building soil for fall with Luis!

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
This program. Welcome to Katie r H. Garden Line with
Skip Ricard.

Speaker 2 (00:06):
It's crazy.

Speaker 3 (00:15):
Just watch him as we.

Speaker 2 (00:23):
Say.

Speaker 1 (00:31):
We're not a sign.

Speaker 3 (00:37):
I believe it's about time for us to get a
show started today. Welcome to garden Line. We are glad
you're with us on this Sunday morning. I congratulations on
being up and hopefully having at least one eye open
a cup of coffee on one hand at this hour
of the morning. We're glad to have you with us.
If you would like to give me a call and
discuss things that are of interest to you, questions you

(00:58):
might have about your beautiful guard and a landscape. Just
give us a call. It's seven to one three two
one two k t R H seven one three two
one two k t R as simple as that. I
have noticed a lot of questions lately about there are
issues related to trees and tree safety. And here's how

(01:22):
they often go. I've got a tree, and at the
bottom of the tree trunk, here's a picture. Look at
these mushrooms coming out of the side of the tree.
What do I do about that? In other words, can
I spray it? Is it a concern or whatever? Another
version of it would be that I have a tree
that on one side it's like the interior is eroding
away and the bark is peeled back, or I have

(01:44):
a loose bark on the outside. What do I do
about it? And these are all versions of basically one question,
and that is what do I do when the structural
strength of my tree starts to be deteriorated away. So
if you think about a tree, remember that it is
a living cylinder. I know, we think about it as

(02:05):
the trunk is solid all the way through. Everything inside
is just wood, it's two by fours, Okay. On the
outside we have tissues called floum and xylum and cambium,
and that's where all the living occurs. That's where the
things produced in the leaves, the sugars are translocated down
through part of that. Another part is translocating water and

(02:26):
nutrients up for the ground to the top of the tree.
But it's a living cylinder. Now, the interior of that cylinder,
hopefully is good, strong, sound wood. But whenever you break
through that outer living cylinder, you expose the interior dead wood. Now,
add to that some thyme, some moisture, and some microbes,
and we start to see what can eventually end up

(02:47):
being a hollow tree where the interior is all decomposed away,
just like a log in the forest would decompose away
and the exterior still living. The problem with that is
struckly that tree gets weaker when that happens. If you
see mushrooms, that's a sign that there's a fungus in
the tree that is decomposing organic matter and is essentially fruiting.

(03:11):
We say that mushrooms are like the fruit if you will,
of the of the fungus inside, the my ceilium inside,
and so just a sign of mushrooms, I mean, yeah,
there's something growing in there, just like in your lawn
when you see a circle of white mushrooms. Number one,
if you've got a golf club, you can have a
lot of fun with those. Number two though, that is
just a fungus. It's decomposing the thatch away through the

(03:35):
lawn and like a wildfire would spread from where the
match hit the ground outward in all directions. Well, this
fungus is moving outward through the thatch in all directions.
That's what you tend to get circles of those mushrooms.
Mushrooms in and of themselves aren't necessarily a problem. In fact,
we're entering real quick here the fall season, and when
we do we get some cool weather, maybe a front

(03:56):
comes through and some moisture that break in temperature, we're
going to see a lot of mushrooms coming up in
flower beds and the mulch and lawns and other things.
Just know this when it comes to the tree, the
more you leave the interior wood exposed, the more time
and opportunity there is for decay to set in. Now,

(04:16):
when lightning splits down the side of a tree, when
coal damage splits the side of a tree, when your
truck bumper hits the tree and breaks kills part of
the bark right there, knocks it loose, there's nothing to
do to fix that instantly, But just know that that
is the process that's going to be going on. What

(04:37):
we do have in our power is to get the
loose bark out of the way, just peel it off,
and then leave that inner wood more exposed where there's
not something holding moisture in. You know, when it gets
wet and rainy, if you got dead bark sitting over
the top of it, that's just holding it in. We'd
rather it dry out a little bit faster, and so
cleaning out the dead bark is helpful and then good

(04:59):
vigor the tree. That means water and fertilizer, water, especially
during the summer season, fertilizer periodically just to keep its growth.
And callus grows over and it's like a lava flow
coming from both sides, and it just crosses right over
that deadwood and closes back over that wound in time.
So the big, big wound probably never close over small wound,

(05:21):
probably pretty quick. You're listening to garden Line. Our phone
number is seven one three two one two fifty eight
seventy four seven one three two one two five eight
seven four. I talk about azamite here on the garden Line,
and you hear me mention that it is a trace mineral,

(05:41):
and I find that people people are often just not
really clear you know what what we mean by a
trace mineral. Well, what I'm talking about there is something
that the plant needs in small amounts, So a trace
mineral or a micro nutrient tracemental or micronutrient. Probably if

(06:07):
you were to compare to macronutrients, just imagine needing a
minuscule amount versus needing a whole lot, but it also
being essential, and that's hard for people to get their
head around, because if I don't need much, how can
it be as important as nitrogen, phosphorus and potassium. It
is essential. If you could take every molecule of manganese
out of the soil, A plant could not live if

(06:28):
you would take and it just needs t any bits
of mangaies same with boron and iron and zinc and
other things. Azmite is a micronutrient supplement, So what we're
doing there is not fertilizing the grass to make it grow.
We're building the nutrients and the soil so as the
grass grows there's nothing lacking, because when one thing lacks,
that's where it stops growing. It's as simple as that.

(06:50):
Asimite can help with that. We typically will put it
on about once a year through the lawn. I use
vegetable gardens and other good place you can use in
flower beds, whatever wherever you want to build up that
content in the soil. Asimitexas dot com that's our website.
It's real easy to find the kinds of things you're
looking for. I was out yesterday and a mosquito had

(07:14):
the gall to come up and land on me and
start to take my blood. And if I wanted to
get blood, I go to the South Texas Blood Bank,
not into my backyard. While mosquito dunks are a product
the disease and mosquitoes, well here's what you do. You
just throw them out in a pond or any area
where you have standing water, and they last about a
month and slowly dissolve away, releasing mosquito disease into the water.

(07:38):
It's as simple as that. You can find mosquito dunks everywhere.
If you got a little small area, like a little gutter,
you want to toss some in, or underneath the catch
basin under your plants, you can break up a dunk
and toss a few crumbles in there. They also sell
a crumbly form of it as well. Mosquito dunks, though,
is step one in making sure we get ahead of
those credits in our backyard. Well, it's time for me
to take a little break. I will be right back

(08:01):
guard line. It is a it's gonna be a good,
a good Sunday. I am looking forward to maybe this
afternoon getting out and getting a couple of things done
plenty to do in the garden and in the landscape,
that is for sure. You know that our garden centers
are chalk stocking up when it comes to getting ready
for fall. Summer's been We're still at the end of summer,

(08:23):
but it is getting to be time where if you
want to put some things out, like put some petunias
out and some other things that will carry you up
into the first frost, it'd be a good time. Miracles
another good one. You plant maragols in the fall and
they do so much better than they do in summer.
Spider miight populations are going down as we as the
days get shorter, when the day and the temperatures cooler,

(08:45):
and those marigols just glow in the in the cool,
crisp nights of fall, right up until the first frost.
Then it's time to switch them out for something else.
And Chaney Forest down there in Richmond, they are the
garden center that is on FM Twine and Richmond going
toward sugar Land. It's off to the right twenty seven
fifty nine. Enchanted Forest is a well is the name

(09:08):
in place. It's an enchanting place. I just love walking
through there. There's so much stock. They are loaded up
on all kinds of things that you know, the real
popular one of the newer plants that's kind of catching
on is desert rose. Desert rose is beautiful old plant.
They got plenty of those there. Have you seen those
yellow esperanzas around town? They have yellow. They have other

(09:30):
colors too. There's also kind of some orange versions of
that that are really beautiful. There's just a lot, there's
a lot. I maybe we could talk on and on.
They're starting to get in the first of the cooler
weather annuals. Dianthus is a good example of that. Dianthus
does really well. Also, well, they're gonna be open, by
the way, they're gonna be open today. They're going to

(09:50):
be open also tomorrow today until five tomorrow or excuse
me today from ten am to four, my mistake, excuse
me ten am to four. They'll be closed tomorrow Labor Day,
which is not unusual for businesses to be closed on
Labor Day. So I hope you'll check them out. Go
to the website. The website makes it really easy Enchanted Forest, Richmond, TX.

(10:12):
There you'll find everything you need to know how to
get there, the upcoming events, and they always in the
fall or having educational activities. I'll be out there at
some point this fall, but in Gendi Forest in Richmond.
If you'd like to speak to me about some sort
of a disease or insect or suggestion for a plant

(10:33):
or diagnosis, you know whatever. Seven one three two one
two k t RH. Glad to visit with you. And
we've got some special things coming up today. I'm going
to do a little bit of a visit with someone
on soil and building raised beds and growing mixes and
things like that. And you hear me all the time

(10:54):
the broken record brown stuff before green stuff. Well I'm
gonna get some support in here for that concept as well.
You know, when it comes to building the soil, the
organic approach to soil building is are to gardening in general,
is to make the soil as healthy as you can.

(11:15):
And healthy means it's it drains well so it's not
water logged. The good microbes that are in the soil
have everything they need. That includes oxygen due to building
up good soil structure. It includes the carbon materials, the
organic materials that they chew on. That's their energy to
break down and microlife. Fertilizer is designed around just that. See,

(11:36):
the goal in designing Microlife was to create a fertilizer
that was natural, that had a ton of microbes even
added to it, and that functions in a way that
builds the soil. So for example, humtes plus that's a
zero zero four hu must is a mature that just
helps build soil structure and it helps and doing so

(12:00):
what it's doing is it's helping microbial activity as well.

Speaker 4 (12:04):
Uh.

Speaker 3 (12:04):
That makes it easy when you when you think about
some of the liquids that microlife has. You know, the
Biomatrix is seven one four is the orange label liquid.
It works very well. I use it in house plants,
I can use it and transplanting a lot of other things.
It's just a good fertilizer. But Microlife has a number
of those fish emulsions and seaweed based fertilizers and many

(12:27):
many others. Go to Microlife Fertilizer dot com where you
can learn a lot more and it's really easy to
find pretty much every where. You hear me talk about
on guardenline and they're going to have microlife there very widespread.

Speaker 5 (12:40):
Uh.

Speaker 3 (12:40):
The phone number for garden Line is seven one three
two one two five eight, seven, four, seven one three
two one two fifty eight seventy four. If you would
like to send some sort of a photo that you
would then call to talk about, You're welcome to call
the number and just tell producer us that you need

(13:01):
an email address to send a photo for a question.
I think you probably makes sense if you think about it,
for me to try to answer every email that comes in,
and the millions of people that live in the greater
Houston area and even out where Garden Line's heard further
away than that, it just would be impossible. And so
what I ask is send me the photo. You can
send it ahead of time, preferably, but sometimes we talk

(13:24):
and I'll put someone in contact with Chris to get
an email, and it's just so that I can see
a picture that helps me answer your question better. That
sometimes your description and what minds I sees is not
the same thing, and that doesn't lead to a good outcome.
So that is the reason we do that. But you're
certainly welcome. You're certainly welcome to do that as well.

(13:48):
For those of you who follow us on Facebook, thank
you garden Line on Facebook. We have a lot of
folks that follow and put out a lot of information
on that regarding a number of things. We've added an
Instagram page to garden Line, so you can also go
to the Instagram version of it.

Speaker 6 (14:07):
Uh.

Speaker 3 (14:07):
If you if you go to Instagram, what you're what
you're going to look for? There is garden Line with skip,
garden Line with skip. That's the Instagram handle, and these
two pages are connected. Some people prefer Instagram, some people
prefer Facebook. Uh, and then there's other other social media's
out there. Those are the two that were active in

(14:29):
Facebook and Instagram. But now there is an Instagram page
garden Line with skip, so we invite you to kind
of join in with us on that. Uh. This is
this spring and early summer. Even the midsummer has been
a stormy one. You know, we had a couple of
really rough storms, one being a hurricane that knocked out power.
And everybody wants a generator now. And I would tell

(14:49):
you this, I certainly understand the insurance and the peace
of mind that comes with having a generator there at
the house. If you work from home, you got to
have power. If it's going to be power out for
a week and it's ninety five degrees, a generator comes
in really handy, those refrigerator and freezer foods. It could
be lost. Quality Home Products sells generators. They sell also

(15:12):
the specifically to the GENERAC generator, which is a high
quality one, but there are a lot of models of it,
and you've got to get the one that fits what
you need and with quality. From the time you call
them until the time they walk away, and beyond that,
you're getting service. They're hoping you find what you need.
They're helping you jump through all the rule hoops of

(15:35):
your city or whoever in terms of doing any kind
of an addition like that to the home. They're talking
about the whole house generator right now they are having
a special trade in and if you bring your old
portable generator in you you can get a lot off
of your whole home generator that you're wanting to purchase.
Just talk to them. Their reviews and everything, the Better

(15:55):
Business Bureau ratings are all through the roof. They take
care o the customers. Twenty four seven three sixty five
Go to QUALITYTX dot com, or you can also go
to or get them a call at seven one three
quality Quality TX dot com or seven one three Quality

(16:16):
head out to northwest Houston. Now we're gonna talk to Ralph.
Good morning, Ralph, welcome to Girdline.

Speaker 7 (16:22):
Good morning, You've got a great program. I'm want to
know about my Saint Augustine grass. I thought I was
doing the right thing all the time. But some spots
or you have along that's not putting any grass and nothing,
but others are in the front yard or this, uh
there there, I haven't been keeping up with the yard. Okay,

(16:45):
let's say that what am I missing?

Speaker 3 (16:50):
Well, it could be a number of things. You know.
Number one needs to be sunny, or at least pretty
sunny for Saint Augustine to be thick and look good.
You need to give it adequate water. But you know,
don't water every other day and just give it a
good soaking and let it dry out a little bit.
And you know, it could be a disease or a
lot of things that that can affect that can affect

(17:12):
your grass. Ralph, So I suspect it's going to be
a combination of some of those things.

Speaker 7 (17:21):
Uh huh.

Speaker 3 (17:22):
Have you fertilized lately?

Speaker 2 (17:25):
Has that?

Speaker 8 (17:25):
What?

Speaker 3 (17:26):
Have you fertilized that area lately?

Speaker 7 (17:30):
Not lately. When I first hit it was good but
I haven't done anything with its throb.

Speaker 3 (17:38):
Yeah, it's good to do that. You know, we're getting
pretty close to fall fertilization time, so at this point
you may want to just hold and then get your
fall fertilization down probably towards the end of September here
for your area. But bottom line is, you know, at
the lawn, it's just a matter of mo water and

(18:00):
fertilized plus sunlight. And that's one of those four is lacking.

Speaker 7 (18:07):
Well they're just in patches like that and it's really bad,
you know.

Speaker 3 (18:11):
Yeah, sometimes it's variations in soil Ralph. Sometimes the soil
is not the same everywhere. Sometimes it's foot traffic, and
sometimes it's just diseases and diseases are random, and I
mean you can get a little disease over in one
area and maybe it's not evenly infected through the whole lawn.
So there are a lot of a lot of factors

(18:32):
like that. I just think you probably need to be
fertilizing a little more and probably when we go into
hot weather, give it a rescue. Watering is needed to
keep it going.

Speaker 7 (18:44):
Well, it's just terrible, but it's such good grass. And
then this happens with teas. Okay, I appreciate you. Okay,
I have a good shows.

Speaker 2 (18:53):
All right.

Speaker 3 (18:53):
You take care. People care about their lawns, that is
for sure, and it's understandable. I totally understand that care
a lot. Hey have you been to Ana Plants and Produce.
Ana Plants and Produce is up there on one oh
five in uh the Montgomery area, and they have everything
you need. You need to go follow them online. You
need to check out that place. Drive by and just

(19:15):
go in and see. They've got some really good deals
going on right now. Always have good color, and they
are always loaded up on every fertilizer and soil product
that you might need. In fact, they got some deals
going on that right now. So but you just have
to give them a call. It's A and A Plants
and Produce, and I am going to have to take
a little break here and back to the guard Line.
Good to have you with us as always our phone

(19:36):
number seven one three two one two fifty eight seventy four,
or if you like to dial by letters seven one
three two one two KTRH. As simple as that. I
was talking about Ana Plants and Produce. Where we went
to break, I just wanted to let you know. This
is kind of like your public service announcement. There is
This is day three of a three day sale they've
got going on. It ends today. Is today's the last

(19:58):
day five percent off all their bagged products, and that
would be fertilizers from like nitrofoss and Microlife for example.
If you're looking for soil, are also Nelson's too. By
the way, if you're looking for soil, there is materials
like Nature's Way Resources and airloom soils. There is stuff

(20:20):
from Landscaper's Pride their quality mixes and mulches and things,
and then azum I too. All of these and more
is all part of this three day sell that ends today.
So twenty five percent off. Here's the way to think
about it. Maybe you're thinking, well, I'm not doing anything
right now, go ahead and stock up on it, because
remember fall is the time that you want to have

(20:42):
your beds in shape already. Okay, it's if you wait
until it gets too late. It Typically what has happened
to me in the past is I get busy, I
don't get around to it, and suddenly it's like, oh,
I want to go plant broccoli, and now it's raining
for three days and then that's cooler, and so the
soil stays wet longer. It can't work the soil when
it's sopping wet. But if you get those beds built now,

(21:04):
this would be a good time to do it. So
I would recommend that you stock up, even if it's
just topping off some beds, not building them, and is
ready to go for it. I mean, they got it
out there, and they're giving you a good deal you
should take advantage of, especially all those of you who
live up there in the Lake Conroe area. In my
own yard and garden, I was noticing that I've got

(21:27):
some areas around my trees where the grass is struggling
a little bit. As those trees get denre and denture
through the years, as the light levels at the soil
get lower and lower, there's just less energy for that
grass to be able to grow and stay thick and
lush and healthy and everything. And it just starts getting spindly,

(21:48):
and as it starts to go down, it's hard to
get it turned back around. So what are you going
to do? I mean, you can go up and trim
a lot of branches out of the tree, that's really
not the best of all practices to do, and it's
only going to be temporary because grow back in time.
So that's an opportunity to transform some of those areas
that are a little too shady into something that will

(22:11):
thrive in that kind of setting. Some plants are a
better able to utilize the limited sunlight and still thrive
and do good. And we've got a lot of great
shade gardens. So do you want a groundcover, do you
want to put some color in? You know, in the summer,
we use kalladiums in the shady areas, and we have
flowers that grow in the better shady areas. We're about
to enter the cool season where the leaves fall off

(22:34):
of deciduous trees, and so areas around those could support
some cool season flowers because they're getting sunlight in the
wintertime like they don't during the summertime. Those are just
some things to think about, but just remember that we
can try to fight the nature out there, but oftentimes
it's better just when life gives you lemons make lemonade

(22:57):
sort of thing. You know, we just go ahead and
that area. I've talked to people before that had areas
that were just sopping, soggy wet, and it didn't drain well,
and all the plants we want a plant wouldn't grow there.
Kind of thing, Well, why not plant something that wants
to grow there? Button bush is a native that grows
in wet areas, and it's really attractive. Big old bush

(23:18):
was really very attractive. There are other things like Louisiana irises,
and there are other plants that grow in a wet area,
So why not just go with that because that opens
a palette up to some new things to put in
the landscape. Just a few thoughts. Hopefully that'll be helpful
to you if you'd like to give a skull here
on Guardline seven to one three two one two KTRH.

(23:39):
By the way, I always listen to guard Line with
a piece of paper and a pen somewhere nearby, because
I may give a phone number or a website or
mention a product and you missed it. Of course, you
can always listen to the podcast afterwards, but it's just
better to keep a pen or pencil handy because a
lot of things are very timely, like that sale. It

(24:01):
was just timbat Medina has a product called has to Grow.
It's a six twelve six plant food. Now that higher
middle number the phosphorus is telling you that you know,
that's going to help with root development and also with
some of the other functions in the plant, like blooming
and like producing the carbohydrates and whatnot that it needs.

(24:25):
That's part of the deal. Well, Medina has to Grow
six twelve six has not just that nitrogen phosphor potassium.
It's got Medina soil activator for stimulating biological activity, humates,
humic acid to improve soil structure. I've been talking about
that today, and just even sea read extracts are in there,

(24:46):
and all of that helps to stimulate health. It helps
to stimulate fruiting and blooming. You can use has to
Grow six twelve six as a folier. It's not going
to burn your plants. You can and I would recommend
you use it when you're doing any kind of transplanting,
when you're putting your fall flowers, winter flowers in, when
you're putting in shrubs and trees. Just mix it up

(25:06):
in a big old canister or a watering bottle, or
sometimes they just chose a five gallon bucket and then
just use as a drench to water in those plants.
When you're trying to get a lot done, it's helpful
to do it that way. Medina has to grow six
twelve six plant food, very convenient, widely available. Like all
Medina products, It's available in quart bottles that have a
little measuring cup at the top of the bottom built

(25:27):
into the bottle. It is also a convenient hose in
sprayer quart size gallons and of course even larger if
you want to go for that. It's a good product
and it works. You are listening to garden Line and
I'm your host, Skip Richter. Our phone number if you'd
like to give us a call seven one three two
one two fifty eight seventy four seven to one three

(25:50):
two one two five eight seven four. For those of
you that live down south of the Houston area, you're
fortunate there when it comes to taking care of building
a foundation for any kind of success in your lawn, garden, landscape,
you name it, and that is building the soil. And
the place is Medina Medina. I'm not just talking about Medina.

(26:13):
They have Medina at this place. I'm about to tell
you to Ciena Maltz. Ciena Maltz is down on FM
five one just north of Roast Sharon. Here's the website.
You go here and you can find out everything you
need to know, including how to get there, how to
call them Cienamaltz dot com, CNA Maltz dot com. And
I always say start with the brown stuff before you

(26:34):
put in the green stuff. And Ciena Maltch is the
place where you get all the brown stuff stuff that
you might need. Do you need composts? Do you need
veggie herb mixed from marlom soil? Do you need some
expanded shale? Do you need fertilizers? And I'm talking about
all the ones you hear me talk about Azemie and
Microlife and Nelson's and the nitroposs Medina. Do you wont landscapers, Pride?

(27:01):
Do you want airlooms? They have all of it there
And so when you drive away, you have everything you
need to set a foundation for success. You're gonna plant
fruit trees as fall, You're gonna plant shrubs or trees.
Do you have some perennials that you want to put in?
Start it with the soil and see Enumulch is a place.
They're down south again. They're just north of road sharing

(27:21):
On five twenty one. By the way, they're open Monday
through Friday seven thirty to five and Saturday seven thirty
to two. Close today, closed on Sunday, but they'll be
open again tomorrow for you to get going. And it
is definitely time to get going on that. It's time
for me to take a little break, So I'm gonna

(27:41):
pause and do that, and I'll be right back the
phones that start this last segment of the first hour,
We're gonna go to Fairfield and talk to Marty. Hello,
Marty morning skip. Hey, I'm ready to prep my beds
for my fall. Bengis my coal crops.

Speaker 9 (28:00):
But I still have peppers and they're not big, but
they're just I had flowers and and peppers still on
the vines. I wondered, if I pull the peppers off
and then just pull up the plants so I can
prep the beds, will they still ripen like on the
counter top.

Speaker 3 (28:21):
No, they won't. They won't go any further once you
harvest them, I would. I mean, it depends on what
kind of pepper you know, they're they're going to get bigger.
A pepper gets bigger and so it hits its size.
For whatever species of pepper you got. But then if
you want it to go in toward turning color, like
you'd like to get a little red color in it,

(28:42):
or whatever color it will turn, that just takes even
more time. And we have these spring and fall traffic
gems in the garden, and especially at the spring, but
we also have it in fall, you know, and so
you just kind of have to make a decision on
what you want to do. One way to head your
belt a little bit is to take your fall plantings

(29:03):
and put them in small, smaller containers. Like let's say
you bought a little six pack of broccoli, but you
didn't really have room for it. You weren't ready for
it yet. You could move them into four inch pots
and even bigger if you wanted. But that way you're
keeping the fall crop growing and at the same time
getting just a little bit more out of your warm

(29:25):
seasoned crop. So that's about the only strategy I can
think up to help a little bit.

Speaker 10 (29:30):
That's a good idea.

Speaker 3 (29:31):
I haven't gotten my plants yet.

Speaker 9 (29:34):
I wanted to prep the beds first, but that's a
good idea.

Speaker 3 (29:39):
I think I'll do that all right. All right, Well,
thank you for the call. Okay, bye, ideas. All right, yeah,
that is true. Hey have you have you guys been
those of you listening, have you been to Buchanan's Native Plants.
I know those of you in north central Houston have
because it's located in the Heights on Eleventh Street. But

(30:00):
what about those of you from other areas. You know,
we have so many great garden centers here that I
think we all need to be doing a little bit
of what we call horticultural tourism about that, go visit
some new places, and Buchanans is one of those unique places.
And we are so blessed here to have such awesome
independent garden centers. Buchanan's Native Plants they are most known,

(30:25):
I would say, for the fact that they have a
huge variety of natives and lots and lots of information
and whatever kind of gardening you want. You know, it's
not just give me a native plant. It's like, give
me a native plant the hummingbirds will be attracted to,
for example, or one that bees or pollinators will be
attracted to. Give me a native plant that can grow
in the shape. They can do all of that at

(30:46):
Buchanan's Plants. The websites Buchanans plants dot Com, knowledgeable staff,
full line of products to take care of your plants
to have success with them, including those brown stuff things
that I've been talking about. Buchanansplants dot Com is a website.
Go to the website, sign up for the newsletter. It
is outstanding, as is the website when it comes to

(31:09):
being able to just learn more and more and get
better and better. And that is the kind of garden
center we're looking for, and you find it there are
Buchanans Native Plants. I'm going to head now to Kingwood,
Texas and talk to Janey. Hello, Janie, I skip.

Speaker 11 (31:28):
Can you hear me?

Speaker 3 (31:29):
Help? Yes, ma'am.

Speaker 12 (31:30):
Well, I went ahead and brought the yard down in
spring to soil, and I went to Nature's Way like
you recommended and got the mulch.

Speaker 3 (31:40):
And after I got all of.

Speaker 12 (31:41):
The plants put in, we did the compost, you know,
and more moult. Problem is, after barrel, I have all
of these like fungus looking spores in every single bed.
I went ahead and picked them up and removed them
and put them in a like a bucket and contain them.
But I was hoping I could send you a picture

(32:03):
so you can tell me what I'm dealing with, because
there's been nothing else in those beds, with the exception
of all of the water.

Speaker 3 (32:11):
Can you describe them, just real briefly. Whatever they look like.
How big are they?

Speaker 12 (32:17):
They're about well, they're about as big as account patty
and they are. They've got little round open spores on
the top and it looks like just one round. I'll
go ahead and send you a picture if that's possible,
but I'm pretty sure it's fungal. I was worried about
spraying because you said that it's not. It doesn't discriminate

(32:39):
like it'll kill all even good fungus. I didn't want
to do that.

Speaker 3 (32:43):
Well, I think I know what they are, but I'm
gonna look at a picture, and so what I'm gonna do, Janey,
is put you on hold, and Chris will give you
an email address. Send me some pictures of the little
bit further back and then up close, but make sure
they're all in good sharp focus, and I will tell
you what they are. I'm going to say, I'm ninety
percent sure that this is nothing for you to worry about.

(33:06):
This is not going to kill your plants or something
like that. But let me take a look at the
picture and be.

Speaker 12 (33:13):
Sure, Okay, awesome, wonderful, I'll hold Thank you so much, you.

Speaker 3 (33:18):
Bet, thank you, thank you very much for the call. Crystal.
Pick that up and get that information to you. You know,
we are going to get a lot of mushroom calls
in fall. Mushrooms and other fruiting bodies there are. The
world of mushrooms is amazing. I mean it really truly

(33:39):
the world of fungi. And I just read a book,
a really interesting book about fungi across the world and
all things they do and what they've what they've learned
about them, and how they interact together and connect plants
to communicate between plants, and what they do in the soil,
and how they can do things that know other microbes
than the microbes aren't able to do, and it is

(34:00):
just really interesting. But anyway, the bottom line on it
was that what I'm trying to say is when fall
comes and we get the weather break, we start see
all kinds of weird stuff. There is a mushroom. There
is a fungus, I must say, fungus that grows on
malts that looks like the dog threw up on the molts.
It literally looks like that. There's another one that looks

(34:23):
like scrambled eggs up on top of the molts. And
people call and they get all freaky and weird and say,
there's this yellow thing like I don't know what it
is on top of my mulch. And bottom line, it's
nature making organic matter turn into soil. That is why
we're not a mile deep in tree trunks here in

(34:43):
the Gray Easton area. Every tree that ever lived on
this place for going back in time if there wasn't
something to decompose them. And mushrooms are the one or
fungi are the ones that can really do the lign
and the toughest part of the tree. But it's just
part of nature and we can relax. You know what
people call about ferry meushrooms in the yard all the time,
And I don't think you need to use a fungus

(35:06):
to try to stop that. I think you need to
get a golf club and realize it's going to go
away on its own. But in the meantime you're going
to have some fun. That's my two cents worth for
whatever that is worth. Plantrall Seasons is a garden center
that's right there on two forty nine and Luetta two

(35:26):
forty nine and Luetta. It's easy, easy to find, easy
to get to. But when you go in there, you're
going into garden center. It's been family owned and operated
since nineteen seventy three. You're going into the place where
the Flowerty family and there's a number of Flowery family
members that work there, including their other employees, are knowledgeable
and they can answer your questions. They can point you
in the right direction. They can direct you to the

(35:49):
product that you might need, or make suggestions. You buy
a plant, you come back in, you go, hey, I
see this on it is this okay. They're knowledgeable, they
can do that, and that is so important. Here's your
phone number one three seven six sixteen forty six or
go to Plants for All Seasons dot com Plants for
All Seasons dot com. I love going to gardens. I've

(36:13):
been talking about that this morning, but I just love
going to new garden centers, even ones I've been to,
because you know, every time the seasons change, the things
that are in the garden center changes. I like going
I going to Ace Hardner shows all the time because
each one's independently owned and so you know, you never know,
I mean you don't, you know, go into one that
has a laser that cuts that etches cutting boarders. You know,

(36:36):
you may go into one that has a fudge bar
or whatever. It just makes it fun. I enjoy doing
that and I love, especially in the garden centers, to
see the changes through the seasons and kind of always
new plants. Listen so many plants, so little time. My
goal here on guard Line is to help you have success.
I want you to feel like gardening is fun and

(36:58):
you can do it, and the Wheel want to guide
you in that and advising and diagnosing and assisting in
any way we can. And that's why we're here. Here's
the phone number seven one three two one two k
t r H if you want to call during break
and be one of the first ones up to come back.

Speaker 1 (37:17):
A h Guarden Line with Skip Richard.

Speaker 13 (37:20):
It's just watching world.

Speaker 14 (37:36):
All right.

Speaker 3 (37:37):
I hope you're having a good Sunday morning so far,
nice and peaceful and quiet. I love this early morning
time and just I don't know, just want of the
quiet times. Hear things in the house you never heard before,
you know, the clicking of a clock that you never
had really noticed, and until everything is real silent and quiet.
It's kind of nice refrigerator kicking on. What's that noise?

(37:59):
You know what? We you're listening to guardline. I'm talking
on the guardline. We're talking about all the things that
we need to know in order to have a beautiful landscape,
bountiful garden. And that's kind of the goal here when
it comes to having beautiful lawns, making sure trees stay healthy.
You know, trees are so valuable and very important part
of the landscape. That's why I like to send people

(38:21):
to Martin spoon Moore an affordable tree because Martin knows
what he's doing. He's been doing this a very long time,
and he can come in. Maybe you need some printing done.
You know, the next storm that comes through. And by
the way, you don't have to have a hurricane to
have a storm. The next storm that comes through, is
your tree ready for it? Have you done all you can?
You know, there's a storm that'll take down any tree

(38:41):
no matter what, But why not make them as resilient
and as strong as possible. Why not minimize the risk?
And Martin can do that. He can help advise you
on what to do around the tree too. I see
pictures all the time, a beautiful tree and they build
a house around it and put a sidewalk over it
and run trench besided for utilities, and I just think, Okay, well,

(39:04):
I guess the next step is pay somebody to take
it down and hallered away because it's going to die
because they didn't do the things they need to do.
Martin knows how to take care of trees. So go
to Affordable Tree. You can go aff tree Service dot com,
aff tree Service dot com, or give them a call
at seven one three six nine nine twenty six sixty three.
Seven one three six nine twenty six sixty three. Listen,

(39:27):
just because someone owns a chainsaw and a pickup does
not mean they need to touch your trees. You need
somebody that knows what they're talking about. It always breaks
my heart to see damage that's been done, and now
what do we do? How do we fix it? So
much you can do ahead of time, so little that
can be done after the damage has already been done.

(39:50):
I was talking with a neighbor the other day that
had a drainage system issue in the backyard. And when
you when you have areas that are low and you
have soil that is clay. When you have features in
the landscape that take water and move it to another area,
like your roof, your roof gutters like a hardescape, the

(40:10):
water washes off. I've suddenly you got areas that are
really poorly drained, and pierscapes can fix that. I talk
about pier scapes all the time, but they can fix
those drainage areas. We're about to get into the fall season.
It'd be a good time to give them a call. It's
time for planting. What kind of beds do you want
to put in? What kind of designing do you want?
Do you is your irrigation system still working? Okay, so

(40:33):
they need to be checked over. Do you need somebody
to come through quarterly, quarterly, every quarter and revamp your beds.
I'm talking about trimming them, weeding them, fertilizing them, making
sure irrigation is working, putting the mulch down seasonally, as
how many times a year you select to do. Doing
a color change. You know, we've got a lot of

(40:54):
summer plants now, but there's a freezer for us coming
and at some point we got to switch to another
one or color changes Piercecapes can do that. They can
do that too if you want to go all out.
How about a beautiful outdoor for our place? Oh when
a crisp, cool nights get here? Can you imagine how
nice that would be. Peercecapes knows how to do it.
Here's the phone number two eight one three seven oh

(41:16):
fifty sixty. Or just go to the website Peerscapes dot
com and see the kind of work that they can do.
You are listening to Guardline our phone number seven one
three two one two ktrh. How can we help you
have a more bountiful garden and a more beautiful landscape?
That is what we like to do.

Speaker 10 (41:38):
Uh.

Speaker 3 (41:38):
You know the the uh the folks at it Enchanted
Gardens which is on the Katie Fullshire side of Richmond
and Chanty Gardens. It's on FM three fifty nine for
those of you who know that area three fifty nine.
Just if you're in Richmond heading north toward Katie fullsher
direction FM three fifty nine in Chanty Gardens. Here's the
website Enchanted Gardens, Richmond. Have you never been? You got

(42:03):
to go see the place because it is gorgeous. Everything
you need are you getting ready for fall, maybe some
fall decorations, fall plantings, but also you know with the
Halloween and Thanksgiving and holidays coming up, all kinds of
things to decorate your landscape and your home. When it
comes to plants, if you want combination planters, maybe something

(42:25):
combined into a beautiful basket of beautiful wire basket planting,
they can do all of that. Their selection of plants
and trees and their knowledge of this area is unmatched.
I mean, they really really do a good job. Fallows
a time for vegetables and roses, and also for herbs.
Follows a time to plant your roses. If you need
antique or hybrid, they've got them there, specimen types of trees,

(42:49):
and then the products that you need to go with them.
They know also brownze stuff before green stuff, so microlife,
Nature's Way, nitrofoss, Nelson plant food, heirloom soils, landscapers, pride,
medina and other things that I recommend here on garden
Line are all there and enchanted gardens. If I'm three
point fifty nine on the Katie Folsher side of Richmond.
They are open today by the way, ten am to

(43:11):
four pm. So this afternoon be a good time to
get out there. Enchanted Gardens Richmond dot com. I am
going to head to Southwest Houston now and we're going
to talk to Carolyn. Hello, Carolyn, welcome to garden Line.

Speaker 10 (43:27):
Thank you. My Chinese broccoli is still making the one
that I planted in the spring. Can I nurse that
through for the fall? Or do I need to replant?

Speaker 3 (43:38):
You don't need to replant. Just keep taking care of it.
I've got some old leaves further down the stems, you know,
that are showing some leaf spots or any kind of thing.
Just go ahead and take those off. Get all that
out of there so you don't spread the any diseases.
Going forward to kind of a sanitary measure, you know,
like cleaning house, getting all the junk and yeah, fertilize

(44:01):
and water and when it cools off, it's going to
get real happy and the flavor gets a little bit
better too, when it gets crisp and cool.

Speaker 10 (44:08):
Do I need to fertilize or the gain.

Speaker 3 (44:12):
When was the last time you fertilized it?

Speaker 10 (44:15):
When I planted it? Oh, I have the grow boxes
and I come with with fertilizer in them.

Speaker 3 (44:25):
Okay, you have one of the boxes where you put
the liquid down in the bottom and then it works. Okay, yeah, right, Well,
I mean if they've got fertilizer in it, that's fine.
I don't know a lot of times they'll put a
slow release into that soil mix in the grow box,
but that's.

Speaker 10 (44:41):
Only it's good for four.

Speaker 3 (44:43):
Months, yeah, three to four months. And as in our
climate where it's hot, things move a little bit faster,
you know, decomposition goes faster and other things because of
our warm weather. But so I would I would do
that again, you got a couple of.

Speaker 10 (44:58):
Ecs, Okay, I have some of the happy frogs, so
that put some of that on it.

Speaker 3 (45:03):
Is that a fertilizer or a soil you're talking about
from them?

Speaker 10 (45:06):
Now, that's the fertilizer.

Speaker 3 (45:09):
I would that's what you have. Okay, yeah, use what
you have one, But in general, I would probably direct
you to a different kind of fertilizer, especially if you're
looking at something to give you a good long release
and that's got a good blend of nutrients and stuff. There.
There's we have a number of good products that I

(45:29):
talk about here on guard line. But all right, hey, Carolyn,
I have got to go to a break. They are
telling me to cut my mic off here. So I'll
wish you will and thank you for the call. You bet,
when we come back from break, we will take your
call at seven one three two one two fifty eight
seventy four. Do you have well, give me a call

(45:52):
seven one three two one two five eight seven four
seven one three two one two fifty eight seventy four.
When it comes to preparing your soil, landscapers pride folks,
they have got you covered. They have a number of
different products, many different products to build soil to make
it a stronger, healthier, more effective medium for growing your plants.

(46:17):
Also for mulchs to go on the surface, you always
need mult In the summer it's hot and they cool
the surface in the cool season and really twelve months
out the year they're fighting weeds, which is a problem
in stopping erosion and other things. For example, a landscaper's
pride is one called black velvet. It is not dyed maults.
We don't recommend that on garden line, but they do
have one black velvet, naturally dark colored, velvety black beautiful

(46:41):
malts and it works really well. They have a top
soil that is a blend of a sandy loam soil
with some composted material in it. Compost in it. You
can use that for topping off, maybe you got some
low spots in the lawn, or maybe you just want
to use it in building into a bed. It works
really well for either way. Their premium potting mix is
like potting soil on steroids. It's got a Nelson plant

(47:05):
Food color star ingredient in it that just gives like
three months of color feeding, fertilization all in that potting mix.
It'd be good for indoor plants, be good for outdoor plants,
it'd be good for vegetables, flowers, whatever you want to grow.
And then, of course the rose mix Rosemex kind of
a standard here Nelson or excuse me. The Landscaper's Pride

(47:28):
rose mix has a nice blend of all the things
necessary to create a beautiful, healthy rosebush. That foundation that
when you add additional nutrients, roses just take off like
a rocket. All from Landscaper's Pride Landscaperspride dot com. That's
their website. If you want to go check out where
you can find them. They're pretty widely available. In fact,
it's most of the places I talk about are going

(47:49):
to have landscapers Pride products available for you. You are listening
to Garden Line. If you like to give us a
call kind of quiet on the phones this morning, uh
seven one three to KTRH. We'll be happy to visit
with you, answer your questions. Otherwise, I'm just going to
be talking about the things that I think are important.
And really, you know when I do that, what I'm

(48:10):
doing is I'm addressing the questions I get during the week,
the questions I get seasonally every year, at whatever time
it is. There's a cycle. There have been doing this
thirty five years, actually thirty six now, and so I've
kind of gotten used to the common questions. But you know,
the fun thing is there's always something new. There's always

(48:30):
some other thing that I hadn't heard of it before.
Some new plant now, everybody's got to have it, that
kind of thing. If you have not fertilized your lawn
this summer, you can still do a Nitropos Superturf application.
Superturf is a gradual release fertilizer releases over time. It's
the silver bag, the silver bag from Nitrofoss. So you're

(48:52):
going to find Nitropas super Turf at a lot of
different places. You go to d and De Feed up
in Tumball and they're going to it there. You go
down to Angleton on Velasco at Lake Hardware and Angleton
they're going to have it there. Go to Baytown Fisher's
Hardware on Alexander, they're going to have Nitroposs super turf
there as well. Excuse me. Someone was talking to me

(49:17):
the other day about returning grass clippings and just they
were kind of looking at it as if it were
like a controversy, you know, should you return grass clippings
or not? And there is no controversy. Nature returns grass clippings, right.
Have you ever seen if I have a T shirt
that I had designed, it's got Holstein cows and they're

(49:38):
mowing a meadow and putting the bags of clippings out
at the roadside. So nature recycles naturally. Yes, you can
return them now if you don't mow for a while
and it gets you real tall, if it gets wet,
maybe the rain has kept you from mowing. There are
times when you don't want to leave your long looking
like a hayfield, and you pick them up. I do

(49:58):
that but I use them as small in the garden beds,
just a light coating of malts over the beds, use
them in a compost pile, whatever, But in general, more
regularly and with a multi more and return the clippings.
Do you know here's a fun fact. You need to
listen to this one. If you were to take all
the clippings that you produce in your lawn for the

(50:20):
whole year and send them to a lab and say,
I want you to tell me how many pounds of
nitrogen phosphorsym potassium there are in these, it would be
more fertilizer than you fertilize. If you follow the full
schedule fertilizing all the times that are on the schedule,
your lawn more puts out more nutrients than your fertilizer

(50:43):
sprouder does. Does that mean you don't need to fertilize, No,
of course not. It just means if you bag your
clippings now you have to fertilize even more because you're
taking nature's perfect slow release fertilizer, which is a grass clipping.
This is going to decompose and not just give you
nitrogen phosphorsympth tasting. It's going to give you all the micros,
because remember I said they were essential. It takes micros

(51:06):
to build a grass plant. So when you hold up
in your hand a clipping, let's say you have a
Saint Augustine clipping. In that clipping, there's manganese and there's boron,
and there's all the micros as well as the macros
that are needed in order to have successfully grow a clipping.
So here's the decision. Your lawn needs mowing this afternoon.

(51:28):
Let's say, okay, you're going to do that. Where the
where is all the organic matter and free already purchased
nutrients going to go in a bag to pay somebody
to haul them off to hold the ground somewhere or
is it going to go back into your landscape? That
makes sense, follow the way nature does it. And you

(51:49):
should return your clipping. And if you don't, be ready
to fertilize a little bit more. And I understand there's
times when we don't. I understand that. Another time when
you don't return the clippings is when you have a
whole bunch of weeds that have gone on to seed,
bag those up and get them out of there. Don't
return the weed seeds back in. But in general return
the clippings makes sense. We call that don't bag it? Well,

(52:13):
you're listening to garden line. The number seven one three, two,
one two five eight seven four seven one three two
one two fifty eight seventy four. Warrens and Kingwood Garden
Center are both out there in Kingwood. So you guys
are really fortunate to have two great garden centers that
you can visit out in the Kingwood area. Kingwood Garden
Centers over there on Stone Hollow, Stone Hollow, Warrens Gardens.

(52:37):
I bet you've been to Warrens. I probably don't even
need to tell you this, and be probably into both
of them, but Warrens is on North Park Drive. Both
of them have an outstanding selection of everything you need
for success. Do you need fertilizers? Do you need soil?
Do you need great plants of all kinds? I'm talking
about shade plants, sun plants, native plants, ornamental trees and shrubs, vegetables, herbs,

(53:01):
just on and on tropicals. There's another one. Do you
need a good fertilized genie succulents? Do you need containers?
Their statuary, their pottery collection is beautiful and then vines,
you know, ornamental grasses, blooming vines, groundcovers. They've got it
all and it always looks good out there. They're always
doing an excellent job when it comes to bringing in

(53:22):
quality stuff and then advising you properly on that you
can take your problem question in there and they can
help you with it. They're happy to do that. They've
got some great sales going on right now, what we
call the yellow dot sales. You put a big yellow
dot on the on the container and you can pick
up some really nice plants that they have on a
special going on out there. So take advantage of that.

(53:44):
Don't let this, don't let this slip by. If you
haven't been to Warren Southern Gardens, get out there and
enjoy yourself because it is fun. I've been in there
more than once with my wife. She loves shopping in there.
Warren Southern Gardens. Going to go now to the phones
and we're gonna go back to Northwest Houston. Talk to Ralph. Hey, Ralph,

(54:05):
what's up?

Speaker 7 (54:06):
Dime back again? Oh my Gordon, Mark Berthable, Gordon. It
didn't do nothing this year last year, and it was
always a great produce. And it's just everything was bad.
But what am I missing?

Speaker 3 (54:22):
You got a lot of sunlight on that spot?

Speaker 10 (54:26):
Oh?

Speaker 7 (54:28):
I got not a lot, but yeah, I got it's
pretty open.

Speaker 3 (54:33):
Yes, yeah, well if you kind of look at it.
I've done this before. But I'll go out to a
spot in my yard where I'm thinking about putting in
a garden. I'll take a picture of it at nine
in the morning, and at eleven in the morning, and
at one pm, and and just see how many hours
of sun is on that spot. You for a garden,
you need at least six to have good success.

Speaker 2 (54:57):
Uh.

Speaker 3 (54:57):
And so that that could be one thing. Good quality
soil with compost added to loosen it up. That's enough.
So those are a couple of typical.

Speaker 7 (55:09):
I'm really old and I've had this a long time,
and I try to yeh finished the soil. What is
the best thing to do?

Speaker 3 (55:20):
Well? Sometimes it's you know, it's when when you know,
just the physical work of getting out there and mixing
soil and stuff that'll wearry you out.

Speaker 4 (55:27):
Uh.

Speaker 3 (55:28):
And if if you can get somebody to come in
and help, you know, with maybe doing a rotorteling, I
would get a good quality compost.

Speaker 14 (55:35):
Uh.

Speaker 3 (55:35):
You were up in the north west Houston area. You
have access to some wonderful groceries out there. But get
you a good some bags of compost material and mix
it into the soil. Where do you like to shop
up there?

Speaker 7 (55:49):
I go with all you Gordon, show all of it.

Speaker 3 (55:52):
Okay, yeah, okay, Well they all work quality. They have
good quality soul mixes that you can put in. I
would put a little bit of a compost or a
bed mix, and I'd mix it into the soil. I'd
do that sooner rather than later. And so when you
go to plant, it's already ready to go. But you
certainly could do that.

Speaker 7 (56:11):
That would be this many years. Is that's what calls
it is. I've been not adding allay a lot, but
I haven't added so.

Speaker 15 (56:20):
Well.

Speaker 3 (56:21):
I don't have the crystal ball to know exactly your
house what all is happening, but I can tell you
over the years, that little tree gets to be a
big tree. And so we have mar shade. Over the years,
even a couple of years, the organic matter that was
in the soil decomposes away. Our our natural native organic
matter levels are very low here because we have a long, warm,

(56:42):
moist brewing season.

Speaker 16 (56:43):
And so.

Speaker 7 (56:46):
Okay, yeah, it's my grass. Yeah, I have the wrong
runners going over it. But he won't go into this
certain big two big patches of grass.

Speaker 17 (56:58):
What what can I do?

Speaker 3 (57:01):
Are they crossing over it and they're not rooting down
or they won't even crawl over.

Speaker 7 (57:04):
That, they're not rooting down? And but I have grass
fast you ever placed, but not there. It's a big
two long runners of.

Speaker 3 (57:16):
Ralph. Do you use pre emergent herbicides to prevent weed
seeds from coming up in that area?

Speaker 10 (57:22):
No? I don't.

Speaker 3 (57:24):
Okay, well in this case, that that eliminates one of
the causes of them not pegging down. Gosh, I don't know.
I would Uh, you know, you got a little spade
and park where you could just kind of stand on
it and wiggle it down into the soil a little
bit and then pull it back up out. I'm not
talking about spinning over and spading the soil. I mean
just you wiggle the times into the ground and pull

(57:46):
back kind of crack that soil up in a little bit.
I would do that, and then I would add a
little bit of compost leaf mold, compost top dressing, and
you're gonna be able to find a lot of different places.

Speaker 7 (57:57):
I think the compost is probably my answer. We go
the soul just don't look right there, Okay, Okay.

Speaker 3 (58:05):
Hey Ralph, I'm gonna have to run to a break,
but try. I still would try that spading fork with
a little leaf bow compost on top. And I think
if you do that two or three times over the
next year, I believe you can get that where it'll
grow stuff better. Thanks a lot for your call, sir.
When we come back Ron in Cleveland, you'll be our
first up. Right now, we're gonna take a low break.

Speaker 1 (58:28):
Houston's News Why there were traffic plus breaking news twenty
four to seven. This is News Radio seven forty kt
RhI Everywhere with r more of what's happening now from
the John Morris Services Studios.

Speaker 8 (58:43):
American hostage murdered by Hama sim Cliff Cylinders seven thirty
on KTRH and with traffic and weather together, Here's Joe Barnett.

Speaker 18 (58:52):
Roadwork continues on the East Sam Houston Toadway South bounth
the Ship Channel Bridge or right lane as block traving
US low backed up to Jacinto Port Boulevard. I'm Joe
Barnett and the generator Supercenter dot Com traffic.

Speaker 19 (59:03):
Set, showers and thunderstorms eighty seven cloudy tonight, more storms
seventy six storms on Labor Day Tomorrow, hy eighty seven.

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Richard to wedding.

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Have the weather channel seventy eight at the KTRH Generator
Supercenter twenty four hour Weather Center. It's seven thirty one.

Speaker 3 (59:17):
The Israeli military recovers.

Speaker 8 (59:19):
The bodies of six FAMAS hostages in Gaza, among them
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He was twenty three.

Speaker 8 (59:26):
Seven American troops are injured during a raid in a
rock that wound up killing fifteen ISIS fighters. Here at home,
a ninety year old veteran shot and killed in a
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is still on the run. Mattress Smack is in the
hospital getting checked down for what he called cognitive issues

(59:46):
on social media. The Astros beat the Royals five to two.
The Mariners loss, so the Astros lead in the Al
West is up to five games. Coverage of this afternoon's
game starts at noon on Sports Talk seven ninety The Eye.
He's lost to Notre Dame twenty three to thirteen. Ut
shut out, Colorado State fifty two Nothing news on demand
at KGRH dot com. Ortext update is coming up at

(01:00:07):
eight o'clock with breaking information as it happens now or
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Speaker 13 (01:02:28):
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Speaker 14 (01:02:33):
I'll believe?

Speaker 3 (01:02:36):
Welcome back, Welcome back to garden Line. Good to have
you with us. What are we gonna talk about today? Well,
let's find out from Ron out in Cleveland. Hey, Ron,
welcome to guarden Line.

Speaker 2 (01:02:47):
Moren skip.

Speaker 23 (01:02:48):
Hey, I got a question. I got my bermuda grass
is really starting to come in pretty good. But I
get these all different kinds of weeds, and I don't
know how to identify them. Like I know Virginia button
weed aka a covid weed, but uh, I know spurge,
and but I get these other weeds and I don't
know if they're crab grass or basket grass. Is there

(01:03:10):
a how do I identify these weeds so I know
I'm putting down the right stuff?

Speaker 3 (01:03:17):
Well, uh, you got a couple of approaches out there.
One of them is you're in the Cleveland area not
too far away from Kingwood. You can go over to
Warren Southern Gardens. Take your weeds and little bags and
show show them see how many of them they can identify.
You can if you got some that are right now
in the lawn, if you want to take some pictures
of them, you can email them to me and I'll

(01:03:38):
take a look. I'm not gonna be able to give
a very elaborated do this for this and that for
that and all the whole thing, but I'll take a
look and go, Okay, you know, maybe on the on
the photos, say just put them as a number like one, two, three, four,
and that way I can go photos number one, three
and five. You know, here's what you got.

Speaker 2 (01:03:59):
And I'll.

Speaker 23 (01:04:02):
I wasn't sure if you had a website like you
had the Create Myrtles deal, if there was a website
or something that could go to.

Speaker 2 (01:04:08):
But I guess you.

Speaker 3 (01:04:10):
Actually no, actually there is. Uh do you have a penhandy?

Speaker 14 (01:04:15):
No?

Speaker 3 (01:04:16):
I don't, but I'll okay, Well, I'm gonna okay. It's simple.
It's Aggie turf. Oh Haggy turf is one word and
and the rest of the website is dot tamo dot
e d u t a m U for text a
m But Aggie turf on the front page. Down at
the lower left, it's turf grass weeds, And if you

(01:04:38):
click on that there's pictures of a whole lot of
common weeds. Now they don't tell you in that spot
what to do about them, but they tell you what
the weed is.

Speaker 2 (01:04:46):
All right, that's what I'm looking for. I know you
got it.

Speaker 3 (01:04:50):
I have a good well you you two, Thank you
very much. I always try to have the answer, or
at least make up something that sounds plausible. Now really,
oh gosh, yep, yeah, yeah, Well, weeds are They're just
part of gardening. You know, if you think about it

(01:05:11):
from a gardener's standpoint, we see plants, good guys, weeds
bad guys. Kind of like the old Western movies, you know,
where the bad guys wore black cowboy hats and the
good guys wore white cowboy hats and they shot each
other from behind the rocks up in that box canyon,
that kind of thing. Well, our weeds don't wear hats,
but we have assigned them the bad guy status. But

(01:05:34):
in reality, a weed is just a plant growing out
of place. And whenever the soil gets bare, nature covers
it with plants, and those we call weeds to us
because nature knows you've got to protect the soil. And
I like to put it this way. Wherever sunlight hits
the soil, nature plants a weed. Okay, so weed, a

(01:05:57):
corn plant growing in a Saint Augustine law is a
weed as corn a weed? Well, it depends on where
it's growing. Do you see what I'm saying. So whenever
we approach things, I like to just take a step
back and not look at everything having to have a
spray solution. We have a lot of spray solutions, and

(01:06:17):
there's times so we need to use them. But if
you start with low water, fertilize and make a dense lawn,
you have less weeds. If sunlight cannot hit the soil,
a huge portion of the potential weeds will be taken
out of the picture. Not all Virginia button weed can
grow in dense Saint Augustine. Dollar weed can grow in

(01:06:38):
dense Saint Augustine, But I'm talking about the majority of things.
If your long gets thin, you are going to learn
a lot about weeds because wherever sunlight hits the soil,
nature will plant one. And so just think of it
from a cultural standpoint in our flower beds. Mulching. Put
a mulch down so that sunlight can't hit the soil.

(01:06:58):
That's one of the many benefits of mulch. Makes it
just makes sense.

Speaker 2 (01:07:04):
You know, I.

Speaker 3 (01:07:06):
Talk about Ace Hardware stores all the time, but there's
forty of them here in the Greater Houston area. You
can go to the website Acehardware dot Com find the
ones near you. Makes it easy. And right now we're
in the last day of the grand reopening of the
Langham Creek Ace Hardware those of you in Northwest Houston
Copperfield area, we're talking about intersection of bark Barker Cypress

(01:07:29):
in FM five twenty nine. That's where Langham Creek Ace hardwrisk.
Today they're giving away a painter room makeover US two
hundred dollars value. They're drawing for it, so you got
to go buy and register. And they're doing demos on
their trigger grills today. But they have a lot of
other stuff going on out there. They you know, a
lot of vendor demonstrations, a lot of fun activities and things.

(01:07:50):
But you got to go buy. Stop in, say hi,
how you guys doing. Heard about your on guard line
and just see what all is going on. It's a
really nice little revamp that they've done out there at
the Ace Hardware on at Langham Creek, Langham Creek Ace Hardware.
You are listening to Guarden Line, and we're here to

(01:08:10):
help you have a more bountiful garden. We'd like to
have a more beautiful landscape, just with some basic tips
for success. That is important to be able to provide
those those basic things that plants need, sunlight, drainage, soil,
starting with good plants. You know, it's hard to make

(01:08:31):
absolute statements in nature because nature is not a black
and white thing. At Nature has a lot of gray
areas as one thing goes to another. But I think
that your and my approach to gardening, whether you are
synthetic or organic or whatever, should always be to start

(01:08:52):
with avoiding problems. That would mean building up good soil.
That would mean choosing plants that are adapted to hear
in some cases, choosing plants that are resistant to problems.
Here and as we start there and build good soil
and so on, mults from all that stuff I've been
talking about, you avoid a lot of the problems and

(01:09:14):
so we don't even have to have the question of
what do I do for filling the blank insect or
disease or whatever or wet we can avoid it, and
we always want to try to start it that way.
That's why you hear me talk about things like cororating
the lawn and compass top dressing the lawn, and building
density through mol watering and fertilizing in a lawn. Those

(01:09:36):
are all steps to create beauty by avoiding problems. SAME's
true in flower beds and vegetable gardens and herb gardens
and whatnot. As gardeners, we're always trying to grow something
that probably doesn't want to grow there. You know, I
don't know how many little unsuspecting blue spruce trees get
hauled out of Colorado every year when Texans come back

(01:10:00):
from vacation. But they don't belong here and they're not
going to grow here. We always try to do that.
But the more you can focus on things that want
to grow here, the better. And of course native plants
or the ultimate in that, I mean native pants are
if they're native from this area, they're from here, so
they do very very well, easy, easy to grow those
Nelson plant food, you know, has they're the ones where

(01:10:22):
we get things like the Slow and Easy, the summer
long fertilization of Slow and Easy, and Bruce's Brew that
you can do anytime of the year. It's going to
give you a lot of quick green up and it
does have some slow release components in it as well.
But I want to talk a little about about the jars,
the Nutri Star and the color Star. Color Star then

(01:10:43):
it's the best name for a product because if it
does it have color, yes, it is color Star. There's
a good answer. It makes it that easy. But also
the Nutri Star line. The Tree and Shrub is part
of the Nutri Star line. And if you've got a plant,
a tree or shrub and it's been planted in your
first five years, you need to be using that on
a regular basis to keep it growing. And there are

(01:11:06):
many many other products. There's tropical products, there's blooming products,
there's indoorhouse plant products, all in the Nutri Star line.
And when you get those jugs, you can refill them.
There's a dozen areas in Greater Houston where you can
go and refill your plastic jars. It becomes more economical
when you do that, and you don't throw away all

(01:11:29):
the plastic, which we are already know. We got plenty
of issues with all the stuff we discard that didn't
want to break down really fast. All right, it was
time for me take another break. I am going to
be back here for our last segment this hour, and
then we have a special guest to lead off in
the eight o'clock hour. We're going to be talking about
dirt stuff. Okay, just hang around sure, and we're here

(01:11:52):
to answer your gardening questions. Help you have a more beautiful,
beautiful garden and a more bountiful garden as well as
well as a beautiful escape. Our phone number is seven
to one three two one two KTRH seven to one
three two to one two kt r H. I was
visiting Southwest Fertilizer the other day, visiting with Aaron and

(01:12:14):
some of the team there, uh and just I had
some things I needed to pick up, and you know,
I know when you go in there, it's always it
always takes me a while because I have to go
up and down the aiss and look at what's new.
Try to stay up to date on what's going on
in the market, because there's always new products and changes
in products and things and you can know that Southwest
Fertilizer is always going to have the latest stuff as

(01:12:34):
well as stuff that's long proven that you've used for years.
They still keep it around there as well. So think
of it this way. If Southwest Fertilizer does not have it,
you don't need it. And that is pretty much black
and white true right there, because they have it all.
They have it all. Eighty foot wall of tools, eighty
feet of tools. I was looking. Oh, by the way,

(01:12:55):
you know I made that weed wiper. If you haven't
seen the little weed wiper that I designed, or I
mean it designed as a fancy word for it, but uh,
go to my website gardening with Skip dot com. Gardening
with Skip dot com. You'll see the weed wiper and
you'll see the products that you use on it to
wipe on whatever kind of weed you have. Do you

(01:13:16):
have poison ivy that's a certain product. Do you have
grassyweeds that's a different product. Do you have sedges like
nutsedge that's a different product. Anyway, that's how that works.
It's all free, it's all online. You can see it.
Bob's got those little suction cup devices grabber tools that
you use to build your weed wiper, and it makes
it so easy, makes it very very easy for all

(01:13:37):
to do it yourself. Or you can figure this one out.
You probably even design a version of it that's better
than what I got up there. But that's just an
example of what I mean when I say Southwest Fertilizer
has everything they've been around since nineteen fifty five. Corner
of Bissinet and Renwick. Southwest Fertilizer dot com and for
a phone number seven to one three six sixty six

(01:14:00):
seven four. That makes it real easy. Anyway, I was
in there doing some shopping. I picked up some things.
I am in a ongoing battle to learn about nuts Edge,
to find the kinks in its armor and to go
after those, and that's a lot of the information I've
put up is about that. But i have a number

(01:14:22):
of places in the yard where I've got a little
bit Nutsedge going and I'm working with it. So I'm
in a little xeon zois a lawn and Nutsedge sticks
it set up above the fine textured xeon and shows
up really well better than i'd like it too. So
I'm looking at controlling it there. I'm looking at controlling
it in flower beds and always trying something different. That's
why I came up with that weed wiper device that

(01:14:44):
works really well in certain situations. Not for everything, but
certain situations works really well. Well, you're listening to Garden
Line've got time for a call here. In fact, I
see one coming in there and take that in just
a second. When was the last time you went to
Nelson Water Garden and Nursery out in Katie, Texas. Now,
if you haven't been before, that's a great idea for

(01:15:07):
this afternoon, run out there and check out Nelson's Nursery
and water gardens. You know, they've been long known nationally
known for the water gardens they created. They invented that
disappearing fountain where you know it runs down the side
of a big beautiful pottery piece in the garden and
just recycles up through the pottery piece.

Speaker 2 (01:15:25):
Again.

Speaker 3 (01:15:25):
They created that. They can build water gardens, waterfalls. They
can help you if you want advice and the products
you need to put together to make a disappearing fountain
or something. They can do that too. But they're also
a garden center. You know, Nelson's Water Garden and Nursery
has an excellent selection of plants, they really do. It's
they have out outstanding stuff. I always like to go

(01:15:49):
ahead and visit. I'm always surprised, you know. I always
find that it's like, oh, I didn't know you guys
carried that too. And I think they're expanding a little bit.
But right now they have an end of summer sale.
Three gallon roses, fifteen bucks, pothus ieties four inch and
six inch pots, magnolia trees hibiscus the tree form of
hibiscus and the standard form fruit trees, not citrus, but

(01:16:10):
other fruit trees. Twenty bucks, Citrus thirty five bucks. Crape
myrtles three gallon twenty bucks. Do you see what I'm saying?
A lot and lot while supplies last, So if you
wait around, somebody's going to get it. But Nelson Water
Garden and Nursery and Katie it is just north of Ien.
You turn north on Katie Fortman Road and you're right there.
It is your West Houston destination garden center. That I'll

(01:16:34):
just make it like that. It's as simple. It's as
simple as that, you're West Houston Destination and garden center.
I keep trying to get you to take your friends
and go out there. And just sit. I think I
don't know if the folks at Nelson Water Garden and
Nursery you're listening, but I think that they ought to
have lawn chairs that you can rent up front and

(01:16:56):
you just go back and sit in the shade underneath
the trees to the water, and uh, you know, the
first ten minutes is free. After that we're gonna you know,
I think I think i'd pay it. When I sit
and listen to the sound of moving water, it is
so relaxing. I mean, it's just peaceful. The cares of
the world go away when you go back into into
that area of the Nelson Water Gardens at nursery. Well,

(01:17:22):
we're running up to where the end of our time
here on guarden line. For this hour, when we come back,
we have a special guest. I'm going to focus on
the details of why do I always say brown stuff
before green stuff? And why do I always say you
know it says mate. Some of you from probably from Texas,
know the old phrase, hey, you got to make hay

(01:17:43):
while the sun shines. Well there's also one that I
just said, well you got to make garden beds while
the sun shines. And now's the time to get that
done too. We're going to talk about those kind of things,
some of the aspects of soil and soil mixes and
different things that to have success. So instead of just
me telling your brown stuff before green stuff over and
over and over again, we're going to dig in get

(01:18:03):
a little bit nerdier on it as well. If you
are planning on doing any kind of landscape or re
innovations this fall, now would be the time to begin
prep for that, and I would suggest something. You know,
we're at the end of summer. This is typically about
the worst our landscapes look all year when we get

(01:18:24):
to the end of summer. Like, if you're going to
have drought issues, this is when you see them. If
you're going to lose plants, this is typically when the
plants are struggling. Midwinter can be a little rough, but
in general, this is a tough time. So drive up
to your house and look at it from the road,
just I mean, look at it like you don't live there.
Look at it like what do I think about that?
When I want to do that at my house? It

(01:18:44):
is your house. But we're just playing a game here.
What would be nice?

Speaker 2 (01:18:48):
You know?

Speaker 3 (01:18:48):
Oh, I could use an evergreen over there, or I
could use some color plants across here. That area is
dark and shady, and it just sort of disappears into
the landscape. What you're probably going to see is I
see a sea of green, green grass, green ground covers,
green shrubs, green trees. Where's my color? Those kind of
questions then help you to think about what you want

(01:19:11):
to do. There's going to be areas where you want
to do some annual okay, annual applications like the cool
season color and whatnot. Typically those cost more per square
foot of ground because you're changing them out several times
a year, so there is a cost there, whereas with
the shrub you pay once and you have it pretty

(01:19:32):
much for the rest of time. But what kind of
color changes do you want? Do you want to Is
there an area that's really hard to mow because you
got a right angle? Maybe you could do a curved
bed edge. Maybe you don't have a bed edge, and
having a really nice set of stones or pavers going
around a bed would be really attractive and set things apart.
Do you see what I'm saying. That's the kind of

(01:19:54):
questions that I think you ought to be asking this
time of the year, and you got to look at
it like it's not your house. I mean look at
it like I like that. If I were going to
buy this house, what would I want to be different
that front and I opened the door. You don't have
to do it all at once, step by step that
by b we need to do it that way you

(01:20:16):
do a turnkey all at once, or you can just
enjoy getting it done a little other time. Maybe there's
a rosebush that's not blooming, it's not in enough sunlight,
the trees have gotten bigger over the years. Time to
move it. This fall is the time you're going to
do that. So think those thoughts now. Maybe there's some
other opportunities for it, maybe like hummingbirds and see you

(01:20:37):
know what I'd like some plants and bring in hunting birds. Well,
the fall is coming, it's the prime planning season of
the year. Now's going to be it thrall ready and
now's the time to do that walk through assessment and
see what you would like to change. At your point,
I'll be right back.

Speaker 1 (01:20:57):
Welcome to KZRH guarded line with skimped richards.

Speaker 14 (01:21:10):
Just watch him as.

Speaker 3 (01:21:18):
All right, folks, Welcome back to guarden Line. Good to
have you with us. We are looking forward to talking
to you about your gardening questions. Right now, I'm going
to do for about the next couple of segments here.
I'm going to just do a kind of one on
one visit about soil. Just hang around with us for
the calls. We'll be taking them back again around eight thirty.
So if you want to call and get online, don't

(01:21:39):
mind waiting. Welcome to do that. So you're first up,
but we're going to take a little time away from
that phone for just a bit.

Speaker 7 (01:21:46):
Uh.

Speaker 3 (01:21:46):
I'm going to speak to mister Lewis tomorrow. Louise. You know,
you guys have probably run into Luis if you've been
about anywhere. He seems to be ubiquitous getting around. I
see him in show Garden Center, there's all kinds of places.
Luis is from heirloom soils. You hear me talk about
airloin soils all the time. But I'm bringing Louis in

(01:22:07):
here to discuss some specifics about why we do what
we do this soil, how we do it right, some
of the ingredients that are part of having success with soil,
and the importance of a building soil at the time
of the year. Luis, that was a long introduction, but
welcome to garden Line.

Speaker 2 (01:22:24):
Hey, thank you.

Speaker 5 (01:22:26):
I have been a trade shows lately and I've spoken
to I don't know how many people, hundreds of people,
so it's great to be with you today.

Speaker 3 (01:22:37):
Yeah, well, I know you really get into your soils
and stuff. In fact, I would say there's probably if
I could sneak up on you at the right time,
I might find you making compost angels out there in
the ground, you know, lay it on your back, just
getting in touch with the microbes. Yes, sir, that was

(01:22:59):
off the wall. Well, I wanted to bring you on.
I've been telling folks that, you know, the time to
get this already is now because fall is coming and
we're not in control of when it rains or when
it would be too wet. And it's also kind of important,
isn't it, to get soil built up, so it has
time to kind of settle in and mellow. You know,
when you put in a new bed, it's going to
settle a little bit. That's just inevitable. But now would

(01:23:22):
be a good time to get ahead of it. So
what are some thoughts you have about that?

Speaker 5 (01:23:26):
So One of the things that not many people look
into is the weeds that are growing in their soils.

Speaker 2 (01:23:35):
The weeds are telling us a story. And if you.

Speaker 5 (01:23:40):
Research the wheat that's growing in your soil, whether it's
a garden bed or a vegtabl better or the lawn,
you're going to find that that wheat is growing because
a lack of a nutrient has got too much mineral
components in the soil, or it's compacted. The soil is compacted.
So look at the weeds you have in your yard.
You know, we have any of different products that are

(01:24:01):
used to combat weeds, but see what they are and
see what the research tells you, and based on that
you can actually have a plan to better the soil. Right, So,
one of the main components of improving that soil is
using compost add in organic matter to the environment.

Speaker 3 (01:24:23):
M Yeah, compost, that's what nature does, right.

Speaker 2 (01:24:29):
Exactly.

Speaker 5 (01:24:29):
I mean, if we go back in time, we don't
have fancy soil companies and fancy you know, brands of
soil and fertilizers. Nature that it's saying and by itself,
and everybody thrived with what nature you know, provided so
at the at compost composing the number one component that

(01:24:51):
you should be adding on a regular basis. And also
look and see what happens to this old structure that
it's available in your yard.

Speaker 2 (01:25:00):
You're you know your garden.

Speaker 3 (01:25:02):
Well, those are good points and you know you're coming
about weeds and telling us about the soil. It also
tells us about our water content. You know, things like
grass burds can grow where it's a little drowdy, things
like oh, Virginia button weed and and dollar weed. They
love it when it's soggy, wet, and so there's there's
also some clues about our proper or improper watering exactly.

Speaker 5 (01:25:24):
So for example, dandelions, uh, and when they grow, when
you find them somewhere indicates a poor soil condition and
loin casium and the and the soil is usually compacted.
The dandelion is growing deep. The tap roots are doing
their job, which is breaking up the soil, and they're
looking to ariate and have more airflow. Right, so, if

(01:25:45):
you follow the advice that you give everybody on a
on a regular basis, areating the soil and breaking down
the clay particles that bond with compost or with expanded
shell because that's why you're dealing with expondential and compost.
You're pretty much creating the eruption between those clay particles,
and that's what's creating, you know, the pockets of the air.

(01:26:08):
The more water retention, more and just more flow, better,
better nutrient. How do I say this, more nutrients going
through the soil and stay there because.

Speaker 3 (01:26:20):
Yeah, compaction, right, Yeah, it's it. I often describe the
soil as a bank account of nutrients, you know, and
so it's like if you want to take money out
of the bank to buy something, you got to have
money in the bank to do that, prettych and so
with the soil, the more you build it up with
everything a plant could need, then it's just available because plants,

(01:26:42):
you know, a lot of times I think people think about, well,
I'm going to I'm going to fertilize my soil and
then that's just going to take care of it for
a long, long, long time. And in reality, plants are
eating a little bit every day, and so they need
nutrients that are available three hundred and sixty five days
of the year, you know, and maybe not applying it
at one time then is going to work. You're gonna

(01:27:03):
have to spread it out. But you're talking about putting
compost in.

Speaker 24 (01:27:06):
Now.

Speaker 3 (01:27:06):
Compost contains everything that a plant needed to grow. And I, Louis,
I'm gonna I'm on a soapbox here a little bit.
But just bear if you'll bear with me. If you
hold up a grass clipping and look at it, that
grass clipping has every micro nutrient that is required for
grass to live in it. And so when they when
you compost that clipping or that fallen tree leaf or whatever,

(01:27:28):
all those nutrients are there in the compost for the plants.
So it composts. We don't think of it as a fertilizer,
but it does provide nutrients like a fertilizer does, just
in a little bit a lower dosage. So anyway that
I'm trying to get people to recycle their organic materials.

Speaker 5 (01:27:46):
Yeah, yeah, and that's that's all what you do. Think
so is recycling that materials and you know, making a
little compost pile. I know it's difficult to it at home,
but when you do it on a large, you know,
commercial scale scale that we do. We're we compost thousands
of qvtors of product every year. You know, it's different
because we have the space and the machinery, but also

(01:28:06):
on that point which is really interesting, the feeding of
the plant.

Speaker 10 (01:28:11):
Right.

Speaker 5 (01:28:11):
So a lot of people tend to plant tomatoes every
single season in the same place, and cucumbers or broccoli
or lettuce, right, and those are plants that are very
heavy feeders. So a lot of times you tend to think, well,
why why did my tomatoes produce it really well last
last season and they're not.

Speaker 2 (01:28:29):
Really producing this season.

Speaker 5 (01:28:30):
Well, you're pretty much distracting everything you have of nutrient
availability from that soil, right. So that's why you come
into with compost or with a nice soil plant. And
like you said in Houston, we are so lucky to
have so many soil companies that make really good products,
and there's a soil for just.

Speaker 2 (01:28:49):
At any application you can find in garden centers.

Speaker 3 (01:28:52):
That is that is so true. And I'm going to
have to take a break here real quick for a commercial.
We'll be back with Lewis tomorrow from Airloom Soils to
continue our discussion of soils in just a moment. Folks,
Flooding School. Okay, all right, welcome back to Guardline. Good
to have you with us. We are visiting with Louise
tomorrow from heirloom soils, and we're talking about so prep

(01:29:16):
the components of good quality soil mix. Luise, we were
discussing composts in general. But when you look across a
line of products, you see a lot of different things,
you know, Like I mean with you guys, you got
the rose and bloomers blend, and then you've got cactus
and succulent, and then you got veggie nerd mix and
fruit and berry and citrus mix and so on. Uh,

(01:29:36):
tell me a little bit about as you guys formulate
a soil, what are some of the key components in
addition to just the fact that there's some decomposed organic
matter in there that that create these different products as
you as you blend them. Hey, Louise, Uh, did you

(01:29:58):
hear my question just now?

Speaker 2 (01:30:01):
Yeah?

Speaker 5 (01:30:02):
I heard the sod who is uh you know, the
soil I call them the soil chat Uh. He uh
formulated the soils and he used a lot of different products,
a lot of different ingredients to make these soils.

Speaker 2 (01:30:19):
Right.

Speaker 5 (01:30:19):
So the base is commonly more composed h pine mark
and coca core fiber.

Speaker 2 (01:30:23):
We don't use any peoples.

Speaker 5 (01:30:25):
Their ingredients are based on the mineral component and mineral
kind of usage of specific plants. Right, So we use
products like basalt sand, which is a volcanic rock sand,
granite sand, a torpedo sand. We also use some peara
light and some products we have warm castings, hummates, what

(01:30:50):
else do we have?

Speaker 2 (01:30:51):
So many ingredients?

Speaker 3 (01:30:52):
Yeah, there's expanded shales in some of the mixes.

Speaker 5 (01:30:57):
Yeah, expanded shell But yeah, those are kind of the
primary ingredients we have. And some of the products are
ball Some of the products have michroism, which is a great, great,
great thing to add to a product. And you know,
one of the best responses and reactions I got during
the spring when I did these uh the events at

(01:31:17):
garden centers, was explaining my charism and people really seem
to enjoy the explanation. So microsis to land works put together, right,
micro is fungi, riiser is root. So when you go
into the soil and you put michroysm, what they do
is they actually create a very thin and almost microscopic

(01:31:39):
root that attaches to the root system of the plant
and it goes to places where the plant, the plant's
root system will not be able to distract any nutrients.
So I was just having a smoothie and I got
my little ball and you know, I get to the
bottom of the smoothie cup and I can access all

(01:32:00):
of it. You know, when you drink a SMOOTHI, the
last bit of this smoothie is the best part because
you get really sided when.

Speaker 2 (01:32:06):
You finish it.

Speaker 5 (01:32:08):
You want so my price is doing that. It's accessing
all those nutrients in the soil. And if you have
a nutrients rich soil, then that my CRISI is doing
a lot of work for the root of the plant,
and then the plant has a lot of new train
uptic and it all works.

Speaker 3 (01:32:25):
Yeah, sometimes we could do a whole show and just
Mike Horizon and not even scratch the surface. But that
is that we're learning so much about stuff we used
to not know. It was just all dirt, right, and
now suddenly we're realizing how live it is and all
that's happening down in there. So when you're blending these things,
you know you've got a lot of different mixes and
whatnot that people would use. Can you give people some

(01:32:47):
advice as you look at it for getting ready for
the fall planting season. I'm trying to get people going
on this as soon as possible, because fall planting is
just around the corner. And so, what are some components
that you would recommend if someone wants to have success,
let's say on a landscape bed. What are some things
you would suggest that they do. How would you go
about it in.

Speaker 5 (01:33:07):
A landscape bed. Okay, so let's go back to May
June July. We had incredible amounts of rain. So think
about that rain pretty much washing away and leaching all
those nutrients everything. Pretend everything's gone. So let's start with
a balance fertilizer. Use something like a microlive six two
four or a nails plant food eight three five, which

(01:33:28):
is the new organic option they have. Maybe it's new,
maybe it's not gonna know how long it's been in
the market. Add compost, make sure you mix the compost.
Or if you don't want to add the compost and
want to add a soil, find a good soil that
has good ingredients and add it to your bed. Because

(01:33:48):
what you're doing there is adding the food the macronutrient,
and in the soil, if the soil has mineral components,
you're adding the trade mineral, which is the micro When
you have a balance of those two, Your plants are
going to have better performance because now you have food
minerals and a new soil to complement what's there already.

Speaker 2 (01:34:12):
Right, So that's what I would do.

Speaker 5 (01:34:15):
I think that's probably the backbone of having a successful
garden is good soil, good organic matter, good macronutrient which
is the fertilizer, and balanced micronutrient which is the trades
mineral like azomite.

Speaker 3 (01:34:31):
So you're just setting your plants up for success. Really,
you're getting everything they need there and in one place.
You know, one thing I've noticed is that soil that
organic organic, meaning it contains organic matter. Soil decomposes away
over time, and people have probably noticed this, Like you

(01:34:52):
got a flower pot on the back porch, it's full
of soil, and a couple of two or three years
down the line, you look at it and it's like
not even half full of soil. Where did it all go? Well,
not oxidized away. But that happens in our landscape beds too,
So I think topping off landscape beds with quality mixes
according to the plants you're going to grow, there is
something that needs to be sort of part of our

(01:35:12):
annual cycle as well.

Speaker 2 (01:35:15):
Yeah, I mean, thank god.

Speaker 5 (01:35:16):
What we recommend on a regular basis is mult twice
a year, right, but we never say at soil once
a year, once every couple of years.

Speaker 13 (01:35:26):
Right.

Speaker 5 (01:35:27):
So if you're mulch and you are taking the advantage
of that, you don't have any mulch left.

Speaker 2 (01:35:34):
Add some soil, mix it in with the current soil,
and then you mulch.

Speaker 5 (01:35:37):
But yeah, that's a great practice to remember, is add
some soil every couple of years, because that's what it
was going to.

Speaker 2 (01:35:45):
Ultimately, I don't know, settle.

Speaker 5 (01:35:50):
And usually what you get left, what's left on that
on that soil mixture is the inert component, which is
the sand or the expanded shell or the little fables
from the signs, you know, all they're gunning. Matter is
usually used by the micros, by the plants, by the
root systems. That's where the nutrients are, right.

Speaker 3 (01:36:09):
So yeah, that's and that's how it happens in nature.
And so we're just trying to take advantage of the
knowledge that is there. If we just stop, look, listen, learn, study,
we can we can take advantage of that at home.
It makes it it makes it easy when you guys
put it all on the bag and you just hold
it home and put it in the ground.

Speaker 4 (01:36:27):
Uh.

Speaker 3 (01:36:27):
It makes it really simple. You don't have to be
a soul scientist to have success when you're gardening and
you have a good good products that can do that.
You know, the cactus and suckle. It makes you guys
have I we've been redoing some strings around our house.
My wife loves strings. We got string of heart, string
of pearl, string of arrow, string of bananas, string of
everything under the sun. And that cactine suculent mix has

(01:36:50):
a lot of grit to it and it drains internally
really well. And I think that's something you know, and
a lot of flower containers. I sometimes you start with us,
well maybe it's a cheap potting soil, and it just
kind of settles in and gets real thick and mucky,
almost gooey, you know. It just you don't have airspace
down in there in the soil and things that open

(01:37:12):
that up. And as you do a potting mix is
like you guys have the works and cactus and succulent.
You've got components that you can reuse. I mean, you know,
you finish the year and you pull that plant out,
you can mix some fresh stuff in and continue going
with it as long as you don't have a disease
issue going on in there. But those those components of
drainage I think are really important.

Speaker 5 (01:37:35):
Yes, it's like cactus and circulant. I don't know if
I was talking to you or somebody else, and I
was explaining that this is the most complex blend we make.
It has a lead based on leaf more compost. It
has cured coco corea fiber parallite compost and native mulch
composting soil fines, and then it has these components that

(01:37:56):
are really interesting expanded shell, basalt, signed granite and torpedoes
sand vermi composed, which is you know, one castings in
my chrysa.

Speaker 2 (01:38:06):
And that's because it has.

Speaker 5 (01:38:07):
All these different components that I call drain or structure components.
It doesn't compact, it doesn't mock up like you're talking about.

Speaker 2 (01:38:16):
It stays lose.

Speaker 5 (01:38:18):
But it's also the heaviest product we make, right so,
and that's what cactuses like. A lot of people like
this product. Because of that, some other people prefer.

Speaker 2 (01:38:26):
To add more.

Speaker 5 (01:38:28):
I've seen some and I've heard somebody say that they
added decomposed grinded to it because they wanted it to
be heavier and to kind of mimic what you see
in the desert. But I have cactuses and succulents, primarily
succulents that I planted in twenty twenty two that are
thriving still to this day in that product.

Speaker 3 (01:38:52):
Yeah, and that's that it's worked out well for us.
I've had a real good success with that. So I
want to talk a little bit about you know, I
tell people all the time when I talk about airlom cells,
you can find it everywhere. It's easy to find. But
I like your website, the Airloom Cells of Texas dot com.
And one thing that people need to realize is if

(01:39:15):
they go to that website, now even if you're not
going to buy an heirloom soil or that's you know
that maybe that's not what you're going justifind go there
for the soil calculator alone, because the soil calculator is
so good. That's that's in the website. By the way,
is Heirloomsoils dot Com makes it real easy, but you

(01:39:36):
can put in if you don't know how many one
foot bags, how many wheelbarrows, how many five gallon buckets.
Do I need to do such and such. It's all
there and then they can plan accordingly. And of course,
you know, I know, you guys have a lot of
great products that we hope they would choose one of.
But uh, that's that calculator is amazing and the website's
very helpful.

Speaker 2 (01:39:57):
So the calculator is used by out of my competitors,
which is great. I love it.

Speaker 5 (01:40:04):
And also on the website, if you wanted to find
a garden center, and you know, if you're not going
to buyer loom soils, go to where to find air
loom soils if a map doesn't load up, since you
refers to the site, and you'll have a map of
all the maybe eighty plus locations that carry a product,
and those locations are going to be garden centers, you know,
hardware stores, feed stores that carry a huge amount of

(01:40:27):
different products that you you know, you talk about on.

Speaker 2 (01:40:30):
A regular basis, and they're spread all over the place.

Speaker 5 (01:40:34):
It goes from kind of Austin all the way to
Neerland and down to Corpus. So that's a yeah website,
and we got I added a soil fog where I'm
going to add like different links. And also there is
a presentation on it if you scroll the way to
the bottom that talks about my horizon and it talks

(01:40:55):
about the weeds.

Speaker 2 (01:40:56):
What are weeds telling us?

Speaker 8 (01:40:57):
So?

Speaker 3 (01:40:58):
Okay, yeah, that's good. Those of you who are living
way outside of the Houston area. I know, I was
listening to KRH coming out of the Austin Airport the
other day and up in College Station, or you know,
way down way out east and just a lot of places.
It's widely available. So those of you who don't live
right here in Houston, you can still find it those
products in your area. Luis, I got about probably thirty

(01:41:21):
seconds or so here. Any closing quick thoughts on getting
ready for fall by getting your soil right.

Speaker 5 (01:41:30):
Getting ready for fall, Like I said, and I'll repeat
this over and over again, make sure you fertilize to
give the soil, mixing the oil some food. The fertilizers
your micronutrient. Use a micronutrient, which is a trade mineral.
The combination of those two allows the plant to have
better nutrient uptake and use really good organic matter or

(01:41:51):
a really good robust soil to add to that existing environment.
Those are your three components keys to successful garden, whether
it's a flower bed or a or a vegetable bed.

Speaker 2 (01:42:05):
And if you're doing all.

Speaker 3 (01:42:06):
Right, give those three. Give those three one more run
more quick time.

Speaker 2 (01:42:11):
Yep, one more.

Speaker 3 (01:42:13):
I was just saying, I give those three just one
two three one more quick time for people that are
writing it down.

Speaker 5 (01:42:19):
Yeah, micronutrient is your fertilizer. Thank good, fertilizer six two
four eight three five. Your second one is your micronutrient,
which is your trade mineral, something like the most important part,
the soil component or the compost component.

Speaker 2 (01:42:35):
Right, they've got it all right there you go.

Speaker 3 (01:42:39):
Well, Louise, I wish we could do this all morning.
They're telling me it's time to go to a commercial,
so I got to shut up. Thank you so much
for being on. I appreciate that a lot. Again. If
you want the website, it's Heirloomsols of Texas dot com. Folks.
You're going to take a break here, all right, take
care of Louise. Appreciate it.

Speaker 2 (01:42:56):
Thank you all right, bye bye.

Speaker 3 (01:42:58):
I want you to have success. Get the soil done now,
get your beds built now, get things improved.

Speaker 2 (01:43:04):
Now.

Speaker 3 (01:43:04):
If you've got old beds do some topping off of them.
Whatever it takes to get that set. Include the nutrients,
if you need micros, if you need regular fertilizing, get
all that in there and get those things ready. It
is time just around the corner to get all our
fall for fall planting, prime time chores accomplished, and that
that is coming not a better time of the year. Hey,

(01:43:26):
we're going to open it back up to phones now.
Our number is seven one three two one two k
t RH. I want to remind you that next Saturday,
September seventh, I'll be at the Montgomery County Home Outdoor
Living Show. That Home and Outdoor Living Show in Montgomery
County is at the lone Star Convention and Expo Center
out there north north northeast on Airport Road. Now, I'll

(01:43:48):
be there from twelve to two on Sunday. I'm going
to give a talk on fall gardening, and then I'll
stay there and answer questions till the cows come home.
I don't know what time the cows get home, but
I'll stick around and we'll answer questions as many as
you have. Bring me samples, bring me pictures of things
that you want to ask about. We'll go through it,
and I'll be giving away a lot of micro Life

(01:44:09):
fertilizer giveaways while we're there. So just another reason to
show up and be part of the fun while we're
out there again. Next Saturday, September seventh, Lone Star at
Convention and Expo Center on Airport Road. All right, let's
head out to the phones. Now, we're going to go

(01:44:30):
to New Caney and talk to Bill. Hey, Bill, good morning, Skip.

Speaker 4 (01:44:36):
Yesterday morning, you had somebody from the Caney called in
about pear trees, and I was very interested in the conversation.

Speaker 2 (01:44:45):
He said that he.

Speaker 4 (01:44:46):
Used the pairs to make a pair of wine and
so forth. I would be very interested in doing the
same thing, and I was hoping you would have some
specific recommendations for variety, since you need a paar tree
pollinator to accomplish the gulps.

Speaker 2 (01:45:04):
Yeah, so.

Speaker 3 (01:45:07):
Let's do this, Bill. When when we're done with this call,
I'm going to put you on hold, and I want
Chris to get whatever contact information you would want to
give to the guy who made pair wine yesterday. Okay,
And if that person's listening, if you will call in,
If you will call in, we'll put you in touch
with Bill and you guys can can talk how to

(01:45:29):
get there from here kind of stuff. As far as
pair varieties, Bill, I would go to the Aggie Horticulture website.
It's Aggie hyphen Horticulture dot TAMU dot edu. But if
you just do a search for Aggi Horticulture, on the
front page is a fruit and nuts section and you
click on that and you can pick publications on everything

(01:45:50):
from avocados to I don't know what fruit begins with
the but it's all a to Z and pairs is
one of the publications, and in that it lists the
varieties and knows you about each variety. And so I
would turn you loose on that because you're gonna get
a lot more information. I'm giving a little quick answer here,
but that would be pairs grow. They're not much of

(01:46:12):
a challenge. Yeah, and so did you have more of
the questions?

Speaker 11 (01:46:19):
No, that that's it.

Speaker 4 (01:46:20):
Actually, I was just hoping. I was thinking that if
I couldn't talk to the fellow that I would I
would have assumed that you would know the varieties that
would be the very best prior real southern area here.

Speaker 2 (01:46:31):
And I appreciate that.

Speaker 4 (01:46:33):
I appreciate all your efforts.

Speaker 3 (01:46:36):
Well, I don't think on pears, you know, we have
any like this variety or that it hadn't hit the
point like a fine wines where certain grapes grown in
certain soils make certain kinds of wine. I think with pears,
it's just like, hey, that's sugar, let's ferment it and
drink it kind of deal. But I'll let you visit
with with him more about that.

Speaker 2 (01:46:54):
But thank you.

Speaker 3 (01:46:54):
I appreciate appreciate your call a lot if you would
like to call garden Line and talk to me about
some of these things. Seven to one to three two
one two kt r H seven to one three two
one two k t r H and we'll get Chris
there giving or getting bills contact information. We put two

(01:47:14):
people together that way. That's just another nice thing there.

Speaker 2 (01:47:19):
Uh.

Speaker 3 (01:47:20):
Nitrofoss makes a fertilizer called Sweet Green. And you know
we're talking about organics and stuff like that, natural kinds
of things. Well, molasses is something that is used in
organic gardeners gardens a lot because it's it's basically carbon sugars,
basically a string of carbons, and and the microbes really

(01:47:41):
feed on it and thrive on that kind of thing,
especially the beneficial bacteria and things that are doing good
for us.

Speaker 2 (01:47:46):
Well.

Speaker 3 (01:47:46):
Sweet Green's on eleven zero zero fertilizer. It's got that
boost of nitrogen high amount for a for a non
non synthetic type product. But sweet Green it has a
wonderful fresh and you can use it on your line.
You'd really use it on anything you want to use
it on for a good quick boost. And that's something
you could do now to hold you over into you

(01:48:08):
get into it. We get into our fall fertilization season.
But Sweet Green from Nitrofoss again widely available. Auspa Ace
up in the Woodlands is going to carry it. You're
going to find it at Plants for all seasons on
two forty nine. You're going to find it at Plants
and Things up in Brunham on Highway three sixty five.
Sweet Green from Nitrofoss. I love the smell of it.

(01:48:30):
I like to kind of tongue in cheeks say, you know,
it smells so good when you throw it in the
back of the car, you're going to want to make
an extra loop around six ' ten on the way home,
just so you can enjoy the fragrance of sweet Green
a little bit longer. You are listening to Guardline and
our phones are seven to one three two one two
k t r H. Seven to one three two one

(01:48:52):
two k t r H. Feel free to give us
a call. This morning, been kind of a quiet day
on the phones. Typically what happens when this happens is
the whole day's calls. Try to call it the last minute.
We got a little over an hour left in the show,
and I would encourage you if you want to talk,
it's always better to do it sooner rather than later.
Towards the end, things get kind of crazy, just because

(01:49:15):
I don't know, maybe more people are waking up, or
they're thinking of questions that they want to ask. We're
here to help you with all the above. And then
some one of my uh daughters has a beautiful rose
bush that you got here in the Greater Houston area,
and we were I was at her place a while back.

(01:49:36):
We were doing some training on some climbing type of
rose and UH, just getting it pruned and taken care of,
and I was just noticing, you know that when she
gives a good care, very good care, and the thing
is very healthy and it's very vigorous, and UH, just
a little a little tip on roses. Roses the queen
of the garden. They say, right, uh, it is so popular,

(01:50:00):
and roses put on a great spring show. Some roses
climbers often are once bloomers, and some other types of
roses are what we call once bloomers. They bloom in
the spring and that's it, and that's okay. I've got
the Peggy Martin rose on a arbor at my house
and it's a spring primarily bloomer. The rest of the year,
it's given me shade, so that's okay. But then there's

(01:50:22):
others that repeat over and over again and just giving
them good care. Fall is the best time of the
year to plant a rose, and I encourage you to
give them a good close look this fall. When we
come back, I think I'll talk a little bit more
about the keys to success with roses. In the meantime,
I'll be right back.

Speaker 13 (01:50:40):
As you know, I'm all of god abbeys goddabets.

Speaker 3 (01:50:43):
All right, all right, welcome back to Gardenline. I'm your host,
Skip Richter. I was just talking before we went to
break about roses and just some tips on roses making
a quality mix like a rose blend. We got rose
blendz here in the scenario that work outstanding for that
making them a good race back, giving them lots of
sunlight space the plants out so air can move around

(01:51:05):
and among them to lessen the time the leaves stay wet.
The more the leaves stay with, the more disease problems
you have on any plant. So good air circulation, good sunlight,
good soil, and then pick some good roses. By the
way RCW. I almost forgot to mention this Today RCW
Nursery that is the garden center that is where two

(01:51:26):
forty nine Tumble Parkway comes into bout Wagh eight. They
are having a Labor Day weekend Rose sale on their
Star roses and Weeks roses. Now you may not know
what a star in Weeks mean. Well, Star rows is huge,
huge rose company across the United States. Weeks Roses another
one produced tons of quality roses each style. Only ten

(01:51:48):
bucks Star and weak roses at RCW. But that's the
Labor Day weekend sale only, so don't mess around. As
soon as you get there, the better choices you're going
to have. But this is unbelievable opportunity by rosebus ten
dollars and I'm telling you fall planning is coming the
best playing time of the year. So there's a little
word to the wise. I'd get out to RCW Nursries.

(01:52:09):
You can go to the website RCW Nurseries dot com
find out more about them. But that is a call
public service announcement. Let's go to Perland. Now we're going
to talk to Kay. Hello. Okay, good morning, Skip.

Speaker 25 (01:52:23):
Thank you for taking my call. Yes, I have a
question on I have a little volunteer oak tree that
I found in one of my flower beds and I
dug it up. It's probably been a year and a
half or so and it was about four or five
inches tall. It's about twelve fourteen inches tall now. But
I failed to water it adequately and the leaves all died. Well,

(01:52:47):
I took them all off and it's still flexible. Do
you think it's gonna be okay?

Speaker 10 (01:52:52):
Will it come back?

Speaker 3 (01:52:53):
There's a chance. Yeah, there's a chance. And you know,
it just depends on the degree to which the drought
hit it. I mean, you know, eventually can kill a plant,
but a little drops the problem. Uh, So I would
give it some time. It may try to relieve. I
kind of hate for it to have to do that
right before fall when the leaves are gonna get knocked
off again. Anyway, Yeah, I would, uh, I would give it,

(01:53:14):
give it some time, let's see uh it. Typically there
should be some decent storage in the ground and it
shouldn't just be dead.

Speaker 25 (01:53:21):
But you never know, it wasn't for a long time.
It was just you know, a short a few days,
I would, I would guess, or.

Speaker 3 (01:53:29):
So yeah, well, if you see signs of life, is
it in a container now or is it in the ground.

Speaker 25 (01:53:35):
Yes, it's in Yeah, No, it's in a pot.

Speaker 3 (01:53:38):
Okay, Well, the sooner, sooner you can get that if
you see signs of life, as sooner you can get
it planted the better. And by sooner, I mean you
know this fall is opposed to next year or the
year after. Go ahead and get it out of the
container in the ground I was keeping.

Speaker 25 (01:53:52):
I don't really have room for it in my yarn.
I'm keeping it from my son daughter in law, and
they're not ready for it. So I was just gonna, okay,
keep moving it up in size till they're ready for it.
But thank you so much, have a blessed day, bye
bye you as well.

Speaker 3 (01:54:06):
Thank you. I appreciate, appreciate your call a lot. Nelson
Plant Food produces a wide variety of quality fertilizers. You
hear me talk about the turf Star line all along.
I've been talking about slow and easy all summer because
it releases so slowly over time. I talk about Bruce's
Brew anytime of the year. Really it's a pretty quick
green up, but it has a little bit of slow
release to it. As soon as we get into fall,

(01:54:29):
I'll be telling you about Carbload, the fall fertilizer from
Nelson's Turf Star line, the Nutri Star line, but that's
another one, the Nutri Star. It comes, people buy it
typically buy it in jars, plastic jars or screw top lids,
and there's a Nutri Star for trees and shrubs, There's
a Nutri Star for tropical plants. There's a Neutra Star
for different kinds of blooming plants, depending on you know,

(01:54:51):
the particular plant you have. You can refill those jars
at twelve different places around the Greater Houston area. Makes
it very economical to do a refill and save on
the plastic. Just another smart move by the folks at
Nelson Plant Food. Also don't forget the color star. Color
color color. You want color this fall, you want color
this winter. We're looking at pens and violas and whatnot.

(01:55:13):
It's just some color star. Put it down, mix it
in the soil, and then plant your plants, and you're
going to see those results last all through the winter season.
We're going to head out now to West Houston and
talk to Gary. Gary, Welcome to guard Line.

Speaker 2 (01:55:28):
Good morning, Skip.

Speaker 26 (01:55:30):
Here's my interesting thing kind of follows from the guests
you just had on talking about soil and rebuilding beds.

Speaker 2 (01:55:35):
For next year.

Speaker 26 (01:55:36):
I've got you know, L shaped beds, you know, against
my fant traditional you know, small backyard type thing. And
the beds had gotten you know, real low. They needed
to be completely you know, rebuilt. They would have needed
at least like two yards of soil. And but what
I did when I did my my new little patch
of grass, I removed all of that Saint Augustine fairly deep.

(01:56:02):
But I didn't have a way of removing it away
from the house. I put the I put all that
in my beds and figured it. I just let it
all deteriorate there. And okay, of course it's got a
healthy weed population all along the whole thing. So it's
fairly green with nothing but weeds. But I want to know,
is it okay to build a bed. Kill all those weeds,

(01:56:24):
kill them up, let it deteriorate and compost, and then
put real compost and stuff on top of it and
build a bed that way?

Speaker 2 (01:56:32):
Or is that going to cause me problems?

Speaker 3 (01:56:35):
Well, well you can. You know, in vegetable gardens, we
do stuff called green manuring, and what that means is
you grow like rye grass or vetch or something and
then you turn it into the soil and let it
decompose to build the soil. That's kind of what you're
doing with your question. I would just say, make sure
the weeds are not perennials like bermuda grass or nuts

(01:56:57):
edge or something else that chopping it up up, it's
just gonna multiply it and it'll be right back. If
it's just annual weeds, you can do that if you
want to. Just remember you're gonna have weed seeds in there.
But if you want to turn old Saint Augustine grass
into I've thrown where I cut out a section of
Saint Augustine to put in a bed, I'll throw that
in a compost pile and just got a little soil

(01:57:19):
attached to it and it just composts away like anything else.

Speaker 26 (01:57:23):
Well, yeah, I mean I've got I've got nuts edge,
just the bane of my existence. But I find it
pretty good with all the different, you know, typical tools.
When I go to kill the weeds and I'm gonna
wait until let's say late February or whatever to start
the rebuilding process, is there a vegetative killer that's not

(01:57:44):
one of those wait a year type of things that
might help me, because I'll kill the nuts that's special, right,
but I'll do the rest just with something to zap
everything that's safe for every build here.

Speaker 3 (01:57:55):
I'm gonna yeah, I'm gonna answer that by giving you
my website. It's gardener with Skip dot com. Gardening with
Skip dot Com. On there, you'll see some brand new
information on the nuts edge. There's one it's an in
depth look that we be very helpful for you. Then
there's a herbicide for the weed wiper page, and that
lists the herbicide ingredients for different kinds of weeds. So

(01:58:19):
depending on whether you're going after grassy or sedges or
broad leaf weeds or weeds that are coming out of
a bowl out of the ground, like wild onions and garlic.
It's got a list of all the product ingredients and
then you just go find a brand that has that
in it. I think that'll be helpful for answering your
question when you get back into spring.

Speaker 2 (01:58:36):
Okay, perfect, Perfect, sounds good. Thank you very much, Gael.

Speaker 3 (01:58:40):
All right, thank you, appreciate appreciate your call very much.
Let's see here we are looking at Okay, I tell
you what, I'm going to go ahead and let's see.
We're going to open up Mike and Montgomery. Mike, I'm
just letting you know. I've probably got about a minute
before I have to go, but let's see if we

(01:59:01):
can get a start to your answer and then we'll
finish when we come back.

Speaker 4 (01:59:04):
Okay, real quick, I'm sitting on an acre of land
on corner lot about four hundred foot a ditch that's
a mixture of crabgrass is Saint Augustine.

Speaker 2 (01:59:14):
What do I do?

Speaker 3 (01:59:14):
Okay? Okay, The more you build Saint Augustine over the years,
denser and denser, the less the crabgrass will be able
to sprout. Crabgrass begins to sprout in spring when the
soul temps hit about fifty to fifty five fifty six
right in there. That's when you want to have a
pre emergent down before that. So when the seeds of
cradgrass try to sprout, they're not able to. We might

(01:59:36):
have to repeat it again part way into summer, but
in general, the pre emergent is the easiest way because
killing grass and grass with a post emergent is pretty
much not possible for most things. So you can't spread
and kill crabgrass and not kill the Saint Augustine. Thank you,
all right, Well, that's good. Didn't know we get all

(01:59:59):
that's a that's good what we did. Thanks for the call, man,
appreciate it. Uh Don in Beaumont. You're gonna be our
first when we come back. First up for the rest
of you, if you'd like to call it was our
last hour coming up seven one three two one two
k t r A. I want to remind you I'm
going to be at that Montgomery County Fall An Outdoor
a Home An Outdoor Living show next Saturday, September seventh.

(02:00:22):
I'll be there from twelve to two. I'm gonna give
a talk on fall gardening and then I'm gonna answer
your gardening questions. Look at samples you bring in, look
at pictures you bring in. We're just gonna help you
have the adountiful garden, beautiful landscape.

Speaker 1 (02:00:36):
Car pro has transformed car salving me. Welcome to k
t r H. Garden Line with scamp Rickard.

Speaker 13 (02:00:42):
Show Essy just watch him as world.

Speaker 15 (02:01:07):
A sad.

Speaker 3 (02:01:09):
All right, folks, welcome back to garden Line. Welcome back.
We are glad you're with us, looking forward to talking
to you about the things that are of interest to you.
I would suggest that we were just I was just
a minute ago, I was talking to somebody about crabgrass.
Kind of gave me a real quick answer. We're running
out of time there. Just to remember, crabgrass is an

(02:01:30):
annual grass. It comes up from seeds. So if you
have crabgrass and it goes to seed, you're going to
have crabgrass again and again and again. We always say
that one year of weeding is twenty years of seeding.
In other words, when you let a plant go to seed,
you may have one weed, but it's producing one hundred
thousand seeds that are coming up next year and the

(02:01:52):
next year. Who knows. Depends on the plant, but don't
let them go to seed if you can. But if
you have crabgrass issues or other annual weed issues in
the spring, you want to put down something that prevents
the seeds from germinating and establishing. You know, our number
one goal is to build a dense lawn where the
sunlight doesn't hit the soil so that weed seeds are

(02:02:13):
choked out that way. But if this is an ongoing problem,
it means that there's some thinness in the soil, and
therefore we probably are going to want to prevent that,
and you can do that with something like barricade from
night frost, for example. But if you get my schedule online,
it's at gardening with Skip dot com Gardening with skip
dot Com on there there is a lawn care schedule

(02:02:36):
that's the how to take carry your lawn b water fertilized,
and also a schedule that's pest weeds and disease management,
and that's how to deal with things that go wrong
that things that want to eat your lawn or infect
your lawn, and so weed seeds, weeds are on that schedule.
And you just look at it's January to December. It
tells you exactly when to do what on all both schedules,

(02:02:59):
on all these things, it makes it easy. You can
print them out. If you're an organic gardener, if you're
a synthetic gardener, there's options for both of you on
both of these schedules. And so in spring, it's gonna
be in February, we do this the pre emergence that
prevent crabgrass and other weeds. They need to go down
before the weed sprout.

Speaker 2 (02:03:18):
Right.

Speaker 3 (02:03:19):
It's kind of like playing baseball. If you swing after
the catchers holding the ball, it's a little late, right,
So don't do that. Follow my schedule. Do it at
the right time so that when the weeds try to sprout,
you shut them down. That's kind of how that works.
Hopefully that clarifies if there any questions out there about that.
We're going to go now over to Beaumont and talk
to Donna. Hello, Donna, Welcome.

Speaker 24 (02:03:40):
To garden Line, Going skip.

Speaker 10 (02:03:43):
I was wondering if it's too late to do a
little pruning on my azalia bushes along the side of
my house.

Speaker 3 (02:03:51):
Dona, if you got a you know, a gangly shoot
sticking out here and there, snipping one or two or
three of those off if you need to, that's fine.
Just know that the tell you is have are actually
now are still setting their buds for next spring. So
when you prune now, you're removing what would have bloomed
on that shoot. Okay, so we don't want to do

(02:04:13):
much pruning it, but if you need it just a
shape a little bit, feel free to do not.

Speaker 16 (02:04:18):
Okay, okay, thank you very much.

Speaker 3 (02:04:21):
All right, and the hey, by the way, that goes
that same thing goes true with any kind of spring
blooming plant, like a spyriea bridal wreath. The u oh
gosh ornamental flowering quints is sometimes used in landscapes once
blooming roses just bloom in the spring and everything it's all.

(02:04:41):
And fruit trees too, by the way, they've already there
when they go into winter, they already have their buds
for the spring. So just something to keep in mind.
Thank you Donna for the call. I appreciate that. All right, folks, yep,
that's the pruning time. I guess we need to create
another schedule for I hadn't thought about that. If there's

(02:05:03):
enough interest in it, I may do that a pruning
schedule through the air. That would be kind of good.
I'm making a note to myself, note to self. Here
we go, all right, Our phone number if you'd like
to give me a call seven to one three two
one two kt r H. Seven to one three two
one two kt r H. We are entering our last

(02:05:24):
hour of the season, or of the show rather for today,
not for the season. No, no, although would you be
would you be happy if we could just go ahead
and call it on summer and say okay, that's enough,
stop and then we go ahead and get into fall.
I think that'd be a good a good thing. Maybe
we'll get hold of a weather man see if we
can arrange that. If you've been dealing with bugs in

(02:05:45):
your lawn, chinch bugs, the sod webworms, for example, mole crickets.
Did you know there's something called a mole cricket? Yes,
there is nitropuss. Bug Out max is for that. And
I had someone call earlier and they ask a question,
how do you apply bug out? Well, bug out max
as a granule, and so what you do is you

(02:06:05):
spread it like you would spread fertilizer. You just have
to follow the setting on the bag for the kind
of spreader you're using. And it's gonna get in the ground.
You're gonna water it in then with just a little
bit of water, not a gully washer, just you know,
third of an inch something like that. Just get it wet,
move it off of that granule and into the soil
thatch and the soil surface. Now, when that happens, chinchbugs

(02:06:27):
are hiding in the thatch all day and night. They
love it in there. That's where they work. That's where
you apply and get them with nitrovass bug out max.
Side weeb worms are spending their days in the thatch
and they come out at night to chew on your
grass blades. That is where you get them, catch them
in the thatch. Now you're gonna find Nitrofass bugout Max
in a lot of different places. If you go up
to Woodlands fourteen eighty eight Shades of Texas, it's gonna

(02:06:50):
have it up there. If you go to Fisher's Hardware,
both the one in South Houston on Southomore and the
one in Laporte on Broadway Street or both places, you
can find night to fash products like that bug out Max.
And finally let's go down to Angleton to Lake Hardware
on Velasco. And they're gonna have it down there as well.
I think I'm gonna head now out to the phones

(02:07:12):
and we're gonna head to Katie and talk to Henry.
Good morning, Henry, Welcome to Guardliner.

Speaker 24 (02:07:17):
Good mornings, Skip, thanks for taking Mark call. I'm curious
about it's called a Spanish dagger yaka what you feel
about and being planning in Texas. I'm worried about freezes
and losing plants because I have a history of that.
Your thoughts on that and then where to buy them?

Speaker 3 (02:07:37):
Okay, and you were in Katie, you you might try
heading out to Katie and turn north, or you're in Katie,
go north on Katie Fort Ben Road and do Nelson
water Gardens and nursery. Nursery and water gardens. They've had
a lot of things there. I don't know off the
top of my head if they carry that one. They might.

(02:07:59):
They may well do that. We've got a lot of
good You can go down south and head toward a
Nike in China. Gardens is not too far from you.
I bet they have them down there too. That would
be another in terms of how close, starting with the closest.

Speaker 24 (02:08:13):
It's not the distance I worry. I just want to
get good stock to start with and something dependable, you know,
That's all.

Speaker 3 (02:08:21):
I got you well, And as far as can you
plan them in Texas, yes, God did out in West Texas.
They go wild out there, and so if you bring
them over here, just remember they're incredibly drought tolerant. But
usually that means don't put it in a swamp. And
if you keep them too wet, if you don't get
them high and dry where the excess drains away, they're
going to struggle. But otherwise, yes, they can grow here

(02:08:43):
just fine. Hey, I'm hitting a hard break. I got
to go ahead and and I head to a commercial.
But thank you, Henry, appreciate your call. Thanks for being
on guarden Line. I'll be right back. Folks, glad you
are listening in today. You know anything that you need
for your lawn, your garden, your landscape. I'm talking about
fertilizers and pest control, disease control, We control any tools,

(02:09:07):
garden hoses, and if you want to beautify that outdoor setting.
You know fall is coming, yes, yes, yes, I can't wait.
And when it gets here, I'm going to be hanging
out on my patio out back. And I got some
beautiful little lights I have strung up around there to
give that ambiance. I call them beer garden lights kind
of what they look like. Ace Hardware's got all of
that stuff and more. If you need quality, quality brands

(02:09:30):
of barbecue equipment like Treger and Weber and Big Big
Green Egg and whatnot, they've got that now right now.
I just need to point this out for those of
you up in northwest area of Houston, the Langham Creek
Ace Hardware is having their grand reopening. It's been three days.
Today's the last day of it. They'll be doing a
drawing for a paint or room makeover two hundred dollars value,

(02:09:53):
so that in and of itself as worth showing up
to put your name in the hat. They'll be doing
demos on craiger drills, grills as well. And I'll tell
you I love that store. I've been in there. I
was in there this spring, and then when I heard
they were going to kind of revamp some things and
do a grand reopening, I was pretty excited about that,
and I think you should be too. Go to the
Intersection of Barker Cypress in five twenty nine. The Intersection

(02:10:16):
of Barker Cypress in five twenty nine. It's kind of
on the backside of Copperfield neighborhood up there and stop
in say hey to the folks at Langham Creek. Ace Hardware.
You know, wherever you live, you got an ACE Hardware nearby.
All you gotta do is go to Acehardware dot com
find the store locator and what There are forty stores
in the Greater Houston area, so there's going to be
one close to you. I'm going to go now out

(02:10:39):
to Bay City and we're going to talk to Carrie. Hello, Kerriy,
Welcome to garden Line.

Speaker 26 (02:10:44):
Hi.

Speaker 10 (02:10:45):
I have two questions.

Speaker 27 (02:10:47):
One, my fountains, my water fountain outside haven't added any
chemical to it. It's just been running water and now
is turning the stones that the fountains made up but black.
This this mildew. What is environmentally safe that I can
put in the water so it'll.

Speaker 7 (02:11:07):
Clear up the water.

Speaker 3 (02:11:11):
Oh well, let's take this one first. I am not
an expert on all things that can go on. It
could be some type of analogy growing in there, it
could be other things I want you to can I
give you a website, It's Nelson Watergardens dot com. Nelson
Watergardens dot com. They're out in Katie. But the fact
that you didn't buy your thing there, that's not going

(02:11:32):
to stop them from helping you. There are great folks,
and so go to Nelson Watergardens dot com their phone number.
You're going to get it off the site there and
just call them and say, look, I got a problem
and I could use some helpier, can you help me?
And I promise you they'll be more than happy to
help you get to the bottom of that one. What
was your second question?

Speaker 27 (02:11:48):
Okay, my second question is I have five pomegrant bushes
and they produced pomegrant. It's for the first time. They're
about five years old, have been big that had. They
had been living in containers. So I moved them out
of the containers a year ago and the bush and
screw and then ma peme granite and I picked one

(02:12:11):
and I cut it open and it wasn't rock yet.
The seeds looked fine. But on the outside, the skin
it's got.

Speaker 10 (02:12:18):
On all of them.

Speaker 27 (02:12:19):
It's got little black dogs.

Speaker 10 (02:12:21):
On the palm granite.

Speaker 3 (02:12:22):
Yeah, yeah, probably it could be fungal or bacterial. There's
a reason why we don't have big palm granite orchards
around Houston. Our climate over here is a little on
the wet side, a little on the rainy side. For
them to be real happy. You can grow them here,
but you just are going to have to put up
with some kind of ugly on the outside. Palm granites

(02:12:42):
and those kind of spots. Depending on the spot, there
are probably a spray like a copper spray or something
you could use. I would have to get a good
look at the palm granite to determine what it is,
so we would recommend the right spray. But most people
just kind of tolerate that and just go on. Just
make sure they have good drainage because they also want that.

Speaker 27 (02:13:03):
Oh okay, because the inside looks great, but the outside it's.

Speaker 10 (02:13:10):
Okay.

Speaker 27 (02:13:10):
Well, thank you so much.

Speaker 3 (02:13:12):
Yeah, that's a nice thing about you know, ugly being
only skin deep in many ways is on those bomb
graantage you just you just turn off the lights, close
your eyes, and it tastes just as good you have
to look at all, right, Kerry, take care. Yeah. My

(02:13:36):
wife says that if I'm ever wondering if I should
say something, the answer is almost always a definite no,
because if it's at the point where I'm wondering, I
probably passed the whatever line. So anyway, that's where we are.
I wanted to talk a little bit about Nature's Way Resources.
You hear me, You've heard me talk about them before.
Nature's Way is where a lot of the premium quality

(02:14:00):
soil products that I talk about on Guarden Line were born.
Rose soil was born in Nature's Way. There's other folks
that make rose soil, but Nature's Way is where that came.
Quality leaf mold, compost top dressing, Nature's Way. I mean,
I could go on and on. There are a number
of other products that really started there. John Ferguson knows

(02:14:21):
more about He's forgot more about soil than most people know.
And Ian running the shop. Now up there, they're producing
quality products. They have quality plants too, by the way,
So if you show up to pick up some bags
or pick up bulk, go walk over and check out
their plants. They got some really nice ones over there
up at Nature's Way Resources. Just to remember, if you're

(02:14:41):
going to buy any kind of a soil product, composts, soil, blends,
mult to go on top of the soil, tell them
you heard about it on garden line. Say, Skip was
talking about ure Nature's Way and you get a discount
off of what you're purchasing. And this is the time
to prepare the soil now while the sunshines. Prepare soil

(02:15:02):
while the sunshines. Fall planting is coming. Don't wait to
see if it's too wet and rainy at that time
to do the soil. Do it now and go out
to Nature's Way. You can buy by the bag, you
can go out and pick up bulk. You can have
them delivered to your house bulk. However you want to
go about it, just get it done. That is the
number one tip I could give you for success is

(02:15:24):
plant in the fall into soil that has been properly prepared.
They're on Sherbrooks Circle, which is off of Interstate forty five,
right where fourteen eighty eight comes into forty five from Magnolia.
If you would like to learn more, check out their
new websites really Cool, Nature'sway Resources dot com, Nature's Way
Resources dot Com. We're going to go now to the

(02:15:45):
heights and talk to Larry.

Speaker 7 (02:15:47):
Hey, Larry, Hello, Skip a golden unimus.

Speaker 16 (02:15:52):
First of all, do they not grow well down here
and working?

Speaker 2 (02:15:55):
I find one.

Speaker 10 (02:15:56):
I'm a small one.

Speaker 3 (02:15:58):
Yeah, they're okay. They are susceptible to powdery mildews, so
a lot of times the leaves are kind of crinkly
and have a white dusty look to them. They also
are susceptible to a couple of types of scale insects
that you have to watch for. But they've been around
a long time, you know. If you if you were
looking for something that had that same color, there are

(02:16:20):
other shrub options that come in the variegated yellow golden colors.
So Sunshine Lugustrum, it'll make a little bit larger shrub
than Golden Euonymous, but that would be another one that
doesn't have those same issues that Golden Euonymous has.

Speaker 16 (02:16:36):
You just have to have been told that Sunshine Lagusham
would be a good replacement.

Speaker 11 (02:16:39):
But if I want another Golden Unimise, you know where
I might find one.

Speaker 3 (02:16:44):
Pretty much anywhere. If you go over I would you're
in the heights, I would just go over to Buchanan's Plants.
They'd bound to have one there. If they don't, you know,
you can head out from that direction. I'll bet you're
going to find them at RCW Nurseries or just continuing up,
you know two forty nine troll seasons, arbor Gate. There's
lots of places that carry. I would start with the

(02:17:04):
bu cannons in your backyard there. They're they're a liable
you know. If they don't happen, they could probably get
them in in time for your fall planting too.

Speaker 16 (02:17:10):
That's either okay, So that's not a bad time to
plant a replacement one of mine die.

Speaker 3 (02:17:17):
Yeah, okay, Well fall is the best time falls. And
when I say fall in your area here, I'm talking
about late October early November being ideal, but you can
plant sooner or later than that.

Speaker 10 (02:17:30):
Okayki, thank you very much.

Speaker 2 (02:17:33):
All enjoy the show.

Speaker 3 (02:17:35):
Thanks, I appreciate that. Glad to have you as a listener.
We're going to go out now to sugar Land and
talk to Jim. Hey, Jim, welcome to guard Line.

Speaker 28 (02:17:43):
Yes, good morning. I want to have a question about
turning oak oak trees. I have an oak tree in
the backyard and the lambs are hanging down well about
four feet from the from the ground.

Speaker 15 (02:18:00):
This tree is about twenty years.

Speaker 3 (02:18:01):
Old, okay, So I just wanted to Jim, you can.

Speaker 15 (02:18:06):
Give you some guidelines on trimming theft.

Speaker 3 (02:18:09):
I absolutely can't. Jim, do you know what kind of
oak it is? Off hand?

Speaker 15 (02:18:14):
I think it's a live oak.

Speaker 3 (02:18:17):
Well does it have leaves on it in the winter? Yes, Okay,
so that's probably a live oak. And you can trum
a branch anytime of the year that you want to.
The best time, if you're going to pick your time,
the best time is late winter to make those cuts.

(02:18:38):
Go online and learn how to make a proper pruning
cut because where you make the cut and how you
make the cuts very important to not damage the tree.
But learn how to do that and then just go
out there. I would do it in late winter unless
if there's a reason, you got to get those things
up from where they are sort of we say that's
lifting up the skirt of the tree. You know how
the branches hang down and you're kind of lifting it up.

Speaker 16 (02:19:01):
Uh.

Speaker 3 (02:19:01):
Then you can do that at any time, but ideally
late winter.

Speaker 2 (02:19:07):
So what what should you do?

Speaker 28 (02:19:10):
They need to come off or leave them on hanging
down low, or what's the proper thing to.

Speaker 2 (02:19:16):
Do with it?

Speaker 14 (02:19:16):
It is?

Speaker 3 (02:19:17):
It is one aesthetics for you.

Speaker 9 (02:19:21):
Uh.

Speaker 3 (02:19:22):
So you will see oaks across the Gulf Coast States,
beautiful giant oak trees Louisiana, Mississippi all across and they
the branches hang all the way down to the ground,
and that's a beautiful thing. Now maybe in a yard
you can't have that. You need to pick those up,
you know, cut those off and get it up a
little bit. But that's all your call. That's not a

(02:19:42):
matter of what's right or wrong for the tree.

Speaker 15 (02:19:45):
Okay, I got you. And what about finning out the
upper part of the oak tree? What should you do that?

Speaker 3 (02:19:52):
Or I would say don't. I would say don't. Definitely,
stripping all the all the branches off and just having
a periphery of foliage is not that great for the tree.
It's not proper pruning practice. So I would just leave it.
Sometimes people thin it out to get a little more
light through because live oaks cast so much shade, hardly
anything will grow under them. But I would in general,

(02:20:14):
for the tree standpoint, you don't need to thin anything out. Okay.

Speaker 28 (02:20:19):
The other thing I do on the trimming is any
lambs that are over overlapping each other, or.

Speaker 15 (02:20:28):
I trim those bags are.

Speaker 3 (02:20:30):
Cut yeah, anything yeah, anything rubbing, anything too crowded and
stuff like that. That'll do it. But just make sure
you've got a good sharp saw, but learn about where
to make that cut. There's something called a three point
cut that if you're cutting off a branch it's too
big for you to hold with one hand, it's too
big for you to hold with one hand, you need

(02:20:51):
to cut it off using a three point cut, and
there's a lot of good free info online on how
to do that. Hey, Jim, I got a run. It's
time for a break here, but thank you for the call.
I appreciate that. When we come back, Joseph in the
Woodlands and Jazz you're listening in today, We've got plenty
more to talk about and some folks to talk about
it too. Just want to remind you that if you
are looking for product to help give boosts to your

(02:21:16):
new plants, that you're going to be putting in this fall,
and you will be. There's fall gardening for vegetables. It's
a time to plant herbs, it's a time to plant flowers, shrubs, trees,
and whatnot. Microlife Fertilizer line of products has got you
set up. They've got a number of liquid products that
work really, really well in providing the kind of boost
that I'm talking about. We have the orange labeled to

(02:21:40):
seven one four mix called Biomatrix. It does very good
for a fertilizing to give a boost to plants. It's
loaded with microbes like all Microlife products are, and it
does super well for that. There is liquid humus that
you can put in as you're planting your plants and
it does super super well. Another product, it's kind of
a newer one to me. It's one I haven't used

(02:22:01):
as much, but I am starting to use it now,
and that is one called micro Grow Bioinoculant. It is
a granular product. When you put it out, you are
adding just an untold number of microbes to the soil
to help create those relationships with microbes and plant roots
that help the plant to thrive. It's as simple as that.

(02:22:24):
It really really works. Another good one is Microlife Soil
and Plant Energy. That is a liquid. It is in
a buying a quarter a gallon bottle and it works
super well. Also. You know, really all of these products
by Microlife, they're designed to do what nature is already doing,
and that is building soil over time with microbes, with

(02:22:45):
nutrients and making that root system so healthy that the
plant can't help but succeed. Widely available in microlife products.
You don't find them everywhere, pretty much every garden center
and ace hardware store, feed stores, a Southwest fertilizer down
at you know you go all the wayside. Just went
blank on My brain just just went blank for a second.

(02:23:08):
Oh my gosh. I'll come back to it in a minute.
When when it jumps back in the mid you know,
after eight hours of talking in the morning, the first
thing in the morning, I can kind of run run
into a blank pretty quick. All right, Well, anyway, I'll
come back to it in a second. Let's for now
get my brain out of this situation and go talk
to Joseph in the Woodlands. Joseph, how are we doing fine?

Speaker 2 (02:23:32):
Good morning.

Speaker 6 (02:23:33):
I was in South Texas a couple of weeks ago,
and I saw these new homes and they had Italian
cypress pines, and Randy had mentioned a couple of years,
a few years ago that they wouldn't grow up here
in the woodlands. I want to see your opinion. Some
of the nursery say that they do care him sometimes,

(02:23:55):
but but you know, I really had to order them.
So I want to hear your opinion.

Speaker 8 (02:24:02):
On it.

Speaker 6 (02:24:03):
What do you think about growing these pines in the
woodlands the Italians.

Speaker 3 (02:24:08):
It's actually Italian cypress, as cypress is supposed to be
in a pine. Two different things. Italian cypress. Those are
the tall, skinny things you see when you see a
movie about the Mediterranean. You know where you've got olive
orchards and all that, and those those big, tall, skinny evergreens,
and they will grow here. But our climate is so wet,

(02:24:29):
it's a frequent rainfall that we end up with a
lot of foliage diseases. And when you get a foliage disease,
it kills a shoot. You have this dead spot that
doesn't fill back in on the tree. So what was
a beautiful shape tree now is all blotchy. And then
if you one of them just flat dies. Now you've
got all these tall ones and you're gonna put a

(02:24:50):
little bit of bitty one in to replace one that died.
It doesn't match. And so I think in the long term,
due to foliage diseases, a little insect called a bagworm
that attacks them, and also spider mites, I just don't
recommend them for here. I think in general it tends
to not do well and I know you drive around Houston,

(02:25:11):
you're going to see a few that look great, and
that's possible. But I can't tell you how many people
I talk to that have them, that have started to
go south and wish they hadn't planted them.

Speaker 6 (02:25:21):
Okay, because I have a rectangular shrub. It's about twenty
two feet long and ten feet wide and I wanted
to put three in the center. So can you recommend
anything I can do in that area?

Speaker 3 (02:25:36):
There are some yo puns that stay very upright and narrow.
The jury is still out on you know, will that
still look that way twenty years from now or not,
But there are some of those. There's also something called skypencil,
and it is a holly, but I found that it
doesn't perform as well here as we would like it too.
It's a tall, narrow plant. There's let's see sill a

(02:26:00):
wet sweet gums. Sweet gums can be a little challenging,
but slender silhouette variety of sweet gum is very narrow,
and you see it around Houston. Some you see this.
Really it's a deciduous so it's only going to be
green in the growing season, not in the winter. But
that would be another narrow thing that might fit into
an area like that.

Speaker 6 (02:26:23):
Okay, all right, all right, well, thank you very much,
thank you, thank you for your information.

Speaker 3 (02:26:30):
Yes, sir, Yes, Joseph, I hope that helps. Let's see
where we're gonna go. Now. We're gonna go to Jersey
Village now and talk to Jasmine. Hey, Jasmine, welcome to
garden Line. Hey Jasmine, All right, Jasmine, are you there?

(02:26:50):
Last call Jasmine. I'll put you on hold and we
will come back to you in just a moment. We're
going to go to gym and Sugarland. Hey, Jim, welcome
to garden Line.

Speaker 16 (02:27:04):
Oh.

Speaker 2 (02:27:05):
Thanks.

Speaker 15 (02:27:06):
I have a pecan tree and it blew up the
barrel parricane.

Speaker 28 (02:27:13):
It's about twelve inch diameter at the base, so I've
it all flesh with the ground and I wanted to
find out about the stump to keep it from coming back.

Speaker 15 (02:27:27):
Okay, something I should put on there.

Speaker 3 (02:27:30):
Okay, Well, I'm going to tell you what you would
have done at cutting it, and then I'll talk about
what you would do now. Ideally, when you cut any
woody plant off at the ground, I don't care if
it's a stump of poison ivy or a hackberry or
in this case, that pecan tree. If you immediately treat
the perimeter of that cut off stump where all the

(02:27:51):
living tissues are around the outside with the product containing
trichlop here, and then it will soak in and it
will kill it. If it doesn't kill it completely, when
it tries to resprout, do it again and it will
kill it. T R I c l O P y R. Now,
if if you don't get all that written down, go
to gardening with Skip dot com. And one of my

(02:28:14):
newest publications is Herbicide. It says herbicides for a weed wiper,
but it tells you the ingredients that kill each kind
of weed, including woody weeds and brush and trees and
things like that. And so it's it's right there, and
I even give you brand names that you're going to
find in the garden centers of Triclo Peer.

Speaker 2 (02:28:33):
In this case, okay, okay, all right, if I don't
do anything.

Speaker 3 (02:28:39):
It's going to resprout. It's gonna resprout. So you got
two options, Jim, or you could you could cut it
again and then treat that fresh wound, or you could
wait till it reach sprouts and when it does, then
cut those off and treat treat those with the triclo peer.
Either way you go about it, you're gonna probably have
to do it more than once. But that's the way

(02:29:00):
I would suggest. All right, Okay, thank you very much,
you bet, thank you very much. We're going to go
to break here. When we come back, Jasmine and Jersey
Village you'll be our first up, and Jim and a
Tescasita you're right behind her. We'll be right we are
in our last segment of the weekend. Just remember, you
can listen to guard Line by podcast. If you want

(02:29:21):
to go back and listen to past shows, you're certainly
welcome to do that. And anybody who lives anywhere and
can't get a radio signal for garden Line can listen
to us on computer or on their app. I have
the iHeartMedia app on my phone. It allows me to
listen but not only the podcast, but even to live
radio Live katrh right there on the Heart Media app.

(02:29:42):
And that's just another way. If I were you, I
would be outside right now messing around in the garden,
I think, and I'd have my phone with me listening
to guard Line. So who knows you may see something,
take a picture, send it in. Next thing you know,
we're in a conversation. Let's head out to Jersey Village
now and we're going to talk to Jazz. Welcome to
garden Line, Jasmine.

Speaker 11 (02:30:02):
Thank you so much, Skip. I wanted to ask you.
I have two bushes that are about five foot tall
with the vines the carolina that bloom the little yellow
trumpets in the springtime, and the bush has gotten so
top heavy. Even though I had the spiral wire within,
everything is growing outside of that and hanging over to

(02:30:23):
the side. Can I cut a bunch of that off
and just get it back to the pretty much within
the wire.

Speaker 3 (02:30:29):
Spiral, You could, and the plant would survive and regrow.
If it were mine, that carolina Jessemine has or is
setting its bloom budge or has set is bloom budge
for next spring. I might to just leave it like
it is now so you can enjoy all those blooms
and then right after finishes bloom and then cut it

(02:30:49):
back you'll get Okay, you can direct it for future years,
but if you cut it back way back now, you're
going to lose a lot of the spring bloom show.

Speaker 11 (02:30:57):
Okay, I'll wait to after the spring next year. Thank you,
thank you, thank you so much.

Speaker 3 (02:31:04):
Bye bye bye bye you bet uh. You know I
like birds, and I've told you before I used to
not be a bird person. It was like I was
never the guy with the binoculars walking around looking at
birds and naming every song I heard. But ever since
I've been putting some of the Wallbirds products out of
my yard. I'm talking about feeders, and you know there's
bird houses or bird feeders. I just am getting more

(02:31:27):
and more interested. I was sitting this morning before garden
Line started, just listening to a bird in the darkness
start to wake up the world with its songs, and
I just love that. Now you can can go to
Wallbirds Unlimited his website for Houston. It's called WBU dot com,
but then add forward slash Houston and you can see
all of our six stores.

Speaker 10 (02:31:45):
Here.

Speaker 3 (02:31:46):
Right now is hummingbird season. They're in my yard, they're
in your yard. The sooner you get a feeder out,
the better. The one I would recommend from Wallbirds is
called the high perch feeder. The high perch feeder is
just outstanding. I've got several hummingbird feeders collected over the years.
My favorite is high perch feeder from Wabirds Unlimited. Now
they also have the blends, the of the sugary solutions

(02:32:09):
that you can mix for them. They even have some
that are slower to mold. You know, when you're feeding
your hummingbirds, can't just leave it that's sugar water out
there in the feeder for a week or two. It's
going to go bad. That's what happens. That's called fermenting.
So you need to clean it out and change it out.
Just put enough to feed them until for a few days,
and then put some more out. You don't have to

(02:32:30):
fill the whole thing up, and it doesn't have to
have the red dye in it. In fact, I wouldn't
even bother with that at all. Wilbirds Unlimited can get
you set up on that. It can get you set
up on the other feeds. I'm feeding their super blends.
Still my birds have been molding. Oh my gosh. They
look like they got in a fight with a weed
eater and lost. You should see those birds. But they
are sure happy that I've got the food right there,

(02:32:50):
because it's kind of hard to fly around when you're
in the middle of molt. Anyway, go to Wallbirds learn more.
I just got to warn you it's an addiction. You
will get more and more into birds the further along
you go, especially when you get to kind of help
and advice that they'll give you there at Walldbirds. I'm
going to head out to a Tesca Seda. Now we're

(02:33:11):
going to talk to Jim. Hey, Jim, welcome to Guardline.

Speaker 16 (02:33:15):
Gee, thank you very much for taking my phone call. Well,
part two of planting the sod in my front yard.
Planting the sod watered it just like you said. And
now for some strange reason, is like an inch and
a half gap in between a lot of the sod.
Should I fill that with some top soil or the

(02:33:37):
grass grow closer together?

Speaker 3 (02:33:41):
The grass will cover it over. If it really is
a drop down in the actual soil level itself, you
could put a little bit of a mix. I might
get something like, oh gosh, Landscaper's Pride has a topsail
blend that that is a sandy loan saw mix to
a little bit of compost. You can put that in

(02:34:02):
there in between. Because the reason I would say that
one is because it actually is sandy long soil. So
if you just put like compost in between. It's going
to sink down as it decomposes again anyway. But if
it's inch and a half two inches, that's a pretty
big gap. I might fill it myself. And yes, the
grass will crawl back over it. We're getting near the

(02:34:22):
end of the season, so it may not fully fill
in everything, but I think it'll by and large if
you just keep taking care of it, you may have
pretty good filled by the end of the season for
such a small area that has to crawl over.

Speaker 16 (02:34:35):
Okay, So in other words, just just leave it alone,
and it's best thing.

Speaker 3 (02:34:40):
You could Yeah, you could do that. It'll be just fine.
Gret our lawns find a way. It's just the only
my hesitation is that's a pretty big gap, and so
you know, as you're walking along it's not going to
be a real smooth surfaces. But other than that, you
know it'll I.

Speaker 16 (02:34:58):
Do have a one yard left a top soil, sandy
top soil that you buy now it's called a Look. Yeah,
I've got the yards, So I just spread that in there,
and that'd be really good. Is this the best time
to do that? Is this the best time to spread it?
Or should I wait till next year.

Speaker 3 (02:35:17):
Well, I would go ahead and do it now so
that any grass that crawls over it has something to
peg down in. I mean, if you wait until it's
already crawling over and then add soil on top, you're
sort of covering up your grass a little bit. So great,
if you're going to do it, I would do it now.
But listen, this isn't a this isn't a black and
white answer, and it's up to you either way, you're
going to be okay, all right, Jim.

Speaker 16 (02:35:40):
Kip, thank you very much. Free hope sir, have a
blessed day.

Speaker 3 (02:35:43):
Yeah as well, thanks a lot. I appreciate that. Well,
here we are. We're getting near the end of a
segment here, I think we do. So I've got a
clear on the board, so I may just wind this
one up with some advice and things I've been wanting
to try to get around to and talk about. First
of all, I want to mind you this is kind
of last reminder here. Next Saturday, September seventh is the

(02:36:06):
Montgomery County Home and Outdoor Living Show. And I go
to a lot of different home and garden shows. This
is a great one. It's a great one. It's up
at the Lone Star Convention and Expo Center, and we
always have a good crowd that comes out for that one.
I'm going to be given a talk on fall gardening,
and then I'm going to be answering your questions, as
I say, till the cows come home, whenever the cows

(02:36:28):
decide to come home. If you would like to get
some free microlife product, I'm going to be given away
a couple of really cool micro life products, some samples
of that, and more than just a little samples, a
nice little container of it, and just show up and
we will have a big time out there. If you've
got samples of plants, if you've got things you want
to ask questions about, and maybe you got some photos

(02:36:48):
on your phone. Some weeds, boy, I always get bag
fulls of weeds at these things, but that's okay. Just
bring them, pull them up, put them on a ziplock,
let me look at them. We'll talk about what to do.
I am going to tell you this, a lot of
my answers are going to be go to the website
Gardening with Skip dot com because I keep adding more
and more stuff up there that helps us. So I'm

(02:37:10):
not sitting here away with my hands in the air
trying to describe something to you. Just go right up there.
And it's a free publication. You can download it, you
can print it, you can just look at it on
the screen, whatever you want. We're adding more and more
to that. But anyway, come on out. Any of you
up north. If you want drive across town, that's great too,
But any of you up in the north direction. I
love to meet my listeners, So come on out at

(02:37:31):
the Montgomery County Fall Home and Outdoor Living Show. I'll
be there Saturday, September seventh. Yes, that's a week from
yesterday ten or excuse me, twelve o'clock to two o'clock.
So I mean spend a lot of time up there,
and I look forward to helping you with that, as
well as meeting you out and about one other thing
real quick to Benson is the second annual Strawberry Jamboree

(02:37:54):
is going to be the Extension Office in Lake Jackson,
Texas Bressori County. I said, at the Extension Office. No, no, no, no, no,
it's by the Extension Office, that's who's putting it on.
It is at the rec Center ninety one Lake drive
in Lake Jackson. It is September twenty first, that's a
Saturday from eight to twelve.

Speaker 10 (02:38:14):
Million.

Speaker 3 (02:38:16):
October is a prime time for count and strawberry. You're
going to have our day full of speakers that are outstanding.
They'll take everything now know how to grow strawberry successfully.
They are going to also take orders for strawberry plugs
there if you want. I'm going to be out. There'll
be door prizes and exhibitors. It is a free event.
Do you hear that? Free? Eight to twelve noon on

(02:38:37):
September twenty first. For more information, just call the Brazoria
County Extension Office. You can call nine seventy nine eight
six four fifteen fifty eight. And guess what, it's my
favorite part. There's gonna be a Strawberry short Kate contest.
They haven't asked me to be a judge yet, but
I would probably peg out and nobody else would have
anything to eat. But anyway, if you think you're a

(02:38:58):
strawberry short Kate expert, all right, step up to the
plate man enter the contest. Nine sevent nine eight six
four fifteen fifty eight.