Composting!

Author Pam Penick stops by to discuss her new book "Gardens of Texas: Visions of Resilience from the Lone Star State". Beverly from Arbor Gate also speaks with Skip about holiday festivities.

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:01):
Welcome to Katie r h Garden line with Skip Rictor.

Speaker 2 (00:04):
It's crazy here in the bassis gas they can use
water shrimp.

Speaker 3 (00:13):
You just watch him as world good start the basses
and gas began you ar as man takes the soup
hot basic in the gay has in the bassis.

Speaker 2 (00:25):
Like gas and began you dates become back checking there
not a sound.

Speaker 3 (00:31):
The glasses and gas and.

Speaker 2 (00:35):
The sun beamon of between you starting and treating in
the basses like gas became you date. Everything is so
clean and see and.

Speaker 3 (00:49):
Never thing here Sunday hand it's right, so red, so
red to so many so many red you.

Speaker 4 (01:13):
Well, good morning, folks, Good Sunday morning. On what I'm
looking forward to a wonderful day today. It's gonna be
a wonderful day today, as a matter of fact, if
I'll quit stuttering and just start talking. Uh, got some
cooler weather coming. I don't know if you guys have

(01:33):
been keeping up with that, but it sort of depends
on what part of the area you're in. But pretty
crispy night this evening. It depends on again how far
north or south you are by Monday. Some it's like
I'm a weather man. I'm supposed to be a gardener anyway,
but weather and gardening go together. On by I think

(01:54):
Monday night some of you up in like if you're
in College Station, Conroe, Huntsville up that direction, you're gonna
kind of hit the mid thirties in the evening. And
why do I bring that up, Well, here's why we
can have frosts when it's not when the air temperature,
the reported temperature, is not freezing. It's just something that
can happen. Well, to have a freeze, you know, temperature

(02:17):
has to be thirty two of the year, but when
we have a frost that that can be as high
as like thirty six I believe somewhere around there anyway,
point is at a degree or two or three or
four above freezing if the temperature, if the conditions are right,
which is a still cloudless night, and we're gonna have

(02:38):
cloudless here on Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, anyway, that's when
frost can form. So got to be ready for that.
For those of you especially, I'll just say North the
Eye ten. I'm listening to the weather man. They know
what they're talking about, but what I'm hearing is kind
of North the Eye ten direction. That's where we probably

(03:00):
are going to be close enough to possibly have some frosts,
and so you don't want that to happen to your
plants if you're trying to keep them going a little
bit longer. And all you need for a frost is
just to cover over the plant. And because you know
when you hear me talk about protecting plants against a freeze,
and basically data involves putting a cover over the plant

(03:22):
and straight down to the ground so that the soil
warmth can rise up underneath the cover, ceiling the edges
of the cover with stone or bricks or whatever, soil
whatever you got, bags of composts would work real good
and creating dead air space. And when you have dead

(03:42):
air space, and if you add additionally a little bit
of heat under there, you definitely can take some freeze
without losing a plant or too many plant parts for
that matter. But with a frost, it's not that way.
On a still cold night, you just put a cover
over the plants, and the loss of the heat from

(04:04):
the plants, the radiant loss and stuff, it just protects it.
Have you ever have you ever gone out on a
frosty morning and looked underneath. Maybe you have a live
oak tree in your yard or you have neighbors that
have some. If not do this this year when we
have a frost, look underneath the live oak tree. There's
no frost down there. And it's because the radiating heat

(04:24):
off the plant materials or the soil or the mult
or whatever it is on the surface, it kind of
gets bounced back down. It's almost like the tree itself
is like an umbrella over it that's reflecting heat back downward.
Now the tree itself may have some frost on it,

(04:44):
but anyway, that's all you got to do. People talk
about a tree like frost falling on the plants, and
that's not what happens at all. The plants cool off
faster than the air and frost forms on the leaves.
Happens to your car windshield, happens to any surface. It
will picnic table out in the backyard. If it can

(05:04):
radiate that heat out, it'll drop down below the air
temperature and as a result, frost forms on it, just
like condensation forms on a cold glass of icy water
or tea or whatever. So that's kind of the nerdy
science end of it. But the bottom line is we
are going to hit a temperatures not to freezing, but
it is a frostible temperature, so get ready, be ready

(05:27):
for those things. And again with the frost, don't worry
about all the things I tell you to do when
we're getting ready to have a freeze. Not necessary. So
there you go.

Speaker 5 (05:39):
That is it.

Speaker 4 (05:39):
By the way, if you want to know more about that,
if you want to understand how frost and freezes work
and therefore be able to protect your plants, better, go
to my website gardening with skip dot com. There is
a publication on protecting plants from frosts and freezes. I
believe the actual link to it says tiss the season
to be freezing. That was my idea attempt at humor

(06:02):
at least when I wrote it, just the season to
be freezing and on. There's a link to the PDF
of that publication and you can learn a lot nine
pages full color uh pictures and some really helpful diagrams,
and that if you just look that over and understand that,
then the way you protect plants going forward will be

(06:24):
much much more efficient. Alrighty, well there you go. Well,
since this is a call in show, why don't I
give you a phone number seven one three two one
two fifty eight seventy four seven one three two one
two five eight seven four. I hope you got at
least one eye open and a cup of coffee in
your hand, or whatever it takes to get you moving

(06:45):
for the day. But we're glad you're with us this
morning here for garden line. Uh So, I was talking
about frosts and freezes, and as we're going into this
season where things are cooling off and we're waiting for
that first frost or first freeze of the season, we
always want to remember that the best thing we can

(07:07):
do for our plants is to have them in the
best health that they can be in. When plants are weak,
when they're drought stressed or water log stressed, the other
end of the spectrum, they're not as resilient and we
can have a lot of different kinds of problems that
occur from that. So, for example, your lawns and things

(07:29):
get the leaves off as they fall on the surface.
Our lawns, especially Saint Augustine, that one holds its green
better than Bermuda grass. Bermuda goes into a kind of
a cold dormant. Is the right word. But it's like
a dormancy, but it's just from cold. It shuts down.

(07:49):
In fact, it shuts down to the point that on
a large sports field or golf course or things when
we're in the wintertime, they can spray winter weeds or
something like round up, which normally would kill the old
roundup would kill the bermuda grass, but it doesn't because
the bermuda is in a dormant state. So it hits
the growing weeds, but not it doesn't affect the bermuda.

(08:12):
But our Saint Augustine keeps growing well. It stays green longer,
and it's processing. It's capturing sunlight and it's making some
carbohydrates very slowly, but it's happening. And so if you
have a leaf a fall on your lawn and there's
this blanket that's shading out the sunlight, that is stressful
to that grass plant, So go ahead and get those

(08:34):
off the lawn. I recommend that you recycle them. And
when we come back from a break, we're about to
take a break here. When we come back, I'm going
to talk about the whole idea of leaf and clipping recycling,
and I think there'll be some interesting information so I
hang around. Good to have you with us. Well, before
we went into break, I was discussing, let's see, I'm

(08:55):
talking about frost. What was the other topic? Loans? Good night?
What was I saying? More to break? I was gonna
come back to it. Oh gosh, I'll think of it
a little bit here if yeah, freezes and froths and freezes. Huh.
Oh well, protecting plants wouldn't that? Okay, Well we'll just

(09:17):
we'll just keep going here. Anyway. I've got a number
of things I want to talk about today, especially kind
of related to this season. As a matter of fact. Oh,
I was talking about sunlight and turf and things and
allowing the turf to to have sunlight, and the importance
if you leave the leaves on, it is more stressful.
So I gon to carry you lawn instantly, but over
time it's like throwing throw a big blanket over your lawn.

(09:39):
Imagine that, and just leave it on all winter. How's
that long? Look when it comes out? Not very good?
So that's what you want to avoid. What I was
going to talk about just hit me was recycling in
the in the landscape, and I don't think people realize
and appreciate the value of the I'll call it yard

(10:01):
wastes landscape waste that we have for our plants. Nature
is designed to work on a principle where organic materials
fall on the ground, they decompose, and they build the
soil slowly over time from the top down. A forest
drops leaves on the ground, the next year more leaves
on and next year more leaves on it, and it

(10:21):
just builds the soil over time. Underground, similar things are
happening as grassroots live and then die, and then live
and then die, and it's a cycle. And we can
get rid of all of the waste, have somebody haulow
it away from our house, put it in a bag
at the curb, But then we're in it up buying
the end result of that waste in the form of

(10:43):
composts and mulches and things like that to put on
the yard. So it doesn't make a lot of sense
to not at least use what you have there on
the property. And so that that's kind of what I'm
going to talk about some as we go through this morning.
So for example, in a grass plant, a grassroot lives
about a year. It's not like a tree root, where

(11:05):
a root grows and now you have this woody thing
that just gets bigger every year. In a grassroot, it
originates at the base of the grass plant. That's the
only place where roots can come from on a grass.
That little base is called the crown. But the base
of the plant, they go in the ground and they
live about a year and then they die and they're
replaced by new roots that grow. There's always new roots

(11:28):
coming on, and so the old roots at some point die.
So when that root dies, that's organic matter, and so
microbes are all over it already anyway, but they decompose it.
And now where there was a root that had pushed
open the soil to grow through it, now you have
a chamber where air can move up and down through
there ex gaseous exchange where water can better soak into

(11:53):
the ground. Water does much better soaking in on when
you have a grass covering with the soil. And also
that nutrients in that root to recycle back for the
grass plant. So if you just imagine a big giant
meadow or the Great Plains when the settlers were coming
through in Conastoga's or whatever, that grass was building the

(12:17):
soil year after year after year, after you're making it
better and better and better and richer. And that's how
grass does in a tree. In a forest and a tree,
it's a little bit different process. I wan't tell you
about that in just a second. Or first, we're going
to go out to spring this morning and visit with Phil.
Hey Phil, welcome to garden Line. Good morning, Good morning.

(12:42):
How can I help?

Speaker 6 (12:43):
So?

Speaker 7 (12:45):
A couple of weeks ago, on a Sunday, I had
sent you an email with photos of a plant that
looks like an invasive plant that we found in the
yard and the flower beds and the hardware store. They
identified it as a Japanese brown lily, or maybe it

(13:06):
was a Japanese ground lily, and so I was wondering
if you could take a look at those photo and see.

Speaker 8 (13:14):
What you think.

Speaker 4 (13:16):
Yeah, Phil, I actually did yesterday on the on the show,
I spoke to the group not I couldn't remember who
had sent me that photo, but I have run that
past several experts and not gotten an answer yet on it,
and it's perplexing me. I would like to is it
Does it ever bloom? Do you ever see anything come

(13:39):
up from.

Speaker 7 (13:41):
It hasn't been in the yard that long, it's only
we've only noticed it within the last month the most,
more like probably four weeks, three weeks something like that,
so we didn't allow it to bloom. We were getting
that out because we knew it was.

Speaker 4 (14:00):
Understand that well. I would like to. I would like
to know what it is. And I've got friends that
are really good at various corners of the horticulture world,
and I had sent it out and they're they're kind
of like going, yeah, I don't know what that one is.
But in the in the photo, it's it's at a
very young stage and you see the little how the
roots connect bulb to bulb and so on, right, which

(14:23):
which helps you appreciate how invasive that potentially could be.
I don't know. I would like to. I would like
to find out. Long time ago, someone sent me a
picture of that plant, and I don't remember us ever
finding the I d to it and it's we can
figure it out eventually. But what it's probably going to take, uh,

(14:44):
Either I can get some you know, have you drop
off some bulbs at someplace, and then I'll swing by
and get them and grow them out and see what
they look like. Because I'm very curious about it as well.

Speaker 5 (14:55):
Uh.

Speaker 4 (14:56):
I can tell you that because of the kind of
plant it is. If if you wipe a product containing lifeless,
which is that used to be what was in round
up now it's not right, it's in other products. If
you wiped it on the bul on the bulb leaves,
it would translocate down and that bulb is a storage
organ and so you gotta you gotta kill the bulbs.

Speaker 2 (15:18):
Uh.

Speaker 4 (15:19):
And it would kill those that pop up. And on
my website there is two things. There's a instructions on
how to build a weed wiper that you make homemade
from using a grabber tool like you'd get a jar
off the shelf.

Speaker 7 (15:33):
Uh.

Speaker 4 (15:33):
And it has sponges on it. And it's real simple
and easy to make one. And I use it. I
use mine a lot for reaching underneath the rose bush
to get a sprig of bermuda grass under there or
something like that without killing the rosebush. And then you sponges.
Oh you do, okay? Well, well I would would I
would start with the go ahead, go ahead?

Speaker 7 (15:55):
I would it help when I do that since it
brings up the use I don't know if you call
it leaves or whatever, would it help to.

Speaker 9 (16:06):
Well?

Speaker 7 (16:06):
Clip want to equip the ends off that and paint
it directly onto the uh, the exposed surface of that leaf.

Speaker 4 (16:14):
No, it wouldn't help in this case for that if
you were if you were trying to kill the hackberry
coming up out of the ground, and then there's there's
an application like you're talking about for that on this
unless if the leaves are so slick that nothing wants
to stick to them, then putting a drops a dish
soap in your in your wiper h concoction that that

(16:37):
would that would more than take care of that. But
I would I would just say wiping it is the way.
I do want to know what it is though, because
I well, I just want to know uh and find out.
But I would think that that that'd be a little tedious.
But I you know, it moves down and it ought to.
It may not. You may not get it all once

(16:58):
if it's a good sized bull, but I think that's
probably your best bet to getting ahead of it. There
is a let me just to saying something just also
occurred to me. There are some products. Let's see. I
think image get my website here in front of me.

(17:18):
I think it's image that works pretty well. On the
wild onion or wild garlic, and if I can find it,
here we go. Let's see. There's a publication on the web.
I don't know if you've seen the publications on my site,
but there's one called Herbicides for Skips weed wiper, and
that publication lists it lists weed control by plant, so

(17:43):
for example, there's a there's a row for woody trees, shrubs, vines,
and perennials with tubers, roots, and rhizomes. And then it
gives you the product, the ingredient name, and then the
product names that you can find that ingredient in wild. Yeah,
the one that says image kills said has some benefit
against wild onion and wild garlic. That may be good.

(18:05):
I would I would start with the glacis and again
on there the there's I have three different No, I
got a bunch of different one, two, three, four, five,
A bunch of different products that contain it, and roundup
does not. The retail roundup no longer has glapsate in it.
So anyway, okay, and I'll go back. That's what I suggest. Yeah,

(18:31):
I'm going to do some searching. Just keep the radio
on this morning, and I'm going to come up with
a couple of other suggestions for products if the one
doesn't work. But if you ever see a bloom on it,
please take a picture of it and send it to me.
I do I want to pursue this one further.

Speaker 7 (18:46):
All right, Well, I was at the king Ware store
and they identified it as what I mentioned. I don't
know what website they were on, but typically they've used
the that the Texas A and M website.

Speaker 4 (18:59):
But I don't know. Tell me, okay, I'm down to
seconds before my heartbreak, but tell me again what they
called it? A Japanese what.

Speaker 10 (19:09):
It was?

Speaker 7 (19:10):
It was a I thought they said Japanese brown lily.
My wife thought they said Japanese ground lily.

Speaker 4 (19:19):
Okay, I don't think that's correct, but I'm going to
look into that one. I'll see what I can find that. Okay, thanks,
I appreciate your phil shows great, thank you. Yeah, it's
fun to play Stump the Jump, and this is a
stump the jump one.

Speaker 11 (19:35):
I know.

Speaker 4 (19:36):
There's only ten bazillion plants out there. I'm trying to
learn them all. It's a long way to go. It'll
be a lifelong pursuit, that is, that is for sure.
All right, Well, there you go. If you got a question,
you'd like to give me a call seven one three
two one two five eight seven four. We're gonna take
a break and I'll be right back. Don't go away.

Speaker 5 (19:54):
Here we go.

Speaker 4 (19:55):
Welcome back to guard Line. Let's head out to the here.
We're going to start with Danny in Willowbrook. Hello, Denny,
welcome to garden Line.

Speaker 12 (20:07):
Good morning's Kip. How are you this morning?

Speaker 4 (20:12):
Well, I'm doing well. It's a good day.

Speaker 12 (20:16):
The question I have for you, I've got an issue
my front lawn, which is real small. It's quite probably
not over nine nine hundred maybe a thousand square feet area,
but I had a really bad invasion of some sort

(20:36):
of a very small little plant that starts out with
a little tiny leaf that goes out to the sides,
and then it forms a smaller set and eventually it
ends up making it like an X. And then the
right in the very middle of it, a little yellow
flower pops up and it has covered about eighty percent

(20:59):
of a So I what I tried to do. I
went in with a post emergent type of liquid and
sprayed it and killed all of it. It's all gone now.
And I went in detached, raped and all the necessary stuff,

(21:24):
and tried to put down some Scotts blend bermuda that
has the component in it with the I guess it's
a soil amendment.

Speaker 7 (21:36):
Neal.

Speaker 12 (21:36):
And then you got the coated seed and then you
got the little pellet of fertilizer. And I put it
in probably twenty five days ago when we had the
nice hot weather and everything. I watered it religiously, prayed
over two times a day, and you know, twenty something

(21:57):
days later, become evident that nothing was going to come up.
So okay, in desperation, I call someone, uh and arranged
to have them come and do a hydro steed.

Speaker 4 (22:12):
Okay, so uh yeah, So so Danny on the on
the bottom line on it, what your lawn was? What
kind of grass before all this?

Speaker 12 (22:24):
Well it was originally Saint Augustine Okay, And do.

Speaker 4 (22:29):
You want a Saint Augustine lawn again?

Speaker 9 (22:33):
I would prefer it, but I think it's a little late.

Speaker 12 (22:37):
I start siding in.

Speaker 4 (22:40):
Yeah, but well, I mean you could put it down. Uh,
you know, survivability depends on kind of the kind of
winter we have, but uh, the grassroots just don't want
to grow much, right, now, so it's not a great time.
The problem with overseeding is is a lot of those
blends the grasses don't do well here, and then some

(23:02):
of them have bermuda grass in them, So then now
you've got that in the land, in the flower beds
and stuff to deal with. So it kind of depends
on what you're looking for. But I think if you
like this Saint Augustine, and if you've got some pretty
shady areas, Saint Augustine to be your best choice for shade,
I would, you know, try to get by until we
warm up a little bit in the spring and then

(23:22):
do and start the siding. At that time. You can
sprinkle if you have to have something green out there
on it, you can. You can sprinkle some of the
overseeding rye grass that is sold in a number of
different different places, and it takes sewn to go over
the lawns. I don't recommend overseating, but when you do that,
you're going to have to in the spring then get

(23:44):
rid of that in order to be able to put
your side down, and so that's just extra work. If
there's a way to get by without doing the overseating,
I would avoid that. Extra work.

Speaker 12 (23:57):
Okay, well I do have it is fairly well shaded.
I've got a large tree out there. The gentleman I
spoke to recommended rye bermuda hydro soil.

Speaker 4 (24:10):
Now he should is.

Speaker 12 (24:13):
He had tends to put down an inch or top
soil first, and the way he explained it to me
was that you know, the ryell come up, you can.
I know from from experience you can throw rye out
on a concrete water.

Speaker 4 (24:27):
It don't growth well. So let me just cut to
the chase on this. I got a couple of folks
that are waiting to get on here. If the rye
grass will grow in the cool season, but not after that,
it'll be out in the summer. The bermuda grass now
will be an invasive weed in your Saint Augustine lawn
when you get around to it. And seating bermuda is

(24:48):
not easy and it's not going to come up now.
It won't even think of coming up until we get
into some warmer weather. So I would avoid that personally.
I would go with the side when you can do
the sid And that's my suggestion. But I'm gonna have
to I'm gonna have to run on this one, but
I do appreciate Dan Danny give me a call and
good luck getting to the bottom of that one for sure.

(25:11):
Let's run now out to Eric and Harlingen. Hey Eric,
welcome to garden Line.

Speaker 8 (25:16):
Hey, good morning Skip. Thanks for taking my call. Kind
of segue into my call. I laid down some Santa
Augustine sawd earlier this week and the whole front yard
and looks really good, really green. And my question is
would I want to apply fertilizer on it now or

(25:40):
wait a few weeks to get that first fertilizer on there,
and if so or when, what kind of concentration on
the minerals am I looking for?

Speaker 4 (25:53):
Okay, So I put some schedules online at gardeningwith Skip
dot com and there's there's a lot care schedule and
tells you exactly when to fertilized through the year and
which blends to use. It gives you some examples, both
organic and synthetic options. I would not fertilize now. When
you put a lawn in you they say, don't even

(26:14):
fertilize for the first month, and that's during the growing season.
So when we're in the dormance season like this, you're
just not a lot of the nutrients is going to
get washed away. You're not going to get the benefits
from it. But if any weeds are coming up, they
will take up the nutrients and you'll make your weeds
grow faster. So I would avoid it now. When we
get into spring, about the time you can do an

(26:36):
early fertilization. It's on the schedule as an option. But
about the time you've mowed the lawn twice is when
the most important time to get that fertilization down is
going to be. So that's the route I would go.

Speaker 8 (26:50):
Okay, that's what I'll do. Somebody was told me you
want to put it down when you plant, and I thought, no,
that just doesn't sound right. I think you went your
route established first and then go from there. I'll get
on your schedule with your after we we get into
the new year. I'll get on that schedule.

Speaker 4 (27:08):
Okay. Well, that ought to help you a lot, and
feel free to call back if you have additional questions
about having success. Thanks thanks for your caller. I appreciate
that I got to go to a break here. Charles
and Huntsville. You'll be our first stop when we come back,
all right, welcome back to Guardline. Good to have you
with us this morning. Let's just run right back out
to the phones. By the way, if you'd like to
give me a call seven one three two one two

(27:30):
five eight seven four. We're going to go to Huntsville
and talk to Charles. Hey, Charles, welcome to garden Line.

Speaker 13 (27:35):
Good morning. What is the correct correct pronunciation for the
genus of oak trees? Is it quirkus?

Speaker 4 (27:43):
Yes, that's it. Crkus okayrcus.

Speaker 13 (27:47):
I've got Quirkus macrocarpa. I've got a burrow that my
wife viciously attacked with glacos phosphate by accident and killed.
But it came back and now it's taller than a
five foot chain link fan. But it's got a number
of auxiliary branches. Now we're going to get down into
the twenties here over the end of the week. When

(28:08):
is should I leave the auxiliary branches grow and have
their leaves well that make the tree grow faster, quicker,
and wait to cut them off, or should I cut
them off this winter?

Speaker 4 (28:20):
Yeah, those are great questions. I wouldn't cut them off.
So when that tree comes out in spring, it's going
to put leaves wherever it has branches, and those leaves
are solar panels that fuel the growth of the tree.
So if you cut everything off, you know, ultimately all
you're going to keep out of it long term is
the trunk you have right now, because all the branches

(28:42):
you have are way too low to leave long term.
So what I do is I leave them on. I
call them nurse limbs, And what that means is I'm
going to take my printers and cut the end, oh,
let's say, two inches out of the branch, because I
want the branch to stay and I want it to
have leaves, but I don't want to to start growing
and and taking too much of the growth of the plant.

(29:06):
Where it's branch, it's diameters the same as the branches
that are going to be long term, And so I'll
snip them off and they'll they'll sprout some. But at
the end of the season, if you just tip those things,
they're not going to get very big in diameter, but
you will gain the benefit of the leaves of them.
And I'll do that until they reach almost this with
them with them my thumb about that size, you can

(29:29):
print them off, and it's that tiny little wound, it'll
heal fast, and so any branch that's not permanent. If
you want to take the time to do this, just
snip off the ends and if it re sprouts sideshoots
and tries to do it again later, you can do
it halfway through the season again, but leave those limbs
on them, and about the time again those size take it,
take it off back to the trunk.

Speaker 13 (29:53):
Good. My thinking was actually exactly what she said. So
that's why I wanted to check with the experts.

Speaker 4 (30:01):
I'm glad you ask. All right, well you do that,
and and by the way, the fat the burrokes are slow.
But the best thing you can do for it is
get the grass away from it. And if you can
get that grass away five feet in all directions for
that young tree, that's helpful. If you can go further,
that's even more helpful. But it is gonna It wants

(30:21):
to be in a forest floor, not in a meadow.
And the difference in growth rate in a tree like
that that has had to deal with grass anywhere close
to it versus one that's been kept weed free and
multch it's dramatic. It's almost a double growth rate that
you're going to get out of it, So just keep
that in mind. Oh and one other thing, one other thing, Charles,

(30:44):
you need to buy a hard hat if you're going
to have a burroke because chicken little thought the sky
was falling. You're going you're going to think that a
whole stadium fell on top of you when those things
start popping off the tree. So good luck.

Speaker 13 (30:57):
I grew it. I grew it from an acorn when
we move from Texas and oh, Carrie, okay, with my wife,
I carried away with the glacopos fate, killing the grass
around the chain length thence and managed to manage to
put a quietness on it. So that sounds good for me.

Speaker 8 (31:15):
Do you appreciate that?

Speaker 14 (31:16):
Dolly?

Speaker 4 (31:17):
Are you in Huntsville, Texas now? Or where are No?

Speaker 13 (31:21):
No, No, I'm in Huntsville. I'm north of Huntsville, Alabama.
Oh okay, all right, I'm up here in the cold
great twenty degrees this weekend.

Speaker 4 (31:31):
Well, you were throwing me by the twenty. I was
gonna not gonna go there in the conversation. But I
understand now while you're saying twenty this weekend. Okay, Well,
good good luck with you, Charles. Thanks for your call.
Thank you you take care bye bye. All right, let's
go to Laport now and talk to William. Hey, William,
welcome to garden Line.

Speaker 5 (31:52):
How's it going this morning?

Speaker 4 (31:53):
Skip doing well? Thank you?

Speaker 8 (31:56):
All right? I love the show.

Speaker 5 (31:57):
Hey, I have a question. I had a tree removed
at the stump ground down, and now I need to
fill the whole upright, I was gonna get some bags
of top soil. My question is I've got some it's
gardening sand just to save a little money on the dirt.
And I mixed some sand with the dirt. You know,
I'm gonna put grass back on top of it. Will

(32:18):
that be good? Or should I just go with straight
top soil?

Speaker 4 (32:22):
If you as close as you can get to what
you have in the yard, will give you the most
uniform looking lawn when you're done. And like, let's just
say I'll go to an extreme. But let's say you
put it all sand in that hole, that's gonna be
a very drowdy area. You're you know, you're watering the
rest of the yard enough to keep it looking good,
but t having the water that spot more and so

(32:43):
you're already gonna get even though it was ground there's
a lot of wood chips that are still in the soil,
and as they decompose, that area is gonna sink down.
So I would make it a little raised kind of
a gentle like a pitcher's mound, kind of raised over
it there it will drop down. How high you go,
that's up to you. Depends on how big the hole
was and stuff. But anytime you loosen soil, you end

(33:06):
up with it settling below the level that you thought
it was going to be at.

Speaker 5 (33:12):
All right, Well that answered the question, honey, Maybe I'll
just mix a a little bit of sand. But because
my yard backyard, I mean, it's kind of a sandy
loamy tide, you know.

Speaker 4 (33:21):
So okay, case to what you got?

Speaker 3 (33:26):
You bet?

Speaker 4 (33:26):
Thanks, William, appreciate the call.

Speaker 8 (33:28):
There you go.

Speaker 4 (33:30):
Well, I'm looking at the clock tells me I'm about
to start hearing some music. So I got a little
bit of time here before we go. I'm going to
come back to our discussion about recycling leaves, and I
really want you to hear this that there is it's
it is like nature's on slow release. Fertilizer is falling

(33:50):
on the ground. When we get these cold spells in here,
you know, our lip fall in our area is kind
of what December and the leaves maybe start to build
up in January. It takes a while to get all
those off the tree here because we're so warm. But
they're valuable, and I want to tell you about them,
what they're comprised of, and what they can do for you,

(34:11):
and hopefully talk you out of putting those things at
the curb side because they are that valuable. You're listening
to garden Line, I want to remind you get them
of the website there. As you've heard already this morning.
There's a number of things on there that'll be very
helpful in guiding you. It's gardening with Skip dot com.
That's me garden with me h Gardening with Skip dot Com.

(34:32):
We're going to take a break top of the hour news.
Let's all grab some coffee and we'll meet back here
in just a bit.

Speaker 1 (34:40):
Welcome to kt r H garden Line with Skip rictor.

Speaker 3 (34:53):
Just watch him as.

Speaker 15 (35:00):
So many give thanks to see black dass.

Speaker 3 (35:09):
Not a sign.

Speaker 2 (35:12):
Gay sun beam and down between starting in treating.

Speaker 1 (35:30):
Everything so clean.

Speaker 4 (35:32):
Thanks see all right, Welcome back, folks, Welcome back to
the garden Line. Good to have you with us. If
you would like to ask a question, I'll be happy
to visit with you at seven one three two one
two five eight seven four seven one three two one
two fifty eight seventy four. We're gonna head out to
Hockley now and visit with Ruthie. Uh hey, Ruthie, welcome

(35:55):
back to garden Line.

Speaker 9 (35:57):
Thank you.

Speaker 1 (35:58):
Skip.

Speaker 6 (35:59):
You're talking about leaves, and it brought up a question
I have. I have a pool with trees nearby, and
the wind blows the leaves in the pool. I've always
wondered if the leaves have enough chlorine in them if
I use them for mault to have problems in the
soil with the plants.

Speaker 4 (36:17):
Not at all, No, no problem, I'm good. You just
you use however you wish. They're safe. Yeah, Pert, you
need to put a big hairnut over that tree so
the leaves don't blow in your pool.

Speaker 10 (36:31):
That would be Unfortunately.

Speaker 6 (36:32):
I have about ten trees in my are.

Speaker 4 (36:35):
Yeah yeah, my gosh, okay, well that's no fun having
to fish them out of there.

Speaker 6 (36:41):
No, it's not that I inherited the pools. So anyway,
you do what you do.

Speaker 1 (36:46):
But that's goodn't you?

Speaker 6 (36:47):
Thank you so much?

Speaker 4 (36:49):
All right, RUTHI, thanks for the call, appreciate that very much.
All right, you were listening to guard Line and we
are talking about all kinds of gardening things today. Uh,
if I make it all the way, I'm on the
topic of leaves right now. First of all, I was
just a while back, I was talking about the fact
that grass plants their roots live about a year and
so slowly over time. If you were to do a

(37:10):
time lapse photography underground, imagine this. You know, you're taking
two or three years and putting it in a few seconds.
So you watch this root grow down and then it
shrivels and dies and rots away and essentially turns into
a tiny amount of compost. And the soil that grass

(37:30):
is always building its own soil that way. Second, the
sole quality in terms of texture, not texture, structure of
the soil, you know, with the ability of it to
take in water and whatnot. So the leaves I want
to talk about leaves. Did you know that over the
course of a season, about three fourths of the nutrients

(37:52):
a tree takes up or in its leaves. If you
look at wood, like the like the two by four
inside the tree, right, if you just look at that wood.
There is not a lot of nutrient content in there,
you know, if you're talking about all these things like
macronutrients nitrogen, phosphorus, potassium, and micronutrients like manganese and zinc
and iron and things, there's not a lot to it.

(38:14):
But in the leaves as there, especially as they're healthy
and green and growing and then they fall, there's a
lot of nutrient content to those. And so when you
rake up leaves or have somebody rake them up for
you and put them in a bag and take them
to the curb side, it's the same thing as it's
the same thing as catching your grass clippings and putting

(38:39):
in a bag putting them at curbside. When you do that,
you are throwing away nature's own slow release fertilizer. You are,
I like to say, renting fertilizer because you buy it,
you pay for it, and then you grow a plant
with it, and then you take that plant it's full
of those nutrients and you put it at the curb

(38:59):
and someone can reas it away, so you lose the nutrients.
That's why I say you're renting nutrients, you're not buying nutrients.
And that doesn't make sense. I understand there's a lot
of green waste in the landscaping. Sometimes you do have
things you're getting rid of and whatnot. I get it.
But by and large, if you can take your leaves
and find a way to recycle them, I mean, they
make machines for grinding them up. What I typically do

(39:22):
with mine is I'll put a catcher on the mower
and I'll just mow over them, catching the leaves and
the mower it chops them up a little bit. Some
people will use their mower and they'll mow blowing out
the chuot toward the center. So like you're going in
a big circle, work in your way toward the center,
and every time you mow over leaves, you're you're chopping
them up again. And you can break them up pretty

(39:44):
good that way, and then capture them and use them,
or you can use them whole. Whole leaves tend to
blow away, though, especially larger leaves you know, sycamore leaf
or a maple leaf or something compared to a little
tiny live oak leaf's not going to blow away. It's
hard to pick up live oak leaf anyway. My more
didn't pick them up very well. But those leaves contain
those nutrients, and so why not put those down. You

(40:09):
can do one of several things. You could compost them
and then just use that material. And you don't have
to have a formal compost pile to do this. If
you pile things up like leaves and let them stay
wet out there in the environment, they're going to decompose
in time. Composts does happen in nature period. We may
not refer to it as composting because it's such an

(40:31):
incredibly slow process, but it does happen, and you can
do that at your house. Or what I do is
I use them for mulches. There's places where I don't
want leaf mulches. It's an aesthetic kind of thing. But
sometimes when I'm even buying a mulch, I'll lay down
some leaves first, not real thick layer, and then put

(40:52):
a pretty mulch up on top of them. If you
don't want to look at leaves as a mulch, but
I'm just telling you you got some valuable stuff there. Now.
The grass clippings the same thing. Do you know that
over the course of a season, you follow my schedule,
let's say, and you fertilize two or three times a year,
and at the end of the season, and you mow
your lawn all year, do you know at the end

(41:13):
of the season your lawn more puts out more nutrients
than your fertilizer spreader. Let that sink in just a minute.
If you took all the grass clippings for a year
of mowing, and you took them, send them to a
lab and say what is in these and how much
you you would have put out more nutrients with your

(41:34):
lawn mower than you did with your fertilizer spreader. So
does that mean if you recycle clippings you don't fertilize. No,
it doesn't. It doesn't mean that. But what it does
mean is that if you don't recycle clippings, you're going
to end up fertilizing more to have the same result. Plus,
it's not just the nutrients, it's the it's the organic material.

(41:54):
Those leaves of the grass, the grass blades, they're chopped up,
they're dropped on the surface and it's sort of like
a little mulch. Each time you mow, you're putting a
little bit of a mulch on the surface. So the
amount of light reaching the weed seeds down there is
a little less I'm not going to say that if
you recycle clippings, you don't you never have weeds. I'm
just saying that you're putting that organic matter on the surface.

(42:16):
Microbes get a hold of it. They're very happy with that,
and they go to town and it just makes your
soil healthier and which makes plants healthier. And it makes sense.
It was back in the I don't know, probably in
the fifties and nineteen fifties when we discovered we needed
to mow our lawns. I guess the days that we
quit having a castle with a large meadow around us,

(42:36):
and sheep were our lawnmowers on the grass. But seriously,
you don't need to recycle. Nature recycles naturally. You can too.
Don't back it. I've got a t shirt that says it.
And so when it comes to leaves, same concept. Just
consider that I go up and down the street and

(43:02):
I pick up and throw leaves bags in the back
my neighbors, and you get pretty good at it. You
can look at a bag and you can go, you
know what, that's got a lot of sticks in it.
I see them poking out. I'm not gonna take that one,
and then you see another one. You can just tell
this is a good one. Occasionally get some surprises, but overall,
I need a lot of leaves. Excuse me. When I

(43:23):
was horticulturist and Montgomery County at the extension office, we
had a little thirty by thirty area vegetable garden. And
you're not going to leave this, but we put over
a hundred bags of leaves in that vegetable garden over
the course of a year. Now, if you put them
all at once, you couldn't get in the garden, I

(43:44):
mean to be real deep. But we put them in
the rows, walked on and put them in the rose
walked on and put them rose walked on them. And
at the end of the year we had this leafmoll compost.
It was wonderful in the walkways, put it up in
the beds. I'm telling you there's a lot of ways
to use this stuff. All right, Well, enough of that,
Let's take a little break and we'll come back with
your calls at seven one, three fifty eight seventy four.

(44:04):
Who knows who that is? Who knows who that is?
I'll give you a hint. It's a singing cowboy.

Speaker 9 (44:12):
There we go.

Speaker 4 (44:13):
I guess there's a lot of those around.

Speaker 14 (44:14):
Now.

Speaker 4 (44:15):
Hey, let's go out to the phones. By the way,
welcome back to the garden line. Uh, we're going to
head out to Lake Conroe and visit with get to
our day this morning. Hey, David.

Speaker 16 (44:24):
Genauxrey, there you go.

Speaker 4 (44:29):
That's it, that's it. Remember the old days when there
were the the uh Westerns, the singing cowboys and Roy
Rogers and all that. You always knew who the good
guys and the bad guys were by the color of
the hats they wore. You know, the bad guys always
had to wear black hats, and the good guys wore
black hat so you knew.

Speaker 5 (44:49):
I know.

Speaker 16 (44:50):
Yeah, No, no compost you were reading my mind the
compost stuff, man. And oh real quick out here on
Lake Conro, how can you see past the floor in
the car all already? I'm sitting there looking and there's
people watching out of here. I hope they're going to
put their life on a good but anyway, but anyway,
no on the compost files. Yeah, man, we grew up

(45:11):
doing that. But refresh my memory, okay, now that I'm
over here. We used to just go back to the
corner far back corner and uh and and and you
till up a little bit of area and then or
else take the grass and play in it somewhere else
where you need it. And then you just in that

(45:31):
one corner. You'd always put like your uh leaves or
grass clippings or anything in there. Plus uh I know,
my my mom and my ants, ants and stuff, they
would put coffee grinds, eggshells out there, and and uh
any kind of like if you got a piece of sail,
reach made or anything like that, or vegetable what puts

(45:54):
that out there and turn it around a little bit,
and then you'll get some good decomposion, you know.

Speaker 4 (46:00):
There you go, all right, yeah, yeah, that's how it's
always been done. Nature. Nature did it before we start gardening.
So that's the way to go.

Speaker 16 (46:10):
Hey, Dave, I appreciate.

Speaker 17 (46:13):
What I'm thinking about is I'm going to get a
couple of two by six's and cording it off and
then put some uh topsail in there, and then started
going so all right.

Speaker 4 (46:24):
Well you can do that. You can certainly do that,
all right.

Speaker 16 (46:28):
Appreciate I learned every day? Yeah, yeah, thank you.

Speaker 4 (46:32):
Well that's a good day. When you learn something that's
for sure, absolutely for sure.

Speaker 2 (46:38):
Uh.

Speaker 4 (46:39):
I always, I jokingly say, tell my friends, it's like
it's a good day. When I get up. I always
read the obituaries first in the morning, and if I'm
not in them, I know it's going to be a
good day. I always know it's good. So you might
won't take that Take that, adjude. There's a T shirt
actually that I am interested in, interested in getting, and

(47:03):
it says this. It says beware of gardens. They speak
softly of enoughness in a culture addicted to more noise
and constant progress. I can go out and sit in
a garden and do nothing and just just watch the
insects and the plants and flowers, whatever's going on, and

(47:24):
just enjoy being out there. And I like, I like
to say I'm biased. I'm biased, but that doesn't mean
i'm wrong.

Speaker 2 (47:31):
Uh.

Speaker 4 (47:32):
And in that I believe we're made for a garden,
and I just think that's where we're happiest. I don't
think you've ever heard the story of the Cubicle of Eden,
have you, No, sir, that's the garden man. We're made
to garden. It's it's a peaceful place and then pius.
The scientific research where people are are evaluated, you know,

(47:53):
kids with ADHD, people that are older, dealing with dementia,
people that are dealing with depression, is shoot, all kinds
of things. The benefit of being around plants or just
being around nature, you know, walking through the forest even,
there's so much benefit to that. And I think it
helps to have a place where you can slow down
those of you. I'm pitching to the choir here. You

(48:15):
guys already know this, but anyway, I thought that was
a cool shirt. You're listening to Guarden Line the phone
number seven one three two one two five eight seven four.
I was talking about, you know, recycling these things and
how nature recycles naturally. The end result of organic matter
becoming soil is called humus. You know we that leaf

(48:37):
turns into leaf mold, the leaf mold turns into compost,
the compost turns into humus. That's the final stage. And
you can actually cut to the end of the line
or at the front of the line on this by
applying a humus type product, a humate type product.

Speaker 5 (48:56):
Uh.

Speaker 4 (48:56):
The folks at Medina, for example, they've got humate humic acid,
and it's like concentrated compost in a bottle, and when
you put that down in your soil, you're benefiting the soil.
It benefits physical properties of the soil. You know, the
soil has got its micro and macronutrients that are in
the humus as well because it came from plants that

(49:16):
had those nutrients. It enhances the nutrient release and the
soil and it just benefits the soil in a lot
of ways. And the folks at Medina have put that
in a bottle. It's called liquid humus are humde humic acid.
So another one that they have is liquid seaweed too,
by the way, and I think you should always have
that on him because seaweed. A while back I did

(49:40):
a search of research. I just won't find all the
research I could on seaweed. Solid research, not just like yeah,
I used it and it worked, stories, but solid research
on it, and I was amazed. And all over the world.
Different types of seaweed occur all over the world, and
they each have their own benefits. But there is a
lot of different things it seaweed does to help help plants.

(50:02):
It helps plants when they're stressed, for example. That is
one of the benefits that it has It does provide
some nutrients as well as growth stimulants and other things.
And check out Medina. They've got a little court jar.
I believe it's a quarter pint. I believe it's anyway
small jar of liquid seaweed that has a little side

(50:23):
bottle that's part molded into the plastic and so you
can dose it really easy. It's your little measuring cups
right there attached to the bottle and stuff works very
very well. I've used it myself. Medina Liquid Seaweed Products.
Check that out. It's available all over town. Garden Center,
Speed Stores, Ace Hardware Stores, a Southwest Fertilizer. You're going
to find it Medina products in many, many kinds of places,

(50:46):
that's for sure. Well, so what are we talking about today?
I have been discussing leaf recycling and trying to talk
you into doing what nature does and taking the nutrients
that came from those organic materials that are in your
yard and recycling them back into the landscape the garden.

(51:09):
However you want to go about it, I'd say the
lowest hanging fruit, that the easiest, the most important probably
is recycling your grass clippings. Right behind it is recycling
the fallen leaves that you have nature's own free, slow
release fertilizer. And let me let me make one other point,
And if you think about this, you'll realize I'm right.

(51:31):
When a tree forms a leaf, when a grass forms
a grass blade, in order to form that blade, it
needs sixteen nutrients roughly to form that blade, because they're essential.
You can't make, you can't do. You can't grow a
plant without these nutrients, right could. They're essential, That's what
essential means. And so in that blade there's not a

(51:55):
lot of iron and almost no zinc or no nitrogen
or something. It's all in a ratio. There's a ratio
like you're building a plant part. And that ratio is
the perfect ratio that plants need because that's what they
use to build the grass blade, to build the tree leaf.
And so when that thing falls or when it gets
cuts off, cut off by your lawn mower in your hand,

(52:17):
there you've got the perfect blend of nutrients, and you
have all the nutrients. There is zinc in every grass clipping,
there is manganese in every grass clipping. You see what
I'm saying. And so nature's own slow release fertilizers, they
should not be allowed to leave your place. Whether they're malts,
whether they're composts, however you want to use them to

(52:38):
improve the soil, take advantage of it. All right, Well,
that was my appeal is a little a little long,
but hopefully it's caused you to think about some things.
Be very helpful. Nelson Nursery and Water Gardens is they've
got your Christmas trees ready to go out there. They
have In fact, if you don't have room for a
Christmas tree, they have a little decorated Norfolk Island pines

(53:00):
that are kind of cool. I like those. The Norfolk
is one of my favorite house plants because it's extremely tough.
It does very very well. But anyway, Nelson Water Gardens,
all you have to do is head on out there.
You go to Katie, You turn north on Katie Fort
Ben Road and a little bit up the street on
the right hand side, there you go. They've also got

(53:22):
a nice set of vegetables in the inside is always
beautiful and there's one of my first stops as I
go to the inside, just to look at all the
gorgeous houseplants, and boy do they ever have some nice ones.
Nelson Nursery and watergardens out in Katie. Nelson Watergardens dot com.
That's the website, Nelsonwatergardens dot com. That is your destination

(53:43):
nursery for the west side of Houston. It is, and
people do come from a distance.

Speaker 3 (53:48):
To go there.

Speaker 4 (53:50):
Well, I'm about to hit a little break here and
if we can agree to this, I'm gonna go get
me some coffee. You do the same thing if you
drink coffee or tea or whatever, and we'll meet right
back here in just a little bit. If you do
have a question, here is a phone number. Wyant you
write this one down seven one three two one two
five eight seven four seven one three two one two

(54:13):
fifty eight seventy four. Give my producer a call and
get on the boards. We got open, open boards right now.
So it be one of those times unless everybody else
hears me and does the same thing, where you can
get in pretty quick. All right, we bear it back.
All right, we're back. Welcome back to Guardline. Good to
have you with us this morning. Listen, you got some

(54:35):
holiday shopping still left to do. I suspect I know
I do. Ace hardware stores are ready to go. If
you have just gotten you a nice Christmas tree and
you would like some cool lights to put on it.
Stop by your local Ace Hardware store. They are loaded
up on holiday lighting of all kinds, all kinds of
holiday lighting. A lot of stores even have a thing
called lights about a foot, which basically it's what you

(54:59):
would think. You go, well, I need a light that's
this long, and they create that for you and it works.
You can take it home, so you don't have the
wonder you know, what am I going to do with
all these extra lights? Or I didn't quite have enough
to reach the top of the tree. You can buy
lights by the foot at a Ace Hardware store. They
also are ready to go with all kinds of cool

(55:19):
stuff for the do it your suffer in your list.
So if you or someone you know is into Milwaukee
Tools or Stanley or Black and Decker, Craftsmen, de Walt,
all those brands, they've got really nice stuff ready to
go for you there. I like Dewant myself, that's happens
to be the one. I use lots of other good ones,

(55:41):
but Ace Hardware is where you can get that. Also
at a hardware stores. If you know someone who loves
barbecuing or cooking or any kind of indoor decorating things
just to make the home a little more homeie. Create
that ambiance that you want in your home. You're going
to find it at ACE Hardware, a hardware Texas dot Com. Now,

(56:02):
of course they also have all the hardware stuff that
goes without saying. But I'm telling you, you go to
your local Ace Hardware store and you're going to find
that it is not what you would have expected if
you haven't been in one Ace Hardware Texas dot Com
stores like up Northeast Crosby Ace on FM twenty one hundred.

(56:23):
How about Deer Parkace on the Eastside on Center Street,
Plantation Ace on Mason Road. That's the Richmond Rosenberg area
down there. There's a port Lovaca ACE on Calhoun Plaza.
We got Cypress ACE on Jones Road. I used to
live down the street from that one. That was when
I lived up in Cypress. That was where I went.
Brenna Mace on North Austin Parkway, Champions Ace on Spring

(56:46):
Cypress up in Spring. How about this Katie Hardware on
Pinoak and Old Town Katie. That's another one right there.
Lots of good Ace Hardware stores. Just go to Ace
Hardware Texas. Don't forget the word Texas that puts you
in my group of ACE Hardware stores here in our region.
ACE Hardware Texas dot com. I I was making a

(57:09):
list the other day of some publications that I want
to get written for the website that I want to
write get written. Kind of language is that I want
to write for the website to put up. And what
happens here for me is, you know, I get the
same questions over and over again, and that is okay
with me. By the way, I've said this before, but

(57:30):
I think I'll say it again because we always have
new new listeners and things.

Speaker 8 (57:34):
Uh.

Speaker 4 (57:35):
The way I look at garden line calls is there
are no stupid questions, just stupid answers. So the pressures
on me, I'll worry about the stupid answer and avoid that.

Speaker 8 (57:46):
Uh.

Speaker 4 (57:46):
You just ask your question because other people are gonna
have the same kinds of questions.

Speaker 8 (57:51):
Uh.

Speaker 4 (57:51):
And and you'll you'll be surprised. You may be a
total novice and think, oh my gosh, I'm gonna look
I'm gonna look stupid if I ask this question.

Speaker 5 (57:58):
No, no, you're not.

Speaker 4 (58:00):
You're not. Everybody listen, there's a lot of people out
there that are starting gardening and don't know even where
to begin. There's unfortunately also a lot of people out
there that think they know a lot, and they're wrong
about some of the things they know. We're all that
way to some degree or another. I can't remember. Was
it sounds like something Were Rogers or Mark Twain would

(58:22):
have said, but it was half of being smart is
knowing what you're dumb at. I think that's a very
good quote. I try to keep that in mind myself.
But anyway, feel free to call. You've got a question,
You're welcome to do it. We want you to have success.
Gardening is the greatest hobby there is, and you need
to have fun. And what my goal is guard Line,

(58:43):
is to make this place where you can have that
beautiful landscape you want. You can have the bountiful garden
that you want, and in the process of doing that,
you can have a lot of fun. And I got
to warn you, gardening is addictive. There's probably a wing
of the Betty Ford Clinic for gardeners. At least there
needs to be, because some people kind of go a
little bit nuts, especially when you get into one particular

(59:05):
kind of plant that's how we get the plant societies.
You know people that are I want to form the
bal mass Society. I'm ninety Well, I'm one hundred percent
sure there isn't one, but I thought that would be
kind of cool to form the ball Moss Society. So well,
we will start to collect various types of ball moss
and have our ball mass shows and things like that.

(59:28):
I'm playing with you, but you get the idea. It's fun.
You do what you want. Also about rules, now, if
you want me to tell you all the gardening rules,
I can do that. I can tell you that when
you do flower beds, you need to get that color
wheel and you need to pick flowers that are on
opposite sides of the color wheel, or make a triangle
across the color wheel and have that tertiary combination of colors.

(59:48):
I can tell you all that stuff. It's your yard.
What do you want to look at? You do it,
it's seen you and the hoa. If you do it
in the backyard, maybe it's not between you and the hoa,
it's just you. However you want. I can suggest ways
of landscaping that makes it look better from the street,
that wei ways that makes it easier to take care of.

(01:00:10):
But the bottom line is, it's your space, it's your palette.
You can do whatever you want. I suspect at one
point in time or another you had a picture on
your refrigerator, drawn by a child or a grandchild or something,
or maybe it was a finger painting that was set there,
and I mean Picasso would have looked at it and gone,

(01:00:32):
what on earth is that? But but you loved it.
It was pretty for you, it was it meant something
to you. That's how your garden is, That's how your
landscape is. You do what you want out in the landscape.
All right, let's just agree to that right now. All right, Well,
I'll stop talking here. We need to go out and

(01:00:52):
talk to a caller. We're going to go out and
talk to Herda in Spring Branch. Herda, it is good
to hear from you again.

Speaker 18 (01:00:59):
Oh, thank you. Good morning to you.

Speaker 4 (01:01:03):
Well, good morning to you.

Speaker 18 (01:01:06):
I have two baby magnolia trees. They're about, I guess
maybe twenty inches tall, fifteen twenty What is I'm giving
them away to friends? I have a huge magnoli yard.
What's the best time to move them? And what's the

(01:01:29):
best procedure?

Speaker 4 (01:01:33):
So they're growing in the ground, not in a pot.

Speaker 18 (01:01:35):
Correct in the ground, Yes, sir, under the parent now.

Speaker 4 (01:01:42):
Is the best time. But I gotta tell you, magnolias
don't like being moved. That it can be done, and
the fact that yours are so small is a good thing.
But you need to dig down. Get whatever roots you
count or have you know, have the people that are
you're giving them to come up and dig them up
for you. But dig down and get those roots out. Immediately,

(01:02:03):
wrap those roots up, keep them moist, and when you
get ready to plant them, put them in the ground
at the same level that they were in your yard.
Don't bury them deeper or more shallow, and water the
soil as you fill up the hole so it settles
in and gets rid of any air pockets in there.
But the main thing is don't let them dry out.

(01:02:24):
Get as much of the roots as you can, don't
let them dry out, and get them in the ground quick.
That is the secret if you're going to give it
its best shot.

Speaker 18 (01:02:32):
All right, Thank you very much, you Merry Christmas and
a blessed New Year to you and your family, well
to all of us.

Speaker 4 (01:02:40):
Really, there you go the same for you, hurt it
and thank you very much. I appreciate your call. That
is not hadn't heard from herd in a while. That's
good to hear from her begin it's Native plants in
the Heights. Boy, they just had a big shinda yesterday
and I hope you got out there to see it.
It was it was something they always do that at Buchanans.

(01:03:02):
You know, Buchanan's Native Plants is the place with the
biggest selection of natives anywhere in our region. But natives
aren't the majority of the plants in Buchanan's Plants. They
have lots of other kinds of plants, houseplants, tropical houseplants
and things they've got, you know, vegetables and herbs and

(01:03:23):
all kinds of other things. But if you're looking for natives,
this is a place that's going to give you the
best selection of anywhere. And the folks know what they're
talking about. At Buchanans.

Speaker 18 (01:03:30):
They do.

Speaker 4 (01:03:31):
They are plant experts. And if you go in and
you say, look, i've got an area, and here is
how much sun it gets and here is I don't know,
you give them all the parameters and you say I
want something that's native that's going to bring in hummingbirds,
or I want something that's going to be a butterfly
larval food source. They can take you right to it
and help you create what you're looking to create at

(01:03:53):
your house. Eleventh Street in the Heights, buchanans Plants dot Com.
Let's take a little break, good morning on a beautiful
Sunday morning, a little hope for Manheim steam Roller. Here
we are on guarden line, ready for any kind of
gardening discussions you would like to have. It could be
I don't know, it could be about seeding, starting seeds,

(01:04:15):
or we're about to get in the big middle of
that here as we get through the holidays. Seven one
three two one two five eight seven four seven one
three two one two fifty eight seventy four. All right, well,
I've already done my best pitch of trying to talk
you into not letting a leaf leave the property or
whether it's a grass leaf or a tree leaf and

(01:04:37):
all the value in them. And I bet you you
hadn't thought about tree about leaves being like the perfect
plant food. I do want to clarify one thing about that,
and that is that you know, as that leaf dries out,
things like nitrogen as it gets rained on and washed on.
Even a little bit of potassium can wash out of

(01:04:58):
a leaf as it's as it is just laying there.
But the bottom line is that it's a good nutrient content.
You need to keep it, keep it, keep advantage of it,
take advantage of it. I would suggest some ideas for
Christmas gifts this morning. I would like to do that.
So if you've got a gardener in your list, or
maybe you're gonna buy something for yourself, which you know

(01:05:19):
people do that, especially when it doesn't show up and
hit the tree or something. It's like, yeah, I'm gonna
get it myself. Now. Well, here's here's a few that
a few things that I really like. One thing that
I enjoy is making gardening easier on me. And when
I when I somewhere around age forty, I woke up

(01:05:43):
one morning hurting sore and I couldn't remember why. And
now that was because my memory was faulty. It's just
because things that used to not make me sore suddenly
made me sore.

Speaker 9 (01:05:57):
And so.

Speaker 4 (01:05:59):
When you can do things, it makes it easier on you.
That makes gardening better as you get older. As we
get older, the you know, issues like your joints in
your hands and stuff. It may not just be authritis,
but it could just be other joint wear and tear
and stuff. Ergonomic tools are very very helpful for that,
and there's some really nice designs, from hand prunters to

(01:06:21):
spades and trials and things. There are really nice tools
on the market. And I'm a tool nut. I love
quality tools. But the first thing I want to put
on the list idea here is a kneeling bench. And
you've heard me talk about these before. There's a lot
of different types out there. You can spend a moderate

(01:06:42):
amount of money on them, or you can spend a
lot of money on some of them that are just
built different. But the bottom line on a kneeling bench
is you flip it one way and you sit on it,
and so you can work on you know, the tomato
plants or rose bushes or whatever that's right there in
front of you. It makes it real easy to get
You don't have to go all the way down to
your knees. If you do go down to your knees

(01:07:03):
and get up over and over again, you know what
that does and how that you pay for that in
the next day are actually two days is even worse
than day one. But if you flip a kneeling bench over,
it has a pad on the underside of the seat
where you can kneel, and then when you're done doing
your work, you just grab what was the legs and

(01:07:24):
they're handles for you to push back up and get
back up again. And you may be thinking, Okay, I'm
not that decrepit. Well, I won't tell you something. You
don't have to be that decrepit. I mean, if you
are doing a lot of work and you're getting up
and down and up and down and doing whatever. I
do that when I'm pulling weeds in the yard, for example,
and you could almost use a little kneeling benches, it'd

(01:07:45):
be like a walker, but you're on your knees, you know,
you're just kind of moving it in front of you
as you go across the yard. I have a neighbor
that doesn't do anything to stop their weeds. They produce
copious amounts of weed seed, and I have to deal
with those weed seeds, so I have to do that myself.
In the art kneeling bench is a really good gift
and people will like it. And again, you don't have

(01:08:07):
to be old to enjoy and benefit from it for sure,
So that would be item number one. Another one that
I like a lot is called a soil knife. Now
a soil knife imagine a big, old, giant booie knife,
but it's a very thick blade that's cupped just a
little bit instead of Well, some of them are perfectly flat,

(01:08:29):
but some of them are a little bit like a scoop,
and they have a point on the end and they
have serration on one side. So I use that if
I'm breaking up soil, just you know, like you're stabbing
the soil. Using it that way, you can turn it
around like you would normally hold a knife, and you
can go in and take out a plant roots with

(01:08:51):
the serrated edge of it. It is good for planting.
They usually have marks on them for how deep like
inch marks is you go up. Some of them even
have a little bottle open or a twine cutter up
at the top. And you can spend a lot of money.
You can spend just a moderate amount of money on them.
They're not that expensive. They come in scabbards too. But

(01:09:11):
I'm telling you I use my soil knife for lots
of things. But didn't mean you don't need any other
tools by any means. It is a very handy little
tool and I love it. In fact, I actually have
three of them just to collected them over the years.
But they are a very very good tool, and I
think a gardener, especially one who's digging in the dirt
kind of gardener, they would appreciate that a lot. I

(01:09:35):
remember one year I had a little patch of corn,
the corn stalks. At the end of the season, I
like to leave the roots in the ground and not
dig everything out of the ground. So I just use
my soul a knife and cut off all those brace
roots off the corn, took the stalks out, and right
in behind them went some lettuce transplants and spinach transplants.
It's an idea, all right. Maybe we'll talk about some

(01:09:57):
other gifts as we flow along. Also, even Conrad, you're
going to be our first caller up, will we come
back from the top of the hour news.

Speaker 1 (01:10:07):
Welcome to kat r H Garden Line with Skip Rictor.

Speaker 3 (01:10:10):
It's shoes crazy gas trim. You just watch him as well. Boss.

Speaker 15 (01:10:26):
Many things to sup bot Bazy gases like gas you.

Speaker 3 (01:10:34):
Back again, not a sorry glass.

Speaker 2 (01:10:38):
Gas sun Bemon down tweets Gas.

Speaker 3 (01:10:50):
Starting.

Speaker 4 (01:10:50):
Hey, welcome back, Welcome back to Guardline, folks. Good to
have you with us, looking forward to it. I have
coming up a very special guest, Pen Pinnock, author of
Gardens of Texas, is going to be with us for
a little while here talking about this new book. And
you need to hang on and hear this because if

(01:11:12):
you have family anywhere in Texas that has any interest
in gardening whatsoever, they're going to need a copy of
this book. It is amazing and you'll hear more about it,
but just hang on for that. You're going to want
to copy for of it yourself, that's for sure. We're
going to start though, by heading out to Conroe and
visiting with Steve just a little bit. Hey Steve, welcome

(01:11:34):
to garden Line.

Speaker 19 (01:11:36):
But good mornings, gid.

Speaker 4 (01:11:38):
Morning.

Speaker 19 (01:11:40):
I've got a habanero and a couple of battle pepper
plants still looking really good. I want to know if
I trim some of the leaves off and some of
the small fruits that I know are not going to
get big right now, would that kind of help the
plant to go ahead and mature and ripen some of
these fruits on here?

Speaker 4 (01:11:59):
Well, general, you know when you when you reduce the
amount of fruit set on a plant, more energy can
go into the fruits that remain. I don't know that
it's going to be appreciable because with the temperatures dropping
like they're about to. Uh, it's it's that hoben arrow
is gonna be shutting down.

Speaker 10 (01:12:14):
Uh.

Speaker 4 (01:12:15):
And by the way, sometimes people, if you really like
the plant and you want to, you can dig that
up and pot it up and uh leave it outside
during milder days and bring it into the garage or
something and keep it until next year and put it
back in the ground and keep going.

Speaker 5 (01:12:32):
Uh trouble last year that I did that with?

Speaker 4 (01:12:36):
Oh they are okay, good? Yeah?

Speaker 8 (01:12:37):
Yeah?

Speaker 5 (01:12:38):
Is this a real is that I'm not going to
do it?

Speaker 4 (01:12:42):
Okay? Is this a real hobinaro? Hot hobinaro? Is this
one of the new modern varieties.

Speaker 19 (01:12:48):
It's a hot habinarrow.

Speaker 5 (01:12:49):
It was a ball in two. But they're hot?

Speaker 4 (01:12:52):
Okay?

Speaker 8 (01:12:52):
All right?

Speaker 4 (01:12:53):
Well I actually tried two types of hobornaros that are
much much milder. And I know what people are thinking, well,
why grow hobnaro if it's not hot? Right, But I'm
telling you favor you get that flavor, you get the
flavor of it, and uh uh some the same thing
is true with the uh telapanios. If you if you're

(01:13:14):
making hot sauce, you would like to have a jlopenia
with almost no heat in it, because you can always
add a little bit of heat in to make your mild,
your medium, or your hot hot sauce, and you're more
in control of it that way. But anyway, that's that's
being done with hobn arrows now too, all of them. Steve. Uh,
I wish you well with it. Good luck.

Speaker 19 (01:13:32):
I'm gonna hold on as long as I can on
the vine, and when I watch the temperatures and if
it gets lower, I'll get all the fruits off that
I can.

Speaker 4 (01:13:39):
There you go, that's that's the plan. You take care,
Thank you, sir. All right, all right, uh let's uh
let's move over. I'm gonna bring Pam Pinic on now
and we're gonna talk about this book.

Speaker 3 (01:13:51):
Pam, are you there, I'm here.

Speaker 10 (01:13:54):
How are you doing?

Speaker 8 (01:13:55):
Skip well?

Speaker 3 (01:13:57):
I'm good.

Speaker 4 (01:13:58):
How long has it been since we talked? Ages?

Speaker 19 (01:14:00):
Right?

Speaker 10 (01:14:01):
I has probably been about five years? Maybe I think
that sound about right?

Speaker 4 (01:14:06):
Good? Yeah, I spent folks that are listening. I spent
a number of years in Austin as part of my
horticulture career and got to meet a lot of wonderful people,
including this lady right here, Panpanic. She's an author of
a number of different books, and her latest one is
just It's you know, there are not many books, Pam,
that I would tell people, I don't care where you

(01:14:29):
live or what you're do in gardening, you need this book.
But this is This is the case with this one,
because when I first picked it up, I couldn't put
it down. First of all, kudos to the photographer. Oh
my gosh, yes.

Speaker 14 (01:14:42):
Oh mynysome job he did.

Speaker 10 (01:14:44):
Kenny Brawn worked with me on this book. Yeah, and
he took the most gorgeous photos across the entire state.
And it does just really shine because of those photos.
And I really appreciate what you just said about the book.
It's that's an honor for me to hear that. Very flattering.
I've been thinking about this book for about ten years,
so it's so thrilling to me to now have it

(01:15:06):
in print and be able to share it with everybody.

Speaker 4 (01:15:10):
I can imagine. I mean this when I think about
the amount of work that went into producing something like this,
Oh my goodness, you've created you know better than well yeah, yeah,
I think I happy Hatchet is your one of your publishers,
right or is that not right?

Speaker 10 (01:15:30):
Yeah, Timber Press, and they're they're owned by Hashat.

Speaker 2 (01:15:32):
Yeah.

Speaker 4 (01:15:34):
Okay, Well anyway, why don't you tell all our listeners
kind of the overview of what this book is.

Speaker 10 (01:15:43):
Well, I meant it to be really like taking a
garden tour across Texas. I wanted to show, you know,
the kind of gardening that people are doing, the diversity
of it. I wanted to show off the beautiful gardens
that I knew I was seeing across Texas whenever I
traveled and went on garden tours, and I just felt like,
you know, we didn't really have that. Whenever I picked
up a book that was kind of showing off gorgeous gardens,

(01:16:06):
it was always on the coast, you know, like the
East coast or the West coast, or maybe the Upper Midwest.
I don't know, but it just was never Texas. Like
maybe you'd get lucky if there was one Texas garden
in it. And so I knew that we needed a
book like that to show off Texas. And then too,
you know, especially since Winter Storm Mury, I just felt like, man,
the weather's getting more extreme. And my gardening friends and

(01:16:29):
I were always talking about it, and like, okay, well
we knew that Texas, you know, like all these years,
all these decades of gardening, it's you know, the challenge
has always been how do we get through the summer?
How do we get through the summer? And then boom,
all of a sudden, it seemed like we had to
start thinking harder about winters too, And so I wanted
to go across the state and talk with gardeners everywhere

(01:16:49):
and just say, hey, how are you thinking about these
weather extremes, these weather patterns, What are you doing differently?
Are you doing anything differently? Just how are you gardening?
And why are you gardening? Because Texas is a challenging
place to garden, and so you know, I wanted to
find out what motivated people and why they were excited
about it, and I really wanted to deliver that people

(01:17:11):
and show people not only what gardeners here are capable of,
but also you know, like pull gardening lessons or design
ideas from each one of those gardens that people could
take home to their own gardens. Just kind of provide
some of that practical information too.

Speaker 4 (01:17:27):
Yeah, and that comes out in the book.

Speaker 19 (01:17:30):
You know.

Speaker 4 (01:17:30):
As I read, I just I'm drawn in to the
stories the people in the gardens. And of course you
did an awesome job, by the way, on writing to
make it a really readable book. You know, there's a
lot of there's a lot of coffee table books that
have pretty pictures in them, like you mentioned that are
out there, but this one, it was impressive. She has

(01:17:51):
a section for Central Texas, for West Texas, for South Texas,
from North Texas, and for East Texas. So there's gardens
from Houston in the book over here the folks that
live in this area. And I just think it is
it is inspirational because as you look through it, I
can't tell you how many times I went, I want
to be that at my house. Oh I like the
way they did that, or that was really creative to

(01:18:14):
do that that way. And unfortunately, unfortunately we have to
take commercial breaks to pay the bills. Hang on just
a minute if you can, can you hang on and
we come back after.

Speaker 16 (01:18:26):
Breaks of course?

Speaker 4 (01:18:27):
Yeah, yeah, okay, all right, all right, we'll be right back. Folks.
Welcome back to Guardline. Good to have you with us, Listen.
I was talking earlier today about the importance of recycling
our organic materials into the soil and the folks at microlife.
That is what they're all about. If you look at

(01:18:47):
the products that they have. For example, they have the
liquid grow excuse me, micro grow liquid AF. That particular
product has eight specific, very effective beneficial microbes that colonize
the plant surface and the root zones. And this is
what goes on in nature, and you're enhancing that in
the soil itself and you see the results on plants.

(01:19:09):
You're looking at the beneficial organisms that are basically out
there fighting the battle against disease for your plants are
causing do you know microbes. There's certain microbes that actually
cause the plant to change the way it grows in
terms of fighting disease or other issues of stress that
it's dealing with. And micro grow liquid AF is just

(01:19:30):
like that. They got another one. It might have a
lot of it microlife, but soil and plant energy that
has got a combination of humic acid and molasses. Now
molasses is like rocket fuel for microbes. I was about
to say crack for microbes, but I think rocket feels
a better way to put it. They love it. They
love those sugar compounds of carbon and when you put

(01:19:51):
that on with the humic acid in that combination, you
can do this on the soiling neus on foliage. Over
sixty three different minerals in this product, and a very
also compounds that help stimulate the root growth. Where do
you get microlife everywhere? Garden centers, feed stores, hardware stores,
ace hardware stores, Southwest fertilizer. Easy to find microlife products

(01:20:12):
all over town. And they work. And I say that
because I actually use them myself. We are visiting now
with Pam Pinnock, who is the author of Gardens of
Texas Visions of Resilience from the Lone Star State, and
I'm bringing Pam back here with us. Pam, you were
talking about, you know, the goals and things in this book.

(01:20:36):
I think one of the things that is very hopeful
is in approaching it. You kind of talk to these
folks as to you know, how did you put your
garden together? Why did you do this? How do you
deal with that challenge? Because no matter where you live
in Texas, you've got challenges. It's not an easy place.
I kind of jokingly say that. You know, if you're
in East coast, certain East coast areas or out in California,

(01:20:59):
you drop ancil on the ground, it starts rooting and
growing into a pine tree. Here, we have to work
harder to get successful.

Speaker 9 (01:21:06):
We do.

Speaker 10 (01:21:10):
Right to say, yeah, you do have to mean to
garden here, don't you. It doesn't happen accidentally.

Speaker 4 (01:21:20):
That's right, that's right. But utilizing some of the native plants,
and that's there's a lot of those. As you look
through the book, I look at these landscapes, Uh, there's
a lot of those, and a lot of the designs
or principles that just lend themselves to a successful ending.

Speaker 10 (01:21:38):
That's what I thought. When I was selecting the gardens
for the book. I wasn't looking for anything in particular,
Like I wasn't looking for only gardens that had native
plants or you know, only people who were thinking so
hard about being more sustainable and stuff like that. But
that was the common denominator that I found everywhere in
the state, was really seeing people who are thinking about

(01:21:59):
maybe using more native plants or you know, just getting
those tough, tough native or not native, but also really
adapted plants because those are the plants that do succeed here.
And people are being very forward thinking in terms of
water capture and things like that because we have to be.
You know, it's a it's a challenging place that the
rains figure just turns off for months sometimes in the summer,

(01:22:23):
and you know, you want to hold on to as
much of that rain as you can when it comes,
and then you know, also figure out how to keep
it from tearing up your garden or flooding things when
we get those massive gully washers. So that's you know,
that's always a challenge, and of course every gardener is
thinking about that. So I think, you know, because of that,
Texas gardeners have a lot to teach people in other

(01:22:45):
parts of the country about more sustainable gardening and gardening
to really fit the climate that you find yourself in.
I think we're pretty inspiring that way.

Speaker 4 (01:22:55):
That is that is true, and and it really comes
out in this book as well. One of the things
that I found particularly interesting is as you go through
the book, there's a wide range of kinds of gardens
from very neat and clean and tidy to wild and

(01:23:16):
natural and everything in between. And I look at some
of these designs, and I think, you know, just by
doing it that way, they're making maintenance so much easier
on themselves by being smart with the way they go
about it.

Speaker 10 (01:23:30):
Yeah.

Speaker 4 (01:23:32):
Yeah, What were some of the What were some of
the surprises or like that, maybe things you knew before,
but they really kind of came home in a new
way as you got out there and talked to these
gardeners and saw the gardens. What were some of the
things that impressed you most.

Speaker 10 (01:23:51):
Well as far as surprises go, I was really I
didn't know that much about gardens in the far west
and the and the farther east parts of the state
because you know, I'm and often and I over the
years I've been gardening here about thirty years, I kind
of got to know, you know, kind of the I
thirty five corridor cities and gardens here. So it was

(01:24:13):
a learning experience for me to see kind of what
people are doing on the on the eastern side of
the state and then on the far west side of
the state. And that was really cool because I like
when I, you know, made the drive out to the
trans Pekos and Salt Marfa and Alpine and Fort Davis,
that was a totally new experience attack was gardening for me.
I didn't really know what to expect, didn't know if

(01:24:35):
there'd be much to see out there, and by god,
there was. I mean, they're doing so amazing gardening out there.
It was really beautiful in a totally different way, right,
because they've got a totally different climate. They're in the
Chihuahuan Desert. So for me, that was the biggest surprise.

Speaker 4 (01:24:49):
I just was kind of.

Speaker 10 (01:24:50):
Bowled over by those gardens out there. But you know,
the common denominator, like I said, is really people thinking hard.
They're trying to make gardens that reflect the place they lived.
This is a beautiful place across the state, very different
from one side to the other, and I loved how
people were embracing that. And you know, these gardeners are

(01:25:10):
very successful gardeners, of course, that's why it shows them
for the book, and they are gardening in tune with
the climate really, you know, reflecting what I've been so
inspired over my decades of gardening here in US and
by our local botanic garden lady grig Johnson waldthur Center.
And that was her mission, right, It was to have
gardens that look like the place that they're in, and

(01:25:31):
and with the variety you pointed out very graciously and generously,
you know, the variety of gardens in the book, and
I agreed, like there's a tremendous diversity of styles and
plant choices and everything else. But each one, I really feel,
you know, comes across as a as a garden of
its place. You can tell it's a Texas garden in

(01:25:51):
many different ways.

Speaker 4 (01:25:52):
That is that is good that it almost I almost
want to say, Jill Noakes may have staying to me
once about gardening with a sense of place. I can't
remember how you put it, but it is so true
that our area ought to look like our area, you know,
if you when I was in Austin, I used to say,
Austin does not need to look like Atlanta, you know,

(01:26:14):
trying to get an azalia to grow in Austin, and
you know, those kind of things. You can do that
if you want at your yard, have fun. But what
about the look of the area and the region that
we live in. And I think that's been captured really
well in your book. I like the fact that you
have a lot of little I don't know if I
should call them as sides, but for example, going into groundcovers,

(01:26:36):
groundcover options and utilizing groundcovers maybe in areas where launch
don't do well or where they just give a really
cool effect and it doesn't all have to be grass.
And you have a lot of things like that. As
you're going through the book, you may be in East
West Texas, North Texas, or whatever, but you're picking up
some ideas and tips like recycling, concrete paving, and a

(01:26:57):
garden that actually took sutions of concrete made it look
really really good.

Speaker 6 (01:27:03):
I know.

Speaker 10 (01:27:03):
That wasn't that aspiring? That was That was Patrick's garden
up in North Texas. I was so you know, every
every single garden I visited had so many like ideas
that I wanted to steal myself, right, and that I've
kind of filed away in my brain as something that
I would adapt to my own garden in the future
and whenever I could, you know, at the end of
each garden chapter, because there's twenty seven gardens that I feature,

(01:27:24):
I pulled at least just one lesson, you know, from
that garden that I could share with the with the reader,
either like you know, how to plant a pocket prairie
or here's an idea for making your foundation bed deeper
and more in scale with your house. Or you know,
here's why you might want to put seating out front,
or you know, here's how to catch the rain. I mean,

(01:27:45):
there's just so many ideas you can take from these
gardens and bring home to your own gardens. So it's
not you know, the pictures are there, and it's a
gorgeous book. I say, in all modesty, ss I didn't
take the pictures.

Speaker 8 (01:27:57):
It was Kenny.

Speaker 10 (01:27:58):
They're beautiful pictures. But there's a lot of practical information
you can take home too.

Speaker 4 (01:28:04):
There's a lot of practical information in this book, and
the fact that the pictures are so beautiful it just
draws you in to look at them and to appreciate things.
And I think everybody's going to get ideas from this
that would be very beneficial for them in their gardens.
For example, here in the Great Yeah, we have folks
that are listening that are as far well, they go further.

(01:28:27):
We had an Alabama call today, but basically to the
Loisianda line roughly almost to Austin, the edge of Austin.
You almost hear the show over there, and then up
in Huntsville and down south, and that's a wide range
in and of itself, and so it's a challenge, you know,
to one size doesn't fit all. One of the things
I really appreciated, and several times in here you really

(01:28:48):
put an emphasis on pollinators and pollinator gardens and things.
Do you want to talk about that just a little bit?

Speaker 16 (01:28:56):
Sure?

Speaker 10 (01:28:57):
You know, I think anybody who's paid attention keeps hearing
about the pollinator crisis and how pollinator numbers have plummeted.
And I mean, you know, in a crude way, you
can almost tell yourself when you drive across drive for
a few hours because you know, you're just hitting fewer
bugs on the windshield, you know what I mean. But
I think a lot of people are motivated by that

(01:29:18):
in their own gardens when they start planting plants and
you know, the yard comes to life. You start to
see you know, insects and bees and butterflies and all
the things, and that can be so inspiring for.

Speaker 4 (01:29:30):
People, that is true. I'm sorry to have to stop
us again, but can I get you to hold past
one more break? Would you be willing, of course? Come back?
Happen to Okay? Well, hang on, hang on, folks, We're
going to be right back. We are visiting with pen Panic.
I've got another segment here. We're going to continue to
converse with her about her new book. And if you're

(01:29:52):
just tuning in, you need to know this Gardens of
Texas Visions of Resilience from the Lone Star State. This
is a book that I promise you when you pick
up you're not gonna want to put it down. If
you set it on a table and everybody who comes
to the house is going to pick it up, and
that you've got, you will have lost them for a
good while as a as a thumb through getting inspiration.
And it's not just a pretty page a coffee table book.

(01:30:14):
It is a book that's got a lot of good
information in it as well, very readable, very enjoyable. You
just feel like you've gone on the tour with Pam
around Texas and you've gotten to visit with these folks
and hear about what they do. Pam. Uh, it would
help if I actually pushed the button where Pam can

(01:30:35):
talk to us. So let's see if I can do that.
There we go, Hey, Pam, are you there, I'm here, Yeah,
I'm here. Okay, Sorry, Yeah, I want to be a
broadcast professional when I grow up someday, but I haven't
quite hit that point yet, so I don't even know
how to turn it anything anyway.

Speaker 10 (01:30:51):
Uh So in the book, so many nice things about
the book, So.

Speaker 4 (01:30:55):
Okay, well, I it's a nice book. Uh, thank you.
One of the things that I really liked looking through
the book was the use of art in these gardens.
Sometimes it's in a bold way, like there's this, you know,
billboard art right there in front of you. And sometimes
it's in very subtle ways as you look through the

(01:31:17):
landscapes and see things, but very artistic, from the lines
that are drawn to how they chose to lay things
out to individual art pieces.

Speaker 10 (01:31:26):
Yeah, which was your favorite?

Speaker 3 (01:31:27):
Did you have one?

Speaker 4 (01:31:29):
Oh my gosh, Oh my gosh. I would anything with
water to me. Anything, well, anything with water, I really love.
I there there's a number of you have very formal
water features, more modern type design, but you also have like,

(01:31:51):
you know, a cattle trough with a pipe.

Speaker 10 (01:31:58):
There were some with like the concrete eat the concrete
cattle troughs, which one of the owners told me they
got at a ranch supply store and had set it
like half buried in the soil, you know, so like
a little rim of concrete popped up in their courtyard
and that was one of my favorite ones, with a
with just a simple metal spout, you know, spilling water

(01:32:19):
into it. But you're right, I love those water features too,
and there were so many good ones to see in
these gardens.

Speaker 4 (01:32:27):
Yeah, those are those are cool. There's a gazebo somewhere
in there. I don't know where in Texas, but it's
an iron gazebo that instantly it looks like it's a
cattle panel type roof those little square holes all through
the roof. I thought that was a really nice.

Speaker 10 (01:32:46):
But that was built right over like they inherited an
octagonal patio and they didn't know what it was for,
but they built that right over it, and we're growing
top vines up it to shade it.

Speaker 16 (01:32:58):
Ultimately.

Speaker 10 (01:32:59):
Yeah, it was such a pretty feature.

Speaker 19 (01:33:01):
Yeah.

Speaker 4 (01:33:02):
Well, and when those vines are done and they've covered it,
that is going to be really striking, really cool stuff.

Speaker 10 (01:33:08):
Absolutely spectacular.

Speaker 6 (01:33:09):
Yeah.

Speaker 4 (01:33:11):
So, any any other things that about the book that
you would like to people to know in terms of
how you put together or individual gardens that you wanted
to highlight in a even more highlighted way.

Speaker 6 (01:33:27):
Yeah.

Speaker 10 (01:33:28):
Yeah, well, putting it together was really an incredible experience
for me because I did get to visit so many
gardens across the state, and you know, I talked to
a lot of people. This was not just a one
person work, obviously. This was a whole group of people
helping me out, putting me in contact with gardeners, connecting
me with garden designers everywhere. And then I got to

(01:33:51):
you know, go visit those gardens and I ended up
driving like sixty seven hundred miles that year, that was
twenty twenty three. I drove across the state, you know,
to go out and scout gardens and to see which
ones I wanted to feature, and then drove back with Kenny,
my photographer, to photograph them. That was between April and
November of twenty twenty three. So it was a wild

(01:34:12):
and wooly year of you know, zig zagging across the
state and talking with gardeners and then I did interviews
with each one to you know, to share their stories
and so yeah, it was an incredible process for me personally.
It really was very meaningful to me because I have
you know, gardened here for thirty years. But you know,

(01:34:34):
when you're doing that, you're mostly in your own little
patch and you get to know just kind of the
folks in your area. So this was a chance for
me to really expand my view of what a Texas
garden could be. And I hope that'll resonate with folks
who read it.

Speaker 4 (01:34:51):
Well, you say that you certainly accomplished that, and I,
you know, just looking through at all of the styles
and designs and the beauty and things of the book.
Another thing I can tell is I can't imagine how
many hours it took. Because I'm a photographer and to
capture the lighting that is in this book, it's like
you don't just run out of noon ever day and
take a picture. Uh, this is really I mean, even

(01:35:15):
the lighting of it is is outstanding. Well, I just
wanted to I had to get I had kind of
kind of kid you a little bit. Though. There's one
thing that's like deer resistant plants for the shade. I
think it's a central text. Yeah, deer resistance. Never Oh
is that your garden? Okay?

Speaker 12 (01:35:34):
Well probably never?

Speaker 4 (01:35:39):
No, never write on paper deer resistant about any plant.
When I was in Austin at the Extension office. I
had a deer resistant plant list in a filing cabinet.
One night deer broke in. They opened they picked the
lock on my door. They went to the filing cabinet,
pulled out the list and ate it. And so I know,
I seriously, you are.

Speaker 10 (01:36:00):
Not somebody who's deer plastic plants on her front porch.

Speaker 9 (01:36:05):
I am not kidding.

Speaker 10 (01:36:06):
They are very wildly.

Speaker 4 (01:36:11):
That is right. I've driven down.

Speaker 10 (01:36:16):
Yeah.

Speaker 4 (01:36:17):
Yeah, well it's it's good to have plants that deer
generally would not prefer.

Speaker 10 (01:36:23):
Yeah.

Speaker 6 (01:36:24):
Yeah.

Speaker 10 (01:36:24):
All you can say about deer is here's what they
don't eat in my garden. And and then even then,
as you know, they may come back and eat it
next year. They may change their minds.

Speaker 4 (01:36:36):
That's true. I've driven through your San Antonio, uh in
in neighborhoods up there, oh Hollywood Park or something up there,
driving down the street. Deer are laying in the yard
like dogs at the front door that you're supposed to
be afraid of me.

Speaker 10 (01:36:55):
They're practically like pets.

Speaker 4 (01:36:58):
Yeah yeah. And a lot of people feel that way,
and that's why it horrifies them when I say our
problem is not too many deer it's too few freezers. Uh,
and that's a horrifying.

Speaker 16 (01:37:09):
Problem.

Speaker 10 (01:37:10):
Yeah, we'd be right on board.

Speaker 4 (01:37:11):
Yeah yeah, if if the if the city police department
would allow it, you could just make money by having
a hunting lease. They're property.

Speaker 10 (01:37:23):
And yeah, don't get started right.

Speaker 4 (01:37:28):
Well, yeah, I know I already went too far. I
generally my wife says, if I wonder if I should
say something or not, the answers always know.

Speaker 6 (01:37:36):
Uh.

Speaker 4 (01:37:38):
Anyway, it's it's been wonderful having you on. Everybody listening
you wondered what are we talking about. We're talking about
pan Panix book Gardens of Texas Visions of Resilience from
the Lone Star State by Timber Press. And you need
to go see this. Go find you a bookstore where
you can thumb through it and see it's an outstanding book.
And if you have a friend anywhere in Texas, actually

(01:38:01):
they could, they could take this outside of Texas too,
but send them this book as a Christmas skiff because
they'll find inspiration. They will love it, absolutely love it. Pam,
thank you, Chan, thanks so much, thank you.

Speaker 10 (01:38:13):
I really appreciate the opportunity. It's been wonderful to talk
with you.

Speaker 4 (01:38:18):
At let's not make it so long. Next time a
new visit again.

Speaker 10 (01:38:21):
Agreed, greed, take care, Yeah, Happy Christmas, by bye.

Speaker 4 (01:38:27):
Bye bye. All right, let's go a quick break. We'll
come back one more segment. We're opening the phone lines
up here and if you got a question, we got
this segment and next hour for you to call in.
All right, welcome back to Guardline. Good to have you
with us this morning. Looking forward to visiting with you
about the questions you might have. You want to give
me a call seven to one three two one two

(01:38:48):
five eight seven four seven one three two fifty eight
seventy four. Let's talk about the stuff that is of
interest to you. Affordable tree Care Martin Spoon Moor's company
is the one you need to call if you are
wanting somebody to come out take a look at your trees.
And by the way, if you haven't had anybody look
at your trees in the last couple of years, you
need to get somebody to look at your trees. These

(01:39:08):
are the most valuable single plants in our landscape, both
in terms of the value of your home, but also
what they provide for us in terms of shade and
just you know, getting through the Slummer's here in the
Greater Houston area. Martin will come out. He'll get you
on the schedule and he'll come out and he'll look
at your trees. If any pruning is needed, he can
do that trimming up that they need. With every tree

(01:39:30):
that you have pruned, he will do a free deep
root feeding on that tree. So that is a good deal.
You need to take advantage of that. You got to
call him at seven one three six nine nine two
six sixty three seven one three six nine nine two
six six three. When you call this is a family business,
Affordable Tree Care. You're going to either talk to Martin,

(01:39:52):
his wife Joe, or his mom g And if it's
not one of those three people, you've called the wrong place.
There's other people that put affordable in their name. They're
not part of Martin's group. You need to hang out
and call again seven to one three, six nine nine
two six sixty three Affordable Treetcare. Get on the schedule
and if you're going to be doing anything in the

(01:40:13):
coming months around those trees, a trench, a sidewalk, a driveway,
anything like that, or you're thinking about cutting some roots
off because they're up on top of the ground. Don't
do that. Call Martin first, have him come out do
a consultation with you, and that way you can do
the right thing, rather than waiting until after you've done
the wrong thing, and there's not always a really great

(01:40:36):
solution at that point, So be proactive. Give Martin a call.
Seven one three six nine two six six three. Good
to have you with us today on garden Line. We
are looking forward to visiting with you about the things
that are of interest to you, and so I got
to do this. Give me a call. Plants for All
Seasons is a service retail garden center right there where

(01:40:58):
Luetta comes into top Ball Parkway also called Highway two
forty nine. If I'm two forty nine. It's on the
right hand side as you're going north. It's been around
since nineteen seventy three. It's family owned operation and when
you go, you're going to find a lot of color
right now, the cool season color for the landscape beds.
Is there decorative things for your Christmas indoors as well

(01:41:24):
as all the shrubs and trees. You know, I know
right now we're in the holidays and you're thinking, I
don't know about planning now. It's the best time to
get it done. Get a shrub or a tree, take
care of it, get it home. Make sure that you
have picked ones that are appropriate for our area. And
you do that by going to a full service garden
center like Plants for All Seasons, where they'll advise you

(01:41:45):
on the ones that do best. You give them the
specifics of the situation, and they provide that check out
while you're inside their bulbs and other things and their
gift shop. And always, you know, always before when you
take a plan home, take home some type of furtier
or soil amendment to improve your soil as well, and
they've got you covered on that too. Seven to one

(01:42:05):
three excuse me, two eight one three seven six sixteen
forty six two eight one three seven six one six
four six. So I was talking earlier about turning our
organic matter that we have into something that is enhancing
to the plants in your landscape, that builds the soil,

(01:42:27):
that improves the soil, that recycles those nutrients, and we
need to take advantage of those kinds of things. I
would suggest right now a soil test. First of all,
if you go to my lawn care schedule on my website,
Gardening with skip dot com. There's a link to the
soil testing lab. It tells you what to do, tells
you how to send it gives you the foreign to

(01:42:47):
print out. Do a good soil test. Make sure it's
representative of the whole area. Don't just dig a hole
in one spot, but you you sample soil from a
variety of areas, mix it all together, and then send
it in a variety of areas that are all the
same basic kind of plant responses. Okay. The reason for
that is Let's say your dog went to the bathroom

(01:43:07):
in a certain spot a year ago, and now you're
going in and that's the only spot you simple that's
not representative of your lawn. So you want to make
sure and send a composite sample. Look at the results.
If you need to, you can go visit your county
Agrolife Extension office and talk to the ag or horticulture
agent in the office about what to do. The lab

(01:43:28):
will send you some results and if you want to,
if you need to talk to me on guardline. We
can't go through your soil test on the air, but
you can get an email to send it to me
and I'll be happy to take a look with a
follow up call where I make some suggestions for you. Okay,
hope that makes sense. Let's see here. We are going
to go now to Mike in Sugarland. Hey, Mike, try

(01:43:49):
to get you in here before we run out of time.

Speaker 16 (01:43:53):
Yes, sir, I just want to know.

Speaker 14 (01:43:55):
I have a blue eshravaria four inch is a sympathy gift,
and I'm trying to keep it alive. It either is
too much water, not enough water, too much light too
not enough light.

Speaker 9 (01:44:06):
I don't know what you know how to save this thing.

Speaker 14 (01:44:09):
It just seems to be dying on me. Any thoughts?

Speaker 4 (01:44:13):
What described to me?

Speaker 3 (01:44:15):
Uh?

Speaker 4 (01:44:17):
What you're what you're seeing when you say that? Like it? Yeah,
just a real quick what are you say?

Speaker 12 (01:44:25):
The leaves are?

Speaker 14 (01:44:27):
Are you know, all going brown and dying wants to
get to the to the soil of the potted plant.
And I know that they're not supposed to be soft,
and they're getting soft and then they turn yellow and
all the everything I've ever read and been told, the
symptoms reflect too much or too little of the same thing.
Either too much water, not enough water, too much light

(01:44:48):
not enough light. And I'm following the instructions.

Speaker 4 (01:44:52):
Yeah, it needs they need very well drained soil, and
you need to water them a lot less than you think.
Uh and yeah, so that doesn't mean to leave them
powder dry for wines. Yeah, yeah, just just give them
a little bit of water. You know, they where they live,
they'll get a rainfall over now and then. And you
know that's not a problem, it's just when it. They

(01:45:13):
don't use a lot of water, and they do want
a really good amount of light. Okay, So as much
light as you can give them, and then watch the
watch the moisture. It's you know, I'm not looking at
your plant, so I can't tell you for sure, but
I might I guess that the water's so it's probably
stayed a little too wet. That's the most okay, sir,

(01:45:34):
you bet good luck with it. Those are wonderful plants.
Love this all right, folks. Music means I got quit talking.
We are going to be back a little bit. I
believe I'm gonna have a guest come on and tell
you about an event going on this day over at
the arbor Gate. So you don't stick around and hear
about that. Uh, really cool close stuff going on there.

Speaker 2 (01:45:55):
Uh.

Speaker 4 (01:45:55):
If you have not gone to my website, please bookmark
it Gardening with Skip dot com. Lots of information on
there and lots more on the way for the website
where you can get the answers and more in depth
and I can provide over the era.

Speaker 1 (01:46:14):
Welcome to Katie r. H. Garden Line with Skip, Rictores.

Speaker 2 (01:46:20):
Crazy gas use a trim you just watch him as well.

Speaker 3 (01:46:33):
As so many birthdays to supertasy in great.

Speaker 15 (01:46:38):
Gas bad not a sign glass and gas.

Speaker 3 (01:46:48):
Sun Beamon done.

Speaker 4 (01:46:52):
Hey, welcome to guard Line. Welcome back. Look, we got
an hour left today, we got an hour left this weekend.
For those of you who are new to garden Line,
I'm here every Saturday and Sunday morning from six am
to ten am answering your gardening questions. I tell you
what I'm going to do right now. I was a
tenure earlier about an event going on out there at

(01:47:13):
the arbor Gate that you needed to know, and I
have asked if Beverly would give me a call and
so we could talk about it. Beverly or you're.

Speaker 18 (01:47:20):
There, Yes, I am.

Speaker 3 (01:47:22):
Good morning, well, good.

Speaker 4 (01:47:24):
Morning, good morning. Thank you for taking a minute out.
I know that you've got something special happening out there today,
and I wanted people to know about this.

Speaker 20 (01:47:33):
Yes, Senna and Missus Claus will be here at one
o'clock today.

Speaker 4 (01:47:39):
He's bringing missus claws. That is very interesting. That's that's good,
and they'll be they'll be. I know the kids will
love it. But I tell you a little bit about
you know what that means for them coming out.

Speaker 20 (01:47:53):
Well, they can bring their pets, their kids, their camera
and just have a great visit with Sanna, you know,
and giving that list.

Speaker 4 (01:48:03):
So Sanna is pet friendly. Okay, that's good. That's good.
That's good to know. I'm glad. Well, I know that'll
be fun. I should bring my pets out there. I
need to go visit with Santa because I think I've
written up a rebuttal to the reports that have been
spread around me. And I don't want to get a

(01:48:23):
box of rocks, so I'd like to go try from it.

Speaker 20 (01:48:28):
You don't want to be on the coal list?

Speaker 4 (01:48:31):
No, no, not the coal list. Well, that's that's fun.
I was looking at some photos from the garden center
there at Arburgate, you know, and just the decorations you
guys have are amazing. I love the little I guess
ceramic like mushrooms and miniature Christmas trees and things, the

(01:48:52):
bows and all the plants. So you guys have some awesome,
awesome trees too. I assume you still have some that
they have then all, yeah, a lot just yet. Well
we do.

Speaker 18 (01:49:03):
We have the.

Speaker 20 (01:49:07):
Yea, we have our beautiful fresh Fraser firs from the
Blue Ridge Mountains of North Carolina, and we have an
extensive array of Christmas decore. We also have a garlands, wreaths,
fresh and artificial. We have as you mentioned, ribbons, and
we're so happy to help people put them together, design them,

(01:49:29):
and of course we do the labor at no charge
complementary that we're happy to work and make their home
as festival, as festive and beautiful as possible.

Speaker 4 (01:49:40):
Well, that's wonderful. And I've seen the wreaths that you
guys put together and it's just like it's not just
focuses and just like a bunch of pine lums that
are all put in a circle. There's several different kinds
of evergreens, you know, juniper type evergreens or bravided type,
and then the various what you would consider a Christmas
tree type branches and stuff. They're they're gorgeous, really really well, thank.

Speaker 20 (01:50:04):
You, thank you, and I'm glad you mentioned those those
Christmas and nomis. They have been so much fun.

Speaker 4 (01:50:12):
Is that what they're called? Yes, in the front, Yeah,
stick them out in front or put on a container
where you have some other plants that that's really cool.

Speaker 20 (01:50:24):
And you know, we have some beautiful alternatives. Diget the
traditional points at a vast array of stiflement amarillas, archopiary
rosemary and lavender trees. And you can't forget the beautiful camillus,
the yule tide for a wonderful Christmas tip in decor.

Speaker 4 (01:50:43):
Yes, those gorgeous red flowers on that are amazing. And
the sacanquas are so nice because they put so many
blooms on and they give you the they do more
of the holiday as opposed to the commune. Excuse me, Japonica.
Couldn't think of the other species, the Japonicas which blow
them a little bit later, which are also worth having.

(01:51:05):
But that you'll tie is just ever Christmas, you're gonna
have flowers, that's right, that's nice, very nice. Well, so
that will be out there. People can come out, bring
the kids, get some photos and then you guys, I
guess you don't tell me what how are things in
terms of bulb availability, garlic or any other kinds of

(01:51:27):
things like that.

Speaker 20 (01:51:28):
That you Oh, we have a great so yeah, we
have a great selection, of course, of all the vegetables.
You know, we stay completely stocked year round, so a
mast array of fruits vegetables are your winter planting. We
have garlic, we have the onion sets, we have the
red shallots, so we're stocked and ready.

Speaker 4 (01:51:52):
That's good. That is good. You know, I had Panpanicon
earlier this morning. I don't know if you heard that,
but you had her out there, didn't you.

Speaker 20 (01:51:59):
Pal, And we're hoping we're hoping to have her back
this spring. She's wonderful, she is, isn't she.

Speaker 4 (01:52:07):
That book is amazing that she put together. Really like that.

Speaker 5 (01:52:11):
Well, and we have that's all cool copy here.

Speaker 4 (01:52:16):
Oh okay you do, yes, wonderful. Okay, that is excellent.
I'm glad to know that.

Speaker 8 (01:52:25):
Now.

Speaker 4 (01:52:26):
We can't talk about Arbigate during the holidays without talking
about these gift shops that you guys have. It is amazing.
It takes a while to walk through the gift shop
just because there is so much to stop and look
at all around you, up and down every nook, and cranny.
I love that your gift shops.

Speaker 20 (01:52:43):
Well, thank you, We do our best, and yes, you're right,
you need to scroll through two or three times to
get it all in.

Speaker 4 (01:52:51):
There. You go good food items too, so if someone
maybe you're going over somebody's house and you want to
take something, you know, just kind of as a gift
or something like that. Just really cool jellies. And you know,
the first time you have one that's a bacon and
apple jelly, and I thought, okay, bacon jelly. Now I'm
a fan of bacon, but that combination is awesome. I

(01:53:17):
think that may be one of my favorite jellies is
the bacon and apple.

Speaker 20 (01:53:21):
It's one of my favorites. Yeah, it's my favorite too.
I have it every morning with my eggs. It's amazing.
And we also have a new tatsuma flavor that is
been very very popular.

Speaker 4 (01:53:36):
Now a flavor of a food product you're.

Speaker 20 (01:53:40):
Talking about, Yeah, it's a jelly satsuma.

Speaker 4 (01:53:44):
Oh okay, well nice, that is wonderful. Speaking of satsumas,
I think that citrus is just a really cool little gift.
You know, people have it in a pot, they can
keep take care of it if they need to. Bring
it in and then get it planted in the spring
if they want to wait and do it that way.
But you know how citrus says, if it never produced

(01:54:05):
a fruit, it would be worth it to have the
plant for the bloom fragrance alone. But you do get
the benefit of fruit, and you guys carry fruit year around, right.

Speaker 20 (01:54:14):
Yeah, sar. And we have right now for the collector,
Australian finger lines.

Speaker 4 (01:54:21):
Oh yeah, that that is folks. If you're listening, you
never have seen that. You imagine like like take your
hand and put your fingers all kind of close together,
pointing down but out so you have like your your
palm that's kind of wadded together there and then all
these fingers hanging down with points on them. That's what

(01:54:43):
this fruit looks like. And it is. It is amazing
kind of cool.

Speaker 3 (01:54:47):
Right.

Speaker 20 (01:54:48):
And then we have you know also that yeah, and
then the finger line that's like cavia or citrus, you
know where the segments are actually like little bee of
lime that just explode in your mouth.

Speaker 4 (01:55:03):
Oh my, you're making me hungry. That sounds so good.
Well all right, well, that's a lot of different options
out there, but folks, you need to get out there
and two. Everything else it's you would find at Arbigate,
of course, is still there. And then it's a great
time to pick up your herbs for holiday cooking, also

(01:55:24):
for gifts. Herbs make nice little gifts when you go
visit somebody. There's an excellent selection of vegetables and of
course flowers and color and everything else. So there you go.
Now tell me tell them the hours for today that
Santa will be there.

Speaker 20 (01:55:41):
Santa will be here from one until four. We will
be open today from nine until five o'clock.

Speaker 4 (01:55:49):
All right, there you go, So you get through a
church and head home, pack the kids up, let's go
get a let's go get some pictures with Santa. Beverick,
thank you for coming on. I really appreciate that. I
know you've got plenty going on around there, so I'll
turn you loose to take care of all the business.
But I do appreciate you coming on.

Speaker 20 (01:56:08):
Well, thank you so much for having me. And Merry Christmas.

Speaker 4 (01:56:12):
Merry Christmas to you too. Take care. All right, there
you have it Santa Claus and Missus Clause at the
arbor Gate today, so make sure and get out there
get your pictures. And that was kind of cool that
you can also take your pets if your pets need
to get there. My Golden Retrievers. I don't know if

(01:56:34):
Santa's ready for that. They're perfectly safe unless you're allergic
to saliva, because they have plenty of that and they
use it. They don't mind using it. All right. Well,
let's take a little break here and we will be
right back there. You go, All right, folks, welcome back
to the Guardline. We've got our last little bit here

(01:56:57):
left of the show today. If you'd like to give
me a call, we got wide open line right now.
Seven one three two one two five eight seven four
seven one three two one two fifty eight seventy four.
Feel free to give me a call. Ace Hardware stores
have got you covered if you are looking for anything
to get ready for these holidays, looking for gifts, looking
for decorations, looking for lighting, the excellent selection of lighting.

(01:57:19):
Uh they even have the lot of stores carry the
what they call lights by the foot, where you can literally,
as the name would suggest, say I need a light
this long, and they put that together and there you go,
get just the perfect length to go across that mantle
or whatever you're trying to do.

Speaker 2 (01:57:38):
Uh.

Speaker 4 (01:57:39):
Ace, hardware stores also, of course, are the place where
you're going to find products for your yard and your garden, fertilizers,
best control, we Control, disease control, and tools for those
as well. ACE Hardware is all over the place my
Texas Houston area, greater, actually much greater Southeast Texas area.

(01:57:59):
ACE Hardware stores you can find at ACE Hardware Texas
dot com goes all the way from Orange, Texas over
in the east down to Victoria, Port Lavaca and Rockport
down that far away down in the southwest. Stores like
K and M in Kingwood on Kingwood Drive or K
and M in a Tasca Seat on timber Forest Drive, Hamilton,

(01:58:22):
ACE Hardware on Highway six in the Bear Creek area,
Hardware City a Memorial Drive. How about the Bay Cliff
which is south of Kema on Grand Avenue, Chalmers Ace
on Broadway Street down in Galveston, And for those of
you who are out to the south and east, that's
Fulsher Race excuse me, Southwest, Fullshier Race on Highway through

(01:58:45):
fifty nine and Fullshure just a few of the many
ACE Hardware stores you'll find at ACE Hardware Texas dot com.
Please do this though, when you go to ACE Hardware,
sign up for the ASH Rewards. The ASH Rewards program,
you get special disc ounce only for ACEH Rewards customers.
Oh email them directly to you. Every time I go

(01:59:05):
into Ace, I've got I'm on ACEH Rewards. I just
you know, tell them that and they my purchases they
add up and it's worth doing ACEH Rewards program at
your local Ace Hardware store. Again, you're listening to Guardline
the phone number seven one three two one two five
eight seven four seven one three two one two fifty

(01:59:26):
eight seventy four. Feel free to give us a call
at your convenience if you got a question that I
can help you with. Now it is the season to
be giving special gifts for the people who are hard
to shop for. Well, here's an idea. Wild Birds Unlimited.
A bird feeder, a bird house, maybe a feeder with

(01:59:48):
some bird seed to go with it. They have quality
blends like the Nesting super Blend. That's a that's a
good blend that they have a number of different blends.
Like if you want to attract certain kind of birds,
you can say, well, I want something that will attract
finches and a feeder to put it in or I
want something that's going to attract cardinals, and they can
help you with all of those things. Beautiful nest boxes,

(02:00:11):
the poles systems where you hang multiple feeders, that becomes
a traffic jam. That is kind of cool to see
that once the birds figure it out, you're going to
have them there because they know that they're always going
to have a good supply of really good food that
makes them happy. The winter super Blend is back. Now
is the time for winter super Blend. Our short days

(02:00:33):
and long nights, maybe less bugs running around out there
for them to eat. They need that high fat and
protein in winter super Blend from wild Birds Unlimited. So
get your feeduers cleaned out. I did mine the other day.
That you know, if they sit there a while and
you get rain, especially some of that horizontal rain when
the wind's blowing, get a little bit of moisture in there,
and you need clean that out. That's not good for

(02:00:56):
them to leave it like that. So clean it out
and get some fresh winter super Blend to put in there.
WBU dot Com Forward slash Houston. WBU dot Com Forward
slash Houston. That's how you find your wild Bird's Unlimited
store and there's six of them here in the Greater
Houston area. So today, gosh, we're talking about a number

(02:01:20):
of different things today, including lanescape, recycling and things. If
you are going to do any pruning, as much as
you could, I would put it off until we get
toward the end of winter before the new growth begins,
for sure, but just wait a little bit. Sometimes people
want to get going a little bit earlier. And there

(02:01:41):
was a study a number of years ago where they
looked at peach trees that were fall pruned, pruned in
the fall as opposed to waiting until the winter prior
to spring bud break, and the fault bloomed. Blooming peaches
bloomed a little bit earlier in the spring than the others.
And that is not a good thing because we have
frosts and frost. Take out your crop when you got
blims on the tree and you get a frost or freeze.

(02:02:04):
So wait and do it in the middle of winter.
It's a better time for your landscape trees, better time
for your fruit tree specifically, get that done. Any kind
of hedging and trimming also, you can get that done
at that time. You know, once you're out there, if
you have fruit trees and you're walking around, the leaves
are off the tree. Check those branches for scale. Scale.

(02:02:25):
Insects usually look like little white things on the branch.
The great myrtle bark scale is a white scale that
causes all that black city mold. Then there's a white
peach scale. There are a number of other types of scale.
If you see little bumps on the branch that don't
look normal, take your thumbnail and kind of press against them.
See if you can kind of pop them off, flick

(02:02:46):
them off with your thumbnail there, and that's an indication
there's scale and not some growth itself of the tree.
And if you see that, mark that branch and make
a note, get you a little alarm to go off
or put it on the calendar. As we get towards
the end of the winter season, when we're starting to
just about get some new growth, that's the best time
to do dormant oil sprays on your fruit trees and

(02:03:10):
on your vegetab landscape plants. Rather, we have a number
of different kinds of scalef You have lugustrium, there's lugustum scale.
Comellas and related plants like that often have a little
scale under the leaves, a t scale that goes unto
the leaves, and so you just want to watch farm
and when you see them. There's different ways we can
do it, but one of the ways is to use

(02:03:31):
dormant oil. Just remember dormant oil is not a poison
for scale. Dormant oil smothers the scale when scale hunker
down on your plant. You know, they start off as crawlers,
So think about little crabs crawling around on the beach.
They're moving around and they find their spot and they
hunker down and they create that protective coating around them,

(02:03:52):
the covering that protects them against predators many of the produtors,
not all, and it protects them against sprays too. And
so if you hit that stage, they have little holes
that they breed through and that protective coating. When you
put oil over it, they can't get oxygen. And so
it's not a poisoning of the scale. It's just physically

(02:04:13):
a smothering of the scale insects on the plant. That's
how oil works. It's a nice organic solution to our
scale problems. But you got to know where they are.
So as you look at your plants and you see
them flag those areas and come back. And when you
do spray all around those branches, don't just squirt them
from one side or blow spray over the top. You

(02:04:33):
gotta get all surfaces because only the scale that you
coat with oil will be controlled by the oil spray.
So there's a little tip for you to avoid that.
There's not a better season than getting that done than
the winter time. You don't want to do it rap
for a freeze, which is one reason we wait until
a little later in the season. Plus, all right, here's

(02:04:53):
a little nerd fact that I'm going to toss in
on this one, just as a finishing it off. As
the weather begins to warm, the scale respiration think of this.
You're hibernating, and you start to come out of hibernation
and you start to breathe a little bit deeper and heavier,
and so that's a time when the oil is especially

(02:05:14):
effective against them. And so we want it to begin
to warm up just a little bit. But don't wait
until there's growth and the buds are pushing blooms and things,
because a dormant oil will burn those tender tissues. You
want to be real careful with that. There's a little
tip on those things. When you're out there. If you
have fruit trees in your yard, and you have on

(02:05:36):
the ground or on the tree old fruit that died
and shriveled or whatever on the fruit tree, pick all
those up, put them in a bucket, get them out
of there, the ones that are on the tree, snip
them off and get them in the bucket. Get them
out there, put them in the trash, get rid of them,
get them off their property. Those mummies, as we call them,
often are loaded with disease spores, maybe the disease that

(02:05:58):
killed the fruit in the first place. And when you
leading there, then here comes spring, Here comes blooms, here
comes rain, splashing spores everywhere, and your next crop of
fruit coming up this spring, it's going to be effected
as well. So that sanitation practice won't remove all of
the problem, but it certainly avoids having the typhoid mary
if you will, in the in the fruit tree. That's

(02:06:20):
just going to ensure that you have problems next spring.
It's time for a little quick break. When we come back,
Nancy from Lake Palestine, you'll be first up. I'd love
to just play that one all the way out with
little Shania Twain. He's about to pop in there. Welcome
back to Guardline. Good to have you with us. Let's

(02:06:41):
do this. We're going to go straight on out here
and head to Lake Palestine to talk to Nancy this morning.
Hey Nancy, welcome regard.

Speaker 5 (02:06:49):
Thank you so much.

Speaker 21 (02:06:50):
I'm trying to send a picture, but I think I
sometimes I get you. Sometimes it don't. I have got
a four year old linmost security that he's been absolutely beautiful.
And then I planted another smaller one two years ago
with a larger one. All of a sudden, this in
the last two weeks lost all of its leaves. Not
something well, maybe it's splinter. Maybe that's right. The smaller

(02:07:13):
one still has all its leaves.

Speaker 4 (02:07:17):
Okay, how close are these two trees together?

Speaker 20 (02:07:22):
Oh?

Speaker 4 (02:07:23):
A long way.

Speaker 21 (02:07:24):
One's in the very problem of the Yeah, yeah, well.

Speaker 4 (02:07:30):
You know, it could be. It could be somewhat different
conditions there, maybe some moisture or sun exposure or something
like that. It's a little different. I don't know. If
it just lost them all of a sudden like that
this time of year. I'm not initially alarmed about that.
Now you may find next year that it doesn't come out.
And if that's the case, then we don't have a problem.

(02:07:52):
But with the mimosas that there's not going to be
pretty much anything that you can do about it. There
are some diseases that can affect the root system. There
are some that plug the plumbing of the plant. There's
fungal fungal organisms that can get in there. But once
that happens, you can't spray it with anything or treat it.
It just is what it is, right. I hope that

(02:08:16):
it's not. I don't think that it is. I think
it'll be fine. But yeah, it's.

Speaker 21 (02:08:21):
About twelve foot tall, you know, it's about twelve foot tall,
and it's just being absolutely beautiful, and it just I
thought it was no good deal. It's winter, and then
when they were looked at the little one and it's
you know, everything green in the lush.

Speaker 14 (02:08:37):
But it is.

Speaker 21 (02:08:38):
It does sit on the lake housing side, so it
gets a lot of wind there, cold winds. So maybe
I mean sometimes when they say it's freezing in Tyler
or whatever or not freezing at my house where I'm
at on the lake, it freezes some of the plants.
And maybe I could have done it.

Speaker 4 (02:09:00):
I doubt it, but you never know. Let's just watch
it and see. I think I think it'll be okay.
But but like I said, even even if we knew
exactly what it was there, it's not going to be
anything that I can recommend you.

Speaker 2 (02:09:11):
I can do that.

Speaker 3 (02:09:12):
Okay.

Speaker 4 (02:09:13):
Yeah, they're generally they're not super long lived. You know,
as soon as I say that, someone will go, well,
I got a thirty five year old one. Okay. Well,
but in general those trees succumb to things. But they
do pretty flowers, don't they.

Speaker 21 (02:09:28):
Yeah, my grandmother had one up in the Tymple area,
and and I always said I'm going to do that.
I'm do that one of these days. And so I
was real proud myself.

Speaker 14 (02:09:38):
I'll go out there.

Speaker 10 (02:09:38):
I'll give it a good talking to.

Speaker 4 (02:09:41):
Okay, that's it. That's important. Take a chainsaw and fired
up and just love it a couple of times and say, now,
if you don't put on some leaves next year, I'm
coming back to finish the job.

Speaker 21 (02:09:53):
And you'll be gone. Okay, Thanks, Betty, have a great
very Christmas.

Speaker 4 (02:09:59):
Okay, you too, Thanks a lot. I appreciate that very much.
Folks that Nelson Plant Food have an outstanding products line.
They have the turf Star line for lawns. They have
the nutri Star line for specific types of plants like
booga bee and plumeria and vegetable gardens and roses. And
then they have the Nature Star line which is organic

(02:10:19):
type products, a whole new line of those. But you know,
the the thing about Nelson that I just want you
to know is that this is a family owned brand.
The Nelson family has been in Kadi area since the
late eighteen hundreds, and you go out to Belleville, Texas,
that's where the warehouse is. That's where they make all
their products right there. They've been doing this for forty

(02:10:41):
two years, working in the horticulture industry for forty two years.
And all three generations now are involved in this family business.
So you can go to a trade show and see
they're having little kids, grandkids. Had not samples of the plants,
of the fertilizers to people that walk by. These are
professional gray products. You know, homeowners use them, growers use landscapers,
professional landscapers use them. They even have requests, you know,

(02:11:04):
out of state shipping the products because they're quality products,
only the highest quality ingredients from this family owned operation.
Nelson Plant Foods out in Belleville, Texas, local Southeast Texas
source of quality fertilizer products. Let's set out to Spring

(02:11:24):
Branch and talk to David. Now, Hey, David, welcome to
garden Line.

Speaker 9 (02:11:28):
Hey, yeah, good morning, good morning. I sent some photos
three photos of this climbing weed in the backyard. Yeah,
I cannot get rid. Okay, I just wonder and they're
not near anything that is desirable. They tend to grow

(02:11:48):
in between, you know, a very compact place. They grow
all over the place. They grow on trees, climb on
the trees. How would you recommend I get rid of
these this climbing vine weed?

Speaker 4 (02:12:01):
Yeah. What I would do is get a product that
contains the ingredient trichlope peer. Now you can do this
two ways. It's spelled trii clo p y r. Or
you can go to my website Gardening with Skip dot
com and find the publication about herbicides for the weed wiper,

(02:12:23):
and on that you'll see all the product names of
things that contain triclo peer that you can go shop
and find. You'll want to mix it up and you're
going to want to spray it on that foliage, but
do not get it on anything desirable. You know, if
there's a desirable shrub or tree behind that fence that
it would get on, don't spray it on that. But
I would do it like right away, right away. In fact,

(02:12:45):
if you could, if you could do it today and
get that stuff started down into the plant, that would
be helpful. We're getting a little bit late because things
are starting to get ready to drop leaves and whatnot.
But if you can get some down in there now
and get it translocated down, I think it'll do the
job for you. You may miss a few and have
it come back and need to do it again in

(02:13:07):
the spring, but Trico peer is the way you get
rid of it. And again, just know that that product
kills broadly plant and don't care if it's plant you
like or plants you don't like.

Speaker 9 (02:13:16):
Okay, okay, And you go and do your website. It's
called gardening with what now I'm sorry.

Speaker 4 (02:13:22):
With Skip with me. It's my gardening with me, Gardening
with Skip dot com gardening. I got it, Skip dot
com and look for herbicides for Skip's weed wiper. It's
in the publications and it'll tell you for every kind
of weed. The ingredient that you need to kill that weed,
and then the products that contain that ingredient.

Speaker 9 (02:13:43):
Oh, I appreciate that very much, and I hope you
have a very merry.

Speaker 4 (02:13:46):
Good Davis you as well. Thank you for the call.
I appreciate that. Got to go to a break here.
We'll be right back for our last segment of garden line.
Phones are still open seven one three two one two
fifty eight seventy four. All right, folks, here we go.
We got our last segment. If you got quick fingers
and can die, we can probably get one call here

(02:14:07):
in before we have to close things up for the
day and give us a call back. Got those lines
open right now. Southwest Fertilizer been a Houston lawn and
garden tradition since nineteen fifty five. That's right, seventy years
of everything gardeners need in one place. If they don't
have it, you don't need it. That's way I like
to put it. Because they have it, they have it.

(02:14:29):
If it's a product that's going to work, that's going
to do a good job, they have it. They got
a quality set of tools, a ninety foot long wall
of tools. You think you can find a tool as
a good gift or something you're buying for yourself in
a ninety foot long wall of quality tools. Well, yes,
you can absolutely. I talked earlier about the kneeling seat
that I like so much. They have a version of

(02:14:51):
that there at Southwest Fertilizer. I talked about the soil
knife that I like, one of my favorite new tools.
And I say new, I've had them for a few
years out but uh, they have those a's Southwest Fertilizer.
That's what I'm talking about. And if you have problems
and questions, you can take a picture in, you can
take a sample in and a bag, have them get
their pair of eyes on it, as we say, and

(02:15:12):
Bob and his team will diagnose it. They'll find what
it is and point you to the product or products
that are going to fix the problem. Okay. Corner of
this and Nutton Runwick in Southwest Houston. When you go there,
you will have great, outstanding selection, you will have quality products,
and you will have friendly service. That's how they do
it there. Seven to one three six sixty six one

(02:15:34):
seven four four seven one three sixty sixty six one
seven four. Couple of public service announcements here on some things.
We got a date correction on the grinch Fest, the
grinch Fest and Enchanted Gardens on the Katie Folsher side
of Richmond Rosenberg. The grinch Fest is Saturday, December thirteenth,

(02:15:58):
not Sunday, from ten am to two pm. Saturday, December thirteenth,
ten am to two pm. The grinch Fest. You can
you can get your best Christmas whovill attire on and
head out there. The Green Guy himself will be there
around the nursery from ten to two. Bring the kiddos
out for that too. They're gonna have a pop up
gourmet cookies from the sugar Berry Cooking Shop and the

(02:16:21):
ginger Bread house decorating contest with a few of their
favorite nonprofits out there as well, so there'll be a
demonstration of gingerbread house decorating. Oh my gosh, the kids
have got to see that. And by the way, I
buy kids, I mean any age in any age of kids,
they will enjoy that. But Grench Best Saturday. It's Sunday,
December thirteenth, ten to two And at Warren's Southern Gardens

(02:16:44):
they were doing they were had closed up to do
their annual end of the year inventory and they got
it done early. They got it all finished up, so
they are done their cash You know, they're open today
first of all, by the way, from ten to four,
so you can get out there. They still have lots
of cool stuff from trees to wreaths, to all the
plant things and the products to go with them. They're

(02:17:06):
card readers will be back up and running on Monday tomorrow,
not today, but you can head out there if you're
going to do cashier check and find what you're looking
for again, beautiful beautiful trees. Now, if you are going
to go, you need to either go to the Warren's
Southern Garden website or the Kingwood Garden Center website and

(02:17:28):
find their coupons. They're active on the website. What you
do is you just do a screenshot on with your
phone and then take them to the register when you
check out run Southern Gardens Kinwogardens that are both in Kingwood.
So there you go, all right to see, we've got
a call coming in here. We're going to go in
that direction. And I just want to remind you of
my website, Gardening with Skip dot com. I know a

(02:17:51):
lot of you have heard me say that eight hundred
times and have you have to go. So go on
over there, take a look at the materials that are there,
especially the one on protective plants against frosts and freezes.
All right, let's go out to lakeside of States and
visit with marine. Hey, Mareene, welcome to guarden Line.

Speaker 11 (02:18:08):
Thank you very much. I hope that this will be
just the right length of a question.

Speaker 12 (02:18:14):
Over the summer, I.

Speaker 11 (02:18:16):
Buy a lot of hanging plants and baskets, and now
I have quite a few of them, and I'm thinking,
there's all that good soil. I need to add something
to sort of recondition it, and then I can maybe
start some plants in it, or transfer or do whatever.

(02:18:38):
I just want to recondition all that valuable potted hanging
plant baskets.

Speaker 4 (02:18:45):
All right, So, whether something's in a hanging basket or
a container on the ground, the potting soil slowly decomposes
away over time, and that's why the level shrinks up
a little bit. You don't have to replace it. You
can get a good claw fresh soil. I would pull
the plant out of the pot. If it's a small pot.
You can you hold the plant in one hand, the

(02:19:06):
pot and the other. If it's a bigger pot, you
maan to layer on its side and roll it out
of there. Kind of use your fingers or a little
bit of a gardening one of those little hand scratcher tools.
It's got the prongs on it. Just kind of loosen
the roots off the outside, trim away any roots, and
then repot it with a good fresh potting mix around
it and put some Nilsen Genesis. Genesis is a natural

(02:19:30):
fertilizer from the folks at Nelson that you mix into
the soil around your plant, and as those roots begin
to go out in there, it really gives them a
good boost. So that's the final step I would do
as you're repotting it, mix some Genesis in that soil.

Speaker 11 (02:19:46):
Okay, let me reverse that a little bit. I want
to take out all of the soil from the various
pots and recondition that.

Speaker 4 (02:19:55):
Okay, same thing gets a quality put in soil. Okay, yeah,
well it's the same in terms of what you use.
Get a good quality mix of potting mix that dreams well,
and mix it with the soil you already have about
fifty to fifty and then just keep going. Okay, you

(02:20:18):
put it back in the pots and then you plant.

Speaker 22 (02:20:22):
Okay, is it too late for me to start any
winter either where would I find them already growing? Or
is it okay still to try to seed and plant
something broccoli, cabbage?

Speaker 5 (02:20:35):
Maybe okay.

Speaker 4 (02:20:37):
So for those vegetable plants, now you could your garden centers,
you know, should have some vegetable plants still around. Most
of them do, and I know right right here in
the Houston area we do. If you're going to do
something like beets or radishes, or if it's a big

(02:20:58):
enough pot, you can plant carrots on them too. But
or if you're gonna use lettuce or spinach, I would
just direct seed them. Sprinkle the lettuce seeds on the
surface and spray them so that you don't dislodge the seed,
and blast them off the surface and pat them down
really good to the surface, and then put them in

(02:21:19):
a very moist environment. Maybe you'll cover those with uh
move it out of the direct sun, but cover it
with something clear, and those lettuce seeds need light to
germinate and they'll come on up. Now, for spinach, I
would soak the seed, get some hot water from the tap,
put the seeds in it late at night or in
the evenings, let it soak all night, and the next

(02:21:39):
day plant the seed to get a head start on
the germination. And those you plant just about a quarter
inch deep if you want to go.

Speaker 11 (02:21:49):
Thank you, thank you, thank you.

Speaker 3 (02:21:51):
Alrighty bye bye, you got.

Speaker 4 (02:21:54):
It, Marria, bye bye. All right, there's the weekend. Appreciate
you guys listening to garden Line. I don't take that
for granted. I definitely appreciate having the listeners and being
able to converse with you about all kinds of things
related to gardening success. That's what we're here to do. Well,

(02:22:14):
have a wonderful, wonderful weekend. Get ready to bundle up,
and remember those of you in the northern part of
the listening area you may get a little frost here
coming up.