So now, yeah, pretty much
everything got done without him. But but his grand dinam.

Speaker 3 (01:37:48):
Okay, well I'm gonna tell him you said that. No,
I'm just kidding with you. But uh it really it
always looks good out there, but it was. This was
kind of exciting to see, you know, all the changes
and stuff. I think that that sounds like a good
idea too, by the way, uha, of the things I
enjoy what it. Yeah, at the time seemed like a
good idea at the time. Uh well, uh, I'm always

(01:38:13):
interested in that tree you've got. If you walk out
the back doors around to the left where you got
the little ferry gardens, and uh would you tell us
tell people that aren't maybe familiar with the little Fairy
Garden about that, because it's it's this great scene. You know,
you just walk around. People need to bring kids and
see this. But you walk around the whole tree and
you got all the different scenes and things. We talk

(01:38:34):
a little bit about that unique little twist on gardening.

Speaker 2 (01:38:38):
You bet that's the that's what we call the fairy
Garden tree. It has been that way for years and years,
big Opaconn tree, so it's nice to nice and shady.
So you're gonna walk around that and visit all the
little different scenes from h fairy Land, and we have
a bunch of different miniature plants and on covers and

(01:39:00):
different things in there. So it gives everybody the ideas
what they can do at their home. The kids love it.
The kids love to you know, look at the fairies
and think about the little fairy houses, and there's bridges
and you know, blue rocks to imitate water and and
different things like that. So I'd say it's a lot

(01:39:21):
of fun. There's probably ive were so different vignettes over
there that give you plenty of different ideas.

Speaker 3 (01:39:31):
Yeah, well, I think it's a great idea for kids.
And I guess you guys have some of the supplies
and things that.

Speaker 2 (01:39:36):
Oh yeah, we have a whole hunt for that for
that type of stuff.

Speaker 3 (01:39:44):
Okay, Well, it's a great thing to do at the
bottom of the tree because you know, what do you
do at the bottom of the tree grastling when grow
up there and uh, you know you can create a
little bed that is just a fun scene. I think
it's a great idea. I read extensive exten of examples
of it around there. One of the things I do

(01:40:06):
enjoy when I'm out there visiting you guys is the
uh all of the shrubs and plants and trees and
stuff you have off to the right when you drive
up and you're coming in the front. There off to
the right, lots of good options. And one of my
favorite trees of the spring is the Chinese fringe tree.

(01:40:26):
And you guys have some nice ones out there. I
don't know how that is in terms of popularity with customers,
but it ought to be about one of the number
one things they buy in the spring because it's such
a gorgeous plant. Do you have any Do you have
any favorites of some of the flowering trees and stuff
you carry?

Speaker 2 (01:40:43):
Yeah, the Chinese fringe tree is a great tree. I
really really love it. They do well. They're small enough
for our small yards. They do great. So Chinese friends
are great. Desert willow Desert willow is one of my
favorite trees. Blooms all summer long. Looks kind of maybe

(01:41:06):
not real classy in the wintertime, but very very pretty
the rest of the year. The Mexican olive is another
another favorite.

Speaker 3 (01:41:17):
Oh yeah, that's a good one, very very unique. You're
mentioning some smaller trees there, you know, the desert willow.
The thing I like about it too, any is it
casts a somewhat light shade. So if you want to
grow some stuff underneath that needs a little sunlight getting
through there, it does pretty good kind of like a
mesquite tree or a ratama or one of those kind

(01:41:39):
of plants that the shade is bright enough to still
have some flowers around the patio.

Speaker 4 (01:41:46):
It is.

Speaker 11 (01:41:46):
It is.

Speaker 2 (01:41:46):
Yeah, it's not real real dence and a smaller, smaller
growing tree, but the flowers are great that. Like I said,
the Mexican olive, I love the white flowers on that.
That is a great smaller growing tree too. The hummingbirds
seem to really enjoy it as well. So that's another
another good, good reason to plant that.

Speaker 3 (01:42:09):
That's a that's a good point. And you know, the
the idea of gardening. I'm it's a significant point to
me at least that a lot of times when we
think about a garden or flowers and things, we think
about just the visual. You know, you want pretty flowers.
You look out and visually your eyes are getting a

(01:42:31):
treat with what you've created that they're in the landscape.
But there's also we have other senses, you know. There's
there's the textures of flowers, from big old elephant ears
to fine textured you know, fountain grasses and other things.
There's a movement in the wind of like what I
know you guys carry gara one variety I don't know

(01:42:52):
if it's still around called whirling butterflies, where it looks
like little butterflies are just fluttering over the top of
the plant. In the sounds of gardening, you know, here
in the the wind go through like a clumping bamboo.
It sounds like it's raining when the breeze blows through there.
But then there's a smell the fragrances. Where I've set

(01:43:14):
outside my patio, I've planted a bunch of things that
have fragrance because the southwest breeze blows through there. Uh,
And there's a lot of wonderful fragrant plants. And I
don't know if you have any favorites when it comes
to the fragrant plants, but I'm a I'm a fan
of a number of the of the of the gingers
that have a nice fragrance to them. The white butterfly

(01:43:34):
ginger specifically, my gosh, that is that ought to be
a controlled substance. It smells so good.

Speaker 2 (01:43:42):
Yeah, there's there's just several good ones that I that
I that I usually recommend. Banana shrub if you're familiar
with that one. That one is a unique one. Smells
like a truckload of bananas crash when that thing is
in flour. Uh in a good small right in is yeah,

(01:44:02):
it is? It is cool.

Speaker 10 (01:44:04):
Uh.

Speaker 2 (01:44:04):
The sweet almond verbina is another favorite of mine. Pretty
pretty big bush, but very durable plant and does very well.
And the fragrance is is great.

Speaker 3 (01:44:19):
It is unbelievable, that's true. I love that plant. In fact,
I've got one that I just planted this year back
in the corner of a garden. You know, it's not
the I wish they could take that plant and make
it smaller, you know, where it's a little more. You
could fit it into more places. But you can prune
the heck out of it and it just keeps blooming
all the more. But oh gosh, the fragrance on that

(01:44:42):
is unbelievable. Confederate jasmine is another good one. I love
that one.

Speaker 5 (01:44:47):
Yeah.

Speaker 2 (01:44:47):
The japan is just a short yeah.

Speaker 4 (01:44:51):
Yeah.

Speaker 2 (01:44:51):
The jasmine just a short window of bloom. That's the problem.
Like the sweet almond verbina, that thing will bloom all
summer long. So it's it is. It's straight for that
reason because of the balloom time.

Speaker 3 (01:45:07):
Yeah, just gives you a lot of and it attracts
a lot of beneficial pollinators too. I've noticed it being
busy with the pollinators are on. All right, Well, let
me take a quick break again. Time flies when you're
having fun. Danny, We're gonna come back and have another
short a little time here and uh, just hang on, folks,

(01:45:28):
We'll be right back. We are visiting with Danny Linderman
from the Angenita Forest down there in Richmond Rosenberg area
and talking about all kinds of plants, favorites and ideas
and stuff going on there at the Gardens Center. So
let me see here if I can find the right button,
there we go. Hey, Danny, welcome back. I often say

(01:45:49):
that in the summertime, while in spring there's a lot
of things that have flowers, in summer there's a lot too,
but not as many. And in summertime I often turn
to foliage plants for color, because you know, bright beautiful
foliage is just as pretty as a bright beautiful flower.
And I know you guys carry a red bud down
there called Hearts of Fire that is just stunning. It's

(01:46:12):
got the red newest growth that then the next leaves
back or kind of yellow and eventually it gets back
to green. But it's a showstopper. And I was wondering
if you had any favorite plants for foliage color. When
we get into these warmer seasons.

Speaker 2 (01:46:28):
You know, there's so many fun things. Really, the red
buds are totally unique and there's a new one every year,
so there's so many different ones. And now you know,
shade is probably your best example of all the different
foliage colors that will come out. Persian shield is Persian

(01:46:50):
shield is one of my favorites. It's a really really
unique purple shiny color. It's a kind of a crazy
looking plant. Uh tricolored gender is a very good plant
for the shade.

Speaker 5 (01:47:05):
You know.

Speaker 2 (01:47:05):
Sunshine Augustrum is a great plant. It's turned out to
be a really really good plant and that is for
the sun and that's got that yellow yellow foliage which
is really nice. The Texas sage you know, it is
a gray foliage, which gray is a is a color,
and so that that that brings men interest to the

(01:47:26):
garden in a full sun setting. Uh, then you turn
the purplish pink flowers on on the Texas age and
it's a showstopper when it's when it's when it's really
in full bloom.

Speaker 3 (01:47:40):
That is that is gorgeous. There's a there's so many,
uh color plants like that that we can choose from.
You know, Cannas are familiar, and they they say familiarity
breeds contempt, meaning you see it everywhere and then suddenly
you lose interest. But canna is the phasion or the
tropicana that came out many years ago. That thing has

(01:48:00):
so many colors in it, you know, you just kind
of stare at it. And I like to use that
one by the way, where the sunlight comes from behind
the plant, because when it goes through the leaves, it
just lights them up. And that's just another another aspect
of it. But I'm I really like that plant too.

Speaker 2 (01:48:16):
I think that's another Cans are good. I mean, my
my problem, my problem with cannas is once you once
you have them, you will always have them.

Speaker 4 (01:48:25):
They are.

Speaker 2 (01:48:27):
They can be a little much sometimes, you know.

Speaker 3 (01:48:33):
And they have they have their issues.

Speaker 10 (01:48:35):
I know that.

Speaker 3 (01:48:36):
But uh uh yeah, but they'll grow in water. I
mean if you got a poor dragon stick a cana
in there, and I mean it'll it'll grow at the
edge of underwater practically. Well that's a good one. Uh well,
those are those are all some some some great ideas.
I'd like to have you tell us a little bit about.

Speaker 9 (01:48:54):
Uh.

Speaker 3 (01:48:55):
I know, you've got some wonderful house plants and a
nice little gift shop to could you could you talk
to us polks that haven't been out there yet about
your gift shop and and some of the house plants.

Speaker 2 (01:49:08):
Yeah, the house plant we have a we have a
pretty pretty large selection of indoor plants. Uh this time
of year we kind of pere it down just a
smidge because it's so darn hot. But yeah, the house plants, Uh,
I think we probably had one of the one of
the better selections in the area. It's a lot of fun.

Speaker 4 (01:49:28):
Uh.

Speaker 2 (01:49:28):
My son Clay is really into the house plants, so
he's kind of the the leader of the house plant area.
So that's that's his baby. I don't try I try
to stay outside, so I don't I don't need to
worry about the house plants. The gift shop is nice.
It's a it's a good little area to actually cool
off in. So it's uh air conditioned part of the

(01:49:52):
building there, and uh, it's kind of nice, you know.
And some of the folks come in, they look a
little weathered. I will always recommend them to go in
there because it is nice and cool in there, and
it does does change your attitude real fast. And of
course the pobstacles outside, uh change your attitude real fast too,

(01:50:12):
is always a handy.

Speaker 11 (01:50:17):
Well.

Speaker 2 (01:50:17):
We have a we have a deep freeze out there
with with pobstacles in it. We try to keep that
stocked up for the for the kids and for the adults.
And uh, that's something that we've always done since we've opened.
And the kids really love it, and there's quite a
few adults come to find out that like pobstacles a
lot too. So those are free. We usually try to

(01:50:41):
try to give one per person, but that they are free,
and they and the parents seem to use it as
leverage for the children, which works out pretty good.

Speaker 3 (01:50:53):
That is good. But I got to tell you, I
think I think my feelings are hurt. I've been to
enchanted for as many times and I've never won. I
didn't even know the popsicles were out there. No one
ever offered me. Were you afraid I'm gonna clean you
out or something?

Speaker 2 (01:51:06):
I mean, come on, man, Yes, you gotta gotta be
able to read. You gotta be able to read where
it shills? Oh okay, one please.

Speaker 3 (01:51:19):
That's right under the bus. All right, we're good. That's
all wonderful. Well, oh my gosh, well the music means
our talk time is up this hour flew by. I
really enjoyed it. Thank you so much for coming on.
We've covered a number of things, from all the plants

(01:51:39):
you guys have, to the events going on. Don't forget folks,
this uh what do they call it? The Hot Nights?
The Herb program coming up. That's July twenty fifth, from
five pm to eight pm, and we're gonna be getting
to talk there from Aaron Aaron Mills talking about some

(01:52:00):
really cool herbs that you need to know about and
you need to grow. Plus you get to walk around,
need a snow cone, and enjoy yourself. So Danny, thanks
a lot. Tell us a little bit about where you're located,
so people will know who aren't from the area. How
to get to you real quick.

Speaker 2 (01:52:15):
Out near Richmond, just just south of sugar Land as
the bird flies.

Speaker 3 (01:52:22):
Hey, folks, this is the last hour guard line for
this weekend. For today. If you've got a question, you
can give me a call someone three two one, two
five eight seven four. Super Turf from night Foss the
silver Bag nineteen four to ten. You put it down now.
If you haven't done a slow release this summer, go
ahead and do one now with super Turf. Put it down.
It'll carry all the way up into the fall fertilization.

(01:52:44):
It gradually releases that nitrogen out to nice even growth
over time. You can find it in a number of
places like Texas feed stop on the North Highway one
forty six a month, Bellevue and Stanton Shopping Center on
North Taylor and Alvin. We're going to go now out
to the phones and talk to Diana this morning in Alago.
Hello Diana, Welcome to garden Line. Hello, Hey, welcome to

(01:53:12):
garden Line. Diana.

Speaker 5 (01:53:14):
Yes, Hi, thank you for taking my call.

Speaker 13 (01:53:17):
I am having trouble with wisteria and I sent you
some pictures.

Speaker 5 (01:53:21):
It looks really sad and yellow.

Speaker 3 (01:53:26):
Okay, do you just now send them just now?

Speaker 13 (01:53:32):
I sent them probably about thirty minutes ago.

Speaker 3 (01:53:36):
Okay, I did not get those, but we'll we can
go without them. So ysteria is the yellowing primarily on
the new ends of the shoots or is it older
leaves further back in?

Speaker 5 (01:53:49):
It's older leaves?

Speaker 3 (01:53:51):
Yeah, older, okay, So so yellowing of older leaves can
be due to a number of things. One is lack
of nitrogen. Normally we do not need to worry about
fertiling mysteria with fertilizing mysteria with nitrogen because it's already
a vigger is vine, but that could cause it. What's
more likely is fluctuating sole moisture. It gets real soggy wet,

(01:54:14):
or it gets dry, and oftentimes plants will cast off
older leaves in that kind of a fluctuation, kind of
a drought response sort of thing. So anything you do
to keep the soil evenly moist can be helpful. If
you feel like it's not a soule moisture, like it's
been kept evenly moist, then I would probably look at

(01:54:35):
a moderate amount of nitrogen application with a fertilizer and
I think that ought to curate it. It ought to
be fine. The only other thing to throw in their
diana would be like a root rot, which I have
no way of being able to know or predict that.
But anything that kills roots, you know, could cause a
something like that too.

Speaker 13 (01:54:57):
All right, okay, all right, I will give that a try.

Speaker 3 (01:55:01):
All right, well, thanks you very very much, appreciate your call.
Bye bye. Folks at Peerscapes know how to take care
of landscapes. They know how to create landscapes, whether you're
having them come in and do the full design or
enhancing your landscape with hard scapes, fixing irrigation issues, making
sure everything's right there with drainage, and then their quarterly

(01:55:25):
maintenance program that is one where they come in once
a quarter and they spruce up the beds, put new
malts down, get any weeds out, make sure their rogation's working,
any kind of trimming that might be needed, or occasionally
replacing the color plants in the bed because the seasons
have changed. You just have to give them a call.
Two eight one three seven h fifty sixty Pierscapes pierscapes

(01:55:49):
dot com. Let's go now to task Asita and talk
with Richard this morning. Hey, Richard's Richard. Welcome to guard morning.
Good morning, Good morning.

Speaker 5 (01:56:00):
Puffs. Got some Yeah, so I've got old trees from
my house and they're being dated by just like spider webs,
stuff in the bottom working up. What is that I
get rid of it?

Speaker 3 (01:56:12):
Yeah? Well, first of all, nothing to worry about. Uh,
it's this is not a pest of the tree. This
is an insect called bark lice. You would think lice,
that's not good.

Speaker 11 (01:56:26):
It does not.

Speaker 3 (01:56:27):
They don't suck juices out of the tree or do
anything to hurt the tree. They live on the outside
of the bark and they feed on things like little
bits of like algae or or fungus or whatever growing
on that outer bark. Like, so think of them as
little like little vacuum cleaners cleaning up the outside of
the bark.

Speaker 6 (01:56:47):
Uh.

Speaker 3 (01:56:47):
And then they spin that web over them as a protection.
But they will go away on their own. Some people
will use a stream of water to blast the web
out of the way. I think it looks kind of cool.
And if you just leave it alone, they're going to
go away anyway. So nothing to worry about.

Speaker 5 (01:57:03):
For how long you think your last.

Speaker 3 (01:57:07):
Oh well, it kind of depends on rain and weather
and things. But you have them for a few weeks,
they'll be there. But if you if you webbing look yeah,
if the webbing look bothers, you just take a strong
spray out of a garden hose, you know, gun and
blast them away. But again, I think it kind of
looks cool. It's sort of like your trees are getting

(01:57:30):
ready for Halloween with all the webs and stuff hanging
out of them. But anyway, but no, there they are.

Speaker 5 (01:57:37):
They are.

Speaker 3 (01:57:38):
They're neither neither good nor bad. They're they're just doing
what they do. Okay, thank you so much. All right, sir,
you bet, thank you for the call. Appreciate that. Yeah,
bark life, welcome to summer in our greater Houston. Aaria
certainly something we deal with.

Speaker 5 (01:57:55):
Uh.

Speaker 3 (01:57:56):
Folks at Medina have so many good products that I
always think about. You know which one I want to
talk about next. Medina Plus is one that I think
you need, you really need to have. It is a
It does a number of things. First of all, it's
got seaweed in it, so you get a lot of
the benefits of seaweed, which includes also resilience from some

(01:58:16):
of the factors of summer like droughts and stresses and
heat and whatnot. It's certainly got nutrients in it as well.
It's got the old Medina Activator the basis for this formulation.
Just think of it as Medina Activator Plus. That is
exactly what Medina Plus is all about. And if you want,

(01:58:37):
you can hook it up to a garden hose. There's
a version of it. You buy the court you've got,
you got the garden hose applicator. You can buy it
by quurts, you can buy it by gallons if you
want to refill that garden hose applicator. It's got iron, zinc,
and magnesium in it as part of the nutrient blend
that's inside here. The bottom line is it just works

(01:58:58):
whether you're planning a new plus, whether you're continuing to
feed and care for existing plants, and as you want
your plants to have more resilience through these hot, dry
summer months, Medina Plus from the folks at Medina is
something that you definitely need to have on hand. Again,
remember you can do that applicator that goes on the

(01:59:19):
end of a garden hose and then just buy a
gallon after that and refill your applicator. And it's very
economical to go about it that way as well. All right,
you're listening to garden Line. I'm your host, Skip Richter.
Our phone number is seven one three two one two
five eight seven four seven one three two one two

(01:59:42):
fifty eight seventy four. Feel free to give us a call.
Let's talk about the things that are of interest to you.
I appreciate having Danny Linderman on this morning to talk
about some things out there at Enchanted Forest. Thanks Danny
for coming on and doing that. If you have any
particular question regarding something that, let's say, can't wait till

(02:00:03):
next weekend, that would be a good time to give
a call and let's talk about those sort of things.
Yesterday we were talking with Ralph Nelson from Nelson Water
Gardens out there and Katie about all kinds of things
water gardening and it is the place to go. And
let me just put it this way. We talked about

(02:00:24):
this a little bit, but the Nelsons have been leaders
in the water gardening industry for decades and they know
their stuff and their inventions, their creations. If you will,
like the disappearing fountain that goes over the top of
a container, disappears into the ground and comes right back
up again. They're unique and they are well known throughout

(02:00:44):
the industry for this. You can go out there and
enjoy that. I want you to take a look at
the pottery, take a look at the different ways you
can use water. I promise you this. When you go
out there and look, you're going to see more than
one thing. It's like that needs to be in my landscape.
That is cool urges. Imagine a patio area where you
had a little disappearing fountain nearby that you could enjoy.

(02:01:07):
That the birds could come up and enjoy, and even
beneficial insects you find a little still spot in the
water where they can get access to moisture and that's
very hopeful for them as well. Nelson Water Gardens and
Nursery in Katie, Texas. And don't forget the plants. A
great selection of plants. Just head up Katy Fort Ben
Road north of Ian and they're just up the street

(02:01:30):
a little bit. Okay, let's see here we are going
to go out to the phones.

Speaker 11 (02:01:36):
Now.

Speaker 3 (02:01:36):
Hey, welcome to garden Line. Who am I speaking to?

Speaker 8 (02:01:41):
This is Carol?

Speaker 3 (02:01:44):
Hey, Carol how can I help?

Speaker 8 (02:01:47):
Okay, I have a on the west side of my house.
I want to stop the sun beating down on that house.
And I have some pittis porum that I know.

Speaker 5 (02:02:02):
Well.

Speaker 8 (02:02:02):
I want to plan them out there to block a
lot of that sun from the house. And I know
they grow real bushy and tall, and I know I'm
going to have to prune them because they're prone to
fungus I need, but I want them to grow as

(02:02:26):
bushy as they can. And I would like to know
how far from the house to plan them, and how
far from each other to plant them.

Speaker 3 (02:02:37):
All right, Well, Dan, I'm going to go to a
break here, put you on hold, and we'll come back
and we'll answer your question. At that time, Folks, hang on,
we'll be right back. Welcome back to Guardline. Good to
have you with us. I'm your host, Skip Richter, and
we are here winding up the day. We got quite
a bit of time left, but we'll be finishing up
here at ten o'clock. Remember every Saturday and Sunday from

(02:02:59):
six am to two you listen to garden Line right
here on kt R eight seven am. That it makes
it easy easy and you can listen to pass shows
too by going to the website and listening to the
past shows which you have up as podcast type recordings.
Let's see, oh I wanted to mention ACE Hardware stores.

(02:03:20):
Lots of good summer activities going on at your local
Ace Hardware shore. You know, ACE is always having specials
and certain promotions and things like that that you need
to know about when you're looking at all the things
of summer that it takes to have a beautiful, beautiful
garden and landscape. ACE Hardware has got you covered with
quality brands. When you're looking for things that make summer

(02:03:41):
more pleasant out there entertaining family, like a barbecue pit,
for example, ACE has got you covered with some of
the most outstanding brands on the market. Quality products, quality
products from your local ACE Hardware store. Go to ACE
Hardwaretexas dot com, Ace Hardware Texas dot com and find

(02:04:01):
your local store there all over the place. We got
my local ACE Hardware group goes all the way from Beaumont, Texas,
all the way down to Port Aroundsas and certainly all
through the greater Houston area. Lots and lots of quality stores.
We're going to go back now and continue our conversation
with Carol on the phone. Carol, you mentioned that your

(02:04:23):
shrub you were talking about was pittosporum. Generally, pittosporum is
a little bit lower growing shrub. But are you sure
that's the one that you're wanting me to advise on.
I just want to be clear before I make suggestions.

Speaker 8 (02:04:38):
Yeah, because I planned them in two houses that I
lived in, and they grew real, real high. And the
last house I lived in, I planted one and it's
way over my head and it's about twelve f it wide.

(02:05:02):
And the ones I planted on that other house, they grew,
I mean real, real tall and real, real bushy. They
were real. You can get them in the I'm sorry, I.

Speaker 3 (02:05:17):
Was going to say, We've got a number of good
shrubs that fit a bill like that. There's red faitinias,
there's a lagustrum lagustrum waxtually. Flogustrium is very popular. It
has been for decades. But let's just say this. You're
talking about how far away from the house and how
far away from each other when you're planning them. If
you take a plant and you look at what its

(02:05:37):
mature size is, and having grown these plants you know
how big they got, you should plant them about fifty
percent apart that distance. If you want a good fast
fill in to make a solid wall of plants, you
could go a little further, like seventy five percent of

(02:05:58):
their mature width apart and do that. When something's going
to get taller than the eaves of your house, you've
got to make sure and keep it trimmed or get
it planted a little further away. I would say with
most shrubs, I would go about five feet away from
the base. If they're going to be as big as
you're describing from in other words, from the foundation to

(02:06:20):
the base of the shrub, get it at least five
feet away from there, and you're going to need to
treat to trim the back of it so that you
can walk around behind it in order to you know,
have full access to it like that. But those would
be a couple of tips. Did that cover what you
were asking or did you have a follow up?

Speaker 8 (02:06:40):
Yes, that's pretty much okay. So if they're real wide
whatever with from the trunk of the plan like to
one side of it, it might be four feet. Think

(02:07:00):
I measured my other one to be about twelve foot
A cross from one side to the other. It was huge,
And all the ones that I have planted, they have
been huge. And so like, say a minimum of four

(02:07:21):
ft foot from the trunk of the tree to one
side of it, and then where would I have to
put the one next to it? You said fifty percent?

Speaker 3 (02:07:36):
Okay, so what yeah?

Speaker 11 (02:07:38):
Tell that?

Speaker 3 (02:07:39):
So let me just well, I'm going to use your numbers.
Something sounds a little bit off with the name of
the shrub and the width and size, but let me
just use your numbers as an example. If you have
a shrub that's going to be twelve feet wide when
it's mature, I would plan them about six feet apart.
That way, early on they will blend together, uh, and

(02:08:02):
then you'll have that solid wall of shrubbery. If you
do that, you could plant them wider than that. That's fine,
but most people want them to fill in between them sooner.
So by going fifty percent, that's kind of a sweet
spot where they're not too close, but they're not too
far apart. So that that is my suggestion. Fifty percent

(02:08:23):
of the width of the plant to seventy five percent
of the width of the plant is how far apart
you put them.

Speaker 8 (02:08:31):
Okay, okay, I sure do, Thank you, I'll do that.

Speaker 3 (02:08:36):
Thanks a lot, all right, thank you you bet, Thank
you for your call. Appreciate that, Carol. If you've got
a gardening question, we've got open lines here seven one three,
two one two five eight seven four seven one three
two one two fifty eight seventy four. Might have Grow
is a product you've heard me talk about now for
a while. Might have Grow is not a fertilizer. Might

(02:08:57):
have Grow is a compound. It has a lot of
ingredients that do good things for plants. And that's pretty
that's pretty generic statement, right, But let me go into
that a little bit deeper. Mitigrow has substances that cause
plant roots to proliferate and develop. And that is so
important when we're going in the summer and drought and heat.

(02:09:20):
You need a better, more robust root system, and Mitigro
can help the plant do that. Mightigro has sight of
canins in it. That's a natural plant growth hormone that
is in there. Mightagrow has microbial content, specifically a number
of different kinds of bacteria for example, that will help
a plant resist disease and insect attacked and problems it's

(02:09:43):
just one of the things it has. It's got a
number of vitamins like B one, B three, B six,
all there in that plant. It's got fungi that grow
inside the plant to help the plant fight diseases. It's
got fungi that grow outside the plant to help the
plant fight disease. Is bring in nutrients and things like that.
Might to grow is a mix.

Speaker 5 (02:10:03):
Now.

Speaker 3 (02:10:04):
I've seen all of these different kinds of compounds. I'm
familiar with each of the ingredients in it and what
research says they do, but I've never seen them combined
in one patented formula. The way might have grow has done.
I like the I like the name on the bag.
It's mighta grow, but it says it's not dead yet.
And that's exactly what you need to know about mighta grow.

(02:10:26):
You've got a plant that's stressed. Mighta gro can help
it recover. You got new plants you're putting in that
you want to be resilient. Might to grow can build
those resiliencies in the plant. I've seen the research on it.
I've used it myself, and stuff works. Might have grow
simple as that. Let's go out to the woodlands now
and we are going to visit with Deborah this morning. Hey, Deborah,

(02:10:49):
welcome to garden Line.

Speaker 13 (02:10:51):
Hey scamp, this is dead from the woodlands again, and
I'm talking about grass. I just sent you some picks. Okay,
I've sent some picks. I thought I sent four of them,
but only two looked like they might have gone through.
And the grass in our front yard we have had
nothing but issues with it for the longest time. Last
year we battled the take all root rot. It actually

(02:11:15):
killed the grass, like I don't know, three feet away
from the moss rock. And as you can see in
one of those pictures, there's grass next to the moss
rock and it is turning brown. We go on vacations
in the summertime and when we come back. When we leave,
everything looks beautiful. We come back and it looks like

(02:11:37):
you know what, So.

Speaker 1 (02:11:40):
I am at a loss.

Speaker 13 (02:11:42):
We put down new sods with some stuff from arbor
Gate on the base and the grass was just growing
beautifully and green. There was no dead spots, and now
you can see what it looks like. So I'm at
a loss.

Speaker 5 (02:11:59):
I don't know what to thank you.

Speaker 3 (02:12:02):
Okay, Well, your photos are showing me an after the
fact results of whatever is hurting your grass. So I'm
looking at it thinking, well, there ought to be some
gray leaf spot on this grass. But it's it's far
enough along now where I'm not really seeing the leaf
spot anymore. I may be seeing the dead grass blades
that the leaf spot had created. I see a few

(02:12:24):
gray leaf spot spots. Gray leaf spot is promoted by
shady conditions and by staying wet when the temperature is right.
Gray leaf spot's very common in the summertime. You can
prevent it or with a fungicide, but at this point,
I think what I would suggest is water with a

(02:12:44):
good soaking on an infrequent basis, and let that grass
begin to fill back in in time. It should do that.
Fungicides for gray leaf spot, there's a number of them
out there. When you go to a place that sells
various products and things, just ask for a fungicide for turf,
and any of the ones that are out there are

(02:13:05):
going to do a pretty good job controlling that. It's
possible that there is some take on root rot on
the roots, but I can't tell that from the photos
now on my website. It's so weird too public.

Speaker 13 (02:13:21):
Go ahead, Well, I was gonna say, what's so weird
is that is the new grass that we put down
that's not there. There was nothing left of the old
in that one section, like three foot away from the
moss rock. There was no grass there. So we cleared
it out, put down some stuff. I don't know what
the it's in a white bag we got from arbor

(02:13:42):
Gate chicken poop. Maybe anyway, we'll put that down. And
for two to three weeks before we left on vacation,
as it was growing so nicely, I thought, okay, this
is going to work. Well, go away on vacation, come back.

Speaker 5 (02:13:59):
This is what it looks like. And we did.

Speaker 13 (02:14:01):
The grass was what grass is. There was very long,
so it's you know, some of it's alive and some
of it's just so.

Speaker 3 (02:14:12):
Is this is this problem worse than the sun or
the shade?

Speaker 13 (02:14:17):
Well, I will tell you this whole thing is shady.

Speaker 3 (02:14:21):
Okay, okay, I'm going to put you on hold. I'm
up against a hard break and so I'll be we'll
be right back. We're near in the well. We're in
the last half of our show here, so we will
kind of shift into a new gear and get moving again. Uh,
we're going to go back out to Deborah in the Woodlands. Hey, Deborrah,

(02:14:41):
welcome back. I have a question when you went off
on vacation. Do you know what the watering schedule was
like that you had the lawn on? Well, yeah, Deborah,
can you hear me?

Speaker 13 (02:15:00):
I can hear you now?

Speaker 6 (02:15:01):
Yes?

Speaker 3 (02:15:02):
Hello, Okay, when you went on vacation, what what when
you went on vacation, what was the watering schedule like
at your lawn?

Speaker 13 (02:15:14):
I think we had it on twice a week, and
actually for each time we had it come on, we
had it come on for like four minutes, and then
it cycled all the way around through every station, and
then we had it come on again for another four minutes.
Because I was thinking we could just do a better
watering by just okay, not doing eight minutes at a time.

Speaker 3 (02:15:37):
But it was twice a week, right, Let me give
the Let me give the bottom line then on what
I would recommend. Number one, shift the watering schedule to
where you're applying about an inch of water, no less
than a half inch, but an inch of water when
you water. You can do the cycle in soak, but
it's probably going to take more than four to eight minutes.

(02:15:57):
You just need to put okay, something was straight sides
like a tuna, fish, can, a cat food can, anything
out there around the yard. So you see, how long
do you have to run your system to get a
half inch to an inch of water? And that's what
you need to do. The less often you wet your lawn,
the better, So a good soaking on an infrequent basis

(02:16:17):
is important. What I think happened is between the rainfall
and whatnot and the watering, frequent watering. I think that
that take all excuse me, that a gray leaf spot
probably did the work that we're seeing here. It could
have been something that is a summer type of rhizoc
Tonia fungus that also affected it. So number one, let's

(02:16:39):
get the watering deep and infrequent. Number two, there's a
product called Nitrofoss Eagle Fungicide EGLE is in a yellow,
black and white bag from Nitrofoss, widely available. It is
an ingredient that is systemic, You put it down, you
water it in. It is good for a number of diseases,

(02:17:00):
including gray leaf spot, and I would follow the label
on that application and go ahead and get that done.
I think but that that you should see it cure,
clear up and not be a problem. Okay. If you
continue to have problems, feel free to give me a
call back, send me some more pictures, and we can

(02:17:20):
continue the discussion. I think what I just said will
take care of it for you. Okay, I'm going to
have to run to some other calls, but go ahead,
go ahead.

Speaker 13 (02:17:31):
Well, I was just going to repeat what you said,
so grayleaf spot, we want the eagle nychra fous eagle,
and make the watering time a little bit longer, but
not more often.

Speaker 3 (02:17:44):
Make it make it. Yes, use use something that's the
equivalent of a rain gauge, a straight side container to
find out how long you get the water to get
to get a half inch to an inch down. Okay,
thank you very much for your call.

Speaker 2 (02:17:57):
Good luck with that.

Speaker 3 (02:17:59):
Keep me posted and we'll continue from there. Let's see here.
Plants for All Seasons is outstanding garden center. You know
it's there where Luetta and Tamaal Parkway come together, just
north of Luetta. Plants for All Seasons has expert advice.
You can take them pictures and samples, put them in
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(02:18:22):
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(02:18:44):
summer color, shrubs, trees, annuals, perennials, herbs, vegetables. Whatever you're
looking for, they've got it there, including quality products too
that help you to have success. Now. Superturf is an
ex sample of a product that they carry. Superturf's a
nineteen four to ten fertilizer in a silver bag. Nineteen

(02:19:06):
four ten silver bag. All you have to do is
put it about, oh every three or four months, you
can put some out and it feeds your lawn extended,
nice gradual release of nitrogen. That is exactly how it
needs to be for the best plant health, plant being
your lawn. Super Turf can get it there at Blandsborol

(02:19:28):
Seasons and many of the locations around the area. It works.
Let's go now to Galveston and we're going to visit
with Bill this morning. Hello, Bill, welcome to garden Line.

Speaker 4 (02:19:39):
Bye.

Speaker 10 (02:19:40):
Hi, I sent you a a email with a picture
of some bugs I've got on my plime tree, and
I want to know, sha, use bet on it? Okay,
should I do?

Speaker 3 (02:19:52):
You should use nothing on them? Yeah? Those are good bugs.
That is a bug called the assassin bug, and those
bugs assassinate other bugs, so they're not a plant feeder.
They're fine. That is a good thing to have around.
No need to control them because they're out working for you.

Speaker 10 (02:20:16):
That's good news, Thank you very much.

Speaker 3 (02:20:19):
That is good news. Yeah, it is, you bet. Just
watch out. I saw one on a pick one of
the pictures on your finger looked like it might have
gotten smashed. But the little beak that they have, they
can stick it in you and it hurts. But that's
that's what they're out there doing. They're using their beak
to to stick in other bugs and suck the juices
out of the bugs. So just next time you're out there,

(02:20:42):
tip your hat and thank them and move on. All's well, okay, okay,
all right, you bet, Thank you for the call, boy. Bye.
Let's go to a break. When we come back, Martha
and Houston your first s up. We're nearing the Well,
we're in the last half of our show here, so
we'll kind of shift into a new gear and get

(02:21:03):
moving again. We're going to go back out to Deborah
and the Woodlands. Hey, Deborrah, welcome back. I have a
question when you went off on vacation. Do you know
what the watering schedule was like that you had the
lawn on? Hello, yeah, Deborah, can you hear me?

Speaker 13 (02:21:26):
I can hear you now?

Speaker 6 (02:21:27):
Yes?

Speaker 3 (02:21:28):
Hello, Okay, when you went on vacation, what what when
you went on vacation, what was the watering schedule like
at your lawn?

Speaker 13 (02:21:40):
I think we had it on twice a week, and
actually for each time we had it come on, we
had it come on for like four minutes, and then
it cycled all the way around through every station, and
then we had it come on again for another four minutes.
Because I was thinking we could just do a better watering. Okay,

(02:22:01):
not doing eight minutes at a time, but it was
twice a week.

Speaker 3 (02:22:06):
Right. Let me give the Let me give the bottom
line then on what I would recommend. Number one, shift
the watering schedule to where you're applying about an inch
of water, no less than a half inch, but an
inch of water when you water. You can do the
cycle in soak, but it's probably going to take more
than four to eight minutes. You just need to put
something with straight sides, like a tuna, fish can, a

(02:22:28):
cat food can, anything out there around the yard. So
you see how long do you have to run your
system to get a half inch to an inch of water?
And that's what you need to do. The less often
you wet your lawn, the better, So a good soaking
on an infrequent basis is important. What I think happened
is between the rainfall and whatnot and the watering, frequent watering.

(02:22:51):
I think that that take all excuse me, that a
gray leaf spot probably did the work that we're seeing here.
It could have been something that is summer type of
rizoc Tonia fungus that also affected it. So Number one,
let's get the watering deep and infrequent. Number two, there's
a product called Nitrofoss Eagle Fungicide EGLE is in a yellow,

(02:23:15):
black and white bag from Nitrofoss. Widely available.

Speaker 5 (02:23:19):
It is.

Speaker 3 (02:23:19):
It is an ingredient that is systemic, You put it down,
you water it in. It is good for a number
of diseases, including gray leaf spot, and I would follow
the label on that application and go ahead and get
that done. I think but that that you should see
it cure, clear up and not be a problem. Okay.

(02:23:41):
If you continue to have problems, feel free to give
me a callback, send me some more pictures, and we
can continue the discussion. I think what I just said
will take care of it for you. Okay, I'm going
to have to run to some of the calls. Okay,
but go ahead, go ahead.

Speaker 13 (02:23:57):
Well, I was just going to repeat what you said,
So Spot, we want the eagle cher foss eagle and
make the watering time a little bit longer, but not
more often.

Speaker 3 (02:24:11):
Make it make it. Yes, use something that's the equivalent
of a rain gauge, a straight side container to find
out how long you get the water to get to
get a half inch to an inch down. Okay, thank
you very much for your call.

Speaker 2 (02:24:23):
Good luck with that.

Speaker 3 (02:24:25):
Keep me posted and we'll continue from there. Let's see here.
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(02:24:48):
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(02:25:10):
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that help you to have success.

Speaker 10 (02:25:24):
Now.

Speaker 3 (02:25:25):
Superturf is an example of a product that they carry.
Superturf is a nineteen four to ten fertilizer in a
silver bag nineteen four ten silver bag. All you do
is put it about, oh every three or four months,
you can put some out and it feeds your lawn extended,
nice gradual release of nitrogen. That is exactly how it

(02:25:47):
needs to be for the best plant health, plant being
your lawn. Superturf get it there at blendsal seasons and
many of the locations around the area it works. Go
now to Galveston and we're going to visit with Bill
this morning. Hello Bill, welcome to garden Line.

Speaker 4 (02:26:05):
Bye.

Speaker 5 (02:26:06):
Hi.

Speaker 10 (02:26:07):
I sent you a a email with a picture of
some bugs I've got on my on my plme tree,
and I want to know us bet on it.

Speaker 3 (02:26:18):
You should use nothing on them. Yeah, those are good bugs.
That is a bug called the assassin bug, and those
bugs assassinate other bugs, so they're not a plant feeder.
They're fine. That is a good thing to have around.
No need to control them because they're out working for you.

Speaker 10 (02:26:42):
That's good news, Thank you very much.

Speaker 3 (02:26:45):
That is good news. Yeah, it is, you bet. Just
watch out. I saw one on a pick one of
the pictures on your finger looked like it might have
gotten smashed. But the little beak that they have, they
can stick it in you and it hurts. But that's
that's what they're out there are doing. They're using their
beak to to stick in to other bugs and suck
the juices out of the bugs. So just next time

(02:27:07):
you're out there, tip your hat and thank them and
move on. All's well, all right, you bet, Thank you
for the call. Bye bye. Let's go to a break.
When we come back, Martha and Houston, your first stup