Buzz Off: Mosquito Management in the Garden

Skip takes your calls and questions all morning long. 

Episode Transcript

(00:00):
Kat r H Garden Line does notnecessarily endorse any of the products or services
advertised on this program. Welcome tokt r H Garden Line. With skip
rictor it's trim just watch him asmaybe thanks to spy bowers not a sign.

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Good morning, welcome to garden Line. We're glad to have you with
us this morning. I UH lookingforward to visiting with you about the things
that are of interesting regarding gardening,vegetables or herbs, flowers or trees or
shru house plants. What what doyou want to talk about? You would
like to give us a call ourphone number. I want to write this

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down seven to one three two onetwo fifty eight seventy four seven one three
two one two five eight seven four. Well, things are warming up outside
and that is just what happens aroundhere this time of the year. We
got a good bit of summer togo, and it just reminds us how
important it is to take care ofthe plants that we have and to set

(01:23):
them up for success. And there'sa there's a couple of things that we
need to be doing in order forour gardens to continue to thrive. You
know, if you put the rightplants in they can take the heat and
the humidity that we have down here. They can take it. But they
do require certain kinds of care inorder to be able to do well.
For example, they need to bewatered adequately, and adequately is an important

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word. We tend to overwater.We think, well, it's a hundred
degrees outside, so I'm going towater it three times today and drench it.
Well. You know, the actualfact is plant need moist soil so
they can take up water. Theydo not need to sit in submerged water
tables underground. When you dig aclay hole, it's like a underground bathtub.

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You can fill it full of allof your composts and all the good
stuff that we want to put inthe soil and whatnot. But when you
do that and you overwater, thathole holds water, and now you've got
submerged organic matter and roots that arebeing drowned. And that is a quick
recipe for success, whether it's ahouseplant or a plant out there in the

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landscape or the garden. You know. So our goal is to give it
a good soaking and then let itdry out, bring some oil or oil,
bring some air back into the soiland the roots can thrive because roots
need oxygen. So instead of alittle squirt every day on your lawn or
on your flower beds, or youknow, whatever area you're water instead of

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a squirt a day that barely what'sa surface, but does frequently wet the
foliage, increasing disease problems because you'rewatering so off. Instead of that a
good soaking with the soil about eightten inches deep, and then don't water
and let it dry out and airwill be pulled into the soil. And
how does that work? Well,if you ever drank a coke out of

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a straw, for example, whenyou took your mouth off the straw,
the coke falls down in the straw, and what goes behind it? Air
pulls the air in behind it.When you have a full soil volume of
water and that water begins to evaporatetake up by roots, drain away downward,
however it moves, air comes inbehind it, and that helps roots

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thrive. Good watering followed by adrying out period, that's the way to
do it. Now. Some plantslike Azila's, for example, they're not
going to want to dry out aslong as something else, like of course
in Agavi would be an example.But the idea is a good soaking followed
by a drying out period and thatis the best way to have a lawn,
to have a vegetable garden, tohave flower beds, whatever you would

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like, as simple as that.That is one tip for success. Another
tip that I would give you forsuccess during the hot summer season is maultch.
Maulching is so very important. Youknow, when we apply a malt
to the soil, we are blockingout sunlight, which helps weed seeds to

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get established. Sunlight does so whenwe block the sunlight, a weed seed
germinates thinking okay, it's dark,shirt, it's dark, I'm underground.
It sproughts up. But if youcan't get to sunlight, it dies because
it doesn't have the energy to keepgoing. And that's why a mulch works
so well. Some weeds are evenstimulated to sprout by the presence of sunlight,

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certain waves of sunlight hitting the soil. So a good thick mault is
just a no brainer. It's whatnature does in every natural setting. It
drops organic matter on the soil andit creates a covering over the soil.
You can do that in your gardensas well. We do that by creating
a dense lawn to block light.We do that by returning our grass clippings

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to fall down to the lawn surface. No matter what the garden area is,
you need to make sure that youkeep the sunlight from hitting the soil
because wherever sunlight hits a soil,nature plants of weed. And when sunlight
hits the soil in the summer,it gets hot, hot, hot,
really hot, blistering hot, andthat is just really difficult for roots.

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Down deeper, the deeper you go, the less effect that surface heating has.
But even down three or four incheson a summer day, that soil
temperature can be up twenty degrees ormore higher than it should be down deep
like that, and that is justnot good for roots. Molt fixes that
too. There you got molts Moltzpart of that brown stuff that we talk

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about all the time being primary andthe first thing we worry about, and
then the green stufe is the secondthing we worry about. If you live
down in the League City area,League City Feed is your hometown feed store.
It is. It's just right thereon Highway three, just a few
blocks south of Highway ninety six inLeague City. Now, this is one

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of those great feed stores where youget the old time service. They carry
your bags out for you. Butthis is a place where you can go
and get quality products for your lawn, garden and landscape. Things to control
paster diseases or weeds, fertilizers tostimulate proper growth, healthy plants and production.
If you hear me mention a fertilizeron Guardline, you're going to find

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it at League City Feed. Theycarry the things we talk about here.
Of course, they also have everythingyou need for feeds and feeders and waters
and bedding for your animals. Yeah, and of course chicken feed. A
lot of people are in the backyardchickens. Now, League City's got you
covered there Monday through Saturday nine tosix pm, so to swing by after
work if you're busy during the dayand then closed on Sunday. Here's a

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phone number two eight one three threetwo sixteen twelve. Two eight one three
three two sixteen twelve. League CityFeed, your own hometown feed store for
all of you. Done in dicketsonSan Leon, Lamark Baycliff, Webster,
Elkamina, Reale, Clear Lake,Santa Fe League City. Oh my gosh,
League City feed great place. We'regoing to take a little break here.

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I want to mention that next Saturday, Next Saturday, I'm going to
be at Langham Creek Ace Hardware that'sover in the Copperfield neighborhood West West Houston.
And I say in the copper Field, it's near the Copperfield neighborhood.
Langham Creek Ace Hardware is one ofour great Ace hardware stores that just has

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everything you might possibly need for anythingyou're doing regarding your garden and landscape,
and a lot more. But I'llbe there from eleven thirty to one thirty.
I'll tell you more about it todayas we go through the day.
I hope you will put it onyour calendar. It's my last appearance of
the year, June twenty ninth,next Saturday, Langham Creek A for the
year the spring. I'll be backin the fall doing things like that.

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Let's take a little break here ournumber seven one three, two, one,
two fifty eight seventy four. Welcomeback to Garden Line. Good to
have you joining us today. We'vegot a lot of things to talk about
today. First of all, Iwant to remind you if you have not
done your summer fertilizing of your lawn, go ahead and get that done now.
Now is the time, and it'sbest if you will use a slow

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release fertilizer that just takes care offertilizing all the way through the summer season
and that way, the next timewe talk about fertilizing for you would be
in the fall. Nitropos superturf,the silver bag that's an example of one
of those nitrofos superturf is a topquality. It was designed to provide the
chemistry balance of nutrients in the soilthat helps our turf do very very well,

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especially here along the Gulf coast.You know, we got this rising
summer heat on that demands are onour on our turf and we want to
provide a regular supply nutrients. Nottoo much though, and that's a nice
thing about superturf. It gradually releasesthem over time to nineteen percent nitrogen product.
But that nineteen percent is gradually releasedover time, and then we have

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of course four percent phosphorus, tenpercent potassium. Where can you find it.
You can find it at enchanted gardensout in the Richmond Rosenberg area at
Shades of Texas up in the woodlands. Easy to find Nitrofoss superturf Fishers hardware.
Both the one in South Houston onSouthomore and the one in Laporte on
Broadway Street carry that as well.We're going to go to the phones now

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and head out to Crosby to talkto Joe. Hello, Joe, good
mornings. Morning you do. You'redoing a fine jobbs and she took over.
Thank you. I appreciate that.I drive all over the South and
you don't find a lot of dryhumor in garden shows, but you managed
to inject it and I enjoy itall right. We try here and there,
Annie, are you talking about?Most brought up a question I've had

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and ever spring. I go,oh, there's a big yard over here.
It's kind of close to that bplace that you ever dose. And
of course the most expensive most onthe yard is cedar, and I buy
that thinking that it termites won't livein it and maybe the smell repel mosquitos.
Am I am I wasting my money? Or should I keep going to
doing that's around the house or rebFoundation flower beds? Well? Cedar does

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have a nice fragrance initially of course, as it ages, you know,
that kind of dissipates. Uh.It also is resistant to things like termites
and whatnot. But any mulch atsome point in time is going to decompose
away. Uh. So it's amatter. It's a matter of personal preference,
both aesthetics. That was my thinking. It was lasts longer, termites
wouldn't live in it, and itwould last longer. Is that true?

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It could, Yeah, it could. It could last a little bit longer,
but it kind of depends on longerthan what. There's a lot of
other mulches that are somewhat resistant todecay as well, But I would I
would say it's more of an aesthetics. And then the texture. You know,
you've got things like pine bark nuggets, those chunks all the way down
to really stringy shredded material reels,uh and and cedar has its own you

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know, unique texture there. Andso if you like that, then there's
no wrong nothing wrong with Yeah,I think, yeah, the aesthetics of
it is not important to me.Is not making a buffet for urmis to
make the way into my house?Okay, well, the termites they get
in our they're in nature. Everywherethere's wood, and especially wood touching the
ground, there's good likelihood done inthis part of the country. We got

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termites in it just because it's it'svery uh, they're very prevalent. But
the problem is when they get inthe wheepholes from the outside. So keeping
that multi level well below the wheepholes. If you have a brick sighting house
lab that way you can see theholes and anybody coming through to do an
inspection or you just checking it outas you walk around the house. Yeah,

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they won't have a hidden way ofgetting in. You know that multipoly
over the week right that way,you can see that little tunnel that they
make to get up to your Yeah, if they do that, and because
they may be done in the soil, but you don't want them going up
in and that's how they get in. That's one of the main ways they
get in, not the only way. Yeah, I've already had a problem
for us. Why I'm paranoid aboutit. Hey, I want to I

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appreciate you, and I want totell you that that teach stores you advertise
in Mount bev Yeah, I'll drivepast three feet stores to get to that
with those are the nicest people.They got the young kids that carry your
stuff out the truck for you becauseI'm old, I don't want to.
They're very very nice, very nicefolks. Yes, they are good people.
Thank you, hey, Joe,thanks a lot. Appreciate your call.
Take care all right, our phonenumber seven one three two one two

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five eight seven four. What doyou want to talk about this morning?
Got a question we can help youwith or something we can kind of guide
you on. I was at Wallbird'sUnlimited, the Memorial store just oh gosh.
Actually I've been a Memorial store andI was several different Wallbirds Unlimited lately.
I just like going in and checkingout the things that are going on,

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you know, at the different stores, and what I'm always amazed at
just the range of products they have. You know, seed cylinders for example.
Now, if you've never done birdfeeding before, a seed cylinder,
think of it like one of thoselarge candles, the candles you know that
are as big around as your fistand taller, and it's all the seeds

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and the mixes and everything glued inif you will, not with glue,
but put in together and to form. This cylinder looks just like a candle
to me. But you can getthem with the heat in them so that
squirrels will leave it alone. Youknow, the pepper capsation that doesn't bother
birds, but it sure bothers mammalswith lips like us and squirrels. And

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it works really well, and it'sone of the easiest, longest lasting,
convenient ways you can feed birds.And while Birds Unlimited has a wide range
of cylinders, many kinds of blends, and like I said, with or
without the added heat, if youwant to go that route, it just
takes them a while. They gotto kind of work on them because very
tightly packed in there in those seeds. Now they also have plenty of other

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supplies. They've got the nesting superblend. I know we have some nesting
birds at our house. Every seasonturn around, there's something going on with
the birds. Well, the superblend is outstanding. It's got that protein,
it's got the calcium and things thatthe birds need in order to be
able to raise a good, strongnest of young. And then there's the

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molting super blend. That's a goodone. As birds begin to molt,
they most birds only molt once ayear, some two or three times.
But as they shed old feathers andgenerate new ones, they kind of take
cover. They don't fly around asmuch because they don't have all the everything
in place yet with that transition oftheir feathers. So as a result,
having a pretty close by reliable foodsource is important and wabbirds unlimited six different

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locations. Just go to WBU dotcom forward slash Houston WBU dot com forward
slash Houston you can find out thewallbirds stores near you, and there are
a lot of good ones, alot of good ones around here. This
past week done. Some of theactivities I was doing was mulching in a

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new flowerbed that we've been putting inin the front yard, and it's just
so nice, you know, youdo all the work. I had a
lot of work to do in there, getting bad soil out. I just
had the stickiest worst clay you've everseen, and it just I might as
well have made a farm pond outof it. It would hold water so
well. But we got some ofthat out of there, got some quality

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material in, raised it up intoa raised bed area so it drained super
well. And then you do thatfinal touch of putting the mulch down and
it just looks so good. Andyou know, we're just visiting with Joe
about mulches, and you know cedarmaybe being a little slower to decompose and
things like that. Well, youknow, you can look at it either
way. The faster something decomposes,the less often you're having to replenish it.

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Put it on Excuse me, Isaid that backwards. The faster it
decomposes, it more often you're havingto replenish it. But in nature,
mulch is the surface covering that decomposes, a way to feed the soil,
to become soal, to improve soilquality in many many ways. And so
it doesn't rebother me to have toreplenish it a little bit. But always

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throw the new mulch on top andlet the old stay there and decompose,
because what does nature do. Naturedrops leaves in the forest and branches,
but leaves, and then they justsit there like dry leaves. You walk
through the forest, you see allthe driver they're not decomposing hardly at all
at that stage. Then they getcovered with next year's leaves. Now they're
staying wet, and now they're startingto decompose and as that happens year after

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year, you just end up withthe surface of the soil having a nice,
active, decomposing compost material of decomposedorganic matter right there on the surface.
Can you imagine going in and rakingeverything out of the forest and then
putting fresh leaves on each year,and then raking those out and putting fresh
leaves on. There's no need todo that, of course, Just add

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your new mulch on top of theold malt, and it just helps keep
the layer thick and it helps improvethe soil gradually over time. You know,
if it's a flower bed, you'regoing to be when you take out
your winter flowers and put in springflowers or whatever transition you're doing, you're
kind of working the bed. You'repulling up plants, you're mixing in some

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fertilizers and whatnot, and then mulching. But when it's a perennial bed,
or whether it's perennials like the plantswe typically call perennials they grow, dive
to the ground and come back eachyear, or a perennial like a shrub
a rose for example. Those you'renot rototilling the bed and the soil because
they already have their permanent root systemsin place. That's where that surface mulching

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and continuing to do that just helpsthe soil in many many ways, many
many ways. You know, whenwhere when we're wanting to improve and make
our beds look better, we canget out there and we can do that
kind of work. And I actuallyenjoy getting out and doing it. Not
necessarily when it's one hundred degrees outside, but I do enjoy doing it.

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But if you're looking for a wayto have your beds looking top notch and
you're not having to get out thereand do it, you know, you
may think, I don't know whatflowers to put in. That looks good.
I know good when I see it, but I don't know how to
make that happen. Well, callthe folks at Peerscapes. Peerscapes does a
quarterly maintenance of beds. Now,what they'll do is they'll come out and

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they'll do trimming and weeding and fertilizing. They'll check your irrigation system, make
sure things are functioning, because youdefinitely want that working right in the summer.
They'll do air rating if needed,they'll do the seasonal color changes and
the mult additions in your bed,so no matter what month of the year
it is, you can have somebodywho knows what they're doing come in and
take care of it make it looktop notch. Now, fear Scapes does

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a lot. They do landscape installations. They do incredible work when it comes
to landscape lighting and hard escapes andall kinds of things that turn the outdoors
into the polace you most want tobe. But Pierscapes many services, including
that quarterly maintenance. You can goto pierscapes dot com. That's your website,
piercescapes dot com, or you cangive them a call two eight one

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three seven oh fifty sixty two eightone three seven oh five zero six zero
check it out. I go tothe website Peers Scapestart. Look at the
kind of work they can do.I mean, you're going to just be
really really impressed. They are professionals, but I don't care whether you have

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a taj mahal or a double wide, it is going to be. They're
the kind of company that can turna landscape into something really really special and
also keep your bets in order withtheir quarterly maintenance. I was busying with
someone the other day about Microlife fertilizer. Microlife is our hometown Houston organic fertilizer,

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bent born and raised. I guessif you will hear Microlife Humates is
the purple bag that contains concentrated compostsin a bag. I mean, if
you were to take a big bunchof bags at compost and take them down
to their final stage, that's humusand humus. Humus holds nutrients, it
holds moisture, It helps bacteria andother beneficial credits of the soil to thrive.

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Now, the green bag is thestandard fertilizer from Microlife. It's the
one we think of as a lawnfertilizer. It's a six x two four
outstanding. As it decomposes, itreleases all of its nutrients back into the
soil. Go to Microlife fertilizers dotcom and find out about all of the
many, many fertilizers that you canget both liquid and dry from Microlife and

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they work with nature to help youhave a more beautiful landscape. Take a
little break here, it's time forthe news. Seven fifty eight seventy four.
Welcome back to guard Line. Gladto have you with us. Today.
I have a nice little day today. I'm looking forward to getting
out this afternoon, getting a couplethings done about town that I need to
take care of. Right now,we're going to just head straight to the

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phone, so talk to Kathy inHouston. Hello, Cathy, Hello,
good morning. Yes, as youwere talking about soil and dirt, they're
the same thing. I don't thinka lot of people understand that soil can
be amended or dirt can be amended. Dirt is dried out, defecated,

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uh and no nutrients. Soil isthe opposite. You add the nutrients through
the compost with the microbes in itand everything. And I don't think people
really understand when you say soil anddirt. And then you have the manufacturer
type which you call top soil wellunderstanding that yeah, actually, well the

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terms are used interchangeably. But ifyou talk to soil scientists, they'll tell
you that dirt is soil out ofplace. Dirt is what you sweep off
the floor in the house because itain't supposed to be there. That that's
how they distinguish between soil and dirt. But soil is you know, with
a lot of things in gardening wehave terms that aren't always technically correct,

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but we go with it anyway.Calling insects bugs only only certain types of
insects or bugs. The rest aren'tbugs. And but we see bugs.
Anybody knows what we're talking about.And so that's kind of how it is.
With the soil and dirt. Idon't worry about it a whole lot.
But yeah, truetop soil is anatural product, I mean is it
is made by nature. Over timewe can create some wonderful blends. We

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often call those media soil lists,media or media that contains soil. But
that's what we often talk about here, you know, like a veggiean herb
mix or a rose soil, thosekinds of things. That basically is just
talking about a highly compost content mediathat we're growing things, kind of like

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with your introduction, where sunlight hitssoil, nature plants the weed, right,
Well, yeah, it's all connected, it all off one another,
you go, and so the seedneeds the sun to wake up and start
growing. There we go, Hey, Kathy covers it no light, it

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doesn't grow. Yeah, hey,I appreciate you calling in, and because
you know how much I like totalk about the brown stuff, the dirt.
So thanks a lot. You havea good rest of your day.
I appreciate that. Thank you,thank you very much. Yeah, you
know it. I've sitt here actuallylooking on my computer at a picture of
flowers in a garden center, andI'm just looking at it, and I'm

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thinking, when I walk into aplace like that, I am just going
like a kidney candy shop. It'slike, yeah, I need one of
everything. This is gorgeous. Butif you look at a pile of dirt
or soil or media, whatever whateverit specifically is, it's hard to get
so excited about it. But somepeople do. I do. You know

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some people dirt is just soil isjust yeah, the stuff you got to
do so you can have vegetable andflowers. But I see it as even
an end. Compost is an endin itself, I think. But of
course, I'm a guy that wouldprobably be laying out there making compost angels,
laying on my back, waving myhands around, because I think so

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much of the fact that that drivesthe entire process of our lives. Do
you know that if it wasn't fora six inch layer atop soil and the
fact that it rains. As acivilization, we could not exist. Our
food comes from there. It ispart of the whole cycle of the cycle

(25:00):
of water as rainfalls, and itpercolates through the soil, and whether it
runs off into streams or whatnot,whether it goes into an aquifer through other
means, soil is just it's justthe blanket over the surface of the earth
that makes life happen. It reallyis. And so I think right now
it would be appropriate I'll pause forjust a moment for us all to go

(25:22):
outside. Let's grab a handful ofsoil and hug it and thanks soil for
being there, and apologize for theway we just take advantage of it,
call it dirt and stomp on itfor crying out loud. All right,
that's enough sillyness about all that.But I am totally serious when I come
to the fact that it is absolutelysomething that we depend on for our entire

(25:45):
lives, to our lives if youhave. One time I was discussing this
with somebody, that our entire existenceis centered around to six inch of our
top soil and the fact that itrains. And by the way, if
you had six inches as the topsail, that would be very rare and pretty
much too rare, but they were. I was just saying, think about

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that everything that we enjoy, ourway of life comes from plants, because
plants are one of the few thingsthat can capture sunlight and make food out
of it. All the rest ofus eat, all the rest of us
creatures eat plants to get that energy, and maybe we eat you know,
you go, well, I likesteak. Well, okay, the only

(26:27):
reason you have a steak is becausea cow was able to feed on grass,
grass that grew in soil, andgrass that captured sunlight to make food
for the cow. And so weget leather and meat and milk and cheese
and everything like that. And ifyou think about it long enough, I'm
getting philosophical here, but I thinkthis is a good cause for pause.

(26:48):
If you think about it long enough, all aspects of life are just centered
around that one and dependent upon inso many ways that one simple little fact.
I was talking to this person.I go, even even the house
you live in, you know,the two bay fours, even the the
clothes on your back, And theygo, well, you know what if
I wear polyester? Say, well, where does polyester come from? Petroleum.

(27:12):
Okay, where where did petroleum comefrom? And you see where we're
going at one point in time.Even the gas in your car, in
some ways it is its existence toa six inch of or top saw on
the fact that it rains. Soif you start thinking about this enough,
I mean we could go on.I could go on and on about it,
because I have thought about it alot, and it really is an

(27:34):
amazing thing, this fact that wegot this burning ball in the sky called
the sun, and we got thesegreen things here on earth that know how
to use the sun that drives somuch that we have so much that we
enjoy. All right, Well,there you go. There was a little
soapbox for you. Ace Hardware stores, you know there the place to go.

(27:56):
Ace is the place, And thatwould be true if anything really that
you need around your home, gardenlandscape the whole nine yards. ACE carries
the fertilizers that I talk about ongarden Line. They carry the products to
control pest weeds and diseases. Theycarry things that you need right now,
like mosquito dunks to stop the mosquitosand that are out there because we have

(28:18):
rain and water stands. They carrythe fire ant control that we need to
be putting out as a bait.Bait is the best way to control fire
ants. Our number one goal isto try to get as many as we
can with bait because we use verylittle. Chemical scattered out very sparsely is
not an environmentally less toxic way.You can go about something other than using

(28:44):
the bait as opposed to just thedirect mound treatments. They also have the
fertilizers as I mentioned, but Acealso has things to make that backyard patio,
that sitting area, that enjoyable areawhere you can go out and just
really enjoy yourself. They may geta better place. Ace Hardware stores all
over the Houston area about forty storesin this area. You can go to

(29:06):
Acehardware dot com and when you goto the store locator, it says,
hey can I use your location?Just say yes, you can use it
this time, and there you go. You get a map of every place
you need to go to get everythingthat you need from Ace. Ace Hardware
stores. I always love going intoan ACE. And on Saturday, this

(29:26):
coming Saturday, that would be theJune twenty ninth, I'll do my last
appearance of the spring and that isat Langham Creek Ace Hardware. Langham Creek
Ace Hardware. You probably have heardme talk about ACE on many, many
times. Langham Creek is over inkind of the Copperfield neighborhood, just south

(29:48):
of Cypress there on FM five twentynine. Kind of It's easy to get
to by the way, and ifyou haven't been there, you need to
come by and see me. Evenif you have any you can bring me
samples and plants there right there onBark or Cypress Road, So easy to
go. Langham Creek Ace Hardware.Let's let's talk next Saturday. It's the
last chance we have to wait untilfall to have another chance to get out

(30:12):
and meet folks. So looking forwardto that, we're going to take a
little break right now. Our phonenumber is seven one three two one two
fifty eight seventy four. Welcome backto guard Line. Good morning on a
beautiful Saturday morning. Looking outside,it's pretty inviting. You know. It's
good to get out early in themorning and get our work done while it's

(30:33):
still cool. We can get awhole lot of things done. It's out
downright pleasant to be outside right now. That's why I always tell people if
you don't listen to guard line,just do it on your phone to get
your iHeart Media app or whatever appyou use, and iHeart Media, just
look for garden line. I listenedthe different things like that on my phone
all the time when I'm out inthe garden. Just turn upside down.

(30:55):
You got the sound there? You'reworking? Who knows you may be run
across something you want to give ussquad call just to ask about while you're
out and about, But don't letthese wonderful hours get away. If nothing
else, a cup of coffee anda walk around just to see what's going
on in your landscape. Let's goto Spring Branch now and we're going to
talk to Carrie. Hello, Carrie, hi there, what's up? Well?

(31:19):
Would you please talk about as dahliasundergrowing under oak tree's very difficult spotty
sunlight, sporadic feeding. The freereally did a number. I cut some
back, but I have found whenyou cut his values back, they just
don't grow back. I don't knowwhat to do. I need help,

(31:42):
Okay, Well, as elias,you know they like to be in shade,
of course, but they do needlight and so dapple sun or you
know, just a kind of apartial sun provides that solar energy for them,
that provides the vigor that helps themgrow and be denser and whatnot.
And so when you cut them back, if they're not growing back, either

(32:05):
the light levels are just very verylow and the plants are weak from that
or something else is going on.Usually with the zelias it's down in the
root system soggy conditions they hate.Of course they hate drying out as well.
When a true wet they can getroot rots, which also add to
problems. So I don't know whatall you're seeing going on, but you

(32:28):
know, we have a lot ofzoias growing around live oaks here in the
Greater Houston area, and I thinkit's just gonna be a matter of light
intensity and then adequate water and nutrition. Hello, yes, can you hear
me? Yeah, you could speakup a little bit more. Okay,
what is it seems like if Idon't keep them watered all the time,

(32:52):
I mean, they just they turnlimp, and it seems like the more
water they get, the better theyare. Okay, So you know,
then in that case, you musthave good drainage carry for sure, And
that's kind of a sign that theyprobably need to be watered a little more.
Azilias are interesting. They have hairlike roots. If you ever dig

(33:13):
up an azalea, the roots arejust like a wat of hair, but
they don't have what's called root hairs, which is what other plants have that
makes them much more efficient in takingup water and nutrients and things. So
with azilias, we do have topamper them a little bit by a little
more frequent watering than we would someof the other plants that we have.

(33:37):
And can you recommend a fertilizer.A lot of good ones you might want
to consider. I was talking earlierabout the Microlife fertilizer, and they have
a one that's kind of a pinkishcolored bag. I'm somewhat colored challenge,
so you have to use take theword pink with the color with a grain
of salt, but it's like thatcolor and it's for acid loving plants.

(34:01):
So azalea's, camellias, blueberries,those are all acid loving plants. That
and how often should I feed themwith the Microlife for acid loving plants,
it's it's not a salt based fertilizer, and so you're not going to hurt
the plants by overdoing it, soI but I would give them a feeding
about four times during the growing seasonwith that to continue to provide a release

(34:25):
of nutrients. Uh. So youmight do that and coming out of in
the spring as you begin to seenew growth occurring. Uh, and then
probably about three more times I wouldspace them out, probably two months apart
something like that. Uh. Andthen just feed them again and watch your
plants. If you're getting really goodvigor and whatnot on them, then you

(34:47):
can hold off just a little bit, okay, And then when I you
know, they have gotten real andthen when I cut them back, U
don't do well. I mean,I just I don't ever come back.
I mean, is there a secretto make them come back. No,
it's just a matter of the planthaving the energy. You know, any

(35:08):
plant and Azalia's just as an example, but when you cut it back below
where you cut it, there's budsthat you don't know are there that suddenly
pop out and now you have allthese new branches growing. And if you're
not seeing that, it just soundsto me like the plant is just lacking
the stored energy it needs to providethat regrowth. That goes again back to

(35:31):
the amount of life that they're getting. Probably, probably, But there's no
secret to here's how you cut aplant back when it comes to an azelia.
It's to make it re sprout.Okay, well it's probably I'm probably
not feeding them benet. That's probablywhat I'm doing wrong. Okay, I

(35:51):
don't know they've gotten when they getreal leg yeah, will I mean when
I get real luggy, they justdon't. I don't blow any leaves on
those long stalks that are leggy.Yeah. Is their secret to make them
bloom lanes? Or did they justnot do that? You know? It

(36:13):
should be that you cut them backand they re sprout and they do.
Okay, So I like I said, that takes us back to why are
they lacking the energy to do that? Uh? Okay, okay, yeah,
so all right, it may meanleaving them uncut for now. I
know that leggy is not what youwant. I guess you can get some
more energy in those plants with somelight and get them They may be a

(36:35):
little stress. You know what youdescribed about watering, Maybe they just need
maybe they just need to be watera little bit more and fertilized a little
bit more, and we would seea change in how they respond to pruning.
Okay, all right, well,thank you so much. All right,
Kerry, thank you very much.I appreciate appreciate your call very much.
Uh you were talking about Azelia's andshade and trees and whatnot. We

(36:59):
have so many beauty trees here inthe Greater Houston area. It's just it
is just a wonderful, wonderful placein terms of being able to get away
from that summer heat. You know, when you have a high quality tree
that is the right species, soit does well and it's been taken care
of right and when it comes tothat, all aspects really of that.

(37:19):
Martin Spoon more to Affordable Tree Service, He's got your number. I mean,
he knows how to do it.Martin has been the Affordable Tree I
believe they're bott in their twenty fifthyear, all right, I'll be close
to the twenty fifth anniversary time forthem here in Greater Houston. Of course,
Martin's been doing this for almost fiftyyears himself. You can give him
a call seven to one three sixnine nine twenty six sixty three seven one

(37:42):
three six nine nine two six sixthree, or go to his website.
Afftree Service dot com. Aff TreeService dot com. You need to get
those trees looked at, if theyneed any pruning, if they need any
training, removal of dead but whateveryou need to get done to him.
As we enter the summer season andthe what we referred to as hurricane season

(38:07):
June through November here, you needto have your trees that are ready for
that. And Martin is the guyto get it done. He knows what
he's doing, he does things right. Aff Tree Service dot Com. Here's
the number one more time seven onethree six nine nine twenty six sixty three.
Well, we are about to hita break here. When we come

(38:28):
back, Jerry, you will beour first up. And I just want
to remind you that I'm going tobe at while the Langham Creek Ace Hardware
almost said Wildbird' unlimited in bel Air. That's where I was just the other
day. Langham Creek Ace Hardware inbel Air, Langa Creek Hardware. If
you haven't been there and you livein that area, you need to come

(38:49):
by and see me. You needto see the hardware store. It's it
is a really really special place.They just they are doing some major work.
They got a lot more things they'regoing to be doing to enhance it
even further as we go through thissummer season coming up here, if they
have all the supplies you're going toneed, and I'll be there answering your
questions. I'm going to get thereat about eleven thirty and I'll be there

(39:10):
until one thirty next Saturday and again, so last chance for an appearance.
They get a chance to kind oflook eye to eye and look at your
photos and your samples and healthier thingsuntil we get back into the follow season
much later on Numbye a fine BarkerSarpush Road. Kat Rh Garden Line does

(39:31):
not necessarily endorse any of the productsor services advertised on this program. Welcome
to kat Rh Garden Line with scampRictor. It's so crazy just watch him

(39:51):
as so many good things to see. Welcome back to the guard Line.

(40:14):
Take a look outside. It isa good day for gardening. I'm telling
you. The sun is shining,the sky is clear. Uh, temperature
is not too bad out there.Right now. We're going to enjoy ourselves
as the temperatures heat up a littlebit through the day. I've kind of
gotten to where I'm doing most ofmy gardening work now before noon. Got

(40:34):
a lot of things I'm trying toget done, so as a result,
I'm staying out a little longer thani'd like to, but I can get
most done by late late morning,by about lunch, and then work on
things inside after that. Take alittle break from being out in that heat.
I want to head out. We'regoing to go straight out to the
phones to Spring and we're gonna talkto Jerry. Hello, Jerry, Hi

(40:57):
Skip. I really love your show, and I find that you have a
very enjoyable calming plant side manner thatI think it's great. Anyway, I'm
made it two and I've always donemy own yard. I've kind of developed
some back issues and decided to retiremy mower. And I know, I

(41:20):
know when I say the word baggingthat you are cringing, because I've heard
your your feelings on bagging versus mulching, and I appreciate them. But I've
always bagged the clippings due to somethingI heard Randy say years ago. A

(41:44):
guy said he he was he startedmelting and now he's got this thatch build
up and he wonders if he's goingto have to rake it out and Randy
said, well, of course you'regoing to have to rake it out,
you know, and that kind ofdefeats my purpose. And I was wondering
if you could kind of expand onthis. Yeah. So, first of

(42:06):
all, nature never bags. Notany grassland, native grassland or anywhere in
the world bags so and Saint Augustineis native somewhere in the world. So
it's just native somewhere. You seewhat I'm saying. I mean, evergrass
is not. Now here's the waythat I like to put it. Grass

(42:28):
clippings are not what causes that.Over fertilizing and in some cases overwatering causes
that. So here here's what thatmeans. Grass clippings are like a let
us leave. You throw it outthere on the ground, and I mean
it just trivels and rots away prettyfast. But when you get into the
runners of the grass and the rootsthose are they're not woody, but they're

(42:52):
well on the way toward woody,if you will, compared to a grass
clipping. So when you push thatgrass to grow really asked and to keep
growing and keep growing, then youend up with a lot of runners that
are all mixed in and entangled.And when they die, they will be
there for a while. That isthe primary component of thatch or those higher

(43:13):
and lignin type materials that don't decomposevery well. So that's where we get
into doing core eration and accompo stopdressings and other things to help those decomposable
faster. But if you are wateringproperly, and if your mow fertilizing very
moderately, appropriately following the label butnot overdoing it, then you should not

(43:36):
have enough grass clippings to be aconcern. The exception is when we get
a long rainy period when it's goingto be you know, just days and
days before you can get back intomow. That's where I would probably bag
the clippings unless you just have oneheck of a chop them up mower,
which mine is not mine multi is, but not well, and so that's

(43:59):
where I would back, and Idid. In fact, I've bagged several
times recently because of that reason.But all those clippings in the bag then
went into a flower bed about aninch or too deep to just be a
mulch on top of it, becausethat's they're rich and nutrients and I don't
want to pay somebody to haul themaway. Yeah, well I had done

(44:19):
yesterday for the first time. Thatgentleman was zipping around on one of these
zero turned tanks, you know,and not not bagging. Not got my
attention. But I do follow yourschedule, of your organic schedule, and
try to water once or twice deepwatering and so well, and that maybe

(44:40):
I won't have the problem. Thelaune's looking good now except for having the
spot treat a few dollars week hereand there. But yeah, anyway,
well, just good. Just knowthat, you know, in nature,
grass is growing at a moderate rate. We don't have a lot of foot
traffic on it. Nobody's mowing itother than the occasional wandering deer, sheep

(45:00):
or goat or cow or whatever it'schew in the grass at that moment.
But in our lawns are higher maintenance. So that's just where we we have
to be careful. One last thingabout it, Jerry, is if you
were to take all the clippings fromyour lawn over the course of a year,
you would have more nutrients in thosedried clippings than you put on when

(45:20):
you fertilize through the year. SoI've heard you say that you are recycling
nutrients. Yeah, we're recycling,and so that you know, maybe it's
like, well, fertilizer costs isnot an issue for me, and you
know, well that's fine. ButI'm just saying, if you are doing
things at all organically, nature's clippingsor nature's own natural slow release fertilizer,

(45:43):
not that you wouldn't also fertilize.But what I'm saying is close the loop.
Instead of coming in in a bag, going onto the ground growing grass
clippings, putting them in a bagto head back out down the street,
keep that loop in your yard.That that would be my recommendation. Okay,
No, I said, I'm followingyour organic schedule. You said maybe

(46:07):
you can overfertilizer or overfertilizer. Iwould. I would still follow the schedule
as published. Yes, follow it, follow it as published. There's there's
some sometimes, you know, wewe have fertilizations that are optional, the
one in early early spring. Thatone is very optional, very aesthetic optional,

(46:28):
early on. Uh. And Iwould on an organic schedule, I
don't even have that spring fertilization onin March. I have it. I
have the first one in April whenour grass is growing. Okay, okay,
well, thank you, thank youso much again. Skip. I
just think you are the greatest show. I just really thank joy. I
appreciate that. Tell your family friends, especially that guy that won't take care

(46:50):
of his property. Maybe. Okay, all right, thank you, Skip,
All right, take care, Jersey. I appreciate the call very much.
Uh it is. It's always goodto kind of clarify some things.
And I hope that did that littlekind of spiel about nutrients and cycling and
whatnot. A lot of times,you know, people get to thinking,

(47:15):
well, if I have a lotof if I have clippings, then I'm
they're going to be sitting there andthey just get thicker and thicker and thatch.
And just remember that if clippings werepart of that, that definitely means
you're way overwatering and overfertilizing. Probablynot mowing often enough. That's another thing.
Every time you the more frequently youmow, the shorter the clipping you're

(47:36):
creating, and the easier it isto mulch and chop up inside the housing
of your mulching mower. It makesit much easier to go down in the
ground. But you know, Iunderstand, there's like two times when I
would not return the clippings. Oneis when it's been too long, the
grass has gotten big and it's goingto look like a hayfield if you don't

(47:58):
pick those clippings up. That's one. The second time is if weeds got
ahead of you, and the weedsbloomed and had seeds on them, then
I would bag that to get asmuch of the seeds as I could out
and out of the lawn. Butthat is those are two very special situations,
and other than that, why notrecycle them. I have a T

(48:24):
shirt effect I almost wore it today. It's a shirt I had made years
ago when I was up in Conro, and it's a picture of a meadow
and a forest. They're kind ofside by side, but it looks like
a Gary Larson cartoon. And it'sgot a whole seene cows that are riding
lawnmowers across the pasture with bagging,and they're setting their little black plastic bags

(48:49):
out at the roadside across the fence, and there's a deer in the forest
raking up leaves into a bag toput out at the curb as well.
And it says nature recycles naturally youcan too, don't bag it. And
I like that visual picture, butI need to make those, make those
shirts and make them available to folks. I think it's a really fun shirt.

(49:10):
Anyway, Point made, Point madeour phone number if you'd like to
give a skull seven one three twoone two five eight seven four seven one
three two one two fifty eight seventyfour. Hey, have you been down
to Jose's Hidden Gardens Josees Orges goodnight or hey. I was talking to
Jegey a while back and we werejust you know, I was there.

(49:31):
We were walking through looking at thedifferent kinds of things that they had on
hand, and I was just reallyimpressed with how they just keep stalking up
and essentially growing growing. The placeHorace Hidden Gardens is in Alvin, Texas.
It's it's on Elizabeth in Alvin,Texas. And when you go there,

(49:52):
you're going to find seasonally the differentthings you're looking for, from vegetables
to herbs to whatnot. They're theyfruit trees right now, they got roses
right now, really nice selection ofcitrus as well. But in general,
do you need small trees and shrubslike a crape merle for example, they've
got those the different kinds of roses, beautiful roses that they had a little

(50:15):
spaliers a while back that I wasimpressed with. They carry that three sixty
tree stabilizer, which I highly recommend. They have those on hand there,
and they're open on Friday from nineto three, nine am to three on
Friday, today, Saturdays eight tofour, and tomorrow Sunday eight to four.

(50:36):
So Friday, Saturday and Sunday nineto three, Friday eight to four
and eight to four. That's howto know where they are, just south
of Highway six. So all ofthose of you out there are now go
on Arcadia and Alta Loma, DickinsonHillcrest, Santa Fe Alvin. This is
your backyard garden center. You needto go by and check them out.
Sanpristy quick break, I'll be rightback, all right, Welcome back to

(50:59):
garden Line. Who can tell mewho the guy was and who the girls
were singing in that song right there? I'll be curious. Everybody knows that
well, so I'll just wait.That was maybe one of my callers knows.
We're gonna go now to talk toElizabeth. Hello, Elizabeth, Hello,
I'm well I'm well, how areyou doing good? And I just

(51:19):
broke the cardinal rule asking how youare? I know it's okay, time
listen. I've been listening to thisshow since I was a tiny tot and
it was Dewey Compton. Oh boy, wow, a third generation as Aliat
grower here, Yeah, wow,I was. I wanted to address the
collar about the reazillion and I'll justsay what I have to say and then

(51:43):
leave you. But I just appreciateyou so much, all right, go
for it, all right. Ibelieve it's soiled sunlight and the oak leaves,
the oak trees. Okay, halfthose five had five yards myself with
the valias. And the worst experienceI've had was a similar situation. So

(52:05):
much shade, too much, toomany oak leaves, so wreaked out the
oak leaves, replace them with pinemulch or pine needles, and they need
more acids. And the only trimonly cut them back after they bloom,
and you can cut them back veryseverely. But they need a little bit
of water, sorry, sunlight,a little bit of staffled dabbled. I

(52:29):
think they're reaching for sunlight and theyare struggling in the soil. That's overdone
with oak. All right, thatsounds good, and I agree about the
especially the sunlight part is uh,you've got to have energy. Even even
plants that grow in the shade havegot sunlight to grow, and so there
is too much I have. I'veinherited my mom's house and there's fifty year

(52:53):
old civilios that were just stunning butdied in the last few years, well
almost died. I've put them backdown to a flot and I'm whirling them
back there, coming back. Ittakes a few years, and I root
them all the time. It's supereasy, and he can make it work.

(53:14):
There you go. There, that'san encouraging word. Thank you,
Elizabeth. Appreciate that. Appreciate youproviding that encouraging word out there. Yeah,
that is true. That is certainlytrue. Let's go to the woodlands
now. We're going to talk toMike. Hello, Mike, Hello,
Skip. I talked to you lastyear at Margueriteville about I think it's called

(53:37):
chamber bitter in my lawn and Iput a bone eyed wheat beter on it
yesterday morning. We had a prettygood ring last night. So I don't
know if I need to reapply that. Oh boy. Uh, you know,
I hate I hate to re Ihate to double up on any kind

(53:57):
of a pesticide application. Uh.When you put the the weed beater out,
were you using the granular form orthe liquid form? Yeah? It
was a a a handsprayer, handsprayer. Okay. Uh. How much
rain did you get last night?And how how many hours did it have

(54:21):
from when you sprayed it, orhow many days or hours sprayed until six
thirty in the morning. The rainwas around four it was. It was
a hard rain, but it wasn'tvery long. Yeah. I think I
would wait and watch and you know, after about five days, you should
be seeing something going on with thatchamber better certainly by seven. Uh.

(54:43):
And if you don't, then Iwould hit it again. I just want
to be really careful. Some ofthese products, you get them over applied,
you get them down in a rootsystem, or your lawn itself just
can get overdosed. And so Ijust want to be careful. And we're
If it were mine, I wouldgive it about five seven days just looking
at it, and then I woulddo it again. Great, thank you.

(55:07):
And you may find that that productisn't working as well. That is
one of the weeds that Celsius isvery good to control, so you may
want to consider switching if you don'tget good, good results. Where can
I find selfish? I look itup on Amazon and think myself, big

(55:29):
amounts of that stores or yeah,you should find it. You should find
it up in maybe feedstore. Miccarried a really really good feed store not
too far from you is spring CreekFeed on twenty nine to twenty. But
I would call them first. Iknow they can get it for you,
but call them, just make surethey have it for you. Run down

(55:51):
there you might find it. Idon't know how far it is for you
to get out to Montgomery. Overto Montgomery. That may be a little
bit too much of a dry butA and A may may have that as
well. And again I would callbefore I head that way. Okay,
thank you. Yeah, And alot of our ace hardware stores are going
to carry it. Great. Thanksall right, good luck, good luck

(56:14):
with that, Mike, thanks forthe call. Yeah. Chamber bitter is
an interesting little weed. It lookslike a little I don't know, mimosa
tree or whatever, but it hasa little seed or a little flowers which
then turn into seeds. That areunderneath the leaves of the along the little
the petiole that's holding the leaves themselves. Very unusual looking flower. You just

(56:37):
have to kind of see it tounderstand what I'm talking about. But it
can be a problem, and itloves hot weather, and it's sprouting up
right now, So little mimosa lookingthing coming up out of the ground.
That's probably chamber bitter at this season. At least our phone number is nine
seven or nine seven eight. Letme try one more time. How about

(56:57):
this? How many times have Isaid this number? Seven one three two
one two fifty eight seventy four sevenone three two one two five eight seven
four. Right now is hurricane season. We're in it. We're there.
But you don't have to have hurricaneseason to lose your power. Anybody who
was around what three weeks four weeksago whenever it hit, you know what

(57:22):
I'm talking about. That was seriousstuff around the greater Houston area. Lots
of people without power for a verylong time. When you got a refrigerator
full of food, that food cango bad and that's a significant cost,
not to mention the work. AndI've had to do that kind of thing
before it is a mess, ormaybe you work from home and you need
dependable power. Well. Quality HomeProducts of Texas has generaic generators, but

(57:45):
I would say is as great asa generaic generator? Is it? And
it is? I mean, thisis a very good generator. As great
as that is. When you getone from Quality Home, you are buying
customer service, and you're buying thefact that you've got somebody there who's helping
you to number one, make theright to purchase decision, to get the

(58:07):
right one for what you need.Number Two to get all the things you
need to jump through, all thehoops that you got to jump through to
get it all set up. Andthat comes down to even coming out and
pouring a little slab on the groundto set it on. Because these things
sit there and they the minute thepower goes off, they are ready to
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(58:28):
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(58:50):
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Go to QUALITYTX dot com, QUALITYTXdot com or give them a call
seven one three Quality. Can't geta simpler number than that, seven one
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(59:14):
got three hundred and fifty dollars offall the generators, plus free tenure warrant
you on the air cooled units.Now's the time to get that process rolling
so you end up with the protectionyou need. So life goes on as
we want it to, even whenthe power goes out. Take a little
break here for the news. Sevenone three two one two fifty eight seventy
four. I'll be right back.Welcome back to Guardline Live from Houston this

(59:39):
morning. We're looking forward to visitingwith you about the things that interest you.
Seven one three two one two fiftyeight seventy four. If you'd like
to give me a call, pleasedo that. Hey, uh, we
are starting to dry out a littlebit and as the temperature goes up and
gets hotter and hotter month by month. This summer, it's going to get
drier on us. You know,we get rain, but there's so much

(01:00:00):
of a demand that the soil justdries out in those hot temperatures. And
what happens when the soil dries out. We had a wet spring, and
when we did, the soil swellsup. That's what happens to wet soil,
clay soil. When it gets dry, it shrinks, and that's why
you get the cracks. In fact, I was just looking on the side
of my house and I already sawsome cracks in an area where I've got

(01:00:21):
some pretty crummy clay soil, whichI'm about to do something too. But
those big cracks put pressure on sidewalks, on driveways, on foundations. And
if you see cracks in the brickor inside in the sheet rock, if
you got a door that's sticking,that's a sign things are shifting and that's
not a good thing for your slab. Fix my Slab foundation Repair. They've

(01:00:45):
been doing this Tai Strickland for twentythree years now. Fix my Slab is
a very professional, very dependable.It's the old fashioned service and quality that
we many of us grew up withand have come to expect. But it's
not a common thing unfortunately in thisday and time. I'm talking about somebody

(01:01:07):
who shows up when they say they'regoing to show up. That's Tie Strickland.
It fixed my slab. Somebody whoprices it fair, that's Tie Strickland.
Fix my slab. And somebody getthis fix. Is it right?
That's what all. That's what we'reasking for. Right, show up when
you tell me, give me afair price, and do it right.
Do it once, do it right, Tie Strickland, fix my slab,

(01:01:27):
foundation repair twenty three years now.Here's the website. Fixmyslab dot com.
Can't get easier than that. Fixmyslab dot com. Here's the phone number
you want to write this down.Two eight one, two five five forty
nine, forty nine. If youstart to see signs of this, have
them come out and take a look. Tell them you're a garden line listeners,
free estimates for you. If you'rea guardline listener, just tell them

(01:01:51):
that. Have them come out andtake a look. Don't wait. It's
not going to get better. Itwill get worse, and you need to
take care of these things soon.Even though we don't want to see them.
It's better to just have Tie comeout, take a look, and
let's let's see where we go fromthere. I'm going to head now to
Seabrook, Texas and talk to Lisa. Hello, Lisa, good morning.

(01:02:13):
Do you know anything about a heattolerant tomato called the Phoenix. I have
heard of the Phoenix, but Idon't know anything about it, and I
haven't grown it. Phoenix. That'sthe cult of our name variety name Phoenix,
right right right? Where did youhear about that? I just saw
it in a nursery. I wastraveling and we saw a couple and it

(01:02:34):
just said they were heat tolerance.So I got a couple. I mean,
okay, I'll see how they dothat. I was just curious.
Yeah, that's interesting. I'd haveto go look into it. In fact,
I was trying to pull it upright here, just to see if
I could see something that told moreabout it. If it's brand new,
that that would be one reason whyI haven't seen it or grown it before.

(01:02:54):
Okay, it's supposed to be.Yeah, they claim it's heat tolerant.
I wonder where this was, youknow, heat tolerant in Ohio and
heat tolerant in Houston is a littlebit different thing. Yea. My other
question is the nursery you mentioned it, Alvin. We tried to look up
the number. It's Can you tellme the name of it again? Yes,
Jorges Hidden Gardens A J. O. L. G. E.

(01:03:17):
Hoorce Hidden Gardens. Yeah, Ithink that. Give give that a try
and see, uh see if youcan. If you see anything by looking
for Horace Hidden Gardens, you canalso go to tell you what do this?
Do you do Facebook? Facebook?No? But I just I'll google

(01:03:39):
it. I did see Es,I didn't. I didn't understand that that
was what you were saying. Yeah. Yeah, it's a Hoores and it's
his his. The other company hascalled Texas grounds Keepers. We don't we
talk about the garden center. Butif you look for Texas grounds Keepers down
there, that's the same place.It's it's on U seventeen seventy one Elizabeth

(01:04:00):
Road. Thank you, all right, Thank you appreciate it. Well,
tell me call us back sometime whenyou find out how that Phoenix tomato does
and let me know my hesitation.I had something pull up about it is.
It is a long time to harvestlike ninety two days is what the
thing I pulled up said, whichis incredibly long, so you may not

(01:04:25):
see some yels until much later.But actually that would that would actually be
okay at this point in the seasonbecause it started getting hot. Thank you,
all right, thanks a lot,take care. Good to visit with
you. Let's see here now,let's go to Matt in Victoria, Texas.
Hello, Matt, hey, skip, good morning. I am in

(01:04:47):
Victoria, Texas. We've got alot of black dirt over there, and
I am wanting to give my landscapingmore of a tropical tropical feel with you
know, something like birds of Paradise, some banana trees, something, you
know, a real tropical look.Okay, what advice would you give me

(01:05:10):
on plants for that, you know, South Texas area, And what do
I need to do to the soilto maybe make it more conducive for a
tropical type of plant? Right,well, for for any kind of plant.
The tropical itself is not a distinctionthat changes the soil recommendations I would
give you, but good drainage sothat when it rains too much for too

(01:05:32):
long, the access has somewhere togo, you know it drains away.
It could be that could be araised bed, that could be anything you
do to improve the drainage. Butcertainly bringing if you've got a heavy clay.
The expanded shale is a kiddy letterlooking material that you mix down in
the soil and it helps hold thatclay open you need it. You need

(01:05:56):
two or three inches of expanded shalein a bed to get its full effect,
but it will do that and itlasts a very very long time.
Of course, compost itself is alwaysgood to add. Any kind of a
bed mix is always good to add. And then just making sure you provide
adequate moisture through the summer heat.We have a lot of good heat tolerant
plants, but they have to havewater to survive in the heat. So

(01:06:19):
you know one thing to think abouttoo, Matt, as you're doing that.
You certainly bringing in tropicals is funand a good idea, but think
about things that may not actually betropicals, but may look like tropicals.
And an example I would use wouldbe like cannas. For example, the
beautiful multicolored phasion or tropic cana.It's called the Bengal tiger with yellow and

(01:06:45):
green stripe leaves. Those are big, bold, tropical looking leaves, and
that plant is so hardy it nevergets too cold for cannas here. So
think about things that look tropical inaddition to things that actually are truly tropical,
meaning it can't take down. That'sa good idea, that's a really
great idea. Yeah yeah, allright, all right, well we'll get

(01:07:08):
that taken care of and give youa shout back. Thank you very much,
you bet, and I always rememberMatt too. In summertime, big
bold, colorful foliage is a greatway to have that beautiful color even when
the number of things that bloom aremore limited than they would be in spring.
All right, I appreciate you Colinvery much. Good luck. Hey,

(01:07:29):
while you're out there, have youever been out to the Extension office
in Victoria and the master gardeners havea little demonstration garden out there. No,
I can't say that I have.You should. It's out there as
you're coming in from Houston. It'sturn right, it's kind of close.
It's a little airport, I believeout there. It's been a while since
I've been out there. Okay,I know exactly wh I think that's that's

(01:07:54):
anyway, if you just look itup County Extension Office. Matt, there's
another map that's the countyag agent outthere, so Matt will get y'all set
up. But the master gardeners havea nice little demo. You can go
by and pick their brains too,see what kinds of things they got growing.
You sure, all right, we'lllook them up, all right,
sir, Thank you very much forthe thank you, Bye bye bye,

(01:08:17):
all right, time for another littlebreak here, we'll be back. Seven
one three two one two fifty eightseventy four is our number. If you'd
like to give Chris a call,get on the boards and we'll talk to
you when we come back. Andthere's a blast from the past. Hey,
you're listening to garden Line. Iam your host, Skip Richtor,
and we're here to answer your gardeningquestions. Feel free to give us a

(01:08:38):
call if you got one seven onethree two one two k t r H
seven one three two one two kt r H makes it easy if you
are looking for an organic type fertilizer, a natural based fertilizer that is high
end nitrogen. Sweet green is onethat I think you need to take a

(01:09:00):
real close look at Sweet Green ismade with a molasses based which means it's
got lots of carbon sugary material thatmakes microbes really happy. That's organic Gardeners
add molasses to the soil because ofthe benefits that it has through a biological
process with microbial activity, that SweetGreen is releasing the nitrogen to your lawn.

(01:09:21):
And it's an eleven percent nitrogen product. So if you're just wanting to
add some little boosts along the way, it's an excellent product for doing that.
You can do it a little here, a little there. It doesn't
just have to be used in lawn. You can use it anywhere you want
to use it. But it isfrom Nitrofoss and it's widely available as a
result of that. For example,you got to Katie to the A's Hardware

(01:09:42):
store out there, the Ace HardwareCity in Memorial They've got it there as
well, Stanton Shopping Center down andAlvin's got it Lake Hardware in Lake Jackson's
called Lake Hardware Clute on Dixie Drive. You're going to find Nitrofoss products many
places, including this Sweet Green.Sweet Green is one that I would put
out and do if I were goingto use Sweet green for the summer.

(01:10:03):
I would do. I would goahead and do it now, and in
a moderate amount, don't don't gofull fledged on it, just a modern
amount, and then come back inabout let's say six eight, maybe ten
weeks somewhere in there and do itagain, and in the meantime return those
clippings and that should carry you oninto the fall season. As far as

(01:10:23):
the nutrients that you might find thatyou need. Uh, well, let's
see here. We're gonna head outto the phones now and talk to Greg.
Hello, Greg, Hey, howyou doing this morning? I'm good,
sir. What's up? Well?I walk these bulbs and I can't
think of the name exactly kuatia coashathere. They're like elephant ears. They

(01:10:45):
get really lost. They set bulbs. Yes, huh? Can I plan
them in a pot now? Ordo I need to wait till next year?
Do I need to put them ina freezer? No? No,
no, no, put them innow. They are summer bulbs. And
the name you're hunting for there iscalled Colocasia col o, like you're gonna
say Colorado colo and then casia colocaciasor elephantears. They got the big old

(01:11:12):
When people think of elephantaires. They'reusually thinking of colocacious. Yeah, I'm
gonna try a couple of bulbs ina pot and a couple in the ground.
Just see what that gets me.They will give them plenty of water.
They like a lot of water.Make sure they get good, good
light. They need good light todo their best. Good lighting. They
don't have to be in full sun, but they need light and keep the

(01:11:33):
soul moist. They are not onethat's set up to just be treated like
a drought plant. They need toget moisture so you get more growth,
bigger leaves. The clump gets bigger, and by the end of the season
you should have a nice little,nice little clump of them. Now those
are rhizome. It's more colocasia.It's not a bulb. I would say

(01:11:58):
a tuber might be a better termfor it. But I need to go
look that. I need to golook that up and see technically, what
is that underneath the colocasia. Myguest is gonna be to They could spread
well, yeah, gradually over time. It's not like bermuda grass that pops
up everywhere around them, you knowit. But but the clump gets bigger,
all right, Hey, Thanks foryour help. I enjoyed the show,

(01:12:19):
you bet, thanks for the call. Appreciate that. Greg. All
right, we're just gonna keep movinghere. We got some other callers on
hold here. I think next we'regoing to Spring to talk to Bill.
Hello. Bill, Hey, yep, got a couple of questions for you.
I've got some couple of live oaksin the yard. About one of

(01:12:41):
them is a seventeen inch calibrat there'stoelve and they have a lot of surface
roots that are on top of theground. Uh, what do I do
about it? And how can Iwhat causes it and how do I correct
them? What did you say wasthe size of the of the oak the
trunk diam or maybe one of themis seventeen and one of them is twelve

(01:13:04):
seventeen twelve? Okay, technically youcan remove a route a year if you
need to, but I would savethat more for Hey, it's about to
go under a sidewalk here or somethinglike that. As far as the roots
just been up high, you canadd a little bit of soil around them
over time, maybe put an inchand a half or so at any one

(01:13:26):
time, and then just continue maybesix eight months later do it again,
and you can bring the soil uparound them a little bit, or you
could decide, you know, withlive oaks, not much grows underneath the
live oak when especially as it getsbigger, and so maybe make that area
into a bed where you would eitherjust have mulch only, or where you

(01:13:48):
may plant some things that are veryshade tenlerant, like a bunch of ferns,
for example, or something else thatcould take the live oak shade underneath.
There. It's in the middle ofmy yard, so it's you know
it not conduce it to a flowerbed. Okay, well, yeah,

(01:14:08):
it's just your grass is just gonnago downhill in time. But I would
say adding some soil then, orjust create that round mulched better around it.
Either way, whatever esthetically you wantto look at. Hey, thank
you very much. I appreciate havingall right, thank you appreciate. I
appreciate your call very much. Let'ssee here, we've got a few callers.
I'm gonna go quick here, Edward, I've got a little bit of

(01:14:30):
time. Let's see if we canget your answer before we have to go
to break. Yes, with allthis rain, the grass is taken over
my garden, and I was going, and there's something I can use that
will kill the grass but not harmthe okre. Is it annual grasses or
is it like bermuda grass or what'smoving in whatever the wind blew in.

(01:14:51):
Whatever the wind blew in. Thereare grass only weed killers. You're gonna
have to look at labels to seeif they're labeled for use in a vegetable
garden. They are two different ingredientsthat kill grass but not broad leaf plants,
And if you can find one that'slabeled for the okra patch, then
it's allowed to be used in thatsetting. The alternative to that would be

(01:15:15):
to cut it down to the groundwith mower weed eater, be careful not
to hit your okra, and thento put a real big thick mulch over
it. Sometimes I'll use like sixsheets of newspaper and throw some grass on
top of it, or chips orwhatever. So that would be more of
a physical way of blocking it out, mulching it out and gets you through
this season at least. Other thanthat, your only option would be to

(01:15:39):
wipe a herbicide on the grass,not spray it. That way, you
don't get it on the okra,You just get it on the grass,
and there are wiper applicators for doingthat. It. Okay, yeah,
that's that's it. Ocre is prettytolerant, though I don't know how big
the how big is your ochre patch? How figure I got like two rows

(01:16:03):
out there out one long? Yeah, I think I'd be inclined to try
to cut it down as much asI could and just throw a whole bunch
of mulch over at leaves and things. But any of those three ways I
mentioned should should be your better options. All right, thank you, thank
you, appreciate that very much.All right, Well, as you'all here,

(01:16:24):
there's music going on. So whenwe come back, we're going to
talk to Anne, we're gonna talkto Lee, and we're gonna talk to
Anthony. Y'all hang on. I'llbe right back. Kt r H Garden
Line does not necessarily endorse any ofthe products or services advertised on this program.

(01:16:47):
Welcome to kt r H Garden Linewith scip Rickard. Just watch him
as word. Hey, welcome backto guard Line. Good to have you

(01:17:12):
with us today. We're gonna headout and talk to Lee right now.
Hello, Lee, Hi, Ihave Virginia button weed in my yard and
I don't know what to do withit. I keep pulling it, and
I've been fighting this for years,but I don't know what to do with
it. All Right, here's thequick answer to Virginia button weed. It
loves wet, So the first thingis anything you can do to reduce soil

(01:17:39):
being oversaturated for longer periods of timeis helpful. It thrives when it stays
too wet, so watch that irrigation. You can't control the rainfall, but
you can't control the irrigation. Watchthat. As far as a product,
there's one that I generally recommend calledCelsius, like the temperature Celsius. Celsius

(01:17:59):
is a little packet that you mixin water, and you need to get
it on the Virginia button weed,preferably a little earlier than now. But
go ahead and do it now.You may want to reapply it again in
six to eight weeks. Virginia buttonweed is not something we kill with one
spray application, and so just stayon it. But Celsius I recommend it

(01:18:20):
for this time of year because itcan be a little bit warmer and not
damage your lawn like some of theproducts that will kill or at least work
pretty well against Virginia button weeed.When it gets hot, those products are
too hard on your grass, sospray it. ACE Hardware stores should have
it Southwest Fertilizer. What part oftown are you in, I'm in Umble,

(01:18:44):
te oh and Humble. Okay,you got some ACE hardware stores out
in that area, I would probably, you know, go talk to them
and see if they have it there. You might call Worren Southern Gardens in
Kingwood. I think I saw itthere, but I'm not sure, but
but give them a call and see. Uh. You ought to be able
to you ought to be able tofind it. You know, it's not

(01:19:08):
that hard to find. You know, it's not just anywhere, but in
general, it's not that hard tocome up with. Well, thank you,
yeah, appreciate So just as adirect example, like the ACE and
on Timber Forest Drive and Humble,that probably be the closest one to you.
Yes, all righty, good luckwith it, you bet, take

(01:19:29):
care? All right, let's seehere. We're gonna go now and talk
to Anthony. Hello, Anthony,why are you doing? I'm well,
sir, how can we help?Okay? And it's not about a plant,
it's about nets, Okay, allof a sudden last week, I

(01:19:53):
see one or two and now there'snets in the house. How do I
get rid of it? You know? There did the home bring? Yeah?
I put the apple cider dishworks inplate. Okay, plates, that's
doing something. But where are theycoming from? They could be coming from
the drain. There's something called adrain fly that will actually live in that

(01:20:15):
gooey mess down in your drain there. That's a possibility, so you may
want to deal with that. Theysome types of nats, fungus gnats come
out of soil and when you keepyour houseplants too wet on the surface,
the fungus gnats they eat that decomposingorganic matter and you'll have them around the
house from that. And let's seewhat other kind of gnats do we have

(01:20:38):
indoors there? There's fruit flies thatthat are going to be attracted to the
vinegar, for example. They're alittle gnat like creature. There's gonna be
one of those things. So whatcan I get rid of the drain fly
or whatever? Yeah, I wouldI have put really really hot water down

(01:21:00):
or drain before to kind of flushand get it out of there. You
don't have to spray a pesticide inyour sink. Just know that wherever there
is some food decomposing and sitting,that that kind of environment is going to
attract one or more of those kindof gnat like creatures. Okay, now
that they're here, I can boilsome water, put it down the sink.

(01:21:21):
What do I do after that?You shouldn't have to do anything after
that. Just make sure it reallyrents a sink out real good periodically.
Okay, yeah, sometimes here rightaround my kitchen sink. Okay, well
that's that's probably it. I thinkyour little trap is fine and it'll catch
some, but it's not going toeradicate him. I appreciate you, all

(01:21:45):
right, I enjoy your shoot.Yes, sir, thank you appreciate that,
Anthony. I tell what we're goingto do right now. I'm going
to head out and I'm going tobring a fellow in here that I would
like you. I want to pickhis brain. I want you guys to
be able to be part of this. Bill stay go. Bill is the
fellow who is our connection to themosquito dunks you hear me talk about all
the time. Remember how we alwayssay you got to you got standing water

(01:22:09):
you got to use Mosquito dunks.Well, we're going to get the guy
himself here. Bill, are youthere, I am here, Welcome to
Garden Line. Good to have youwith us. Well, thank you,
Skip, it's good to be here. Okay. Well, I am looking
forward to kind of picking your brainabout the Mosquito dunks and or the granules
and the different things that you guysprovide and how they work. So why

(01:22:32):
don't you just tell us a littlebit about about the product and the company.
Sure. So the company is SummerChemical and we're actually celebrating our sixty
fifth anniversary this year. Oh wowrats. Yeah, and Mosquito Dunks is our
flagship product. Okay. And forthose people that haven't seen it, don't

(01:22:58):
know what it is, don't don'tknow what it looks like. It looks
like a small doughnut. It's gota hole in the center. It's it's
a whitish beige color. About thesize of those little little Debbie donuts that
are white powdered that we have thosestories down here about that size donut.
Not a big donut, No,not a big donut. Yeah. And

(01:23:20):
it's designed to be placed in standingwater because standing water is where mosquitoes breed.
Mosquitoes lay their eggs in standing water, the eggs hatch out to become
adult mosquitoes. But in that processthey go through four different stages, and

(01:23:42):
one of those stages is the larvalstage. So mosquito larvae in standing water
they look like just little think ofthe letter S. I mean, that's
the kind of shape. They areswimming around. And as they're swimming in
that water, they are feeding.They're they're filter feeders. They're sucking in

(01:24:04):
everything they possibly can because they likestagnant water. They liked the food source
of stagnant water. And they'll swimaround and they'll suck this stuff up until
they eventually become a pupa stage andthen after that they turn into a wonderfully
biting, yeah, deadly mosquito adult. Boy, that's the truth. I

(01:24:29):
posted something to our garden line facebookpage a couple of weeks ago, I
guess. And it was a birdbath that was stagnant and had not been
cleaned out or anything, and youknow, you see the algae in it,
and boy, and we call thosewe call those larva wrigglers because they
wiggle. They really, oh theydid that's kind of their way of swimming,
and the video showed them in it, and so that's that's exactly what

(01:24:50):
you're talking about, you know rightnow, Bill, I saw just the
other day the Houston Chronicle. Wehave an increase in our number of West
now cases already this summer. Butwe have other things like the Zeka virus,
and you know, mosquitoes are They'rean annoyance for sure, but potentially
there are a lot more of aproblem than just an annoyance because of the

(01:25:12):
diseases that they carry well throughout theworld. They are actually the deadliest animal
in the world. Well, that'ssomething worth observing right there. Yeah,
oh yeah, and that's due primarilyto malaria, the anophilies. Mosquito carries
malaria. Fortunately, malaria in theUS is virtually unheard of, but in

(01:25:39):
some of the African countries it runsrampant and it just kills so many people.
Yeah. You know, if youwere to ask people what is the
most dangerous animal in the world,Yeah, I believe you could ask a
thousand and no one would say mosquito, that's right, But it is the
most deadly Yeah, the most deaths. Wow, Well, that's good information.

(01:26:00):
To know now that when you tossa dunk out there, it lasts
about a month, right, Yeah, it'll last yeah, thirty forty days.
You know. It slowly, slowlydissolves, and as it dissolves,
it's releasing a bacteria into the water, and it's a naturally occurring bacteria.

(01:26:21):
So it's so it's it's not somethingsomebody dreamed up in a chemical lab,
right. It was actually discovered backback in the in in a desert in
Israel. So you know, ascientist saw that there was a pool of

(01:26:42):
water that had mosquito activity in it, and then close by was another pool
of water that had no mosquito activity, and you know, he was he
took samples and determined that this bacteriathat he named basil terensiensis is really ensis,
was actually killing the mosquito larvae thatwas in that one pool, and

(01:27:09):
that bacteria was not present in theother pool of water. I think that's
a great thing, you know,just the idea that I would be tossing
the bubonic plague out there on mosquitoesmakes me really happy deep inside. Now,
we get a lot of people thatI say a lot I have collars
from time to time that are like, is this safe to use? And

(01:27:30):
I'm going to let you answer that. We tell them yes, but we
explain to folks why these are soincredibly safe to use in any water,
no matter what's going to drink thatwater. So it is very interesting.
It was discovered that this particular bacteriaonly affects a specific insect class called Diptera,

(01:27:54):
and in that class are mosquitos,fungus n black fly, drain fly.
Uh. It's it's a very smallclass of insect and for that particular
insect, they must ingest it andit reacts to the alkalinity of their stomach,

(01:28:18):
becomes a gut disruptor. It actuallyputs a hole in the in the
gut of the mosquito larva or fungusnet larva or black fly larva. It
only affects the larval stage and soit kills them. But it is absolutely
harmless to everything else, you know. It's it's it's harmless to people,

(01:28:40):
pets, dish, birds, bees, that covers anything else. Yeah,
anything else in the water it's harmlesstoo. So it's really really a miracle
bacteria. Yeah, it really iskind of cool. And you know,
BT gardeners know about BT. Wetalk about spray beat on your plants to
kill caterpillars. That's a that's notthe same BT, but it is the

(01:29:04):
same genus and species as this productmosquitoes. And they keep finding new strains
of b T. There's a strainof BET that just works on leaf feeding
beetles. It's a San Diego strain. And this this israeli Ensis, is
as you pointed out the history ofit, that just works on this small
group of in the fly in theof the flies. And a minute ago

(01:29:27):
before you came on, I hadAnthony called in and he had some little
gnats around the house and we weretrying to determine those fruit flies or those
drain flies or whatever. I thinkwe may need a version of this to
squirt down the drain occasionally whenever,whenever those are popping up. But I
wouldn't drop a dunk down there.But it just made me think about your

(01:29:48):
product because it's kind of going aftera similar type insect. Oh, yes,
absolutely, that's cool. Now thosedunks are gonna float and last for
about a month, and they coverabout one hundred square feet per dunk.
Is that what you each duncle corruptto one hundred square feet. So you

(01:30:08):
mentioned earlier about a bird bath,and we get calls from people all the
time, Wow, you know mybird's not one hundred square feet. Well,
just just break the dunk into smallerpieces and it works just fine.
There you go, you can it'sokay to break the doughnuts. Yeah.
I talked to somebody the other daythat had rainwater barrels that he was capturing

(01:30:30):
rainwater in and he didn't have mesealed upright to keep the mosquitoes out.
But he just said, yeah,I just got there about once a month
and throw some mosquito stuff in there, mosquito dunks in there, and that's
how he keeps them out of hisrainwater, which is a smart idea.
Oh definitely. And for people thatuse that rainwater to irrigate their vegetables,

(01:30:54):
there's no issues. I mean,mosquito dunks are proof for use inorganic production,
so okay, if you're watering yourplants with it, have no fear.
Well there you go. Well thatthat. I don't know what else
to say. It works, it'seasy, it's safe. Uh, and

(01:31:14):
we you know mosquito I don't youprobably know this but Houston is the number
one city in the entire world formosquitoes to vacation. They get on they
come here just to hang out invacation because of our climate, our humidity,
our rainfall, all that kind ofstuff. And were joking, are

(01:31:34):
they aren't they aren't they building somemosquito condos in Houston. I think they
probably probably are. Yeah, they'remosquitos in Calcutta that say we got to
get out of here and go toHouston someplace more hospitable for us. So
unfortunately we have to live with them. And boy, I've had them in
my backyard and I know all ittakes. You know, they say that

(01:31:56):
even in a bottle capful of water, a mosquito can produce lay an egg
through the larvae and come out.And then you think about our rain gutters
that are up there and sometime theysag or they definitely have leaves that get
in them and start to decay andjust create mosquito heaven. Oh yeah,
exactly. And that's probably one ofthe primary places where mosquitoes are breeding because

(01:32:18):
people aren't really looking up and thegutter. Just as you said, you
get a few leaves in the guttera few pine needles in the gutter,
anything that's stopping that water from completelyflowing down the dawn spout. Yeah,
and it only takes a symbol fullYeah. Yeah, that's a breeding ground

(01:32:39):
for mosquitos. All right, Hey, Bill, I've gotten so excited talking
to you about mosquitos. I havegone past a break, So we're gonna
take a little break here. Canyou hang around and come back for one
more segment at least? Yeah,I'd love to. All right, hang
on, We'll be right back.Folks. By the way, if you
have questions about Mosquitos, give usa call. Welcome back to the garden
Line back with a little bit ofsmash mouth there. Well, you are

(01:33:02):
listening to Guardline our phone number.If you'd like to give us a call
and talk about mosquitos, we are. We got Bill Stingle here with us
today. Uh talking. He's fellafrom Mosquito Dunks. You heard me talk
about them all the time, anduh, he's gonna We're just picking his
brain basically, is what we're doing. I want to take a moment just
to go out here and grab aphone call. Uh, and you've been

(01:33:24):
waiting none. I wanted to seeif we could assist you with your question.
Ah, Yes, we built ahome and the pad that they put
it on as hard as rock.Okay, And I need to I want
to put in a flower garden.And uh a few colors ago, you

(01:33:44):
had mentioned expanded shale, yes,and so I was wondering if that was
something that I should uh kill upinto the into the soil that's tear along
with some other quality soil. Right, if your soil is a heavy clay,
expanded shale helps with that. Yeah, I'm not I'm guessing that's what.
Okay. So if you get alittle bit of that based soil that

(01:34:09):
is not great, and you pickit up and wet it and then it
kind of mash it around in yourhand. If it's of course, sand,
it just crumbles apart. And ifit's a loam, it's kind of
in between. And then a clayit's like you can take your thumb and
forefinger just squeeze a ribbon of itout. You know. It's just it's
a very sticky, stuck together kindof soil. That kind of soil.

(01:34:31):
About three inches of expanded shale mixedin deeply as is practical would help.
Otherwise your main thing is going tobe to bring in a quality bed mix,
a rose blend something for like arose soil type mix, and that
would be my recommendation for that fora flower. Okay, alrighty, all

(01:34:53):
right. And then yes, andthen also where we're going to put grass,
if I just put in maybe aninch of enriched top soil, would
that be good? Very yeah,A nice loamy soil mixed in with it
would be good. I mean,it doesn't hurt to have a little bit
of a compost mixed in as well. So if you haven't planted the grass

(01:35:15):
yet, and you can, youcan rototill it. Usually there's so many
roots around that it's hard to mixanything into the soil. But if you
can then mix in a little bitof a composted material as well in that,
okay, okay, alrighty get it. I might even put a bit
of a little little bit of Microlife'spurple bag, the the humate material purple

(01:35:41):
bag. Go a little extra heavyon it as you're preparing the soil and
get those hum mates down in thesoil and they'll really benefit there. Okay,
Okay, thanks a lot, thankyou. Better take care. I'm
going to bring Bill back here now. If you have a question about mosquitoes
or the product or how it's usedor anything like that, feel free to

(01:36:01):
give us a call. Seven onethree two one two KTRH seven one three
two and two kt r H.Bill, welcome back. I would like
to have you talk a little bitmore about, you know, the mosquito
management with the dunks and some ofthe some of the things that you think
are important for people to know.Oh, definitely, thank you for that.

(01:36:28):
You know, what we recommend topeople all the time is before you
start treating an area, if youthink you have mosquitoes, or you know
you have mosquitoes, walk around youryard and take an inventory of what's laying
around your yard that could possibly beholding water. Because, as we as

(01:36:49):
we talked earlier, a symbol fullof water that sits around for a week
is a prime mosquito breeding area.Okay, So so look for places where
there are water. Bill. Youknow, I I hate to have to
do this, but I talked alongin that first segment. I got to
take the quick break. You canyou hold off, we pay the bills

(01:37:13):
around here, and go ahead.I know what's important, Okay, hold
that thought in the meantime, whileyou're waiting, go out and check for
water around your property. We're goingto pick that up in just a moment.
Welcome back to your garden life.Good to have you with us.
And we are visiting today with BillStingle from the Mosquito Dunks some responsible solutions.

(01:37:33):
They are the ones that create theMosquito Dunks. And Bill, this
time I actually have some time toactually let you talk. Sorry about that
you were talking. We were talkingabout the fact that you kind of got
to go on a mosquito safari towalk around looking where in my yard could
these things be breeding? Right?Oh, definitely. And again it's anywhere

(01:37:55):
where water stands for more than afew days of the time, and it
does have to be much so.If you have some kids toys laying outside,
if you have a wheelbarrow sitting inthe cornerard, I mean, any
anything that can hold water, youwant to look and dump it. Just

(01:38:15):
get rid of it as soon asyou can. And and and some of
the places that you may not eventhink of. We talked about your roof
gutters. If you have trees onthe property, chances are there in one
of those trees, there's a treehole, or some of the trees have
crotches where water is gonna sit fora while. So you look at those

(01:38:41):
kind of areas drain pipes, thosecorrugated drain pipes that you see all the
time. Those corrugations hold water andit's just enough where those mosquitoes move in,
and you know that's their little homestead. That's true. I boy knows,
you know, like an old tiresitting out there. First of all,
it's almost impossible to get the waterout of an old tire, picking

(01:39:04):
them up and throwing them around tryingto get all the water out. You
know, something I had not reallythought about before, But I was in
my garden a good while back,and I had some bags of leaves and
I was emptying the leaves and spreadingthem as a mulch and as walkway materials.
And one of the bags, Iguess I just kind of threw off
to the side and it was justlaying there and it was kind of around

(01:39:25):
behind a bush. I didn't resee it. Two weeks ago, I
was walking through the garden. Ilooked and there was that bag, and
went had rained and every there werelike four or five little pockets where there
was water now to breed mosquitos in. And that's something that I wouldn't that
wasn't on the top of my list. I know, to look at the
gutters and the you know, thebird water and devices and things. Well

(01:39:48):
that that's all all good information.I think you guys have some other products
that are helpful when it comes tomosquitalm with mosquitos, Well we do.
We have another product called mischie Quitobits, and mosquito bits the same active
ingredient as the dunks, but it'sa granular form that it won't it won't

(01:40:08):
last a month. But what itdoes it can be broadcast over areas that
are difficult to treat with the dunks. So if you have a low lying
area that collects a lot of water, it's great to spread it out in
that area. You can scatter itand yeah, yes, yes, And

(01:40:28):
and for all of your listeners thathave house plants, and I heard you
talk about gnats earlier today, Sothe mosquito bits, because as I mentioned
before, they're in the same familyfungus. Gnats and mosquitoes are actually in
the same family and house plants youget that moist soil and all of a

(01:40:50):
sudden you have these gnats flying everywhere. You can. You can make a
tea with the mosquito bit a tablespoonper cord of water. Let it sit
for a little bit, and thenwhat are your plants with it? So
the material, the bacteria gets downinto the plant in soil and the fungusnat

(01:41:15):
larva, which you're down there.You fungusnts fly around, they lay the
eggs on the soil, eggs hatchout into larva and they're down in the
soil. So it will h thosegnats in the soil will ingest the bacteria
and it'll be lethal to them.So you will end up breaking that fungus

(01:41:35):
nat life cycle. Yeah, becausethey're eating that organic matter and you've just
soaked the organic matter with a diseasethat wipes out. That's cool. Yeah.
Now now give that amount again,the amount of bits and the amount
of water that you recommend what onetablespoon per cort tablespoon and a quart,
and you let it sait a while. You get all those naturally occurring microbes,

(01:42:00):
the bt I the celisther In gensisis really ins. You get them
down in that water and then youjust go to town that's that's a great
yea great idea. Yeah, allright, well, and uh yeah,
on the package it says here,just do it every uh repeat every three
weeks or is needed. And tobe honest with you, my wife,

(01:42:23):
who has more houseplants than I cancount, she just religiously waters houseplants all
the time with this, she said, Nope, not worrying about it,
not having any more nats, justbe done watering with this. There you
go. Not a bad idea,not a bad idea at all. Uh
yeah. I know Summit has anumber of different kinds of products and things,
and so I just kind of wantedto while I got you on,

(01:42:45):
just keep picking your brain on anyother kinds of things that you think folks
ought to be aware of that thatwill be helpful, especially with mosquito as
well, but in general. Yeah, Well, something new that we have
fairly new. We have a product. It's an insect repellent, but it's
not the insect repellent that you puton your skin. You can go out

(01:43:08):
and you can get deep or preparedin or some other nice insect repellants to
put on your skin so that yourexposed skin doesn't get bitten but if mosquitoes
can bite through clothing, and certainlyticks, tiggers and other insects are going
to bite through clothing. So wehave a repellent that gets applied to clothing.

(01:43:30):
It stays in your clothing for upto six weeks, even after washing.
Okay, after washing, so okay, yeah, and is that about
the barrier. No, that's notthe barrier. What is that? No?
No, this this this is calledGreen Armor Insect Repellant for clothing and
gear. Okay, So if you'reif you're a hiker, a hunter,

(01:43:55):
a tamper, a gardener, alandscaper, if you're outside and you want
to keep these insects off of you, get the repellent for your skin.
This one's not for your skin.It specifically says do not apply to skin,
but apply to and gear. Soyou treat your skin with the one

(01:44:15):
repellent, you treat your clothing andgear with this repellent, and you will
have a bug free time and greenarmor right, yes, okay, let's
let's be looking for that one that'spretty persistent. If you can wash clothing
and it's still you know, it'sstill present and working for you a little

(01:44:36):
bit. Yeah, it actually bindsto the fabric fibers. Now, the
more you wash, the less effectiveit's going to be. But it will
last up to six weeks even afterwondering green armor insect repellent. All right,
very good. Well, As someonewho works in the art a lot,

(01:44:57):
that is very interesting to me,I think that also helps with chiggers
and ticks as well. Right,yes, yes, you got some.
You have some tiggers down in yourneck of the woods. We do,
I'm telling you, yeah, Andthat that make you miserable. Those are
nasty. They are they are,yeah, But but any tiggers that get

(01:45:18):
on your clothing then it will killthem. Alrighty well, good well,
Bill, thank you so much fortaking time out and uh answering those questions
kind of giving us some insight.And I learned about a new product today,
So that's a that is a it'sa good thing. I really appreciate
it. I know your product isso widely available all our good garden centers

(01:45:39):
we talk about on guarden line,the feed stores we talk about on guardline.
Yeah, yeah, Southwest fertilized allthe East hardware stores. We got
almost forty ACE hardware stores in theGreater Houston area that carry your products,
so uh, they would have totry really hard not to find your products
wherever they go to shop. Becauseit's all right, Thanks a bill again,

(01:46:00):
thanks for taking the time out.I appreciate it, giving a chance,
giving us a chance to kind ofpick your brain here a little bit
that. It was great, Skip, it was fun being here, all
right. Well you heard it.The mosquito dunks. You hear me talk
about them all the time. Nowyou also got a way to take the
mosquito bits. A quart of water, a tablespoon of mosquito bits, let
them soak a while, and youhave got some good stuff to spray for

(01:46:23):
fungus nats on your houseplant surfaces,or I say, spray just watered in
and it works. All right,guy. Well I'm going to run off
and talk to some gardening callers here, but thanks one last time. Appreciate
it. Oh, thank you verymuch. Skip. It was great,
all right, take care, allright, Well there you go. Certainly

(01:46:44):
mosquitos are a timely topic when itcomes to the Greater Houston area. Like
we were joking about, this iswhere mosquitos loves to love to come in
vacation. We're going to take abreak right now, Greg and Dayton,
you'll be our first up for therest of you if you'd like to get
on the board. One three twoone two KTRH. Welcome back to garden
Line. Good to have you withus. Yeah, we were just talking

(01:47:05):
about Bill Stengle from a mosquito dunksfrom Summit Solutions, who are the makers
of mosquito dunks, and UH learneda lot about the things we need to
be doing to manage mosquitoes. Youknow, I mentioned you're going to find
these dunks in a lot of placeslike Ace Hardware. Ace Hardware has got
everything you need for whatever season you'rein. When it's time to fertilize your

(01:47:27):
lawn, they've got every fertilizer Italk about on garden Line. When it
is time to control weeds, whetherit's a pre emergent or a post emergent,
you're going to find it at AceHardware. If it's insects in your
lawn that you're dealing with, diseasesthe whole nine yards, Ace Hardware's got
you covered when it comes to mosquitodunks, for example, Ace Hardware's got
mosquito foggers too. If you're gettingout there and you want to, you

(01:47:48):
know, just kind of control thewhole general area because you're gonna get out
on the patio. They can providethat as well. They got the fire
ants supplies. It's time to managefire ants. Always a good time.
Now's a good time to put abait out. And by the way,
real quick tip on fire ant bait. Go outside if you're not sure if
fire inch are actively foraging, andwhen it's blazing hot in the middle of

(01:48:11):
the day, they often are notactively foraging. Throw a potato chip on
the ground, anything oily. Iknew a guy who would take a hot
dog winers and cut them up andput them on a little one of those
little pin flags, the flags thatthey used to mark like a power line
underground or something. They'd stick ahot dog on it, stick it in
the ground, and the flag toldyou were to go look for the hot
dog and walk back up there fifteenminutes. If they're fire ant's on it,

(01:48:34):
it's a good time to bait becauseyou want them to find that bait
and to pick it up quickly.Ace Hardware's got the bait. They can
get you set up on that whileyou're there you got to check out the
barbecue. The barbecue section is socool on ACE. From Webers to Traggers
to Big Green Eggs, you nameit. All the stuff you need to

(01:48:56):
go along with barbecue, and ACEHardware has got you cut. Like I
said, no matter what the seasonor what you need, ACE is the
place forty ACE Hardware stores, Acehardwaredot Com find the store locator and the
ones near you. We're gonna headout and out of Dayton, Texas and
talk to Greg. Hello. Greg, Yes, sir, good morning.
I was calling about I have somecrape myrtles and this a couple of them

(01:49:19):
in a particular corner in my yard, and they have a black fungus on
them, and it's actually getting onthe plants underneath, and I think the
grass underneath that is also affected.Can you help me with that. Describe
the fungus if you would for meagain. Oh, it just looks like

(01:49:39):
a black coating almost covering all theleaves and most of the trunk. Okay,
So what that is, Greg,is that is sooty mold, and
city mold grows on sugary water,and so what happens is aphids will drink
sap and They basically are peeing outa sugar substance and the mold grows on

(01:50:01):
that scale. Crate myrtle bark scaleis probably the number one insect on crape
myrtles that also produces a sugary substance. We call that honeydew. It falls
down and sticks to the trunks,to the leaves. If you got a
picnic table underneath, you'll find citymold on the picnic table from that sugary
substance. So we got to figureout which insect it is. My best

(01:50:25):
guess is it's going to be crepemyrtle bark scale, which shows up as
a little tiny white things up anddown the trunk here and there. It
could also be aphids, and thenyou've got to control that insect and that
stops the city mold. The citymold it. You know, in the
insects themselves are not killing crp myrtles, but they sure make things look ugly.

(01:50:46):
Right, So how do I dothat? Well, if you see
take some leaves, turn the leavesover, especially new growth, and look
for little aphids underneath the leaf,that would be the way to That's where
you're going to find aphids on acrape. If they're doing it as far
as the other look for little whiteflex, small white flex on the trunk
and branches of the crape. Andif you see those, that is the

(01:51:11):
bark scale. There is not agreat way to control them that doesn't have
secondary problems. If you put asystemic on the ground for the tree to
take up, it ends up inthe foliage and you end up hurting bees.
And so we try to avoid thatunless we just absolutely have to treat
that way. Otherwise, we dooil treatments of the trunk. We can

(01:51:33):
do sprays of insecticide on the trunkand the branches. In the springtime,
those scale are crawling out as littletiny babies, and that's a good time
to hit them. Other than that, you know, we kind of tend
to just live with it. SomeI've known people that got out there with
a soft brush and just kind ofscrub the trunk up. It's a lot

(01:51:55):
of work, and I don't knowthat's something most people don't want to do.
Your name will be one if it'son the scale. If it's on
the trunk, name pretty much itis. It's okay. Oils are okay
on the scale, especially if youcatch the scale when they're in the young
stage, the unprotected stage. Onceyou get these things honkering down and they've

(01:52:16):
got their protective coating on them,the knem oil and the other oils just
aren't working as effective as they doon a lot of other types of scale.
But it doesn't hurt to try.Okay, even if it's there,
it's a little benefit that's helpful,But it's not like here's a silver bullet.
Okay, And what about it?If it was the apid's underneath the

(01:52:38):
leave, I would spray with aninsecticidal soap spray upward from underneath the foliage
and just blast them with an insectsitle soap spray. Do it early in
the morning before the sun comes outand starts baking down. Uh. And
that usually is enough one application.You may have to come back and a
week or two later do it again. Just any any insects you don't hit

(01:53:01):
with that insect dicidle soap are gonnanot be killed. It's not a poison.
It literally washes the waxy coating offtheir bodies. Okay, all right,
Okay, Well you have a greatday, and thank you for your
help. Thank you, Greg.Appreciate, appreciate that call very much.
Let's see here, Wow we arewe are already time for the end of

(01:53:24):
the hour again. Okay, we'vegot a lot of folks up there on
the lines. Hang on, guys, I will get to you. We
just got to take it one ata time. Here, it's about time
for us to take a little breakfor the top of the hour news.
Don't forget that. On next Saturday, I'll do my final appearance of the
spring season, and it'll be atLangam Creek Ace Hardware. Langam Creek Ace

(01:53:46):
Hardware is just south of Cyprus.It's over in the Copperfield area. For
those of you who are familiar withthat area. If you just think of
FM five twenty nine where FM fivetwenty nine comes in to Barker Cypress,
zoom zim endo the map and you'llsee Marker Cypress Road FM five point I
have which also called Spencer Road upthere, just west to Copperfield. All

(01:54:11):
right, well, we're going tohave all kinds of things you are given
away. I know they're talking about. They got ups from nitrofoss and micro
Life that are coming giving away fertilizersout there. We'll be doing a lot
of question answering and just a chanceto pick my brain. Look forward to
it. I hope you can bethere next Saturday, eleven thirty to one
thirty. Kat r H Garden Linedoes not necessarily endorse any of the products

(01:54:33):
or services advertised on this program.Welcome to kt r H Garden Line with
Skip Rict It's crazy. Just watchhim as well. Hey, welcome back,

(01:55:01):
Welcome back to the Garden Line.Good to have you with us.
We're here to help you have amore bountiful garden, a more beautiful landscape.
That is our goal, and partof the wonder of gardening is being
able to just enjoy nature itself.You know we I guess maybe you grew
up this way, but you lookedat it like there's the plant, there's

(01:55:23):
the pest here, I am.I can spray and kill the pest,
you know what. It's kind oflike me versus the world. And then
you start to learn about things likebeneficial insects that eat other insects, and
you realize when I spray and killsomething, I'm probably killing something else.
When I was a kid, therewas a poem that was I know an
old lady who swallowed a fly.I don't know why she swallowed the fly.

(01:55:45):
I think she'll die. Then sheswallowed a spider to catch the fly.
Then she swallowed a bird to catchthe spider. And it's a kid
point. It goes on and on. It ends with a horse, and
of course that's the end of thelady. But we find out we've got
a lot of beneficials. They helpus pollinate, they help us in terms
of controlling other pests. And I'veasked Zach A Buchanan for Buchanan's Nursery to

(01:56:06):
sit in here with me a littlebit today and kind of pick his brain
and hear a little bit about someof the different kinds of plants that they
find are very helpful and attracting andsupporting pollinators specifically, but other beneficials as
well. Zach, welcome to guardLine. Yeah, good to have you
here. Definitely good to have youhere. Well, tell us a little

(01:56:27):
bit about for people that haven't beento Buchanans, where are you and what
do you guys do there? Sowe're a garden center located in the Heights
on eleven Street, and we've beenaround since nineteen eighty six. My mom
started it. Then and me andmy wife have taken over and we focus

(01:56:49):
primarily on native plants. We liketo promote those as much as we can,
and as well as organic gardening.So promoting those is a kind of
a passion of ours. We docarry other things, but that's definitely where
we want to steer customers is towardsnative plants, beneficial plants, and organic

(01:57:15):
gardening. Good. Oh, verygood. Well, this is the end
of Pollinator Week and we've been celebratingit all week. And I know you
guys, I've seen a lot ofyour stuff online. You really are promoting
some of the pollinator plants that youhave and some of the options, especially
the native ones. And I thinkhaving native plants as a pollinator source,
it just kind of makes sense.And I'm gonna let you tell a little

(01:57:36):
bit about why why would a nativeplant be something especially important for a pollinator
garden. Well, I think it'syou know, native plants. What that
means is it is native to ourarea, grows naturally, it's best suited
for our area. Some of theplants we carry, we have a table

(01:57:57):
dedicated to Harris County Natives. That. Yeah, but the benefits of native
plants is that they cater to nativeinsects and wildlife. They grew up together,
Yes, exactly, they and theyhave a kind of a symbiotic relationship
where bringing in a plant that's nativeto like China, that's gonna cater to

(01:58:27):
different insects, insects that might comeinto our area and then explode in population
or so really it's it's catering toour native wildlife and then those benefits,
like you were talking about beneficial insects. There's this balance that you strike with
native plants where native insects are feedingon those plants, which is an okay

(01:58:51):
thing because they're not destroying the plant. They're they're working together, and then
native birds might come and eat thosenative and because that's what their diet consists
of mainly. Yeah, when Ifirst read Doug Talmy's book Bringing Nature Home,
it was an eye opener for mebecause you have all these oak trees
and you don't know this, butup in the oaks, I say you

(01:59:14):
people don't know. They walk outin the yard, there's an oak tree.
They don't realize there's caterpillars up there. Right. They're feeding on the
oaks, but they're not doing enoughdamage to even think about. And yet
when birds are looking for a highprotein, high fat source for food to
raise young, that is critical.It is. And you're right, a
lot of our staples of the landscapeover decades now, from red to petinias
to pit a sporum to the peachtrees and the orchard are all from Asia.

(01:59:38):
Yeah, and so they came hereseparate from all the bugs they grew
up with over there, right.No, Doug Tellomy's one of his favorite
examples is like the the ever bloomingpear or the pear trees and bringing them
over and that they were seen asthis like this solution to all our tree

(02:00:00):
problem. Yeah. The Bradford Yeah, the Bradford pear. Yeah. I
have a special printing regimen for Bradfordpear. It's about one inch off the
ground. That's the best place toprint in Bradford. Right, we won't
get it. That's a whole notherdiscussion. Hey, I need to run
out here. We got Glenn outhere on the phones. Hey, Glenn,
welcome to garden Line. How canwe help? Good morning Skip.

(02:00:21):
Hey, I've got a crabgrass problem. Now, I've used different products and
they're pretty big, you know,circles of crabgrass, and I put this
crab gas killer down where you wetit and sprinkle the powder on them.
Now, where the powder was sprinkled, it killed it, but it didn't
kill you. Know, it stillcomes back. Was that the cinnamon cinnamon

(02:00:44):
product? I can't remember the name. It was a white powder and it
just said crab grass on it.I guess that's all it was for.
Yeah, well the contact killer.Now is this in your lawn the crabgrass
or where's it? Yes, itis, it is in my lawn.
Well, well, there's a coupleof ways to approach it. It's hard
to kill grass and grass. Inother words, the grass killers that will

(02:01:04):
kill crabgrass, almost all of themare going to also hurt your lawn grass.
I'll give you my way of doingit, and it's very very laid
back. You can use a preemergent to prevent it from coming up in
the first place, but once youhave it, I'm mow mine and just
ignore it and just work on buildinga dense lawn through proper mowing, watering,

(02:01:26):
and fertilizing, which is all onmy schedule, which you can get
those online, print them out forfree, and as you build the lawn
density, it goes away. AndI have a friend in Mississippi who says
the way he gets rid of allof his weeds is to take off his
glasses. And so, if youthink about it, mode crab grass in
Saint Augustine is a beautiful lawn withoutyour grasses glasses on. So I'm sort

(02:01:53):
of saying that tongue in cheek,but not totally it. Just grow your
way out of it. Now,you can go in, you can dust
with like the cinnamon based product.There are some others products that you can
use, but I think the bestways in this situation grow yourself out of
it. And then don't forget.I've got that other schedule online for weeds
diseases, and you know I diduse your schedule for my lawn. This

(02:02:18):
is a strip between two houses,between two driveways that I kind of you
know, I ran out. Isaid, I'm not going to get another
bag, but that's coming back tobite me. So and then yeah,
that's what I'll do. Yeahb hasa different tolerance to weeds. Some people's
like one weed in the lawn andwe call a napalm flyover. It's time
to shut this down other people.It's kind of like I said, take

(02:02:41):
off your glasses and let's grow ourway out of it. And so wherever
you land on that spectrum, wewant to help you with that. But
just know this, wherever sunlight hitsa soil, nature plants of weed.
So crabgrass is a sign that yourlawn's not real dense. And so if
you focus on building density, you'regoing to grow yourself out of a crabgrass
problem over time. But don't beafraid to wish the pre emergent if you

(02:03:02):
need to. Would it help toget that? That's an area I don't
do it, but I was goingto put some leaf mole compost in that
a full area and air rate it. That would be fine. That does
a couple of things. Number one, it decomposes and releases nutrients. But
it also is, in a verysmall way, a mulch over your lawn.

(02:03:26):
You know, you put the leafmole compost. Even though you're not
putting it thick, it is blockingsome sunlight and so it's like lawn density.
It's helping a little bit with someof the weed germination. So yes,
it's always a good time to dothat. Okay, Well, thank
you, Skip, I appreciate it. I'll take off my glasses all right.

(02:03:46):
I always hesitate to say that becauseI saw people that would irritate the
heck out of me. It's alot just taking glasses off of Don't worry,
okay, ma take it easy,take care well, Zach. I
want to get back on the beneficialthe pollinators and things. I think that
a lot of times, especially ina city, you've got a lot of

(02:04:10):
neighbors and they're probably using products thatmay be killing bees on their flowers and
things. Our landscapes oftentimes are asea of green, and Saint Augustine does
not provide any beneficial insect with anybenefit, you know what I'm saying.
And so when you've got green grass, green ground cover, green shrubs,
and ninety percent of it is notfrom here, you just we got to

(02:04:34):
step in and do some things tohelp those that we have. I'm there
telling me I'm hitting a break herein my ear, So we're going to
take a break. But when wecome back, I'd like you to comment
a little bit about some of theplants that you might suggest for beginning to
build that pollinator garden out, andwe can discuss those absolutely, Thanks a
lot. I appreciate that. We'llbe right back. Welcome back to the

(02:04:55):
guard Line. Good to have youwith us today. We are visiting with
Zagbie Cannon about some pollinators because thisis pollinator Week, uh, and a
lot of the different kinds of pollinatorplants and whatnot that they have. Let's
go out and grab a quick callhere from Kim in Parland. Hey Kim,
how can we help today? Hellotskip, I got a question.

(02:05:16):
I put a new bonn down forbermuda this winter, and I'm gotten a
I can't remember the name of theweed, but I know you got to
use that sledgehammer type. Okay,Is it okay to put that down with
a new bermuda that's coming up?Uh? This is a sodded bermuda,
not a seated bermuda. Right,it is seeded. Oh it's seated.

(02:05:39):
How how long has it been in? How long has it been growing?
Three months or so? I wouldsay it ought to be okay, I
bet. I would grab the sedgehammer. The name of the product you're
looking for, I would grab thelabel and read it carefully, because that's
the that's the bottom line. Aswe say, the labels the law,
and it'll tell you if they're restrictions, you know, don't use something when

(02:06:02):
the temperatures above the mid eighties orthose kinds of things will be on the
label. I would think three monthsfrom seed. I can't imagine that would
be a problem, but again,the product label is what is the final
word on that. Great. Iappreciate that you bet, take care,
Thanks for the thank you for thecall. I'm grab another quick call out

(02:06:24):
here, Ron from Cleveland. Hey, Ron, good morning, skit morning.
Hey. I'm calling you because Iwant to make sure I make my
investment before I go screwing up anddoing something wrong. I have a spot
that I had a three year oldDrummond red maple die out last year and
it was probably about a two inchtime. I'm thinking about putting three crape

(02:06:45):
myrtles in this area, kind ofclose together, but not too close,
like a red, a pink,and a white one. Yeah, And
I didn't know if that'd be agood thing a bad thing, or would
they compete. But I'm trying tokeep them all over. They'll stay nice
tall and the same size, sothey all kind of boom out into multi
colors. I think that's a greatplan. I was just driving through some
neighborhoods this past week looking at peoplethat had done combo colors of great myrtles,

(02:07:11):
and I think it's fine. Yeah, they do compete, but so
do ever tree in the forest.It's growing side by side, trying to
use the same moisture and whatnot.I don't think that would be a problem
at all. I think it's agood ideah like a red dynamite, a
white the natus, But I'm notsure about the pink one. Is there
a like because I know those willgrow like fifteen or twenty to thirty foot

(02:07:35):
high. Is there a pink one? Yeah? And that was the first
thought I had, is the natchesis going to be huge and dynamite is
not that big, and so really, yeah, you just need to realize
that you don't want one overgrowing theother, because then that defends the purpose.
So if you go online, it'san old listing that I did a

(02:07:58):
long time ago, but you canstill see it. And if you if
you search for crape myrtle and skipRichter in a like a Google search,
there's a chart that I did andit's got crape myrtles from three feet to
thirty five feet, not just beingthirty five uh, And it's got all
the colors in there. It tellswhether they're resistant to the powdery mildew or
not, which is an important factor. And then most importantly, I think

(02:08:20):
the height. I even comment onthe color of the exfoliating bark and whatnot.
And I would make sure you pickthree that are going to be the
same stature, just so that longterm, you know, natchez hasn't shaded
out some such I was looking for. Okay, so your name and crate
myrtle. Yeah, that's that's That'sone place. I mean, there's a
lot of good crape information online.That's just a chart. A while back,

(02:08:43):
I did I need to redo it, but it's a lot of work.
I just haven't gotten back to everythingI see online. Someone are saying
there this one was fifteen to twentyfoot. Then another place say, oh,
this will grow to thirty foot,you know, like all in the
same variant. You know. SoI'm not sure, but I trust you.
So I'm gonna go ahead, andI'll do that before I go out
and purchase. Okay, all right, Well, certainly the growing conditions affect

(02:09:07):
any plants performance I've got full sun, big open area. Okay, so
I think it's a good area forI'm nice, tall and i'd like that
multi color. So all right,all right, all right, Ron,
thanks a lot, appreciate the call. Well, we're here visiting. Was
Zach bcinnon planning on talking about somepollinators. We were kind of sidetracking on

(02:09:30):
some other topics. But why don'tyou tell us some of the plants that
you would be Like someone walks inand goes, you know what, I
do want to transition my garden overto one that makes pollinators really happy.
I want them to hang out atmy place. What would you say,
here's a handful that might be goodplaces to start. So one of the

(02:09:50):
things we kind of try to talkto customers about when they're doing a pollinator
garden is you might set aside aquarter of your plant selection and for host
plants and making that a variety ofhost plants. So these are plants that
that attract butterflies, moths, skippers, those those butterflies lay their eggs on

(02:10:13):
these plants. The plants are eatenby the caterpillar. But that's that's attracting
those those insects. That's the foodsource exactly, and you want a variety
of them. You don't want justexclusively milkweed for monarchs, because that makes
them an easy target for predators.I was talking with one of our salespeople,

(02:10:39):
where you wanna you want to attractdifferent ones, different butterflies, because
then that makes it harder for predatorsto kind of like target them and and
pick them off, and you getyou get kind of a greater chance of
survival. So a quarter of yourplants are are host plants, then the

(02:11:01):
rest three quarters are going to benectar plants. But you wanna you want
to vary those nectar plants with bloomtimes, so kind of you want I
don't want everything to bloom at once, even though that would be really pretty.
Uh, you wanna you wanna evenconsider blooming into fall. We were
talking about setting these this wildlife upfor success going into winter. So really,

(02:11:28):
uh, fall blooming stuff is reallyimportant as a food source to get
ready for the winter and the coldweather when most things aren't blooming and there's
not a lot of food sources outthere. So these are things to consider
when when making a pollinator garden.But some of my favorites I like We

(02:11:48):
really like frog fruit, which talkingabout lawns, frog fruit is an excellent,
excellent lawn replacement plant. It's anative, it is indestructible. I
have mine planted along my driveway whereit like is growing out onto the hot
pavement and there it goes and it'sjust blooming like crazy. It's a great

(02:12:11):
nectar source for pollinators. Yeah.And it is gonna. It's gonna take
over an area in a good way. And it's not gonna, it's it's
easily manageable. Yeah. Finding anative, tough, drob tolerant groundcover that
is just kind of bulletproof but staysso low the snake can't hide in frog

(02:12:31):
fruit. Yeah, you know whatI'm saying. But yeah, that's a
good one. Yeah. And andI'm a big proponent of bringing herbs out
of the herb garden and into thelandscape, so things like basil. We
were talking about African blue basil earlier, oregano time. All these herbs are

(02:12:52):
useful. You can still cook withthem while also letting them bloom, and
those flowers are great sources of nectarfor pollinators. That's a good point.
Yeah, you know, And we'rekind of wandering our way through from butterfly
gardening to bees to beneficial insects.But it's all kind of part of the
big package. But all of themare pollinators, but they are. Yeah.

(02:13:15):
But the first time that I everdiscovered the potter wasp that makes a
little marble sized mud houses puts caterpillarsin there. It's a preditor. First
time I saw one, I wastaking pictures of time and there were time
blooms and there was this wasp goingin and out and I followed it and
it went over a chain link fenceand some foliage and it was building those
little nests. I broke the nestopen. I found all these looper caterpillars,

(02:13:37):
and it was like revelation right there. But time is good. The
rosemaries that trail seemed to bloom betterthan the upright ones in many cases.
And boy, the honey bees lovethose things. Yeah, yeah, And
I think honey bees are great.And I was talking to another employee about
how this year they seemed to bedoing better than they have in previous years,

(02:14:01):
which is I think a great testamentto I think people getting wise to
the importance of them. But Ithink it's important also to think about native
bee population that kind of gets overlookedand under publicized in favor of honey bees,
and I understand it, but thenative bee population is just as important,

(02:14:26):
if not more important, to kindof the general ecosystem. Yeah,
there are so many bee Everybody knowsbumble bees because they're big and hard to
miss. That. We've got thebees that like the leaf cutter bee that
does almost no damage at all toplants, but it is a beneficial And
we have other solitary bees that well, a lot of people wouldn't even recognize

(02:14:50):
it, Right, that's a goodidea. Yeah, And plants that attract
those, Boy, it's easy.You mentioned African blue basil. I mean
that is like a graphic jam onthat plant. You get toward the end
of summer and it's big, andit's blooming, and it just loaded with
might we might as well be anornamental plant. It's so beautiful and bloom

(02:15:11):
so much. I'm pretty sure it'san entomological crackhouse. That's my opinion of
it. But we're going to takea little break here, get some news
here. We'll be right back talkingto Zach about pollinators seven one three two
one two Kat r H. Ifyou'd like to ask a question, pick
his brain, ask some pollinator typeinformation, we'll be happy to help.
Welcome back to garden Line on abeautiful day for gardening. Listen, we

(02:15:35):
have talked to the weather man.They're going to try to hold it to
ninety degrees today. Here's your chance. Get out there and get you some
plants. Let's turn that landscape intosomething beautiful you can enjoy all summer.
One of the ways that we keepour landscapes beautiful is by keeping the soil
mult Remember wherever sunlight hits the soilnature plants of weed. The folks at

(02:15:56):
Louisiana Pacific are Nicia Pacific, Lanscaper'sPride. I had the lp right last
Caper's Pride. I don't know wherethat came from. They've got a black
velvet multch that is naturally black.It's not dyed. You know, I
hate dyed mult But they have ablack velvet molt. It is just beautiful,
very velvety and dense. And whenyou put that over the soil,

(02:16:18):
it does two things. Number One, it keeps the soil temperatures down.
The difference in soil temperature an inchdeep even three or four inches deep and
unmultched versus molt soil is huge andit gets so hot. Roots have a
hard time when you have absolutely nomulch and the sun is just bearing down
on that bere soil. Black velvetwill do that. Plus it looks beautiful,

(02:16:39):
very beautiful. I like the hardwoodmalts a shredded hardwood. Now LP's
shredded hardwoodmultch is not made from paletts. It's truly shredded hardwood materials. They've
got their pine bark molts probably themost popular one. They have, very
very beautiful, locally sourced pine markeddecomposes a little slower than some mulches,
which is a good thing, aswell as mulches from cedar made from Cyprus.

(02:17:01):
All from Louis Escaper's Pride. Youknow, landscapers Pride products are widely
available. You can go to Landscaperspridedot com and you can find all the
places that you can get their products. Here in the Greater Houston area.
Won't be hard to find one.But I guarantee you this, of like
twenty something different products they carry,all of them are going to benefit your
soil and benefit your plants and thesuccess that you have out there. Being

(02:17:26):
summer season, now is the timewhen we focus a lot on our lawns,
wanting them to look good, wantingto be beautiful. If you've got
compacted soil areas where either foot trafficor just really poor soil conditions have caused
the grass not to do well,you ought to consider doing a core aeration
followed by a compost top dressing.And BnB turf Pros is a company for

(02:17:50):
all of you living kind of downsouth into the west. So we're talking
about an area that goes from sugarLand and Missouri City all the way across
to Pearland on the east end oftheir range, and then down Fresno's Sienna
Arcola, Iowa colony Manville, thatwhole region down there. BnB turf Pros
is your family owned service. Theyprovide honest, quality work. That is

(02:18:13):
what they focus on. They onlyuse products that I talk about here on
guarden Line, for example Cnamultch downin that area, super quality products.
They use those cnmultch products in BMBturf Pros. You can go to the
website BnB turf Prosbbturfpros dot com orgive them a call seven one three,
two, three, four, fiftyfive ninety eight. Check out the website.

(02:18:35):
They really go above and beyond tomake that personal connection with their clients
and to make sure that you're satisfiedwith the work they do. That is
what they're all about. That's whywe're more than happy to talk about them
as a quality provider. They cantake a lawn, maybe it's struggled from
last summer's drought and heat and it'sjust not looking that great. Have them

(02:18:58):
come out do a good quality aerationand a good quality compost top dressing.
That's what they use, and Ithink you will be very pleased with the
difference that you see. We're talkingwith Zich Buchanan from Buchanna's Nursery because there's
Pollinator Week. It's the end ofPollinator Week. We're talking about plants that
attract pollinators. We've kind of gonethrough a bunch of different types of plants

(02:19:20):
and things. I think there's afew others, you know. I've noticed
even things like the Mexican heather,which I never thought of as a big
blooming plant. It's got the littlebitty blooms on it. But I see
bees working those. I just seebees being very resourceful and finding ways to
find a meal. I think,Yeah, Mexican Heather's one that I recommend

(02:19:41):
as a great kind of border plant. But yeah, it is it's always
covered with bees. Whenever we haveit in the nursery, which is pretty
much all the time and it's blooming, bees are all over it. Sometimes
that can turn customers off to it. Unfortunately, we try to kind of
assuage their fears that this is whatthis is what all flowers should be doing,

(02:20:07):
is attracting pollinators and that they're notsomething to be scared of. Yeah,
if you don't grab the bee andsqueeze it in your hand or something.
They they will give their life toprotect their babies, but not to
protect a flower. No, they'renot out there to go, hey,
leave my plant alone, right andthey and they're they're working, uh,

(02:20:28):
and they don't want to be bothered. If we don't bother them, they're
just going to keep working. That'sit. I think. I think another
great one that that we love iskind of any missflower. So Greg's blue
mist is a great option. We'vegot like some blue mist ageratum. These
these things are huge nectar sources thatjust produce so much nectar and can get

(02:20:54):
covered with butterflies, bees, anything. Looking for next And Greg's this flower,
those beautiful light blue blossoms are beautiful. The uh, it's kind of
almost like a tall ground covered theway it just sort of spreads out and
covers. Is it the queen orthe monarch or both? That something that
looks like a monarch is always loadedup on those Greg's miss flower. I

(02:21:15):
think it may be queen too.I think you know, I was talking
with with one of our salespeople aboutthis blue mystadgeratum that that specifically attracts monarchs
because it like kind of makes thissmell that where the male thinks there's going
to be female monarchs on this plant. Oh really, because the plant is

(02:21:37):
producing this this fragrance. Well,we could really get my garden line ratings
up if I pursued that a littlebit further. But we're going to let
that one go. Yeah, butthat's unfair. That's that's the great thing
about about these plants is again likethey're they want to attract native insects.

(02:21:58):
They're not They know that they're notgoing to be harmed by these insects,
so they want them to come tothem. Pollinate them and create more more
plants. That is, it's all. It's all part of the way nature
works, it is. Yeah,and if we if we just kind of
like don't interfere as much, it'llit'll kind of get by on its own.
Yeah, do what it's supposed todo. Yeah. I have a

(02:22:20):
I have a talk I do onattracting beneficial insects. And it's like all
these key points and the first pointis don't kill them. So you know
number one's first yea, how youspray it, don't kill them. Well,
that's that's all cool stuff. AndI know I could probably have you
here for ten weeks just talking aboutall the plants you guys carry because you
have such a good list of nativesand non natives. Yeah, that that

(02:22:41):
attract the beneficials. So I wouldsay, probably to people listening, thanks
first of all for hanging around thislong, Oh my pleasure, Thank you
for having me. But I wouldsay go buy there and just start simple
start. I mean, if youdo nothing other than plants and basil and
let it bloom, that's a stepforward. But maybe you need some perennials,

(02:23:03):
or maybe you need some shrubs andtalk to folks that know, like
Zach, find out what is thenext thing I can plant and the next
thing and grow your way into it. You know, you don't need to
buildoze everything and turn it all intoa garden overnight for pollinators. But little
by little you can transform your landscapeinto a place that birds, butterflies,
bees, beneficial insects in general justwant to come hang out. And it

(02:23:26):
really works. It's like the Baseballmovie. If you build it, they
will come. Yeah. I prideour organization on not shaming anybody and trying
and not being gatekeepers to this thenative world. Like, we want to

(02:23:46):
help people, and we want tohelp people at any level, whether they're
beginning or experts. I think there'salways room to learn, and that's what's
exciting about this is learning new thingsand coming to new realisms. And when
those realizations hit about natives or pollinators, it's it's really eye opening and it
can change your whole worldview. Really. Yeah, A planet a time?

(02:24:09):
Yeah? Is that well? Zach? For those of you who weren't here
at the very beginning, we're talkingto Zach Buchanan from Buchinish Nursery six eleven,
six eleven Eleventh Street, Eleventh Streetin the Heights. You got to
go by there and check it out. It's always like wandering around and chopping
and seeing what's around the next cornerthere. Yeah, thank you very much,
thanks for hanging out. All right. Well, happy pollinator week for

(02:24:31):
all of you. But just becausethis was the official pollinator week. Now
next week's time to get out thereand start actually doing what we've been talking
about. So I hope you takeadvantage of that this weekend. Zach,
thanks a lot. I might haveto go to another break, but appreciate
having you on. Yeah, thankyou for having me. All right,
take care, we'll be right back. All right, we're back on garden
line on a perfect day for gardening. Look, it's sunny outside, it's

(02:24:56):
beautiful. I think the temp's onlygoing to hit about ninety to day.
So here's our excuse. We gotto get out there and beautify and just
enjoy ourselves. You know, it'snot just work in the garden. It's
enjoying yourself and using a quality productto help your plants have good nutrition.
That is key, That is important. Nelson plant Food has a wide variety

(02:25:16):
of those products you've heard me talkabout. Turf Star Slow and easy.
That's the one for summer months andmonths and months of feeding all the way
up to the fall fertilization that you'regoing to do in your lawn. Nelson
Slow and Easy, the turf Starproduct, Nelson plant food Slow and easy.
Excellent product for the lawn. Whatabout flowering plants like plumeria and tropicals,

(02:25:37):
Well, nutral Star Plumeria is excellentfor all kinds of tropicals. You
know, maybe you've got even thingslike a plumbago, which is you know,
cold hearty here, but it doesvery well when you provide even the
plumeria food for that ground orchids,etcea fried Japanese you know, desert roses.
Lots of good plants you can usethat Plumeria product on. If you've

(02:25:58):
got rose, is the nutri Starrows an excellent product for that, The
nutri Star Booginvilla. Just think ofit this way, booga and villa.
Think of it as a flowering vine. Anything that's a flowering vine. Boogain
Villa by neutral Star or Nutristar Boogainvillaby Nelson is an excellent product to do
for that. I would use iton crossvines or Virginia creeper, if you've

(02:26:18):
got that with steria, passion vines, trumpet vines, butterfly vines, Carolina
adjustment, all of those flowering vinethink about the boogainvillia. And of course
if you've got a crape myrtle orany flowering tree, nutri star crape myrtle
from Nelson. All great products andyou can find them all over the place.
For example, Southwest Fertilizer. SouthwestFertilizer carries each of these products and

(02:26:43):
as well as anything you hear metalk about on guardline. If I talk
about any fertilizer, it's at Southwest. If I tell you go buy this
to kill a bug, or stopa disease or stop a weed, it's
at Southwest Fertilizer. They have thebest selection of all kinds of products,
both syntheta types and organic types thatyou're going to find in town. Southwest
Fertilizers on the corner of Bissinett andRenwick and it's just Southwest Houston, real

(02:27:09):
easy to get to. Southwest Fertilizerdot Com. That's the that's the website,
Southwest Fertilizer dot Com. Anything youneed in the way of a tool
or a product to apply to yourlawn, your garden, your herbs,
your flowerbeds, whatever it is,you're going to find it there at Southwest
Fertilizer. I always love going intothere, and I always learn about new

(02:27:31):
products because they always stay up todate on what the latest products are that
we have. After I'm done withthe shutter down or run up to Arbrogate,
I've got some visiting to do upthere with Beverly. But Arburgate Nursery
outside of Tomball on the West Sideson twenty nine to twenty has just continued
to get better and better over theyears. And you think that was hard

(02:27:52):
to do. If you saw iteven ten years ago, it's like,
whoa, we've arrived here. Butno, they just keep going more new
things, exciting things that you wantto try to grow. Uh. They've
got the new parking lot around back. Wow, that is wonderful. Just
turn down Trishel Road before or afterArborgate, pull around the back and it's

(02:28:13):
easy access and I don't care ifit's rained eight inches. You can drive
in there. You can walk inthere from there from where you park,
and no mud on your feet.It's easy, easy to do while you're
there, grab their one two threecompletely easy system. That's a soil for
anything with roots. That is acompost product that contains expanded shale in it,

(02:28:35):
and that is a fertilizer. Also, by the way, the soil
also has expanded shale. And thena fertilizer for anything that you have that
has roots, an organic fertilizer fromArburgate part of the one two three easy
system. Remember brown stuff comes beforegreen stuff, right you go to Arburgate
to buy green stuff, make sureand take home the one two three,
which is the brown stuff to makeyour plants thrive. That's important. Someone

(02:28:58):
was out asking me about dealing withchinchbugs in their lawn. They thought they
may have had chinchbugs in the lawnthis past week, and we're talking about
a little bit. It's a littleearly for chinchbugs, but they can pop
up at any point in time.They have more than one generation a year
as well, and nitrofoss bug OutMax is a great way to shut them

(02:29:20):
down. Nitrofoss bug Out Max isan insecticide that goes to work right away.
Within forty eight hours, it iskilled whatever is out there that is
in that lawn that is bugging you, whether it's a sod web worm,
or whether it's a chinchbug, orwhether maybe it's fleas and ticks from your
pets. They do live in thethatch as well, and you can shut

(02:29:41):
them down right there as well asants. Bugout Max available, lots of
places. Ace Hardware, CITYO MemorialDrive has got it. Hiding and Feed
up on I forty five North StubernorAirline. They've got RCW Nursery. You're
gonna find bug out Max plans forall seasons. Lots of places that you
can find nitrofoss products, including thebug out Max product itself works very well.

(02:30:05):
If you're looking for your hometown feedstore up there in Tomboil, you're
looking at D and D Feed.D and D Feed is out on twenty
nine to twenty just west of town. They have got all the different fertilizers
I talk about on guardline. You'regoing to find the age leaf, mold,
compost, heirlooms, the new rosesoil blends that they have there from
heirloom soils, fruit berry, citrus, the veggie and herb. All those

(02:30:28):
soils are there at D and DFeed. Of course it's a feed store.
I mean, you're going to getall the feed you need, high
quality ones at that, but you'regoing to find every other kind of product
to make your lawn more beautiful interms of protecting against pests and problems and
providing those kinds of nutrient additions orperhaps in this case, compost additions that

(02:30:50):
are needed in it. Medina SupergrowPlus that's an example of one of those.
The Medina Supergrow Plus is a sixteenzero two fertilizer sixteen zero two easy,
easy to use. You attach itto a hose, covers four thousand
square feet and provides the nitrogen thatyou need for your lawn and garden to
be successful. Last week, Iwas out at Nelson Nursery and Watergardens,

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which is out in Katie, pickingup some plants. They had a certain
kinds of things out there that Iwas looking for. By the way,
their plants selections outstanding out there.At Nelson's. You just set out to
Katie on Iten you go north,so it's like Houston's. It's like the
West Houston Nursery here for garden lineand their selection is unbelievable. The fountains
is unbelievable. If you go tothe website Nelsonwatergardens dot com, you'll see

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what I'm talking about. Nelson watergardendot Com. Out there in the Katie
area. Of course they got fishand stuff. When you go out there,
by the way, take a friendbecause it is inspiring to walk through
all the water. They ought tocharge people to just go sit among all
the water splashing and the water sounds. That'd be be better therapy than just

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about anything that you could do outthere. Yeah, well you've been listening
to guard line. We had afull day with some nice guests and things.
Don't forget. Next Saturday, onthe twenty ninth of June, my
last public appearance of the year LanghamCreek Ace Hardware out in West Houston where
Barker Cypress and Spencer Road, whichis five twenty nine come together. I

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hope you'll make plans to come seeme.