Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:01):
Welcome to kt r H Garden Line with Skip Richter's.
Speaker 2 (00:05):
Shoes, gas and watch Trim.
Speaker 3 (00:13):
Just watch him as.
Speaker 4 (00:20):
Many good things to Seepbot Brasy great gable back again,
not a sorry grass Gas, Sunmon.
Speaker 2 (00:38):
Well, good Sunday morning. Welcome to Garden Line. I'm your host,
Skip Richtor, and I'm really glad you are listening in today.
We got a lot of things to talk about. You know,
the the gardening season never ends here in our area.
We can grow twelve months out of the year, and
(00:58):
there's always something be doing, and there's always something to
be learning. Uh. There's I guess an old adage that
says something about when you know, if you're a if
you're a lumberjack and you're cutting down trees, you gotta start.
You got to stop every now and then to sharpen
the saw. And I don't know if any of you
ever used a axe or hatchet or saw, and if
(01:22):
it gets a little bit dull, it takes a lot
of a lot more work and effort to try to
accomplish something in terms of cutting down a tree. It's
just it's just harder. So you's at some point you
just stop and you sharpen the saw. Well with gardening.
Saw sharpening is a constant process. And I'm not talking
about literal sauce. I'm talking about the gardener. I learned
(01:43):
something every day of the week about gardening. I do
because I read about it. I watch stuff, I listen
to stuff, I get out in the garden and do stuff.
And that is one of the coolest things. It's not
like there's this limited amount of info out there. You
learn it and you're done, and now you're a good gardener.
Now it's a constant learning because things changed too, so
(02:05):
we constantly are sharpening the saw. We go to educational events,
botanical gardens, you know, master gardener programming offered, agrolife extension
programs that are offered. Garden centers are constantly offering great
programs for you to come out and learn. And the
more you learn, the better you get. The better you get,
the greener your thumb, the green of your thumb, the
(02:27):
more you can enjoy gardening because it's not frustrating. You
start to get to see the fruit of your success.
And that is just kind of a philosophical thought. I
guess to start the day, but with a question of
are you sharpening the saw. What have you learned lately
about gardening? What new kind of plant have you grown
(02:50):
that you hadn't grown before? If you're a vegetable gardener,
there is a lot to be growing in the cool
season garden. It's one of the best gardening seasons that
there is. All the blue leaf vegetables, I call them
blue leaf broccoli, cabbage, cauliflower, col robbie, collareds, kale, Brussels sprouts,
(03:10):
all of those that are part of the cruciferous vegetables,
super super healthy, lots of different things including cancer fighting
compounds in those plants. They're easy to grow, and you
can grow them in the cool season, and you know,
occasionally we're gonna have a real hard freeze, throw something
over the top just to kind of the keep the
cold down just a bit, and they do just fine
(03:30):
through the season. We've got great greens that we can
grow to season up our salads with outs lathering on.
You know, a bucket full of thousand island dressing things
like sorel that are lemony. There are a number of
different kinds of greens that provide a different flavor profile.
Ridicio something you never hear people talk about it looks
(03:53):
like a small cabbage sort of, and it adds a
bitter taste, which actually mixed in at the proper amounts,
is a really nice twist to ask to add to
some salads. We've got other greens like plantain. That is
one that can be added into salads, the vegetable types
(04:15):
of plantain in the cool season. Let's see corn salad
also called mosh m ag. That is another green that
we can grow in the cool seed. Of course, there's lettuce,
and then there's spinach, and on and on down the line.
It's just lots of things we can grow. The root
crops carrots, for example, we'd be planting those things now
and just taking care of them when they're little. They'll
(04:36):
do just fine. They're pretty cold hardy. But what are
you gonna grow new? What flowers have you never grown before?
Have you ever grown stock? Have you ever grown colendula?
These are cool seasoned flowers that you don't see around
a lot. Those would be good examples. How about a
rose bush? How about a fruit tree? You know, maybe
(04:57):
a citrus in a large container on the patio. That
would be a new thing for some people to try.
I'm telling you when citrus ballooms. The fragrance of those
ballooms are unbelievable. They're great. I just love the scent
of citrus blooms. They do really well. Well. I'll be
talking about a number of different things today, but hopefully
(05:20):
we'll be talking to you about the questions you might
have or anything related to gardening that we can help with.
Our phone number is seven one three two one two
k t r H seven to one three two one
two k t r H. A number of you have
emailed me through the past weeks and uh photos and
(05:42):
things to then follow up with a call in on.
So go for it. Let's talk about those things as
well help you get off to a really good start
with your garden. I have a number of topic. Today's
going to be a lot of kind of fyi things
of interest perhaps that you might you may be interested
in knowing and finding I have. I'll just start off
(06:06):
with talking about when you want to have a beautiful,
cool season container, how do you select plants? How do
you build one of those? You know you walk by them,
or you see them, maybe even you know in a
shopping district there'll be these beautiful containers along the sidewalk
out front that are just gorgeous. How do you make
one of those for home? Well, there's a few things
(06:26):
to think about as you do that. First of all
is the sunlight exposure. Most plants that you want to
grow on a container for beauty are going to want
good sunlight. There are plants that can grow in less sunlight,
but choosing the plants accordingly is very important. In the
cool season, things that used to be areas that used
(06:47):
to be shady or often now sunny because the leaves
fill off the tree, or at least partially sunny. But
you want to select plants that like to be in
the same amount of sunlight. So if you take something
that wants to be in a break from the sun
and then you put it in full sun with something
that wants to be in full sun, that combination doesn't
(07:07):
work really well. Never forget that foliage is a color too, Okay,
So we want blooms and so pansies and violas, colegulas, snapdragons.
What am I leaving out a bunch gosh stock I
mentioned before a lessen. These are all plants are dianthus
(07:30):
a very important cool season plant. These are all plants
that do well in the cool season that bloom. But
we have plants also for our cool season that are
just foliage. We have the beautiful grayish color of Dusty Miller,
and it really is an interesting dramatic especially when you
use it with flowers that have a bluish color to them.
(07:52):
Gray and blue really work well together. So violas that
are darker blue, lighter blue with gray Dusty Miller, it
just really looks good. All Right, I'm gonna leave you
hanging there. We're coming back. Got a lot more to
talk about on container plants, and then a few other
topics as well. Just remember the number seven one three
two one two KTRH. Hey, welcome back to guard Line.
(08:15):
Glad to have you with us this morning. If you'd
like to give me a call seven one three two
one two fifty eight seventy four, or you'd like to
die by letters seven one three two one two ktr H.
Simple as that, we'll talk about the things that you
are interested in. I was talking about putting together a
(08:36):
beautiful container, and you know, there's so many options for plants,
and what I'm doing right now is giving you a
few tips, a few concepts to think about when you're
wanting to have success with the container. By the way,
a lot of our garden centers if you, in fact,
I would say pretty much everyone I talk about. If
you walk in there and you go, hey, I want
(08:56):
to do a container, and I like this color and that,
but I don't know what plants to grab, they'll walk
you around and show you exactly your options and how
to do it. There are a few of the garden
centers they'll even go make it for you, you know, if
you want them to, they'll they'll put it together. I'm
for a charge, and then you just take the container homets,
you set it up and it's instant. You got everything
you want right there. So however you want to go
(09:18):
about it, it works. It works either way. But when
you're the second concept that I'm talking I believe we're
on number two. That is the plant form. There's a
concept that it has catchy name, so I'll use it
because it helps people remember. But it's called thriller, filler, spiller.
So thriller is something that's upright, A filler is something
(09:40):
that fills in around the base, and a spiller is
something that spills over the side. So basically, you're talking
about a upright plant, a more bushy plant, and a
more trailing slash binding type of plant. So something that
would be upright could be like a cast iron plant
that is a really hardy plant. There's one called milky way.
(10:01):
There's a little yellow spots in the in the foliage.
That's nice there. And during the summer we often use
ornamental grasses in that way. Then for filling in around them. Gosh,
most of our flowers, everything from zinnias in their bush
form to you know, anything that's more of a compact
filling type plant would work for that. And in the
(10:22):
cool season we have those as well. And then the
trailing plants would be things like a lissome sweet lessome
trailing over the sides. And so it just creates a
nice connection. And that could be done in shady areas
with ferns, and it could be done in sunny areas
with a lot of plants. But having a group of
different forms of plants also helps a lot. Well, I'm
(10:45):
gonna pause just for a moment on that, and we're
going to go to Magnolia and talk to Tim. Good morning, Tim,
Welcome to garden Line. Hello, Hello, do we have a
Tim out there.
Speaker 5 (10:59):
Yes, don't all right.
Speaker 2 (11:00):
I'm gonna hey, good welcome regarding line Tim. What's up?
Speaker 6 (11:06):
I had to my lawns turning brown? And I sent
some pictures yesterday. I was gonna get you to comment
on those.
Speaker 7 (11:14):
See what you thought? That what I need to do?
Speaker 2 (11:18):
Yes, I do, recall. Hang on one second and let me.
I'm trying to find the picture connection. I know you
had some attached here. Huh. Now I'm not seeing them.
Were they embedded in the text or were they attached
you know.
Speaker 6 (11:36):
In the text or in the email? Yeah, just attached
to it, not where you didn't have to open it.
Speaker 2 (11:43):
Ah, boy, darn it, I'm not They're not showing up here,
and I don't know why. Sometimes I have trouble with
embedded embedded pictures. Let me, can we do this? Can
you do a rescend and instead of embed them in
the text, attach them to the email and let's try
(12:06):
this again. You can call back if you like, or
I can just talk about them in the air. Either way,
I'm happy to do it, admit, but I am not
able to open for some for longer reason. Okay, thank you,
you bet. I appreciate that. Since we're talking about that.
There are several things that make it easier for me
to help you. One of them is when you take pictures,
(12:28):
take sharp focused pictures, and sometimes people you know, Like
if you hold up a plant at arm's length and
then with your camera phone you take a picture of it,
Sometimes the phone focuses on the background and not on
the plant in the foreground, and so it's too fuzzy
and fuzzy pictures. I'll give you fuzzy answers, and you
don't want fuzzy answers. You want sharp back your answers.
(12:50):
But make sure it's in sharp focus. Secondly, get in
as close as you can. You know, you got a
bush with a tiny white flower on it, and you
stand back four feet, I'm not going to be able
to really look at that flower or that bug or
whatever is on it. So the closer you can get,
the better. So sometimes it also helps to have a
picture in its context. So a shrub is the branches
(13:12):
you turning brown or yellow or dyeing or whatever. If
I see the whole flower bed with that shrub in it,
I may see things on other plants that help me
connect a diagnosis to it. So a picture like that,
and then a picture up really close if the question
is appropriate for a close up picture, and it usually is,
that helps more than one picture is usually a good
(13:34):
idea too, different angles and stuff. So anyway, just a
few things to think about. Sometimes you're taking a picture
in a bush and it's like the camera doesn't know
which branch to focus on, and just putting your hand
in there or something like holding a leaf, now you
get a better focus on that sharp focus on that leaf.
So just a few tips like that for doing it. Finally,
(13:55):
the third one is We're a visit with Tim about
is the attaching versus embedding. When you paste a picture
into the text. If it's a really large file, like
a nice multi megapixel photo, when I get it and
open the email, it it's like three screens wide, and
so I have trouble, you know, seeing into it as well.
(14:19):
When it's an attachment, I can open it separate, and
I can open several of them and look at all
of them at the same time. So you send me
four pictures of your yard, the kinds of pictures I
was just talking about, and I can look at them
all and then it helps. Embedded in the text, it's
just a little more trouble to get to and so
just a few tips on that sort of thing. We'll
(14:40):
get back with Tim here in a bet. So I
was talking what was I talking about? I was talking
about the different ways and tips on creating a beautiful
outdoor container. Another concept in containers, and I'm gonna mention
this one. Just remember this about all all the rules
(15:00):
of gardening and things. Sometimes often they're important if you
want to have success, and then often they're an esthetic opinion. Okay,
color combinations are an esthetic opinion. We have colors that
do complement each other. Interior designers use it all the
(15:21):
time when they're creating that beautiful indoor scape that you want.
When it comes to outdoor colors, there are colors that
combine better together. But you plant what you want. You
plant the colors you like that appeal to you. But
consider this. There's not a right or wrong way to
use colors in a container. But these guidelines I think
are really helpful because it helps you create things that
(15:43):
are pleasing to the eye. So a riot of bright
bowl colors can really be eye catching, and in the
summertime especially gives that hot tropical look, you know. The
gaudy colors, the things that are like a pink flamingo
in the yard that scream look at me. Those are important.
Another concept, well, in the cool season, often we're dealing
(16:06):
with a more subdued color palette, not always, but some
a more subdued color palette, and either one is okay.
It's like, do you like bright primary colors? Do you
like pastels? Everything has its place. The other thing is
when you look at a color wheel, and you can
just type color wheel into a search engine and you'll
get a lot of examples of color wheels, especially if
(16:29):
you put the word plant in there with it, it'll
help you even find some plants that are in that color,
but opposite sides of the color wheel seem to be
complementary to the eye. So blue and orange, green and red,
blue and orange, green and red, yellow and violet would
(16:49):
be another example. Those are examples that cross the color wheel,
so that is nice. But then you can also do
colors that are considered adjacent on the color wheel. So
purple and violet and magenta are all adjacent and they
look well together. They match together really well. Yellow orange
(17:10):
and red, that's another one. Think about that yellow orange
and red. So the summer shrub, we have the Pride
of Barbados se Salpinia. What's the other name, redbird of
pair lace is the name for it too. Boys, that
every that group yellow, orange and red, just bald bright
colors and it goes well together. I mean, it's the
(17:31):
planet itself is doing the color combo for you in
that case. But considering that, and so in the cool season,
I like using a light blue viola with a maybe
a darker viola, blue viola with some white and with
some dusty miller gray grayish silver foliage that looks really
good put together. But again your garden centers can help
(17:54):
you with those kinds of things. Very important for that,
and I mentioned already you know the important of foliage
and foliage color. A lot of these things apply. We
have more opportunity to use them in the summertime than
we do in the cool season. The cool season are
palate's quite different. And a lot of the plants I
would mention as examples to these are basically color plants.
(18:17):
Maybe how to put this on the web? Two that
may be helpful anyway. And then finally water requirements. You know,
to put a cactus in an azilia in the same container.
Aside from other issues with that, they don't need the
same water retirement requirement. And you water enough to keep
the plant that uses the most water happy, and when
(18:38):
you do that, what you end up with is a
very soggy, unhappy other plant. So just think about water
can amount. Finally, a less thing I'll add is volume
of soil. You may see online TV shows on gardening
where they have like a little boot and it's got
all these flowers spilling out. They filled the boot with
(19:00):
potting soil. Well, that's cute and cool, but here in
our area, the more soul volume you can give plants,
the less often you water, and the better they do.
So just be careful to not create too small of
a containers with too many or too large of plants.
All right, it's time for me to take a quick break.
I'll be back with more tips and if you'd like
(19:21):
to give me a call seven one three two one two,
All right, welcome back to garden Line. Good morning. I
hope you got the sand out of your eyes. Mister
send me to sleep. We are here to answer your
gardening questions. Uh, and I just wanted to continue a
little bit on some tips while we wait. Did receive
(19:45):
the photos, Tim, and so if you'd like to discuss those,
we can do it. If not, if I don't hear
from me, I'll just talk about them inside myself. It
is important when you want to have success with plants
that you consider a few basic concepts. And now, I
always stress the soil because that's the thing I see
(20:06):
people often not do they prop They, as I like
to say it, they PLoP a poor plant into an
unprepared plot, and that just doesn't give it a chance
to get going. Soil. Soil is so important. You get
the soil right. The plant thrives, the root system expands,
it has access to lots of water, lots of nutrients
(20:27):
because it's expanded in a good soil, and the plant's
going to do better. Another thing, though, that's very important
is sunlight. If you are wanting to have success with
a plant, you need to give it the amount of
light it needs. Now, there are a few plants that
do not want to be in the blazing sun. They
just don't like that intense, especially in summer, the intense,
(20:47):
blazing hot summer sun, and they we typically relegate them
to shadier spots. Most ferns kind of fall into that category.
Not all, but most ferns kind of fall in that category.
Impatients tend to go in the Kaladiums used to go
in that category, but breeders now have kolladiums that thrive
in the full sun. Colius used to be in that category,
(21:08):
but breeders have colius cultivars now that just thrive and
absolute full sun. But some plants don't want much sun, Okay.
Hydrange is a good example of one that you can
overdo it. Now, other plants are going to need as
much light as they can get. Some will put up
(21:28):
with part day shade, part day sun, and some just
want to be in full day. And full day means
about eight hours if you can get eight hours. In fact,
we usually say a minimum of six Okay, when we're
looking at a plant that wants full sun, if you
can get a a minimum and that's a minimum of
six hours, they usually do pretty good. But here's a
(21:49):
quick way, especially like let's just take a vegetable garden
for example, a quick way to know where do I
need to put this plant? Like, okay, here's this scenario.
You've got a spot and it's some of its full sun,
some of its partnation sun and some of it not
a whole lot. I mean it gets it gets a
(22:09):
lot of light, but not much direct full sun. Well,
if it's gonna grow roots or fruit, so roots that
would be turnips, that would be carrots. We're talking about
radishes were from a sweet potatoes. So those are storage
structures for carbohydrates. And the only way you get carbohydrates
(22:32):
is by having the sun shine on a leaf. So
can you grow that in less than full cent yes?
Will your production be the same, No, it'll be less
because there's less energy shining on that plant. Fruit, tomatoes, peppers, squash,
green beans, peas, southern peas, cool seasoned peas. Those are
(22:56):
all fruit. And I know, how can eyed peebe fruit?
But it's the fruit of the plant. So if you're
going to grow those, you need to give them full sun.
For the same reason. There's a lot of carbohydrates in
a black eyed pea or a tomato or even a squash,
and so the best results are found when you give
(23:17):
them the most sun you can. Leafy greens things that
their only use is for harvesting the foliage. Lettuce and
spinach are two good examples.
Speaker 8 (23:28):
Of that.
Speaker 2 (23:29):
Kale would be another example of that, and a lot
of the blue vegetables kind of fall into that category.
They can take a partial sun. Now they don't have
to have partial sun. They can grow in full sun,
but they can take less because all they're doing is
making a leaf. They are not creating tons of carbohydrates
(23:50):
to go in to create a bloom and then a
fruit or a root. So those are some choices now.
In flowers, again, it's the same kind of thing. Even
though it's not a fruit or a root. The blooms
themselves do need some sunlight. There are flowers that can
flower in shade, like a wishbone flower and impatience being
(24:14):
two examples. They can bloom in quite a bit of shade.
But a lot of flowers if you don't give them sun,
you're not going to get the production. And roses are
a good example. You know. Typically I've more than a
thousand times been asked something like the essential. The essence
of the question is can I grow a tomato in
four hours of sun? Or can I grow a rose
(24:35):
in three hour or four hours of sun? And the
answer is absolutely, you can grow a rose bush or
a tomato bush in that amount of light, can you
have blooms and fruit, Well, not as much. It's going
to go down progressively as the light intensity goes down.
So that's just it kind of how that works. But
imagine think of it this way. Leaves are solar panels.
(24:58):
So if you bought solar pan panels to put it
in your house and you wanted to make lots of
energy for the house, that's where you put them on
the roof. One reason you didn't imagine if that you
put them on a part of your roof that was
shaded by a big giant tree, how much electricity would
you get out of solar panels. Same thing is true
with carbohydrates. That's how that works. So just picture your
leaves of solar panels. And if a plant needs to
(25:21):
make a lot of energy a lot of carbohydrates, then
you've got to provide it that thing that it needs.
So we talked about the importance of soil and the
importance of sunlight as well. And then the final step
and we will come to this and after this break
is the amount of drainage that a plant needs, the
(25:43):
kind of sol moisture that a plant needs. So I'm
going to take a break right here, and we'll come
back to your questions. We'll also come back to my
continuing comments about success tips for success with your plants.
Our phone number seven one three two one two kt
r H seven one three two one two k t
(26:04):
RH if you'd like to give me a call. Get
a little bit of sunshine in here and get this
day going. We're gonna have a great Sunday, by the way, UH,
gardening weather tip's Looking at the weather yesterday, I believe
and saw that we've got a lot of nice sunny weather,
really good temperatures to be out and about working in
the garden. So maybe this afternoon you can plan on
(26:27):
getting yourself a little bit of sunshine and enjoying the
garden outside.
Speaker 5 (26:32):
Uh.
Speaker 2 (26:32):
And then about midweek or so, we turn into a
little bit of rainy weather for a good while, and
so that's gonna hamper things as far as outdoor work.
So just tip to the wires get try to get
that stuff done by midweek if you can. All right, well,
let's see phone number seven one three two one two
(26:52):
k t r H. If you'd like to give me
a call. We can visit about the things that are
of most interest to you. I've been talking about containers
and container color and things like that. I'd like to
talk a little bit about And this is gonna get
a little nerdy just for a minute, so bear with me,
though I think this is important. There are a lot
of myths in gardening, and gardening myths in general are
(27:18):
usually based on truth, a bit of truth. Sometimes it's
just like, Okay, that just came out of space. I
don't know where you got that. But a lot of
times I can see why they're saying it, but it's
just not true. And often when you take the truth
and apply it too far outside of the box, it's
becomes not true, right. That's kind of how that goes.
(27:41):
So I would I would suggest this to consider something
about the way water behaves in the soil as a
example of a myth, and that has that we can
bring some truth to. Water is pulled by gravity, so
when you water, something goes down in the soil, and
(28:04):
in a real loose soil like a sandy soil, the
water just flows through the sand and moves on down
and very little water sticks to the sand. Some does,
but for a very short time. So that's why sandy
soils tend to have to be fertilized a little more
often water a little more often in order to keep
the plants happy. And water is also influenced by something
(28:24):
called capillary action, and that is the way particles pull
the water to themselves. So if you were to take
a paper towel, and let's say you had a little
few drops of water on your catching counter, and you
take the corner of the towel and set it down
right and touch that water drop, what happens. The water
(28:45):
goes up in the towel. That's capillar reaction. Okay, soil
does that too. The smaller the soil particles, the more
pull of capillar reaction like that that it can have,
the more it can take up in the end, but slowly,
but the more so. Whenever we have a clay soil,
it has a lot strong pull on the water, but
(29:07):
we see a little less movement by gravity, or at
least not as fast, because the soil is holding it
better than a sandy soil would. When we add organic
matter to soil, it improves either kind of soil because
in a sand think of organic matter. This is a
don't it's just an it's just a concept idea. It's
(29:27):
not don't take this literally, but think of organic matter
as little tiny sponges, okay, and you mix them into sand,
which you will think of as little pieces of broken glass.
And now when water and nutrients go in, those sponges
are holding on to more of the water that the
sand would just let run through. So it helps organic
matter are compost helps the sand in that way. In
(29:49):
a clay soil, what it does is that massive clay.
Remember when your kid and you played with modeling clay.
You can make a little bowl with your fingers and
then you pour water in the bowl and it just
sits there and it holds water. It's like a farm pond.
They line farm ponds with bent night clay to help
them hold water. But now water soaks in, but it's
(30:11):
really slow. Our typical Houston black clay. Then listen to this,
Our typical Houston black clay with no organic matter, just
the clay, no roots going through opening channels, just the
clay takes in water at about one eighth of an
inch an hour. Now, a lot of times when we water,
(30:31):
we'd like to put an inch of water down, But
if you're taking it in at an eighth of an
inch an hour. Can you imagine watering an eighth of
an inch an hour for eight hours to get an
inch in the rain? Doesn't happen that way. Our irrigation
systems can't even put it on that slow. But the
concept to remember is that you have to soak clay
soil slowly over time. But the organic matter in that
(30:54):
clay now, suddenly those particles start to clump together and
you get airspace. It's called structure in the soil. It's
what the term friable means. You grab a dirt clod
and it's just hard dried clay, and you might as
well be squeezing concrete. You grab a dirt clod and
you have it has a lot of organic matter in it,
(31:16):
and it crumbles apart in your hand. So that's the
benefit of the organic matter in the soil. And I'm
gonna continue, but I've just remembered something I was talking
a while ago about the importance, you know, of having
sunlight for plants and the energy and things that plants need.
Microlife has a product that I haven't really talked about
(31:37):
much before. It's called Microlife Ultimate. It is an eight
four six now normally you think in the cool season, well,
we're moving away from a lot of nitrogen. But when
you have a blooming bed like pansies or petuna or
pansies or alyssum or violas or things like that, and
(31:58):
you need flowers and energy, you need nitrogen because nitrogen
makes the plant grow leaves and leaves or solar panels,
and solar panels make carbohydrates for more blooms. So if
you put your panzi's in the shade, they can't get sunlight,
they don't bloom as much. You put your pansies in
the soil and you don't give them good nitrogen content,
(32:18):
they bloom them. We say bloom themselves to death. That's
an exaggeration, but they put all their energy into blooms,
and then the weakened plant just can't produce more blooms.
Microlife Ultimate eight four six provides that boost of nitrogen
in a gradual release form. Now, in addition to the nitrogen,
it's got all kinds of things in it. It has
(32:41):
a lot of essential like rock mineral types of nutrients.
It's got endo microurza and ectomycrourza that associate with the
plant roots and cause that plant to be more productive more.
It increases the health and every aspect of the benefit
to the plant. So Microlife Ultimate eight six four. You
(33:02):
can buy it in a bag, you can bite in
a canister. It's a blue label and it is one
that if you're going to do cool season color, it
is important to provide those kind of nutrients to your
plants to keep them floriferous. Doesn't that sound magnificent? Floriferous?
Microlife will do that. You can find micro Life products
(33:23):
everywhere the website Microlife Fertilizer dot com. Microlife Fertilizer dot com.
You can find out more about Microlife Ultimate and you
can find out where to get Microlife products there as well.
This morning is flying by. Maybe it's just because I'm
doing all the talking. I don't know. We're going to
(33:45):
take a little break here pretty quick for the top
of the hour in the news, and when I come back,
I'm going to continue on with some of this. I
did want to say on water movement and soil, I
want to go a little further into that, and I'll
talk out into the music a little bit here. There's
a concept because it's true that water flows through real
(34:09):
chunky stuff you know, gravel, sand, those things much more
readily than it does a tight clay type soil, a
fine textured soil. We think, well, if we put gravel
and sand and stuff in the bottom of a planting hole,
that makes it drain well. And that is absolutely not true.
Here's what happens. You dig a hole in clay and
(34:31):
you have created an underground bathtub that holds water. Throwing
gravel in the bottom of that does nothing for drainage.
Have you ever had an aquarium there's gravel in the
bottom of an aquarium. Does that gravel make the water
get out of there? Does it know? When you fill
the aquarium with water, it is it's water logged, right,
(34:54):
same thing as a hole. Don't do that. I'll talk
a little bit more about why that is.
Speaker 5 (34:57):
I don't We've done that.
Speaker 1 (35:02):
Welcome to KTRH Garden Line with Skip Richard.
Speaker 2 (35:11):
All right, guess what we chase the grumlins out of
the system? Back. I know you enjoyed listening to more
and more of our bumper song. But anyway, we're back here.
You're listening to Gardenline. I'm your host, Skip Richter, and hey,
we're here to answer your question. So if you'd like
to give us a call seven one three, two one
(35:33):
two five eight seven four. I was in the middle
of a nerd Alert comment on soil and water, and
I'm going to continue that right now because these are
things that are one of the most common misconceptions about
planting and gardening and things like that, especially watering plants
(35:56):
and whatnot. And we talked about the fact that water
moves is drawn more toward finer textured soil than toward
coarse textured soil. And why is that important. Well, here
here is an example. As the as the poor space
gets larger, the only the primary movement of that water
(36:16):
is by gravity down into the soil. As a poorer
space gets smaller, it's the soil itself that pulls on
the water, just like I use the example of putting
a corner of a paper towel down on a wet
spot on the counter and watching the water go upward
away from gravity into the towel. That works in the
soil too, And so why does that matter? Well, here's
(36:37):
why that matters. Well, one thing I pointed out was
if you throw a bunch of gravel in the bottom
of a planting hole, because you know, the area is
too soggy, and then you plant on top of it.
That did nothing. It's like gravel in an aquarium does
not pull the water out of the aquarium. It just
fills up with the water. And so that doesn't don't
do that. Don't put that kind of stuff in there
(36:59):
when it comes to an above ground container. So you say, okay,
well that's an underground bathtub in the garden. What about
a container? Should I put pot shards, broken pottery and
gravel and styrofoam, peanuts and gosh, we've heard all kinds
of things over the years in the bottom of the
pot so they drain better, Because doesn't it make sense
that water will run out of that better than it
(37:20):
would if it was solid soil the inches, of course,
yes it does. But the only way water water moves
from fine texture into a courser texture, and the courser texture,
let's we're going to use the word gravel just as
a general example. The only way it moves from your
potting soil down into gravel is primarily by getting so
saturated in the potting soil that it literally drips out
(37:43):
of the potting soil and down into the gravel. So
what happens is you've got this container. Let's say you've
got a little two gallon container on the patio and
you're going to grow things, and you put it two
inches of gravel in the bottom, and then you fill
it up with potting soil. Okay, what you've done is
you've reduced the volume of soil that roots can get
water in their nutrients from, because they're not going to
(38:05):
go down the gravel and there's not hardly anything there
for them, So you've reduced your soil volume. And I
said earlier, soal volume is important. Bigger pots are important,
especially here in Texas, and especially in the summer when
the demands are so high. What doesn't happen is the
gravel doesn't pull water out of the potting salt to
(38:25):
make it drain, but it just gets so saturated that
it drips out. So if instead you just fill the
pot full of soil, no gravel, pot full of soil,
it would be the same thing. You just lowered that
saturated zone. And so the water moves down and as
the soil begins to get drier, you bring air in
behind it, and that water saturated line is at the
(38:50):
bottom and when it's so saturated at the bottom of
your pot, it just drips out of a hole. The
gravity pushes the water below it. The water above is
pushing the water below it down as gravity pulls on
both of them, and so it goes out. So don't
put gravel into a pot. It just doesn't work. I
(39:10):
could go on and give more examples and why that is,
but that is a myth that just won't die, and
I see it all the time. I hear it from
people that ought to know better about that kind of thing.
Take advantage of the full pot size with quality potting soil.
It is very important that your container has drainage holes
(39:32):
and that they're not plugged up, and that they're not
Sometimes pots have one hole in the middle at the bottom,
and then people set them on a clay soil in
the yard or whatever. Well, now for the water to
get out, it has to go into a clay, which
is going to happen really slow. So you want to
have something that lifts the pot a little bit up
off the ground. A lot of pots are made little
(39:54):
indentations underneath, so water goes out to the side. If
you are going to plant in something and set it
on the ground, like those water troughs, you know, the
oval cattle water troughs, galvanized metal. Those have kind of
become popular as a little planting bed. That's fine, you
can do that, But if you just drill holes in
the bottom of it and set it on a clay
(40:16):
soil is going to be really slow without water to
get out of there. Drill the holes on the sides
down near the bottom, like maybe oh an inch up
from the base around the sides, and let the water
also be able to get out from the sides to
do that. All right, I know I nerd it out
on that, but I see a lot of people make
that mistake, and I keep hearing about it, and gosh,
(40:37):
when you go on social media, which is it is
the vault of misinformation about planting. There's so much stuff
on social media just not true. And I just picked
apart the water one. I mean, we could do a
season of shows just taking myth by myth by myth
(40:58):
and talking about why it's not true, why it doesn't work.
And myths are perpetuated because they make sense. Right. We
know water runs through gravel, so why not put gravel
in the bottom of the pot so water will run
out better. See see how that that is based on
common sense and what we know to be true. It's
not all right, I'll stop right there. You can spare
(41:23):
your fellow listeners the diatribe by calling seven one three
two one two k t r H seven one three
two and two k tr a T. If you like
to ask a question, talk about some things that are
related to your gardening goals and things.
Speaker 9 (41:38):
You know.
Speaker 2 (41:38):
ACE Hardware Stores are the place. That's their motto. Ace
is the place right and it's the place for so
many things right now. ACE is in addition to, of
course they still have all our gardening supplies we've been
talking about all year. But ACE is a place for
lights by the foot. You know, if you ever bought
a Christmas light and it's so long and you needed
(41:58):
it to be a little longer, you know you got
some extra at the end and need it to be
a little shorter, why not go to Ason get lights
by the foot. Incredible assortment of lights at ACE Harder
all kinds. But you can also just get lights by
the foot where you say I want a I want
a string of lights that is seventeen and a half
feet long, and you can have that you can get that,
(42:22):
they'll show you how to do it. Now. ACE has
lots of indoor decord that's really cool. That's an awesome
place for gifts. I was walking through an AC other
day looking at some of the power tools and stuff
like that, and it's like yeah, yeah, And when I
go to the barbecue section, I have to wear a
bit because I really start drilling the Tregger grills, the
Weber grills, the big green eggs and all the stuff
(42:46):
they care. It's just really cool, good stocking stuffer. A
lot of cool kid toys too. I don't know if
you have ever gone in an ACE and noticed this,
but I was in one the other day looking at
a lot of the old retro cool toys that I
remember from decades past. That ACE still has versions of those.
They're kind of cool, I think. And they have something
(43:08):
called Brewder Toys that's a one to sixteenth scale, very realistic,
a detailed little toy vehicle, so you know you're playing
with little cars. You got somebody that's kind of into that,
the Brewder toy. They got to check out the Brewer Toys.
Just go in there and ask them. I want to
see Brewder Toys and that's kind of cool. Now, remember
every Ace Hardware store is independently owned, so they can
carry what they want or don't want to carry. But
(43:30):
you see a lot of these things in common between
our Ace Hardware stores. Don't forget that the U Valley
location has been newly remodeled, so that's kind of cool.
You want to go visit that. The one in Baycliff
down south of Seabrook is a newly opened store in
the Ace Hardware group here in our area. So anyway,
(43:51):
there's a lot of good Ace Hardware stores to visit.
Just go to Ace Hardware dot com and click on
the store locator and you can find the ones that
are closest to you. But I encourage you just trust
me on this one. Go buy and check one out.
Maybe this afternoon be a good time. Go buy and
check one out and see the kinds of things that have.
I think you'll see why I am so excited about
(44:12):
the fact that we have those wonderful stores all over
the Houston area. They carry I promise you things you
didn't know they carry. All right, Well, you are listening
to Garden Line. I'm your host, Skip Richter, and our
phone number is seven to one three two to one
two KTRH seven one three two one two k t
(44:34):
r Age. You give us a call if you got
a question, we'll be happy to visit about that. Plants
for All Seasons is a garden center in on Tomball Parkway.
It's Highway two forty nine for those of you new
to the area, that's Tomball Parkway. It goes from Houston
out to Tomball and as you're going out that direction,
you want to exit Luetta, cross over Luetta and you're
(44:57):
at Plants for All Seasons. It's been around since nineteen
seventy three when the Flowery family founded it. Flowery Family
still operates, owns and operates the ACE Hardware. Ace Hardware.
Here I go the Plants for All Seasons store. And
when you walk into Plants for All Seasons, what you're
walking into is a place where you know you're going
to get plants that will be successful here, and you're
(45:21):
going to get advice to make sure they are successful here.
So listen, plants have problems. Things happen. You know, there's bugs,
there's diseases, there's issues with amount of sunlight or drainage
or all those kinds of things that can happen. And
when you go into Plants for All Seasons, you take
them a photo, you take them a sample of a
plant and go, what's this bug? Or what's you know,
what's wrong here? Or even a maybe an area of
(45:44):
your yard where nothing wants to grow and you just say,
what what do you think might grow there? And they
can help you with that. They are true lawn and
garden experts, So take advantage of that wonderful opportunity. You
know that it's a full service retail garden center and
whether it's education or selection or delivery, yes, they do
delivery and even custom potting. I mentioned that earlier. You
(46:06):
know the cool season container. Some of our garden centers
will do custom potting for you. Well. Plants for All
Seasons will do that their websites Plants for All Seasons
dot Com, the phone number two eight one, three seven six,
sixteen forty six. When you check out, by the way,
you have to walk through the fertilizers and the soil products,
because we all know brown stuff before green stuff. Don't
(46:28):
go home with a plant without going home with compost
or maltz or fertilizer or all of the above. That's
just a general good shopping tip for shopping in our
area for plants and things. I was, We've been having
family in for the Thanksgiving holiday, and I've got my
(46:49):
garden is outside being ignored and abandoned right now. I
had some people out there who were willing to stand
still long enough for me to explain oak or breeding
to them. Poor things. But anyway, I thought it was interesting.
I think they did too. We were just talking about
the different concepts and what we do. You know, with gardening,
there is a lot of levels of gardening. Now, the
(47:13):
standard garden is you hire somebody and you say I
want a beautiful flowerbed, go make one out there, and
they do it. That's like bottom line. The next level
up is I need a flower bed created, but I
would like to plant some things in it, and you
go planch up and you come home you plant them
in your beds. But you know, it's kind of a
blend right there in that. Another level, as you go
(47:35):
up is where you start to get into some of them.
I don't have a word far, but the higher level
aspects of gardening, and so that would be stuff like
seed starting. See the standard level, people go to the
garden center, they buy containers and good for that, or
go to the garden center buy your seeds. That's good,
but a lot of people it's like I'm a tomato
(47:58):
afiicionado or I'm a pepper fish nato and I've got
to have this variety. And you can buy those online,
you can get the seeds in or if it's if
it's fairly common, you're going to find them in garden
centers as well. And then you go home and you
grow your own transplant. So if you want a tomato
that is so big that it already has fruit on
it by the time you plant it out, when it's
(48:19):
safe to plant it out of side, you can start
it yourself. Start right after the Christmas season, right around
New Year's and you get a little before New Year's
and grow it and move it to a bigger pot,
and then move it to eventually a gallum pot as
long as you got the lighting for it and you
get a big plant to grow. That's another level of gardening.
Another version of that is plant propagation. Well, of course
(48:41):
seed planting is plant propagation, but I'm talking about cuttings
or divisions or things like that, grafting of plants. Those
are all things that most gardeners don't do. But as
you get more into gardening, you start to do those things.
And I'm telling you, when you learn how to propagate
a cutting, the world is your oyster. I have on
(49:03):
many occasions been. In fact, just the other day, I
was driving through the countryside and there is a relative
of blueberry that grows wild up north of the Houstern area,
into the woods and stuff, and I was taking some cuttings,
I mean, some seeds off of it on a roadside.
They're just beautiful seeds. But I was looking at the
(49:23):
plants because some of them have a beautiful fall burgundy
color more so than others. You know, plants are. That's
how we select plants, as we find ones that have
what we want and we continue to propagate those. And
so I was finding some that were a deep deep burgundy,
really pretty maroon color, and on those I was just
collecting seeds, and they're they're in my garage right now
(49:44):
waiting for me a little bit here. I'm gonna go
ahead and plant them, get them started under lights, and
put them out, and as they grow, I'll probably find
the ones that are the most burgundy of those and
just keep saving them. This is a little edible berry.
It's not allowed to write home about the seeds hard
and a lot of the inside of the berry is
filled with seeds. But still it's something you can do.
(50:05):
I think that's a cool native plant that has not
been developed, and we need to we need to keep
doing that. It's called a farkle berry, by the way,
and then a weird name farkle berry. Farkleberry native plant. Oh,
by the way too. It's growing on soils that are
not very acidic, and it is graft compatible with blueberry.
(50:26):
So thing about that you live in an area, you
can't turn it into this beautiful, acid loving soil that
makes blueberries and Azelia's happy. You take the soil you
got and work with it. And farkleberry expands the ability
or the range of that if you do the grafting
on them. But again most of you are going, I
ain't going to do that. Well, that's what I'm talking about.
(50:47):
It is there's levels of gardening, there's things you get
interested in. But if you learn how to at least
how about this this year, learned how to propagate a
plant from cuttings, and if you want the easiest plants
in the world to propagate. I would say Colius is one.
You walk up to Colius and you just take a
cutting stick it and water stick it and soil at
(51:09):
roots it grows. It's easy, easy, easy. Actually, rosemary is
easier than most plants to propagate too, but each one
has its own how you do it. But try that
this year? Why not try that this year? I bet
most people have at least taken a section apothos ivy
growing in the house, the most common house plant on earth,
(51:29):
and stuck it in a glass of water and just
let it root and let it grow out of the water. Right.
That's that One's another one that's pretty easy. All right,
I think you get the idea of what we're talking
about here. The folks at Nelson Plant Food have created
a number of different fertilizers and I talk about them
(51:51):
through the year. You know, we got the Turf Star line.
Those are all the things we put on our turf
through the year. Things that are for springing, summer fertilizing,
things for the fallertilizing. There's a wide variety of options
in the Turf Star line from Nelson. Now there's the
nutri Star line, nutri Star is typically there are a
(52:11):
lot of very specific kinds of fertilizers. You know, there's
a nutral Star tree and shrub. It's a twenty one
sixty eight. That's just an example of a nutri star.
There's nutril stars for a lot of different kinds of plants.
But color Star is the one that provides the boost
of color that has just been so successful for people.
(52:32):
Landscapers use it. They I actually was talking to Dean
a while back and just asking about that particular product,
and he was saying, oh, yeah, we ship it. I
don't know how many states. He said that people out
of state find it. They find it works. And I
say people, I mean landscapers and I mean gardeners, and
they use it. And if you want to keep your
(52:53):
color beds going strong, you got to give them a
boost through the cool season, and color Star does just that.
It's good for cool seasoned gardens beds, it's good for
warm season garden beds. Use it year round, about every
three or four months, make another application to it. It's
got five sources of nitrogen, bone meal, organic bone meal,
and blood meal to feed the soil in your plants.
(53:15):
And you can find in a lot of places in
the little canisters, little jars screw top lids. And by
the way, we have about a dozen places around the
Greater Houston area where you can take your empty jars
in and refill them. Number one, you don't put that
plastic back in the environment. Number two, it's a little
bit more economical to do that because you know, refilling
(53:38):
is less expensive than buying a brand new jar, as
it should be. Well, so we got a lot of
different options there. But I think another mistake people make
is they don't they don't fertilize their plants enough. You
can overfertilize a plant, but think about the plants around
(53:58):
your yard, or think about your yard. When was the
last time you've flized this past year? How many times
were those plants fertilized. It doesn't mean the more of
the merrier, It just means for a lot of plants
that we have. It's like I've got house plants that
I just didn't get around to fertilizing this year. I
know I know better, but I hate to admit that.
But it's just you and me listening right now anyway,
(54:20):
So you know, don't tell anybody, But if I want
them to grow better. I should do that. I've got
some beautiful orchids I've kept from past years. You know.
You buy those orchids, that's the moth orchid. Uh, and
it just they're sold everywhere by the bazilions. But they
are the easiest orkid I think to grow. And I
(54:41):
buy one, and then I buy another one, or someone
gives me one or whatever. And I probably have probably
eight of those now that are sitting around the house,
and most of them need repotting and fertilizing and a
boost and they'd keep blooming. And some of them bloomed
despite me. But how often do you fertilize? You need
to keep plants adequately fed, because if a plant is
(55:03):
going to grow, it's going to need sunlight on the leaves,
it's going to need water on the roots, and it's
going to need the nutrients that they are the building
blocks of growth and production on the plant. So that's it.
That's not a big secret, right, it's not a big deal.
It's very very simple. But sunlight to grow, water for
(55:23):
the roots, and nutrients in the soil that it can
take up to make the building blocks. All right, it
is time for us to take a little break here. O. Hey,
welcome back, Welcome back to the Garden Line. We are
glad you are listening in today. I'm your host, Skip Richter,
and you can give us a call. We're gonna right now.
(55:43):
We've got a full load on the boards for this
last segment, but we will be the next segment talking
to a special friend and guest. I'll let that be
a mystery coming to really really soon here. You know,
if you are seeing sticking doors in your house that
used to not stick, if you see cracks in the
sheet rock, cracks in the brick on the outside, that
(56:04):
means something is moving, and that may mean a foundation problem.
And Ty Strickland with fixed mesh lab foundation repair. I
has been doing this for twenty three years. You know,
Tie is even in these times that we're always dealing
with rising prices, Tie is committed still to a fair price.
In fact, his slogan is on time, fair price and fixed.
(56:28):
I like that. Didn't that everything you would ask of
anybody coming in to do some kind of a service
in your home and your property. He shows up on time,
he prices it fair, and he fixes it right. Ty's
been here in Houston, his whole life. He's a fifth
generation Texan and he knows our soils. So we're talking
about the soils while ago, the black clay, and how
(56:48):
they take in water and you know, they get dry,
they shrink. When they get wet, they swell and that
moves things. It's why we see heaving of sidewalks and
breaking up in our driveways and things. It's why our
foundations on our homes crack as well. Call tie two
eight one two five forty ninety nine or go to
fix myslab dot com. Look, don't fear what might be happening.
(57:14):
Call him to come out and take a look. Tell
him you're a garden line listener. You get a free
estimate for guardenline listeners. Tell him that you hear it
on the garden line and just let them have him
look at it. He'll tell you if something is needed
and what the best approach would be and what your
options are. Or he'll tell you too if not, this
is not a concern, this is still okay. Let's check
back in a few years. All right, I'm going to
(57:36):
head out to the phones. We're going to talk to
Susan in Pattison. Hey, Susan, welcome to garden line.
Speaker 10 (57:44):
Hey, skip things for taking my call. I'm sorry you're
having groomlins this morning, but I do like that your
theme song, so it was kind of nice to get
to hear it all the way through to the end.
My question is the church I work for the church
I worked for planet if you got talked into planning
oak trees and about four foot by ten foot wide islands,
and three of them have died. They've been hanging onto
(58:06):
the brown leaves for like months now. But similarly to
when you lose you know, when the citrus freezes, you
know how the rootstock starts putting little branches out from
right at the ground level, right, these oak trees are
doing that. And and one of the guys there asked
me what I thought they should do. And I'm assuming
they're never going to grow into a big oak tree.
But I don't know the answer to that.
Speaker 2 (58:27):
Uh were these live oaks, do you know?
Speaker 10 (58:29):
I'm pretty sure they were. I'm pretty sure there were lipics,
but I'm not positive.
Speaker 5 (58:33):
And I don't know what riding Yeah, so I.
Speaker 2 (58:35):
Don't know where the where the thumbs are the thumbs
the leaves about the size of your thumb are more
like the size of your hand. Now some Yeah, okay,
it's probably a live oak. They kind of that's the
most planted. Uh. So you can cut the trunk off
and you can select one shoot to become the new
trunk and just work with training it. You're gonna have
(58:57):
to cut off suckers at the bottom, cut them off
right where attached. Don't leave a little stub, or you'll
just get lots of bushy suckers coming out of the
base of that. So you can pick one and regrow it,
or you could replace it. Of course, the advantage of
regrowing it is it doesn't question any money. The advantager
replacing it is you got a tree faster. But if
(59:17):
it's got a decent root system with some bigger in it,
that may get back up to a good size pretty fast.
So those are your options.
Speaker 10 (59:26):
Okay, So even though they're kind of growing out, almost
laterally they will one of those will eventually if you
train it, it'll it'll become a straight upright trunk.
Speaker 2 (59:36):
Well yeah, and I would you know, I can't quite
picture what you're saying. Usually those things do come they
come out, but they turn straight up. But if you
if you want, you can bend them up to a
vertical position. You could either tie them, cut the trunk off,
you know, a couple a couple of feet high, and
then tie them to it, and then later cut it
(59:57):
all off at the bay where it attached down there.
Just don't leave a stub. But you want those things
to get going and fast and close that over so
there's not this like dead opening into the interior wood
for very long. That's the trade. There's not a right
or wrong, but each has its advantages, all right.
Speaker 10 (01:00:17):
Susan, Okay, all right, thanks a lot.
Speaker 5 (01:00:20):
I appreciate it.
Speaker 2 (01:00:20):
Hi, you bet, good luck. Thanks for the call. I
appreciate that. We're going to go now to Jerry. Hey Jerry,
welcome to garden Line.
Speaker 11 (01:00:29):
Hi Skip, thanks for taking my call.
Speaker 7 (01:00:33):
So.
Speaker 11 (01:00:34):
I have some fruit trees that I planted and they
survived the summer. It's fine, and some have rooted real
tightly in their their planting. But I have a couple
of apple trees that are just loose as can be.
I wondering if I should dig the tree up, prune
it back, spread the roots out, and try again. It's
(01:00:56):
like the root ball might be dying back or something.
Speaker 2 (01:00:59):
Right, how long could you plan them.
Speaker 11 (01:01:02):
I planned them all about I guess about about middle
of winter last year. Okay, well, you know there's not
a good option.
Speaker 2 (01:01:15):
Leaving it is probably not a good thing. Digging them
up if you're going to do it, now would be
the time. Probably what happened is they had circling roots
that just didn't go out and establish in the soil,
and therefore they kind of move around a little bit.
Cutting all those roots at this time. I know it's
a tough time to do it, but go ahead and
do it. Cut them back and put it back in
(01:01:36):
the ground watered in really well. Do not put potting
soil around it. Just use the soil from the site,
and let's give them one more shot before we give
up on them. Jerry, I'm running short on time on it,
so I'm not able to elaborate further. But that's the
quick answer, and that's what I would do if they
were in my yard.
Speaker 11 (01:01:54):
All right, Okay, thank you.
Speaker 2 (01:01:57):
Yes, sir, thank you very much. All Right, we're going
to go to a break and I'll be right back
with a special guest. Welcome back to Guardenline, folks. Glad
to have you with us. Looking forward to that. By
the way Tim called earlier. Tim, I took a look
at the photos that you sent me, and my assessment
of the lawn is it's probably take all root rot,
(01:02:18):
take all patch, or take all root rot. It's a
fungal disease. It kills roots, kills runners, kills grass. It's
not like brown patch in the winner that makes big
brown circles and then it regrains. Take all kills whenever
a plant is stressed, whenever your turf is stressed, take
all has the advantage to move in and cause a
lot of more problems. It adds insult to injury. It's
(01:02:40):
what we call an opportunist disease. So the bottom line
on it is go online to gardening with skip dot com,
find Plant my Lawn, pest disease and weed schedule. There
are three times to treat for take all. There is
October and November. I know it's past November, go ahead
and do the November, and then there's one in spring,
(01:03:02):
and it lists the products that you want to use
to do that. And so that would be my suggestion.
If you can keep some water on those areas. I
think they got a little droughty this summer based on
some overall look of it, and when it gets drought,
that is a stress and that is one of the
ways that take all enters a weekend plan. I hope
(01:03:22):
that is helpful. All right, Well, I've got a special
guest right now, a friend of mine, actually a good
friend of mine from Texas Gardener magazine. Jay White is
the publisher of Texas Gardener. Jay and his wife are
the publishers of the Texas Gardener magazine. Texas Gardner's been
around a long long time, and I tell you it
(01:03:44):
is a gardening magazine if you've never seen it. It
is written by Texas gardeners for Texas gardeners. And I'm
telling you they have a lot of author I've written
for a long time myself in there, but they have
a lot of excellent, excellent authors with really good advice,
a lot of people that save all their old Texas
Gardeners because they go back and they refer to the
articles that they've read in the past in there. So
(01:04:07):
what I want to do is go over here and
see if I can get Jay live on the air. Jay,
Welcome to garden Line.
Speaker 7 (01:04:15):
Hey, Skip, thanks for having us this morning.
Speaker 2 (01:04:19):
All right, good, you're a little scratchy on the sound,
so just letting you know it is so good. I've
been looking forward to talking to you, and I asked
Jay to come on and I wanted to talk. We
have a very brief time here, but I would like
to talk about some gift ideas that for Texas Gardener,
and I'm sure the magazine itself will be the main one,
(01:04:40):
but I'm gonna turn it over to you Jay and
let us let you give us some ideas for people
that are looking for the Gardener or the want to
be Gardener on their list.
Speaker 7 (01:04:49):
Well, thank you, Skip. I mean I agree with you.
Speaker 5 (01:04:51):
If you're a gardener, I think you're.
Speaker 12 (01:04:53):
Going to find something that you will like, especially if
you're into education. I mean, like you say, the magazine
a great, great gift. We're starting our forty fourth year.
We have been around a long time, and so like
I say, like you said, I think people keep mind
us because the people are right for us. We really
have great work horticulturalists that writer articles, so the subscription
(01:05:16):
is always a great gift.
Speaker 7 (01:05:17):
The other thing that we have that's really done well
is what we call.
Speaker 12 (01:05:21):
Our Planning Guide, and the Planning Guy is a large calendar,
but that Calendars has one hundred and eighty tips that
tell you what you need to do in your.
Speaker 7 (01:05:32):
Garden right now.
Speaker 12 (01:05:34):
And in addition to those tips, it gives you a
place to record what you did weather events, pest events,
make the do list. It also has you know, our
recommended plant varieties for your yard and your garden, and
in case you're worried about this, it even has a
poison ivy identification chart on the back cover.
Speaker 7 (01:05:56):
So that's a possibler gift. And when people combine.
Speaker 12 (01:06:01):
Those, you know, we've got extra savings for them this holiday,
So uh a subscription and a Planet.
Speaker 7 (01:06:07):
Guide kind of our our top gift.
Speaker 12 (01:06:10):
Another thing that we're doing this year is that if
you buy any book off of our website, we're going
to include a package of tomato seeds from Davids Garden
Steeds in tote Texas. You're going to get the option
on it either You're you're going to get a choice.
Speaker 5 (01:06:27):
Of Celebrity or Sun Gold, which as.
Speaker 12 (01:06:29):
You know, are two really really great varieties for Texas.
Speaker 2 (01:06:33):
Very good.
Speaker 7 (01:06:34):
Absolutely they are very good.
Speaker 12 (01:06:37):
And in fact, Bill Adams, you know, Texas Tomatic being
everybody loves you know, he says he believes the sun Gold.
Speaker 7 (01:06:42):
Is the best tasting tomato you can grow, which.
Speaker 12 (01:06:45):
Kind of cracks me out because it's so easy and
so prolific. But but and then finally, Skiff, we finally
got some merchandise. And so if you like our plant
Happiness y'all tagline, well you can now probably wear that tagline.
Speaker 7 (01:07:01):
On your body. We've got some.
Speaker 2 (01:07:03):
There you go, there we go.
Speaker 12 (01:07:05):
They kind of kind of a maroonish color.
Speaker 13 (01:07:09):
I would call it a pinkish color and a kind
of greenish color. So you want to head out check
out our new merchandise as well. And so, like I say,
if you are a gardener looking for stocking stuffers for
your gardening friends, I think you're going to find something
you like on the website.
Speaker 2 (01:07:27):
All right, Jay, well you you are cutting a little
bit in and out. That last thing you said, it
came in back real clear again, So I uh, maybe
you need to move or something a little bit to
get a good connection. You know. One thing you didn't
mention is you can get the magazine as a magazine.
People like the whole paper in their hands and read.
Plus it's easy to reference like that. Or you can
(01:07:49):
do an online subscription or both right, I mean that's right.
Speaker 7 (01:07:53):
Get our digital subscription. What everybody likes about.
Speaker 12 (01:07:56):
That everything a magazine has. But it also comes with
a ten year archive. So if you really want to
learn about tomatoes, you can get a digital subscription, go
back ten years and read everything of people like you
and Patty Leander have written about them.
Speaker 2 (01:08:14):
Well, that's I like the digital I mean it's real
easy to do. But I still like that magazine in
my hands, so I do that as well. Plus, if
you when you're done with the magazine, if you want,
you can take the pages apart and use it as
maultz over the weeds in your garden, and that just contributes.
But if it's an article I wrote, I always warned
(01:08:34):
people if I wrote the article, it's probably got too
much nitrogen in it, if you know what I mean,
and you might burn your plants. But that would be
the only caveat that I would have, you know what, Jay,
I looked back recently, and I think it was ninety
eight or ninety nine, over twenty or twenty five or
more years ago that I wrote the first article for
Texas Gardner. So I have loved that magazine for a
(01:08:54):
long time. And as I know a lot of other
people have.
Speaker 7 (01:08:59):
Well thank yeah.
Speaker 12 (01:09:00):
I'm like I say, the magazine just wouldn't be what
it is without you. I tell people, if they don't
get enough on you on garden Line, be sure to
subscribe and they can have you in their homes every day.
Speaker 2 (01:09:12):
Oh my gosh, you don't need to threaten my listeners
like that. Thank you very much. Well, it's a great deal.
And I know in the magazine you guys have some
merch and stuff like you said, and they just need
to check that out. And uh, Texas Gardener dot.
Speaker 12 (01:09:28):
Com, Texas Gardener dot com and follow us on social
media Texas Gardner Magazine, okay on both Instagram and Facebook.
Speaker 2 (01:09:37):
Well that is good. We're going to keep talking until
music fills my ears telling me I have to shut up.
But it's coming pretty close here. But I I think
that it's almost a you can't go wrong gift to
give somebody Texas Gardener Magazine because there's a lot of
gardening magazines that are out there that are no longer
(01:09:59):
in print. Over the years, one by one they've dropped,
and so finding a good gardening magazine other than just
some foo food thing to put on the coffee table
from the northeast or wherever Texas gardener is down in
the dirt here, how to do it? Get your hands dirty,
practical advice.
Speaker 14 (01:10:15):
Uh.
Speaker 2 (01:10:16):
And I think we're the only state that's still that
now still has a private gardening magazine for that state,
and that is a rare.
Speaker 12 (01:10:24):
Thing, that is so, and you are correct, we are
the last one.
Speaker 2 (01:10:30):
All right, Well, support support your local gardener. And by
and Jay, thanks so much for being on the air
with me today. I appreciate you coming on.
Speaker 5 (01:10:41):
Thank ye.
Speaker 2 (01:10:45):
I've got a lot of things we want to accomplish
this hour. Uh. First of all, I just wanted to
let I just wanted to talk to you, let you know.
You know, summer's behind us and we're all looking forward
to the upcoming holidays. But you know, for a lot
of the homeless folks around the Greater scenario, they're just
looking forward to their next meal. And you can provide
a meal to a homeless man, woman, or family for
(01:11:06):
just two dollars and eighty five cents. Two dollars and
eighty five cents. Star of Hope feeds more than six
feeds people with more than six thousand meals a week.
Six thousand week and they could use your help. How
many meals are you able to provide? How many meals
are you willing to provide? Together we can make a difference, really,
so please give hope and do so now? Will you
(01:11:29):
join me and my family in giving the Star of Hope.
If you want more information or to find out how
to give, go to Sohmission dot org. Sohmission dot Org.
I'm going to head out now. I have another special guests.
In fact, I have a bunch of them that I'm
telling you about that we've been wanting to talk to
(01:11:51):
about all kinds of things. And right now I'm going
to head out to the phones to Cyprus and talk
to Bill Murph. Bill is with the Ace Hardware store
there in the Cypress area. It's on Jones Road. And
I'll tell you this. When I lived just Arthur Jersey Village,
the Jon Jroit Ace Hardware Store was where we went.
(01:12:14):
That's where we did our shopping and things. That was
our local closest Ace hardware store that we had. And
I've been in there and I'm telling you that you
got to check it out. It is quite a place. Hey, Bill,
Welcome to Garden Line. Good to have you with us.
Speaker 5 (01:12:27):
Good morning shift. Thanks you for having me on this morning.
Speaker 2 (01:12:32):
You bet you bet well. I'd like you to tell us,
you know, Ace Hardersts in generals, we got a bunch
of them here in the Houston area. What would be
some the kinds of gifts maybe people haven't thought of
that they would find that you would say, hey, Ace,
Haarder be a great place for something really cool. And
here's an example.
Speaker 5 (01:12:52):
Oh, there's a ton of them. I'm not sure we
have time to go through all of them, but.
Speaker 2 (01:12:57):
There's maybe a handful a.
Speaker 5 (01:13:00):
Handful of theah. I mean, if you're hunting for something
grilling this season and you want to give somebody a
gift for a grill, I mean, we've got the Weber,
Big Green Egg, Grectex, Trager Blackstone. Our store has a
super killer deal on some local grittles that we've got
in and they're at a few other air stores as well.
(01:13:23):
I mean, we've got a full line of yetty products Milwaukee,
just to name a few. I mean, we've got holiday
lights by the foot. We saw a lot of Christmas lights.
It's not too late to get your Christmas lights up
and decorated for the holiday.
Speaker 2 (01:13:41):
Season as well. Well, and you've got more than just
Christmas light decorations. I know, I've gotten some strings of
lights to go out on the patio. You know, I
call them beer garden lights, but you know the little
strings of lights like that that are really cool. And
you've got everything, certainly in terms of decorations for the
holidays too.
Speaker 5 (01:14:01):
Yes, yes, I mean we've got a full line of it. Uh.
We've got the Christmas lights, We've got the trees, we've
got really anything to do with the holiday seasons. We've
got we've got a we've got a full gift apartment
on our shore. We just finished a remodel. Uh, we've
been going through the remodel for about three months now. Uh,
(01:14:21):
just in time for our Ladies' Night coming up on
Monday night. We just finished our our new far we
just added truffle. So Monday night from six to nine
we have we have Ladies Night. We're gonna be giving
away beer wine, Margarita's, uh most items in the store.
So it's kind of an unheard of discount for us.
Speaker 14 (01:14:40):
Uh.
Speaker 5 (01:14:41):
We've we're gonna have uh well, we'll probably have between
five to seven hundred women uh and men men are
welcome as well. Show up at the store from six
to nine on Monday night. We're gonna be We've got
uh uh Consoila, We've got Beara Bradley, We've got Kendri Scott,
another dose fifty Judy Blue Jean's all going to be
(01:15:03):
twenty percent off. So it's an unheard of discount just
in time for the Christmas season. If you haven't bought
that last minute gift, we got it.
Speaker 2 (01:15:13):
That's cool.
Speaker 15 (01:15:13):
You know.
Speaker 2 (01:15:14):
I tell people all the time that it's a hardware store,
of course, but it's things you can't even imagine. You
wouldn't and you just talked about you know, I know,
to get back to the garden section, I got to
walk past your fudge bar, which now you're making it
unfair by adding truffles to it. But you said the
word kender Scott. Who would have thought you go to
a hardware store to get Kinderstott jewelry. But that's Ace,
(01:15:36):
isn't it. I mean, with each Ace hardware being independently owned,
you just you just don't know what all kinds of
cool things are going to be in there.
Speaker 5 (01:15:43):
You know, we just passed our one hundred year anniversary
and that's unheard of in today's time and businesses that
a store turns one hundred years old. And ACE has
turned one hundred years old in twenty twenty four. And
there's sober forty local owned A stores in the Houston market.
So you're not far from one any direction you go.
(01:16:05):
And we're all unique, we're all different, but we all
have a core uh commonality, and that's where key and
hardware first and foremost we're hardware store, and then we
add everything else to the to the mix.
Speaker 2 (01:16:20):
Yeah, that's that's a good way to put it.
Speaker 16 (01:16:22):
Uh.
Speaker 2 (01:16:22):
It's one of the things I like about ACE. You know,
I do stop in at aces all over the place
just from time to time to see what's new, what's
going on, uh, And there's always there's always some other
kind of cool and creative thing in addition to all
the stuff you already carry. As mentioned earlier, though, I
think some of the power tools that you carry are
great gifts. You know, there's there's a lot of lines
(01:16:44):
that you might not know are available right there in
your ACE store and top quality stuff.
Speaker 5 (01:16:51):
Oh yeah, we've got the full line of craftsmen, We've
got Milwaukee the wall, uh, doub ball. You know, it's
if you're going to fix it, we probably have the
tools that you're going to need to take care of.
Speaker 2 (01:17:02):
The job with it. That's good, That is good. I
know a lot of stores you know, okry the Ego
power electric power equipment things. I've seen a number of
different brands and that you know, I have a lot
of de Wault kind of stuff and I've seen those
in some ACE hardware stores and uh so it would
be a good place to make someone on your left happy,
(01:17:23):
including you know, as we look into the kitchen and
kitchen gadgets and some of the decorations and stuff for that,
there's some really cool stuff there too.
Speaker 5 (01:17:33):
Yeah, with with Ego, you know the battery power tools
also weaves carried. Most of our stores carry steel as well.
So if you're ready to gear up for the spring
season and you want to give give your special someone
a gift of power tools so they can work in
the yard in the spring, we're definitely that destination. We
(01:17:54):
also have a ton of bird seed and uh some
bird feeders definitely for the fall season. You know, the
birds are our key and they.
Speaker 2 (01:18:06):
Help with the Sorry, go ahead, it sounds like you
have everything. So just get buy an ACE. That's that
people need to do. Yeah, I'm gonna I'm gonna have
to run the I'm about they're about to cut me
here for a break.
Speaker 5 (01:18:21):
But one last word, one last word, if we do
give back a lot back to our community. Over the
last year, we've given over a half a million dollars
to Texas Children's Hospital, and since nineteen ninety one, ACE
as a whole has given over two hundred million back
to children's hospitals across the US, with a lot of
(01:18:42):
our money going right back to Texas Children. So everybody's
been affected by Texas Children's I can promise you that.
If you don't, if you haven't been there, thank god,
but you probably know someone that has. So stop into
an ACE and help help Texas children.
Speaker 2 (01:18:56):
Well, Bill, thanks for being on. I appreciate that very much. Good.
I'm sorry our time is so short, but it's good
to have you.
Speaker 10 (01:19:02):
Were rich girl, and you're gone too far cause you
know it.
Speaker 14 (01:19:06):
Don't about it anyway.
Speaker 2 (01:19:08):
All right, folks, welcome back. Good to have you with
us today. You'd like to give us a call. We
got a little bit of time here during this segment
where we can take a call or two just doll
seven one three two one two k t R eight
seven one three two one two k t R H
look forward to helping you with whatever kinds of gardening
(01:19:29):
questions that you might have. We got a bunch of
different guests. We're gonna talk to you today about different things.
I know we're approaching the holiday season and people are
interested in purchasing gifts for those on their list something different.
You know how many times have you gone, Okay, what
do you get the person who has everything? I would
like to get them something nice, but I don't know
(01:19:50):
what would be a good idea. I don't want to
do the same old kinds of things, you know, package
of pajamas. I mean, come on, let's do something with
a plant that would be cool. Well, you know, Buchanans
Native Plants is a great place to visit. They have
a wide selection of all kinds of different products and
gifts and things like that. They're on Eleventh Street in
(01:20:11):
the Heights. Their gift shops right now are stunning. They
are holiday decorated out. I mean they are gorgeous, and
whether it's something for your own home or something you're
purchasing someone else, you really should stop by there. Buchanan's
is a place where you're going to find things that
are not just the plain old, same old that you
(01:20:31):
find in many other locations. When you go into Buchanans,
first of all, native plants or their thing. That's what
they do, that's what they specialize in. And we are
in the big important season to get native plants planted
that there's no other way to say it. It's very
important to get all woody ornamental shrubs and trees done. Now,
Now when you go in there, do you need a
(01:20:53):
Christmas tree? Do you need some cyclomen for gorgeous pink, white,
and red color in your landscape? Or on a table
adorning a table? Do you need points at us? They've
got all of that there. Don't forget that their holiday
centerpiece workshop is coming up December twenty second. I know
that's a long time away, but I think this is
(01:21:13):
going to fill up. It is from noon to one pm,
and this it's an eighty five dollars ticketed event. But
here is why you will build. You will learn how
to do decorations for holidays. The principles a lot of
the basics incorporating greenery and natural elements and floral styles
and techniques for creating centerpieces. And at the end of
(01:21:35):
the workshop you go home with your own hand crafted piece,
ready to brighten your home during a cool Chiley holiday season.
Coming up. Buchan's Native Plants at on eleven Street in
the Heights. If I were you, I would just go
to their website because that is a very cool spot
where you find a lot of good information, including events
like I just mentioned if Buchanansplants dot com Bukenansplants dot com.
(01:21:59):
To some point is that you know Southwest Fertilizer, Gosh,
it's just a Houston institution. It's one of those places
that has survived that tests the time, and it's just
you can depend on it. You know. People know when
you go into Southwest Fertilizer, if there's a fertilizer you're
looking for, Bob's got it. He does if something comes
(01:22:21):
out of my mouth on garden line regarding this fertilizer
or that fungicide or this insecticide or that organic product.
He has the biggest selection of organic products in town
at Southwest Fertilizer. You can go there and it's going
to be there, and some cool gifts are there as well.
Anybody that's looking for a quality guarding tool, you're going
to find it at Southwest Fertilizer. A lot of things.
(01:22:43):
You know, I keep telling you about my weed wiper tool.
Well I don't know that that's a gift item, but
if you want to build one, he's got the thing
you start with. It's very inexpensive and you can build
your own weed wiper out of it. The kneeling bench
that I like a lot, he's got him there and
they work super super well. If you need to go
to your knees and get back up again out working
(01:23:03):
in the garden, or you need a place to set
this bench does them both. It falls up its stores away.
It's really really easy to do. Southwest Fertilizers on the
corner Abyssinet and Renwick in Southwest Houston, so makes it
really easy to get to. And I don't care where
you are, it's worth the drive to get there. Southwest
Fertilizer dot com. Southwest Fertilizer dot com. You are listening
(01:23:28):
to garden Line and my goal here is to help
you have a more bountiful garden, to help you have
a more beautiful landscape. And to help you have more
fun in the process. You know, it's not just about information.
It's about having some fun as we go along here,
and we try to do some of that here on
garden Line. I enjoy getting to visit with gardeners. I
(01:23:50):
always look forward to talking to you when you call,
because every call is different. You never know what's going
to happen. Someone asked me one time, he goes, how
do you sit there not knowing what that call is
going to be about, or what that person's going to say,
or do? I say, Well, you just do. It's fun.
It's part of the excitement of it all. And sometimes
(01:24:11):
train wrecks make for good radio too, so I am
not worried about about that either. I enjoy that. I
was visiting with some folks the other day about gardening tools,
and you know, what are your favorite gardening tools and
what do you like? And there are a lot of
really cool tools around town that I think are must have,
(01:24:36):
you know, when it comes to gardening. It just they
provide that extra let's say benefit. For example, you get
a quality tool like quality printers or something, and they
fit in your hand and they work well. There's even
versions of printers that have handles that roll a little bit,
so as you're squeezing down to cut a branch, it's
(01:24:58):
ergonomically easier in your hand. You know, some people deal
with issues from arthritis to similar types of things, or
if you're printing a lot, your hand just gets tired
of doing it, and a quality printing tool that's kept
sharp really works well for that. One of my favorite
tools in gardening is the soil knife. A soil knife
is just you know, picture of booie knife, but thicker
(01:25:21):
and made for dirt. They have little marks on them
so you can see one inch two inch three inch
when you're planning things deep. One side has kind of
scalloped the it's like the whole blade is curved a
little bit, and so it's easy for digging out soil.
I use it for digging holes. I use it for
removing plants. You know. I do a lot of no
(01:25:42):
tail gardening in my vegetables, and so at the end
of the season, I can pull the plan out and
rip a lot of roots out of the ground. Or
I can just take my soil knife and just make
some cuts around it and pull the top out and
leave those roots in the ground to decompose. That's how
nature does it. By the way, do you know that
nature doesn't own rot hotellers? But the soul knifes are
really cool too. You can get them in a nice
(01:26:04):
sheet and it works really well. Lopper prunters, now, we
have these things that are battery operated power prunters and
it's just like you hold in your hand like you
would a drill or some other tool, and it's got
regular printing blades out front like a regular punter would,
but you go up to squeeze the trigger and a
(01:26:26):
very well designed system allows it to cut through a
large and very hard branch really easily. It's amazing what
those things will do. Keep your fingers away from them.
But as somebody who's going to do a lot of
printing and just can't do that physical squeezing and stuff,
those power prunters are really a cool tool also for that.
(01:26:47):
Gardeners are always looking for information and events. Are some
great guard events information. There's some great gardening books on
the market that do very very well for you, and
if you want to give those a try, you will
find that they work super well. Also, I would recommend
I actually have a book I don't never talk about
(01:27:08):
our online a lot. But it's month by month gardening
in Texas. It's about cool springs press and there is
a Texas gardener. Is a Texas gardner. Doctor Bill Welsh
wrote it. Now excuse me, doctor Doug Welsh. Dougwell, we
had two Welshes in the wart department. Doug Welsh wrote
that one, and it is a similar month by month
(01:27:30):
through the garden that's designed for Texas. That's very important
to do that. There are a lot of the other
really good books that are helpful resources if you're an
organic gardener. There's books if you are someone who's into
a particular type of plants, like you want to do perennials.
Doctor Bill Welch wrote Perennial Garden Color many years ago,
(01:27:51):
and that is just a Texas You got to have
that on your shelf if you're going to have beautiful
perennials throughout your gardens out the year. Here in our landscape,
from bulbs to Salvius to you name it. He's got
a lot of great ideas in there and it works
very very well. Let's see here we are, oh a
(01:28:15):
Wabird's unlimited. That's another good idea. You know, wabirds has
some beautiful feeders, it's got beautiful bird houses of all types,
and other merchandise that anyone interested in birds would like.
So maybe you've got someone on your list that's not
a big time gardener, but I bet they would like
(01:28:36):
to at least bring some birds up to the patio
where they can watch them and enjoy them, or get
out in the morning with a cup of coffee and
listen to their songs. It's one of my favorite times
a day and one of my favorite things to do
is to enjoy the music of the birds first thing
in the boy they wake up. I am not a
morning person. Birds are mourning people. I know. I said,
I'm not a morning person, and here I am on
garden line just generally in my natural habitat. You know,
(01:29:00):
more and more I'm becoming a morning person. But I
just have not been a wake up and start singing
kind of person. But your birds here are and they
have some wonderful books also at Warbirds Unlimited. That makes
a really nice nice gift as well. Remember that it
is time to get your winter super Blend Winter super
(01:29:21):
Blend from Wabirds Unlimited. And you know with their bird seeds.
Many of the types, there is a no mess version,
which means that if it has sunflower seeds and it
doesn't have the hulls, they're already hulled sunflower seeds. So
when you put a pound of that into the bird feeder,
there is a pound that goes into the bird's stomach,
not on the ground. They it's not the red bebes.
(01:29:41):
They kick out because they don't want to eat, but
it's the kind of things that they are very, very
interested in. Well, we're getting close here to a break.
I think I'm gonna stop talking right here and we
will be right back. Welcome back to Guardline, folks. Good
to have you with us. Got another special guess that
I would like to bring on to visit with you,
(01:30:02):
and that is Richard from Walbird's Unlimited rich Eddie, Eat Eddie,
thank you for being on garden Line.
Speaker 7 (01:30:12):
It's Edie.
Speaker 2 (01:30:15):
I know that I'm sorry. Anyway, we are so glad
to have you. I appreciate you coming on because I
wanted you from a store owner standpoint. You you run
the Wildbirds store over west side of Houston. You know
there's six warbird wild good night. I can't even talk
to day six Wildbirds stores here in the Greater Houston area, right,
(01:30:40):
you're over on the Moorial Drive.
Speaker 15 (01:30:42):
Yeah, I've got one, Okay, all right, good, Well, if
people want to know more about those, I'm going to
say this before I forget, but they go to w
b U dot com forward slash Houston and find your
Wallbird store nearby.
Speaker 2 (01:30:58):
Why don't you tell us about out from a storm
understandpoint what you think would be some really cool items
that someone might be interested in gifting as Christmas gifts
for friends on their gifts.
Speaker 7 (01:31:10):
Yeah, for sure.
Speaker 16 (01:31:10):
So we we always say, you know, we're a great
destination for people on your lists that are nature lovers,
so not even just bird feeders, but also you know,
people who just like to.
Speaker 7 (01:31:22):
Enjoy nature, work in their yard work, in their gardens.
Speaker 16 (01:31:25):
So we have we have lots of different gift ideas.
I think you know some of the most popular things
this time of year we have. We we offer seed
cylinders all year long, but during the holiday season we
have some special seed characters. We have buttons of snowman
impressed in the peguin. These are these are tightly packed
(01:31:48):
seed cylinders that are shaped in the in the uh
in a fun shape like snowman in a penguin, and
those go on a cylinder feeder, and those those make
great gifts instead of just giving you.
Speaker 7 (01:32:01):
Know, a back of seed.
Speaker 16 (01:32:02):
You know, you've got a character that looks like the holidays,
so it's great. Yeah, you can never go ahead.
Speaker 2 (01:32:11):
Oh, I was just saying, those tightly packed seeds they
last a while because birds have to kind of work
at it to get those out of there, which makes
them wholes still, so you can watch them longer.
Speaker 7 (01:32:20):
That's exactly right. That's exactly right. And yeah, you don't
have to go out and fill the feeder every day.
Speaker 16 (01:32:24):
So seed cylinders are great, and the characters are a
really fun Christmas gift for sure. You can never go
wrong with our squirrel proofeeders, our eliminator, and our fundamentals.
I think that's you know, those are always a go
to for the holiday season because people do some people
do not like to.
Speaker 7 (01:32:43):
Feed the squirrels.
Speaker 16 (01:32:44):
So if you've got a somebody on your list who
is constantly fighting the squirrels, you can never go wrong
with the squirrel proofeeder as well.
Speaker 7 (01:32:53):
And then also that's true.
Speaker 2 (01:32:56):
I was gonna say, I've got the squirrel eliminator, and
it's my favor that I have. It is amazing. I
video to scroll the other day, coming down and trying
to figure it out and they just give up. They
can't do it.
Speaker 16 (01:33:09):
Yeah, they're very They're very effective, for sure. So and
then and then the also the other thing that is
is not only timely, but makes a really good gift
as well. Or nesting boxes. So if you really start
thinking about it. We're entering into the month of December
and people don't think about nesting, but bluebirds will begin
(01:33:29):
looking for nest boxes in January. So getting someone who's
trying to attract bluebirds to their yard giving them a
really nice bluebird nest box makes a great gift. And
then also purple Martins, they'll return in February, So if
somebody's wanting to put a Purple Martin system in their yard,
and now's the time to be thinking about looking at
(01:33:50):
installing a Purple Martin system right after the holiday sometime
and be ready for them to return in February.
Speaker 2 (01:33:57):
And you guys have really cool feeders too. From the
plastics that look like white gords, you know, the big
they're designed in a special way that really makes it
easier and more attractive for the birds. But then you've
got those houses that telescope or that come down off
the pole where you can get in, move things around
and do a good job of cleaning them out very easily.
Speaker 7 (01:34:19):
That's exactly right.
Speaker 16 (01:34:20):
So yeah, everything from simple gorge systems to you know,
some very very nice houses that you can raise and
lower with a wench or a rope, lots of different
styles to hit different price points. So yeah, So, like
I say, Martin systems.
Speaker 7 (01:34:34):
Make a great gift this time of year as well.
Speaker 2 (01:34:37):
So and then Purple Martins keep down bugs. I'm sorry,
Oh yeah, I'm having a talk over your problem. Purple
Martins have keep down some of the insect issues that
we deal with too.
Speaker 7 (01:34:50):
That's correct.
Speaker 16 (01:34:50):
They eat exclusively from the sky and they drink from
the sky, so you know, they they definitely will keep
the flying insects and check if you've got a good
strong colony of Martins for sure.
Speaker 2 (01:35:03):
Okay, now you just you just didn't drigue meat. What
do you mean drink from the sky? They literally drink rain.
Speaker 16 (01:35:09):
No, they they they have to have a water source nearby,
you know, roughly, you know, not right, you like retention
ponds and things like that. Yeah, they swooped down and
they never land the drink. They get right down to
the surface of the water, scoop water, and take back
off again.
Speaker 2 (01:35:26):
So yep, that's cool.
Speaker 7 (01:35:30):
It's very cool.
Speaker 16 (01:35:31):
You can actually see and I see folks who have
purple Martin houses in their backyard who happen to have
a pool. You'll see the Martins actually swoop down and
drink out of their swimming pool. So it can be
it could be pretty entertaining for sure.
Speaker 2 (01:35:44):
Yeah, that is very very cool. Well, anything else that
might be an item for gifting that people might be
interested in.
Speaker 16 (01:35:54):
Well, if you've got somebody on your list that you
know shops at a wild Bird store, giving them the
gift of a daily Savings Club membership. Folks may or
may not be familiar with our loyalty program, but it
is a certain amount of money every year and you
get fifteen percent off of your bird food every day,
(01:36:16):
and for every two hundred you spend in the store,
you get a ten dollars bird buck, which is basically
a ten dollars discount once you earn that. So somebody
constantly is you know, uses wild Birds unlimited and they're
on your list. Giving them the gift of a daily
membership Daily Savings club membership is also a really great
way to help them feed the birds because they can
(01:36:39):
save money and earn discounts all year long, so that
works really well.
Speaker 7 (01:36:43):
And then never and never forget.
Speaker 16 (01:36:45):
Also, we will ship pretty much everywhere, so if somebody
wants to come in shop around and they need to
ship it pretty much anywhere in the lower forty eight,
we can take care of that as well. You can
shop online at our at our e commerce store and
order it and have it shipped directly to your to
your gift recipient, or you can come in and we
(01:37:08):
can arrange to have it shipped for you as well.
Speaker 7 (01:37:10):
So we try to make it just as easy as possible.
Speaker 2 (01:37:14):
Now, when you say the e commerce store, you're talking
about overall Wild Bird store, are you talking about like
each store has its own connection.
Speaker 16 (01:37:21):
Yeah, yeah, each store has its own e commerce store.
So when people shop with us online, it comes directly
to our stores. We pick, pack and ship good right
from our store. That's exactly right. So if they go
to they go to WBU dot com slash Houston, pick
the store that's nearest them. Go to their website. Then
there is a shop now button that you can click
(01:37:41):
on and that'll take you to the e commerce store
you're actually buying from the backstore directly.
Speaker 2 (01:37:47):
Yep, very good. And I'm just we're I'm gonna go
just a second longer than our break here. But the
also books. I know, the creator of all birds has
written a really good bird book. And there's a there's
you guys carry that would be a really nice gift too.
Speaker 7 (01:38:04):
Yeah, for sure.
Speaker 16 (01:38:05):
So The Joy of Bird Feeding is a book that
was written by Jim Carpenter, the founder and CEO of
Wildbirds Unlimited. It's a great birding guide for somebody who
wants to learn how to start feeding the birds, but
it also has a great guide in there to help
you identify birds across the across the country, so it's
not just it's not just tied to one particular region
(01:38:27):
of the country. It's a good overall book on how
to get started bird feeding and then also help you
identify birds.
Speaker 7 (01:38:34):
And then another new very good we are good. Yeah exactly.
Speaker 2 (01:38:37):
So yep, I'm gonna have to cut us. I ran
a littlelong, but now they're they're threatening to cut my
mic if I don't start so rich. Thanks so much
for being on and those are a lot of great ideas.
Uh and again w b U dot com forward slash
Houston to see the wild Birds stores near you. They
(01:38:59):
got them at these they got them on the west,
they got them toward the southeast. I mean, they're all
over the place and in between. So go check one
out for this holiday season. Thanks again, rich folks. Will
be right back after this break. Hey, welcome back to
the garden line. Good to have you with us. You're
the lads. You are here. We are looking forward to
visiting with you about the things that might be of
(01:39:20):
interest to you. Our garden. Our garden, our garden, our
goals are. My goal is for you to have a
better time gardening. I like to put it this way,
a more bountiful garden, a more beautiful landscape, and more
fun in the process. That's what we're here about. And
because gardening should be fun, it should be rewarding, it
should be fulfilling. The mental benefits of gardening, the physical
(01:39:41):
benefits of gardening, the esthetic benefits of gardening, I mean,
even the community benefits of gardening are huge. And we
had to get out there and have fun doing it,
and we can help you do that. You do not
hear public service announcement. You do not have repeat after me.
I do not have a brown thumb. If anything's not growing,
(01:40:02):
it's because my thumb needs to be informed a little better.
And that's what we're here to do. That's also what
our home garden centers are here to do. You walk
into a quality independent garden center, as they say, the
mom and pop garden centers, and you will find people
that are eager to help you and know what they're
(01:40:23):
talking about. And without dissing national chains and local chains
and all the other stuff, I'm just tell you this,
a mom and pop garden center has folks that know
how to garden. They know how to take care of plants.
They know what grows here and what doesn't, and they
can help you with that. You can walk into a
(01:40:44):
place and maybe you bought some plants somewhere and it's
not doing good, and you walk into one of our
independent garden centers and you say, look, I got this plant,
here's a picture of it, here's a problem with it.
They'll help you. They will take time to help you
have success. That's what they're about because they know that
when you have success with plants, you're going to come back,
because when you come back, you're going to get a
(01:41:04):
plant that actually should be planted here instead of being
shipped all over the country to all the chain locations
and not for here. They know that your plant's going
to do well because they have picked one just for that,
and they advise you on how to have success with it.
And that's what it's all about. Man, it is fun, fun, fun.
We gotta make gardening more fun, make gardening fun again.
(01:41:28):
I guess there's a way to put it. It already
is fun, but seriously, we want you to have fun
with that. So that's that's kind of a goal for
doing that. Well, you are listening to garden Line, and
we're going to come up here a little bit on
the top of the hour break. I want to come back.
I'm going to have open lines and if you would
like to call in anytime from now through even during
(01:41:51):
the break time, my producer will get you on the
board and we can visit briefly about your gardening questions.
I got some more special guests coming up later as
we into the next hour, but this is your chance
if you'd like to give a call seven to one
three two one two KTRH seven one three two one
two kt r H. So I've been going over a
(01:42:15):
number of different things that I think are of interest
in gardening. We've talked about all kinds of things, propagating
plants and some of the principles of success with plants.
Why we don't put gravel in the bottom of pots
to make the drainage better, because it does not make
the drainage better, it just gives you less soul volume
to work with. I want to talk a little bit
(01:42:35):
about seed saving. There are many many plants that we
can save seed from and it's a fun thing to do.
The thing you need to know a few things you
need to know. First of all, when you save seed
from a plant, it needs to be what's called an
open pollinated plant, not a hybrid plant. So a hybrid
(01:42:58):
is a mixture of two different parents that creates this
special offspring that has special features. Okay, when you take
the seed out of that, you're going to end up
going back to the random genetics in the background, and
what you grow will not look like what you pull
the seeds out of in some way, shape or form.
(01:43:19):
If it's a fruit. It may not be as swede
or as large, or it's timing maybe different, or maybe
it's a peach. It doesn't color, boil, or you see
what I'm saying. Well, so make sure it's not an
open pollen. If it's a native plant, save seed from
it if you want. If it is just a flower
garden or a vegetable garden, you can save seed from them.
But number one, make sure it's not a hybrid. Number two,
(01:43:40):
I mean, you can save a hybrid if you want,
but you know you're gonna get something different. Number two,
you need to get those seeds dry so that they
can be stored. You don't store seed wet. And the
seed is produced, it's got a lot of the oils
and proteins and things like that that are necessary to
fuel the growth, but it also has moisture in it.
(01:44:03):
And do you know, even pecans when they fall, they
have appeared where they kind of dry out and you
get down to the you know, the real solid oil
protein parts of the kernel. But it's important to let
seeds dry out before you store them. Number three, you
need to provide a dry cool storage location. Dry cool
(01:44:24):
if you got some of those packets of desscont that
come in I don't know supplements or when you buy electronics,
you get those little packets in there. Save those things.
You can throw them in with your seed and a jar,
seal it tightly, put it in the refrigerator. You can
store seed in the freezer two for super long term storage,
but it's not necessary. A refrigerator will give you at
(01:44:46):
least several year extension on your seeds storing time. So
get out there, look at your garden, look at your points.
What do you want to save seeds up? That's a
new thing to try, this puss. You'll do a.
Speaker 1 (01:45:01):
Welcome to kat r h Garden line with Scared Ricard.
Speaker 3 (01:45:05):
It's just watch him as many give thanks to sup.
Speaker 2 (01:45:22):
Botas welcome back, Welcome back on a wonderful Sunday morning.
I hope you are doing well today. I hope you
survived Thanksgiving. Irobby has some people still around hanging out
in the house. If if they drove over the river
(01:45:44):
and through the woods to Grandma's house. We're glad you're here.
We got a lot of things we can talk about
on gardening on a boat, gardening on any day, actually
today certainly is no exception for that. Uh, you've heard
me talk about Medina products before, and Medina products have
been around for a very long time because they have
proven themselves effective and gardeners swear by them. They love
(01:46:07):
Medina products. There's a lot of different products on the
market that Medina has. I just want to feature one
right now, and that's Medina Plus. Medina Plus is Medina
Soul Activator Plus over twenty trace elements. It's got sight
of Canon, which is a natural growth hormone that comes
from seaweed extract in it. It's got things like magnesium
(01:46:27):
and iron and zinc for example. In there, various kinds
of vitamins, a lot of ingredients that basically help plants
to grow. Just to put it really simply now, it
comes in a gallon container and it also comes in
a quart sized sprayable jar. The sprayable jar you just
took up to a garden hose and you just turn
(01:46:47):
it loose. You can do it in the yard, you
can do it in the flowerbed, you can do it
in the vegetable gardens. Wherever you want to do it,
just do it. It is a very effective product that
can be used. Here's a tip if you will buy
the court jar. The next time you need some, just
buy the gallon jug and refill your court jar. You
know you can do that and then hook it back
(01:47:08):
up again and go to town with it. And that gallon
is a very economical way to approach it. So I
would suggest you try giving that Medina plus a try.
You're gonna find it good in your flower gardens. You're
gonna find it good in your vegetable gardens herbs. If
it's a plant, Medina plus will be very helpful. I
recommend it for transplanting. Drench those plants in with Medina plus.
(01:47:30):
Get it on the leaves, not gonna burn them. You'll
get some folier benefit. But get it down in the
soil and drench that root system every time you plant
a plant. And I generally will say do it when
you plant, drench it well, do it again a week later,
and again a week later, and those three applications will
help your plant become very well established and therefore more successful.
(01:47:51):
We're going to head out to Tomball now and visit
with David.
Speaker 17 (01:47:55):
Hello, David, good morning, sir, Hey where god ant problem?
And about a month ago I put down nitrofalles bug max,
and two weeks later, they're still.
Speaker 5 (01:48:08):
Little mounds popping up. I put down more two weeks ago,
and lo and behold.
Speaker 17 (01:48:14):
This morning, I go out, I got another couple of
more ant beds, and I'm going, what is the deal?
Speaker 2 (01:48:19):
Yeah, well, let me ask you this.
Speaker 8 (01:48:22):
Are we talking about fire ants or some of the
little sugar type little sugar ants or whatever I don't know,
and mainly hang around the driveway.
Speaker 2 (01:48:31):
Okay, well, you can kill them if you want. They're
not doing any harm to any plants or anything, and
so my approach should be just ignore them, don't worry
about them. They're not hurting anything. The fire ants hurt things.
Those things are us, that's for sure. And carpenter ants
will get up in trees and chew on wood, and
that's not good. Some ants will take aphis up on
(01:48:54):
your plants and treat them like dairy cattle and milk
them and hurt them up there. They actually do that,
but in general turn a problem. Now if you're if
you're wanting to control them, though, you're gonna have to
do repeated applications periodically of different sprays. Remind me the
one you said that you used on them, David it was.
Speaker 5 (01:49:11):
The Niker files like bug Max or the bad Grain.
Speaker 2 (01:49:15):
Bug Max, bug Out bug Out Max. Okay, if if
that didn't work, that's great for using in the lawns.
For some of our lawn issues, you may want to
just switch over to a general purpose insecticide. There are
some organic options. There's somethingthetic options.
Speaker 15 (01:49:33):
Uh.
Speaker 2 (01:49:33):
It depends on where you're going to spray them as
to what product you can use. For example, there's something
like by Fenthren that is a very it's a persistent
and it kills pretty much every insect that would be
there on it.
Speaker 15 (01:49:47):
Uh.
Speaker 2 (01:49:47):
And but it has labels like maybe you can't use
it in your vegetables, but you can in your flowers
or vice versa. So you just have to read the
label on those.
Speaker 5 (01:49:55):
Well, I thought that's what the bug Max.
Speaker 7 (01:49:57):
Is is, my bear friend.
Speaker 2 (01:49:59):
It is a great annual. I don't I need to
check the label. I didn't think it was labeled for
use in some of the garden spots. I mean, if
I'm wrong about that, then I am wrong about that.
I think of it as a terf insect problem pests
that we have, and so I would just I would
stay with I think the ingredient is good, but it's
(01:50:20):
the way you apply it, and so you can you
can do dusts, you can do sprays any way you
want to go about it. You ought to be able
to kill the ants though. Anything that has by fentre
should kill the ants. So something is happening where the
ants are not getting exposed to the product. If you tried,
if you.
Speaker 5 (01:50:40):
Tried that one, okay, yeah, all right.
Speaker 2 (01:50:49):
Yeah, you could do that. I mean there, I consider
a name one hundred insecticides that people use for things
out there. But ants are not that difficult to kill
if you can get the pest side right there on them.
Whether it's a dust you know, like seven dust or
ortheene dust that kills ants, or whether it's a drench
a liquid that you drenched down, you may have more
(01:51:09):
success with that. Now that I'm thinking about this, David
is just to get an insecticide that is that he
mixes a liquid and water and drench it down so
it goes not only on the surface, but down deeper
into the soil. All right, thank you, all right, sir,
thanks very much, appreciate your call. Okay, here, well we've
(01:51:31):
got a couple of minutes here. Hello, Bob and Porter.
I'm gonna get you here on Guardenline see how we
can help.
Speaker 7 (01:51:38):
Hote doing sir.
Speaker 2 (01:51:40):
I'm well, thank you. What's up today?
Speaker 9 (01:51:42):
Hey, I've got a neighbor's got some lemon tree clippings.
I wondered if I can propagate them, and if I
do propagate them, how do I get lemons eventually?
Speaker 2 (01:51:55):
If you can propagate them, you'll get lemons eventually. On
many kinds of plant, Rooting the stems, you know, the
branches and things is difficult, so it's a challenge. But
if you have a rootstock of a lemon, or maybe
you have a different kind of lemon or a lime tree,
and you want to graft that lemon onto another plant,
(01:52:18):
you can use those cuttings for that. But they got
to be kept cool and fresh, and you need to
get it done within a few days of cutting them
off the mother plant. Wrap them in a moist paper towel,
put in a zip like bag, set it in the refrigerator,
and just kind of keep them cool, and then when
you take them out, you can do the grafting with
(01:52:38):
them if you choose to do that.
Speaker 5 (01:52:41):
There's not a.
Speaker 7 (01:52:44):
Easy method.
Speaker 9 (01:52:45):
Just put them in some like roots timber later and
let them try to get a march stigma in dirt
or something like that.
Speaker 2 (01:52:51):
Yeah, if you can get some growth that's fairly new,
not super woody already but not succulent, but kind of
just starting to turn a little woody, cut them off
and then get you a good quality root stimulator. I
would take a knife and make little slits along the bark,
just three or four on the sides, and then your
(01:53:13):
fresh cutoff d dip that into the root rooting hormone.
It could be a liquid, it could be a powder.
Put them into something that's got a little peep but
a lot of pearl light in it, very well drained,
and then put a clear cover over and put it
in a bright spot. And that's everything you can do
in your power to try to encourage them to root
good light, not direct sun.
Speaker 5 (01:53:35):
Much give up.
Speaker 7 (01:53:35):
Thank you so much.
Speaker 5 (01:53:36):
Appreciate you all right, all right.
Speaker 2 (01:53:39):
You care, Thanks, appreciate your call. All right, folks, it
is time for me take another break. I'll be back
back shortly.
Speaker 9 (01:53:46):
Ahi.
Speaker 2 (01:53:47):
Folks, welcome back to Guardline. Glad to have you with us. Hey,
we're in our last hour of the weekend, so I
appreciate you listening, and we'll be back next Saturday, next Sunday.
Every Saturday Sunday six am to ten am. Put it
on your schedule. We love to have you with us.
(01:54:08):
Tell your friends and neighbors about it too. Garden Line.
We just need to get the word out there more.
There's a lot of great people that would love to
hear the Gardening Show, but they don't even know about it.
Speaker 5 (01:54:19):
So go for it.
Speaker 2 (01:54:21):
Let's get the word out and help them. I jokingly say,
if you got a neighbor that's not taking care of
their property and it looks terrible and it is hurting
your property values, they need to hear about Garden Line.
We need to help you out a little bit there
by letting them hear some good advice on gardening. All right,
thank you very much for tuning in today. I was
talking earlier about seed saving tips, and I mentioned that
(01:54:45):
number one, you need to save seed that's not hybrid,
that's open pollinated. Number two, you need to dry the
seed out before you store it. If you take wet seed,
it's not going to store very well at all. In fact,
it'll mold and you'll have problem. And I store seeds
in the freezer sometimes for longer term storage. And if
(01:55:06):
you freeze seed that has a high moisture content, it'll
it'll the ice crystals will form and you'll damage that
seed too. So dry it out, dry it out, dry up,
dry out, and then store it in a air tight container.
I have two kinds.
Speaker 8 (01:55:21):
I use.
Speaker 2 (01:55:21):
Number one, I just use like a mason, a Manna's jar.
You know, put the seed in there, screw the lead
down tight and no air is gonna no moisture and
air is going to move in and out of that.
The other thing is there are some little containers that
have a nice rubber seal with a clamp down lid.
You've seen them for storing. You know, you have green
beans for dinner and you don't eat them all, so
you put a few in one of these little containers
(01:55:42):
in the fridge. Those are pretty good too, and so
that's another option. A lot of my seeds are stored
in those as well. Refrigerator storage, though generally, is adequate.
You don't need to go cooler than that. Now, if
you are a person who wants to play around and
do some black some like different kinds of like a
(01:56:07):
black poppy, I couldn't even say the word poppy or
other kinds of unusual plants and things. Those can be
really valuable seeds to save. And all we have to
do is help you to find the right way for
each of the seeds that you want to save to
get the best results. For most of them, it's simple.
It's just a matter of drying a mountain store them
(01:56:28):
and they do just fine. Now I do want to
I did mention putting a dessicant packet in there. That
is important. One thing to remember on stored seeds. Here's
a mistake people make. They know they need to be dried.
They need to be stored dry, So you put them
in the freezer or i'll say worsh yet the freezer
of refrigerator or worshipt the freezer. You pull it out
(01:56:49):
and you open it up. Well, what happens when you
take something freezing cold and expose it to a countertop
in your house. All the moisture in the air condenses
on it. So now you've taken dry seeds and you've
just wet the seed packets. Just like you know, you
get a drink that's got ice in it and on
the glass sides, you get that condensation happening. Don't do that.
(01:57:12):
Put them on the counter, let them reach him room temperature,
and then open them up. So just keep that in
mind when you're saving seed. Avoid disease plants. Avoid plants,
especially with virus infections. Do not save a seed from
a plant that's been virus infected. That it's not going
to be good. And if you want to play around
a little bit and have some fun, you can take
(01:57:36):
seeds and cross them yourself. And people do this with
squash all the time. Squash a big old fat flower.
That's easy. You know, you got male flowers and you
got female flowers, and that's true of watermelons, squash, cantelope, cucumbers,
all of those. You got those two kinds of flowers.
And so you can easily pick a male flower, pull
(01:57:56):
the pedals off, and use the little dab a pollen
on the to go around pollinating female flowers with it.
So if you want to cross two types of squash,
you can save seed and start to create the new squash.
You can name it after yourself. It'll be this new
unusual squash that you created. And a lot of different
kinds of squash can be crossed. I can't go into
(01:58:18):
the details, and you probably don't care about the details
of that, but if you want more information, you can
email me about which kinds of squashes cross with what.
In general, things like pumpkins cross with hard winter squashes
like that, and in general summer squashes will cross, but
there's exceptions, so don't take that too far. And then
finally there is the fun mystery seed selection, and that
(01:58:43):
would be things like, Okay, this Thanksgiving, my wife got
some little tiny pumpkins, you know, the little tiny size
as big as your fists are a little bit bigger
than that. And one of them was white, and one
of them was modeled, and one of them was orange,
but it was minute. And so I've seed the seeds
out of all three, and I marked them as this
(01:59:04):
one came out of a minute. I took a picture
of them, marked them this came out of the small
white when this came in. And I'll plant those in
the garden next year and they're going to grow some
sort of a squash, slash pumpkin, a winter squash or pumpkin,
but I don't know which. Who knows what field they
were grown in, if they'd been grown side by side,
who knows what those seeds hold. They're going to be dukes,
mixtures of all kinds of stuff. So you can just
(01:59:27):
play around and have some fun like that. If you
see plants you like along the roadside that have some
seed pack or seed you know, pods on them, you
can select those and save them. One last thought about
seed saving is some kinds of plant throw their seed,
they cast them. These are typically plants with little pods
(01:59:47):
like a blue bonnet, and a blue bonnet pod looks
like just like a miniature green bean pod. But when
it breaks open, when the seed's dry, that suiture splits
and it literally is like putting put your hands together.
They're like, you know, praying hands form like that, and
then just push your thumbs out and through the middle.
As the sides fly out, you do that push away
(02:00:09):
from you, prying, push away. That's what bluebonets do, and
they throw their seed a long way. So if you
want to save blue bonnet seeds, maybe you grew someome
and and I don't know, maybe you have some maroon
ones or something or white ones in the in the
group and you want to save them. You need to
throw a organza bag with draw strings over the top.
(02:00:29):
When the seed pods a form, just put that over
the top and let them fully dry and when they do,
they'll pop and they'll throw those seeds and they'll all
be in your little draw string bag. And that way
you can do that. Another way is to pick the
pods as they're turning brown, but before they hit the
point of splitting. Put all those in a bunch of
in an a draw string bag. Put a bunch of
them in a draw string bag, pull the draw string
(02:00:52):
and just sort of hang it up in a warm, dry,
well aerated place. And next thing you know, you're gonna
come by and there's gonna be a whole bunch of
bluebonet seed that explodes it in there. But you got
them all, all right. That's probably enough information on seed starting,
but it is, I mean seed collecting, but it is
a lot of fun. Just remember time varies on seed viability.
(02:01:13):
Some last a year only some of them will keep
over five years depending on the seed pod. But if
you put them in refrigerated storage, most seed you should
get two to three good viable years out of them.
If you've got seed that are stored and you don't
know if they're still good, what you do. Okay, here's
(02:01:34):
another tip for the day. Boy, we are full of
those tips for the day. Is you take the seed,
take ten of them, lay them on a paper towel
that has been moistened, fold the towel over and put
that folded paper towel section with seeds inside in a
zipplot bag. Don't squeeze it down tight. Leave some air
(02:01:55):
in there. They need some air exchange. And put those
in a dark spot. Or you can just put them
on the counter and check them back two days later,
three day, five days. You know, just keep checking and
as they start to sprout, you will see how many sprout. So,
just as an example, if you put ten seeds in
and three sprouted and seven didn't, you've got a thirty
(02:02:16):
percent germination rate. So when you take the seeds that
you have saved and you don't know how viable they are,
now you know to plant more of those accordingly in
order to get the number of plants you're trying to plant. Okay,
that's a lot, a lot of information, I know, but
we want you to have success, and that's why we're
providing that kind of information for you. Gardening is a fun, fun,
(02:02:42):
fun hobby. It is good for your mind, it's good
for your soul, it's good for your your physical body.
It's just good in all kinds of ways. And as
you go from being just a peripheral gardener, which is
perfectly okay, you go, you buy some plants, you put
them in, you're done, take care of them and things,
and you start getting into it. I got to warn you.
(02:03:04):
It's addictive. It's addictive. Next thing you know, you'll be
rooting cuttings, and you'll be saving seeds, and you'll be
starting your own transplants of unusual things you found along
the road side and other things. And it just goes
on and on and on. There's no end to it.
I'm sorry, there's no end. But of all the addictions
(02:03:25):
in the world, it is a great a great one
to have. And I hope you'll take care of that,
take it to heart. And again my challenge to you
this year I got several I've been given you. One
of them is to try something new. What are you
going to do that you haven't done before? Have you
never grown vegetables and containers? This is a season to
do it. One, there's a great time to do that.
(02:03:45):
Have you never grown vegetables period, grown your own edibles.
Have you never tried growing herbs? This is the time
to do it. What have you not tried doing? Have
you ever tried seeds starting, propagating, seed saving. There's lots
and lots in gardening. That's a lot of fun. And
the more you get into it, the more fun you have.
And then you meet people who have the same addiction
(02:04:07):
and it even gets more fun. And if you run
in and he bumps along the way. Go to your
local independent garden centers. We got them north, south, east, west,
central here in the greater Houston area. And go there.
You're gonna get expert advice. They'll help you with it.
They'll help you get you over the hump, make you
a better gardener as you do, or just give me
(02:04:28):
a call on garden line. Be happy to visit with
you and help you along the process. Because this is
the greatest hobby in the world. It absolutely is. You
can argue with me if you want, but I'm right.
I may be biased, but that doesn't mean I'm wrong.
All right, time for me to take a break. We're
gonna come back with a special guest. Right after the break,
we got another guest today that we're going to visit
(02:04:49):
with about some great Christmas gift ideas. Welcome back to
the Garden Line. Glad to have you with us today.
Thanks for listening in. I want to head straight the phones.
I got a special guest that we're going to visit with,
and that guest is Joey Linderman from Enchanted Gardens down
in Richmond Rosenberg area. Hey Joey, welcome to Garden Line.
Speaker 5 (02:05:13):
Good morning.
Speaker 8 (02:05:13):
How's everybody doing today.
Speaker 2 (02:05:16):
We're doing good. We're having a lot of fun. I
tell you I survived Thanksgiving. I think I only ate
once in the last twenty four hours, and I still
don't feel like eating again because I ate so much.
I can understand that. All right. Well, hey Joey, I
appreciate you coming on the air with me. I would
like you to give us some ideas about what you
(02:05:38):
think would be some really good Christmas gift ideas for
folks that would want to come out and visit in
Chended Gardens. And you think, you know it might be
some gifts not only for themselves but for people on
their list.
Speaker 5 (02:05:53):
Sure, no problem.
Speaker 8 (02:05:53):
There's lots of pretty things out here that would be
a fit for anyone on your list. One of my
favorites is going to be the things like statuary and
bird baths. There's got to be something unique to anybody
that you're shopping for. Uh.
Speaker 2 (02:06:08):
They last forever.
Speaker 8 (02:06:10):
It's something you know, permanent in your garden that even
a non gardener can can keep alive. Right, no watering needed.
Speaker 10 (02:06:17):
Uh.
Speaker 8 (02:06:18):
They'll take the heat, they'll take the cold.
Speaker 2 (02:06:20):
So you know there's there you go.
Speaker 8 (02:06:22):
Angelic type statues, there's animal statues, there's different types of
bird baths, you know, all across the board, something for everyone.
Speaker 2 (02:06:30):
Well, I've seen your selection and you've got you've got
a lot of different ones there to choose from. So
what's another good item?
Speaker 9 (02:06:39):
Uh?
Speaker 8 (02:06:40):
A popular one is wind times. You know, everyone likes
sitting outside on a beautiful day like this and adding
a little natural music to the to the atmosphere is
always great. We carry the music of the spheres wind chimes.
They are a superb windchime that almost lasts forever, just
about like piece of statue. But they come in different.
Speaker 2 (02:07:05):
Yeah you know what. Yeah, one cool thing about those
is they're really tuned. You know, some wind chimes are
not quite in tune, but these are perfect notes that
go together. Right, Yeah, it's amazing how they do that. Yeah,
all right, well let's just keep going.
Speaker 8 (02:07:24):
You got some other ideas, sure, you know they always
talk about a gift that keeps on giving. Fruit trees
are also a very popular gift. You know, they'll remember
that you gave it to them year after year when
they're harvesting the fruit. So that's a good one. This
time of year, it's best to plant stone fruit, you know,
things like apples, peaches, pears, plums, things that are not
(02:07:48):
sensitive to the cold. We also have citrus trees this
time of year, but depending on our winter, they may
need to be protected in the wintertime. But a good
selection of fruit trees and also blackberries, blueberries, things of
that sort this time of year.
Speaker 2 (02:08:01):
I saw a while back you guys had strawberries with
the little strawberry jars as well.
Speaker 8 (02:08:05):
Yep, yep, we've got those still also, So that would
be a good one.
Speaker 2 (02:08:09):
Sooner you get your sooner you get your strawberries planted,
the more time that crown has to develop, even make
multiple crowns for a better harvest. So get that done soon,
if guys, if you want to do that, you know,
one of the things go ahead.
Speaker 8 (02:08:24):
A lot of folks don't know that they'll take the
the cold, cold weather this time of year.
Speaker 5 (02:08:28):
So yeah, you're right, planting them this time of year
is definitely key.
Speaker 2 (02:08:33):
There you go. You mentioned fruit trees is something people
would remember. I like to say that same thing about
rose bushes. Everybody loves roses. It's a queen of the flowers,
you know, in the in the landscape. And when you
plant a rose bush, maybe one that has a nice
scent or just a beautiful, you know flower, every year,
people uh will remember you as that thing blooms. Who
(02:08:55):
gave them that bush? I got planter on my landscape
that I remember who gave it to me?
Speaker 8 (02:09:00):
Yeah, that was one of the next ones on my list.
Speaker 5 (02:09:02):
Roses are always a good one to give.
Speaker 8 (02:09:05):
And with this warm weather, you know, they're still blooming,
so now it's a good time to choose one.
Speaker 2 (02:09:12):
That's a good point and something I suggest people.
Speaker 8 (02:09:15):
Do.
Speaker 2 (02:09:17):
You know there's gifts that's like, here's your gift, Merry Christmas, whatever,
and you move on. And then there's gifts that give
a gift of time in them. And so think about this.
Maybe there's someone in your family or friend or someone
on the street that's a shut in, and you would
go over there. You would give them a gift of
a certificate for coming and planting a special rose at
(02:09:40):
their house and schedule of time. You could call it
the ros and Coffee date. You go over there, have
some time with them. Maybe they're not able to plant themselves,
but you could plant it with them and then sit,
drink a cup of coffee and just spend a little
bit of time. And I'm telling you that that is
one of the most amazing gifts that they may ever receive,
because time with a memorial gift like that is so cool.
Speaker 8 (02:10:04):
Yeah, you're you're like reading my mind here, because that
was also you know, one of my most important things
on the list is you know, getting out and visiting
with someone or helping someone with some yard work or
like you say, bringing somebody a plant or a rose
and planting it with them and yeah, spending some time
with them. That that is a very important thing. And
you know, it's memorable long far beyond anything else you
(02:10:27):
could give.
Speaker 2 (02:10:29):
Well, that's that's a good point. That's a good point. Now,
I know you guys have some really awesome gift shops.
I always have to wander through when I'm out there.
Speaker 8 (02:10:37):
Oh yeah, there's lots of things, anything from you know,
bird seed and bird feeders to different types of gardening
books and cookbooks and hand towels and games, you know,
just you name it something again for everybody in the
gift shop.
Speaker 2 (02:10:55):
I think those are great too, because you know, you
go to somebody's house, maybe there's a holiday party or
a like Thanksgiving meal, Christmas meal, you go over and
you just bring a gift a housewarming gulf or whatever
when you go. I think people really appreciate that. And
I know you guys carry like the forced bulbs, that's
another good gift to bring in as you're going to
visit someone.
Speaker 7 (02:11:15):
Yep.
Speaker 8 (02:11:16):
Yeah, we've got plenty of paper white bulbs and emeryless bulbs.
Those are definitely always popular. You can leave them inside
this time of year, let them bloom for the holiday season,
and then they can transplant it outside for them to
come back year to year.
Speaker 2 (02:11:31):
That's cool. Well, Joey, I got just about twenty seconds
left here. Can you think of anything else to throw
on the list?
Speaker 8 (02:11:37):
Oh, gift cards are always popular. If you can't figure
out what somebody wants, then I bet they can figure
it out themselves if you get them a gift card.
Speaker 2 (02:11:45):
Oh my gosh, a good gardener will have no problem
figuring out what to do with that, right, Joey, thanks
a lot. Appreciate you coming in from Shanny Gardens just
to give us a few more ideas. We're trying to
get people ideas for not only gardeners on your list,
but I think when you heard Joey talk, you heard
about things for people that aren't even gardeners that would
love to have as a special gift. Who knows, maybe
we'll convert them into real gardeners with that. Joey, thanks
(02:12:09):
a lot for being on.
Speaker 14 (02:12:12):
Oh ma'am.
Speaker 2 (02:12:17):
Stath los Ina music there add to our show today. Hey,
I've talked about Star Hope a number of times and
I just wanted to mention again that during this season,
you know, we are all looking forward to the holidays,
but for a lot of people, it's looking forward to
the next meal. And people that are homeless for whatever reason,
(02:12:37):
maybe don't falter their own need our help. They do.
And that's when my wife and I are supporters of
Star of Hope. You know, two dollars and eighty five
cents buys a meal, and Star of Hope serves six
thousand meals a week. They can use your help. How
many meals will be willing to provide? You know, together
we can make a difference When you give now, you
(02:13:01):
give hope, and it is especially needed at this time
of year, but needed at all times of the year.
And I hope you'll join me and my wife in
providing help to other people through Star of Hope. I
can tell you this that I've seen the different things
they do, their ministries, their compassion work out in the community,
and it makes a big difference. This is not just
(02:13:23):
a handout. This is actually life changing opportunity to be
back under you and people need that. Go to Star
of Hope's website. It's soohmission dot org. Go there, check
it out, learn more about it and consider providing meals
for people that could really use them this time of year.
(02:13:46):
By the way, our phone lines are open if you'd
like to give us call again. We're in our last segment,
so not a lot of time, but we're going to
go to the phones and talk to Jim and Sugarland.
Hey Jim, welcome reguardline. Yes, good morning, Yes, skip up.
Speaker 14 (02:14:00):
You've got a magnolia tree that's probably about fifty foot high,
and uh, it's got at the base it's about eighteen
inch diameter, and then it has goes up.
Speaker 2 (02:14:12):
And it has two main Uh.
Speaker 14 (02:14:15):
Well, it's got a main branch going vertically, but then
it's got a side branch that's maybe nine inch diameter,
and it crosses over the main branch, and it's rubbing
against the main branch.
Speaker 2 (02:14:34):
Uh huh, and it's and.
Speaker 14 (02:14:37):
It's got an indentation.
Speaker 5 (02:14:40):
Against the main branch. Okay, I get it.
Speaker 2 (02:14:44):
So yeah, So on those kind of things, you know,
you have to look at it. Each situation is different.
If you if you can remove one or the other,
that would be best, so they don't rub and do
that because it wears a spot that's a place where
the cake can get in, you know, as it damages
the the living bark or living tissues around the outside
(02:15:05):
of the branch. But if you can't, it can be left.
You know, as branches get bigger, it seems to be
a little bit less of a problem with the movement
and stuff. It's your call. There's not a black and
white issue on this one. So if you can remove it,
if not, you live with it.
Speaker 14 (02:15:23):
If you do remove it, what should you do anything
where you cut that side branch off.
Speaker 2 (02:15:32):
Well, you just know you just cut it off and
don't do any wound treatment on that That is not necessary.
In fact, it'll heal better if you just leave it alone.
Keep the tree healthy and growing, and it'll close over
that wound in time. Cut it back to where it
attaches to the mother tree, the trull of the trunk,
(02:15:52):
and don't leave a stub. But as you go close
to the trunk, right before you get to the trunk,
it flares out to attach a little bit, and you
want to cut it right on the outside of that flare.
So you may have an one inch a little bit
sticking out there or something along those lines, depending on
how big the branch is.
Speaker 14 (02:16:11):
Yeah, okay, well I appreciate the information.
Speaker 5 (02:16:15):
Thank you very much.
Speaker 2 (02:16:17):
All right, Jim, good luck with your magnolia tree, and
thank you very much for calling into garden Line this morning. Well,
we've covered a lot of ground today. I'm trying to
think of all the different things we talk about seed
saving and all kinds of interesting things. If I'm going
to be posting some more stuff to garden Line, this week.
(02:16:37):
I promised yesterday that I would put some information up there.
We're going to go ahead and get on that, but
I want to remind you, I say post to guard
Line to my website that I use for garden Line,
that is skip gardening with skip dot com. So it's
really real easy to remember gardening with skip dot com. Uh,
(02:16:59):
just go there. My new publications are listed with the
newest at the top. I think right now the newest
one is on Nema todes. I believe I wrote something
on Nemo todes, but we'll be adding more to it.
So either way, look forward to, you know, helping you
have a more bountiful garden and a more beautiful landscape
(02:17:19):
by providing that evergreen information.
Speaker 7 (02:17:21):
You know.
Speaker 2 (02:17:21):
The funny thing about garden Line. I've noticed. One funny
thing about guard line is that I'll get a call
and then right after it, I get a call with
the same question, or two calls later or an hour later.
And I realized, you know, people don't sit there and
listen to guard Line from six am to ten am. Pardon,
(02:17:43):
people don't listen to the garden Line.
Speaker 15 (02:17:46):
And so.
Speaker 2 (02:17:48):
I don't mind repeating things. But that's why I put
stuff on the website too, so I can just point
you there and you can go read about it, and
people that are listening don't have to hear the same
thing over and over and over again. That way I
want to tell you again today we talked about ACE
Hardware earlier. Several times. ACE Hardware is stocked up for Christmas.
Their Black Friday sales are good through December second. That's Tuesday.
(02:18:12):
No excuse me, December second. Tuesday or in December second
are at the same day. Call your local, they'll tell
you what it is. The bottom line is go ahead
and get it done. It may be Monday, December second. Anyway,
folks are decorating. Check out their lights by the foot.
That is a really cool deal where you can buy
the light length you need. You tell them they'll create
(02:18:35):
that light to exactly the link that you need. Why
you're at ACE, check out the incredible list of gifts
from really cool kids toys to wonderful power tools and
things that any do it yourself or would be glad
to have. There is beautiful indoor decorations and all kinds
of gift ideas, including stocking stuffers, all the way up
(02:18:56):
to the Cadillac stuff like that Beautiful or Big Green
Egg or Weber or Grill. They they are stocked up
there for the barbecue or on your list. What you're
gonna find when you get into acis stuff you didn't
expect that. That's just true. Every Ace Hardware is independently owned,
and there are things when you walk in it's like
(02:19:17):
I didn't know that. I was talking to someone earlier
who carried a certain brand of jewelry in the Ace
Hardware store. That's a very popular brand. Depending on the
issue you go into, they're gonna have some cool stuff,
and so you just gotta check them out. Go to
Acehardware dot com, Forward sized Houston and that's where you
find the Ace Hardware stores near you. All Right, you've
been listening to garden Line and music means I need
(02:19:38):
to hush and put the microphone away for a week.
Have a wonderful week out in your garden. I remember
to have fun, enjoy those people in your life, and
hold those gifts to make a really meaningful relational benefit
difference